This week is effectively my week off so I will be posting the bones of an adventure that I hope people will be able to incorporate and in use for an adventure as soon as this weekend.
Monday is here and that brings us a new plot and hook for our players to get excited for the adventure!
The merchant caravan, whether travelling from place to place or set up as a semi-permanent shop, is a staple of many adventures. Normally they are things to escort, things to meet at, things to purchase goods from or ab place to come back later when the owner is away and steal that shiny dagger…
What ever you use them for this week we are starting at a caravan.
The gift of immortality
08MoCa
The party, as they enter the town, returning from their latest adventure, are approached by a well dressed man who carries himself as one would with years of experience and training, seeming to blend in with the crowd as water moves amongst rocks.
The man ushers the party into a carriage that looks to be extremely well made with plush fabric covered seats and exotic furs to add that little bit more lushness to the experience. The carriage is large enough to seat 8, impeccably clean and feels overall quite expensive. A little basin with little dish of water is placed before the party by the carriage footman. The mysterious man, who calls himself Y, quite confusing really, produces a small palm sized crystal that glows with a purple light and places it in the basin.
A ladies voice, muffled by magic or something mundane, speaks from the crystal and from the tone and language used they party can tell that she owns the carriage and probably much much more.
The owner of the voice offers the party a job, go to a gypsy camp in the Hollow desert and retrieve an artefact called the Shruiabe Coin and bring it back to Y. The party as compensation would receive 1,000 gp each for their discretion and the artefact and a bonus will be provided to them if the artefact is the genuine thing and does what it is rumoured to do so. The party is to wait at the Mulberry and Cake inn within the city for their full compensation upon their return. If the party accept then Y would produce a map that indicates the known reported locations of the gypsy camp and a sum of 350gp to get provisions for the journey as the Hollow desert is not a forgiving place.
The Gypsy Camp
After a few days, and trying a few previously known locations the party arrives at the gypsy camp. The past few days have been rough as the denizens of the desert are numerous and hostile. Making their n way through the camp they ask about the artefact and are pointed towards a colourful tent with wars and goods for sale. A tanned Moon elf resides as owner of the caravan-come-stall and had the artefact with her, supposedly, but she has a request for the party, an exchange for the artefact. She needs four Cockatrice eggs and knows where to get them, supposedly, but she is curious why the party is after such a cursed artefact…
Thanks for joining me for a new week, I plan on going into a little more detail with this weeks content as there is less variation in the options available.
I hope you like the plot for this week as I and excited to write it out this week.
As always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Sunday is here and with that comes a bit of a writeup on what we explored this week!
Leaving everything to chance today I rolled my trusty math-rocks and let them decide what plot and NPCs would be here for us this week. I grabbed what twists I think would be releant (spoiler alert – it could be any and all of them) and the relevant map and encounter for this week.
Without further waffling from me let’s get into the main dish of waffle!
The village Starfall
Ren sat down after as long day of tendering to get crops. Taking of her dirty boots she remembered the encounter with the elves that live in the woods nearby with a small snort.
‘not sure what they meant by the Shephard’s of the forest but I see no such thing’ she laughed pouring a mug of hot mulled wine to have with her hunted rabbit and roasted corn.
A week ago the elves had approached her as she tilled the soil of her land next to the trees that formed a living wall between her land and the village of Starfall and the elves home, the Deepwood. Elves had warned her that the village had become to greedy and the latest patch of lands they had claimed as their own had alerted the Shepard’s of the forest and her farm was in danger. They warned her to leave so that no harm would come to her and encouraged her to persuade the other villagers to do the same.
Ren had remembered speaking to the other villagers who laughed at her, claiming she was too close to the elves, and they were right. Over the past few years she had always had a better relationship with the elves than the over villagers – occasionally she would find that her crops would be healthier or yield more than the other villager’s crops which had caused her a few issues when trying to sell – not many people liked the elves due to past tensions.
A creak in the wall drew her attention even through her slightly fuzzy state due to the wine. Unbolting and opening her door she noticed that there was a lot of movement through her crops – a strong wind perhaps. Feeling the aches of the day she went to bed.
In the morning she found that great swaths of her crop had been cut at just above the ground level and large boulders had found their way amongst the destruction. Another farmer had a worse fate – his entire crop had disappeared overnight, also cut at ground level.
This continued for a week before it happened. Waking in the middle of the night to a large creaking her wall exploded inwards sending stone and wood throughout the room, knocking her unconscious and burying her under the rubble. In the morning the villagers found her unconscious amongst the ruins of her home, injured but alive, and a large moss covered boulder sat in where she would normally have her meals.
Using what materials they had the villagers constructed a wall, 6 feet tall and 2 feet deep and decided to take action, confronting the elves as surely they are using druidic magic to turn on the villagers who had so far left them to their own devices. A request for arms had been given to a travelling merchant of some sort who had connections a town over. That was 2 days ago and they were expecting the supplies any day now.
Mid-morning the following day a cart, the same one of the merchant they had requested aid from, came into town with not weapons but adventurers.
The plot
07MoRo
The party sitting down in the tavern, after a long week of adventuring, are approached by a wealthy merchant who has given them work in the past. The merchant has a problem. A farming village a few days travel from here has requested an unusually large order of military supplies. The merchant needs the supplies delivered but also wants to try and prevent any hostile actions that they may be planning as he has invested interest in what he suspects is the target of the farmers’ ire.
Upon reaching the town the Party notice that a hastily built wall has been built midway through a large field, on one side there is crops of corn and wheat and on the other side is what remains of the same crop, except great swaths of the harvest is cut off at the ground and huge boulders that seem to be the cause of the destruction have appeared in the field. Talking to the farmers they suspect a tribe of wood elves is ransacking their farms, destroying their crops by use of large boulders. One of the boulders even crushed one woman’s house who has yet to wake up from the ordeal.
The Farmers want to take up arms and defend their land in the easiest way they know, attacking and killing the elves to prevent future attacks.
The people
Brok Mason
07TuBM
Brok is a rugged, but handsome, half-elven male of around 50. He has a fine layer of stubble, large amounts of muscle and short cut black hair that is yet to see that caress of grey that human males of his age tend to show
Brok is slow trusting of people. Putting his faith in hard work, animals (like his dog and horse) and gold.
Once a well respected silk merchant in Lillydale he suddenly sold his shop and took to a darker business path, the movement and smuggling of people in who need to leave without a trace. This change in business venture caused his human wife and his daughter to leave him.
What his wife and daughter didn’t know is the sale of his shop and pursuit of new employment was a deal made to prevent bankruptcy and his family becoming homeless.
Quick to judge and see the flaws in most people, Brok doesn’t make friends with many people, let alone clients as gold is worth more to him than the bonds formed between people.
Sincerity
07TuSS
Sincerity, or Sin in other circles, is a female Tiefling of around 30 or so. She is just shy of 5’2″ (157cms) with a curvy figure and long raven black hair that is occasionally tired back in a pony tail when’s she starts to conduct serious business.
Sincerity is a merchant by trade and a damn good one at that. Able to source just about anything given enough time, she has quickly given herself a name in the towns and cities she prowls. Not only that but she has an almost supernatural ability to broker trade between people’s and before they knew they even wanted something she had already sourced it and delivered it to them for a ‘competitive fee’.
Not much of her past is known except she was the only adopted (?) Daughter of a sage who taught get linguistics and business very early on in her youth.
Some rumours have said that she is the product of a one night fling between her sage father and something summoned by him to grant him knowledge. Others say that her father was lonely and merely happened to help an old friend when they couldn’t look after Sincerity.
What ever the reason many people who cried metaphorical, or not, swords with Sincerity end up in a worse state than they were in before.
Ren Miller
07SuRM
A woman in her late 20’s Ren is a hard worker. Leaving the village she grew up in Ren has come to Starfall to escape the bad memories of her parents and how their life riddled with bad luck came to a unpleasant end.
Ren is about 5ft 6 tall with hair the colour of fresh wheat. Her skin is tanned and skin is rough – a sign of a life spent working hard and in the sun.
The Road
On the road the Party could be expected to run into a group of 3-5 bandits or just as many wolves.
Encounter with the villagers
Once the party reach the village (without any weapons!) the villagers do not take kindly to them, on the verge of hostility. They are reluctant to provide them aid, a room to stay or any form of assistance. One of the villagers may recognise one of the party and either shout their praise for a deed well done, or shout insults and bring up a past failure (rumoured or otherwise).
Encounter with the Elves
The elves are peace loving folk. If the party are to seek them out they would find them half a day travel into the woods, they reveal themselves to the party and spoke extremely broken common but would explain in elven that they are not responsible for the damage at the farms – that it is the shepherd’s of the forest and that the villagers should just leave until they are stated with what they deem to be tribute to the forest at which point they will leave. The elves don’t seem to understand what the party is asking but insists that they are innocent and to watch out for the hours after dusk which is when the shepherd’s appear.
Encounter at night
07FrRo+07ThMa3
At night, when the party return from the elves OR if they go out at night and investigate the crops they would encounter the boulders.
The boulders would remain hidden until they sense the party next to their shell – at which point they will sneakily attack one of the party trying to eat them. They whistle when they attack as air seems to rush through their bodies and out holes in their rock-like shell. This whistling will alert the other snails which will crawl forward and attack the nearest party member.
Per turn of combat roll a d20 and add the combat round number. If the value is over 10 then a villager will come and look for the source of the commotion.
Map
Shephard’s of the forest (Giant Rock Snail)
Once the snails take 40 damage (or more) they will start to move towards the forest, whistling as they retreat. The other snails will also retreat. If anyone can communicate with beasts they will understand that the snails are fleeing the farms and will not return unless the forest calls for a tribute from those who encroach upon it’s territory.
The snails would also be open to leaving the farmers alone if one was to communicate with them – as long as the farmers felled no more trees they would not likely return.
The outcome
The Party having defended the village from the snails, by their demise, escape or a parley would be branded heroes from the village and Brok would take them back to the town where they originated from to reclaim a reward from Sincerity.
Thanks for joining for this weekend writeup – Having rolled up Brok to join this adventure as well (thanks to the gods of chance and fate!) I decided to make him the messenger and escort for the party. The biggest reason for doing this is to introduce him to the party so that he could ask a favour of them in the future to help him escort his daughter and gain some respect and favour from his estranged kin.
Don’t forget to join again for this coming weeks content and remember that this coming week will be a bit lighter with just a single adventure (not 3 or 4 potential adventures) being created. If you like what you are reading here don’t forget you can subscribe and remain up to date on what I publish here. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
The weekend is here and that should mean lots of free time for all. That being said I have a warhammer game to get onto (and a writeup to try and jot down before I forget the points / key moments in the game) and a few things I want to post on today.
First this I will talk about a bit is a tool I have used on and off over the last few years to generate ideas – not really for its content but for its potential.
The second thing I want to try and get out tonight (shortly) is the promised map from Wednesday (will update Wednesdays post as well) as there was some odd technical issues when uploading that one.. strange..
But without too much chit chat let’s have a look at Azgaar’s map builder!
Azgaars Map builder
Quite a robust, intuitive and smart tool that allows you to create a few views, with different focus points, of a contintal or world map.
The options to generate, manipulate and really make the map generate something that you can call your own is massive. I will cover just the very tip of the iceberg and explain why I use this of ideas rather than as a map generator.
Having an idea of the potential politcal nature of the world around city states can lead to adventures in their own right. Maybe the people of Warland and the Grand Duchy of Sudhurstia have formed an alliance to overthrow their old aggressors the Kingdom of Baringdonia. The king of Baringonia has issues invitations to his daughters ball too all lords, ladies, and royalty to come and celebrate her coming of age – but the two allies have plotted her assassination – just as the party arrive and are confused for royalty due to their unmistakable likeness to the late King and Queen of Dundia.
Or maybe the Grand Dutchy of Sudhurstia have an issue with bandits and have requeted aid from the party to investigate the forest in the north to locate the bandits hideout.
This tool does so much more than just what I have mentioned above but its a great addition to our DMs Toolkit. Find it and have a look here (Azgaar Fantasy Map Generator)
Starfall
The promised map created in Inkarnate for your viewing pleasure. A ruined house with a large ‘boulder’ is seen on the other side of the wall with large areas of grass stripped down just above the ground. On the other side of a wall lies a well worn road with aone of the many houses situated on it with a small side-road going to it. There is not much in this house but a few beds, presumably for a larger family and a table with four chairs.
You can find a copy to clone from Inkarnate here under my week 7 folder.
Well there we have it – I will focus on Azgaar’s map generator in a future post but for me this is where I sign out and go to run a bunch of skaven across the battlefield at my man-thing opponent.
Come back tomorrow for this weeks write up and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Ok a bit of a spookier series of encounters today for our Fight night!
Friday has come and nearly gone and short of some issues around posting yeterday it seems like everything is back on track! So lets have a look at a couple original statblocks (and some not so original ones) and fill out our adventure to come!
As always Kobold Fight club and Tetra-cube are my tools of choise for these stat blocks and encounter balancing.
Shrine of sorrow
07FrSB
As the party approach the altar in the middle of the stone pillars they know they are being watched – but not just from where yet. The elven maidens sneer at them from the four pillars around them as they approach the dais and without much of a sound spectral forms of maidens drift upwards from the stone pillars, three spectres clad in simple robes and one, opposite them dressed in an ornate, although spectral, dress that would have been ordaned with jewels if a living creature was wearing it. Before the party can react a soul rending shriek bursts forth from the leader sending their senses into shock. Watching helplessly as the ghostly maidens drift down towards them the party try and scream out as each of the ghosts draw a spectral ritual knife that they know will hurt just as much as if it was real.
The shrine banshee and shadows (shrine hand maidens) would come from the statues when the party approach the shrine, where the priestess lays unconcious or paralyzed.
1 shrine banshee and 3 shrine hand maidens would be a deadly encounter for a party of 4 level 4s. To make it challenging but not deadly for 4 level 3s. Reduce the dc to 11 and replace the ‘totally not shadows’ shrine hand maidens with the same number of skeletons.
Mildover, the town of webs
07FrMi
As the party separate the last set of legs from the giant wolf spiders that have seem to overrun the town of Mildover one of the party member hear a distant clicking-vibrating noise which sends a shiver down their spine. Looking for the source of the noise they see a shadow of something on a web, most likely a trick of the light. More clicking continues as the party mend wounds and retrieve arrows and this time the search is not in vain and they notice a monstrously large monstrosity is clinging to the side of the wall just as a arrow made from web pierces their shoulder blade knocking them to the ground taking their breath away.
The webspinner abomination is an ambusher. It will wait until the wolf spiders have fought its prey, and died for it before launching attacks at the party when they are tired and not expecting its bow. In my mind the Webspinner abomination is like a Drider and an ettercaps torso replace it’s drow half. Two additional secondary smaller arms pull web from outs mouth to form arrows and manipulate it to entrap its prey.
For encounter size have a few encounters of 2-3 wolf spiders before immediately chaining a the last encounter in with the webspinner abomination. This should keep it balanced as it does have legendary actions, but should keep it difficult without being over powering (considering I had a paladin almost 1 shot this thing with smite..)
Thats no Rock..
07FrRo
Several large boulders lay within the field, all of them seem to be the cause of the damage to the crops. But there is no evidence to how they came to rest where they are now, or how they ended up in the field in the first place. As the party move about them, the moonlight casting shadows across the ground from the vastness of these boulders a globdule of slime drips down onto one of the party members shoulder – looking up two large bulbous eyes sprout forth on stalks from a large meaty nech that seems to be coming from outside of the shell. The snail looks down upon it’s meal as more slime (drool) drips down on the party.
I would play with the snails always in hiding until they sense something living near by. I would have them be more alert at night time (and villages would report terrifying noises that cause them to lock the doors at night) but that is because i am a fan of night time encounters.
Regardless if our party of 4 is level 3 or level 4 we would look to have no more than 2 of these snails per encounter – but a few of them could be scattered amongst the field or the forest..
Well thats it for today – thanks for joining and I hope you enjoyed the new creatures brought into the light and can find a use for them in your next adventure.
Stay tuned for this weekend where I pick one of the adventures to flesh out and post online!
As always don’t forget to roll with advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Well it looks like my upload of this failed yesterday. So today you are getting two uploads!
Thursday here and probably something that touches the most time consuming part of the role, map creation. Now if you are like me and can describe a room or setting so that people know exactly what lays before them then maps may not be used all the time. But there is nothing like pulling back a curtain, turning on that second webcam or removing the fog of war from a map with your players tokens or miniatures ready to go. The look of awe and excitement is something I still can’t get enough of and what drives me to draw, create and craft terrain and maps for my adventures. As reusable and modular a possible – I’m not a masochist.
So for this week I will have two maps from online phenomenal artists that are just about right for what I envision for the primary encounter, the rest of the journey is up to you the DM/GM and I will update tomorrow with a third map I will create and upload tomorrow (pc isn’t happy with me today…)
The mining village, Mildover
07ThMa1
Image credit to be Miska from Miakasmaps, Please check them out!
Between to mountains the town of Mildover lies in ruins. Recent rain storms have left the only way into the mountainous town flooded with the bridge collapsing long ago. The town lies quiet in ruins, vacant except for the webs. Spiders of all shapes and sizes can be found crawling throughout this valley and the rains only have seemed to being them out more, their long pale threads of silk blanketing the trees on the approach to the town.
A shrine to the dark
07ThMa2
Credit goes to artist Fantasikdod, can be found at on Tumblr here fantasikdod
Deep in the banshee woods lies an ancient elven shrine and at its centre an altar to the gods. Although not as travelled as it used to be the shrine and the surrounding woods are bursting with life during the day, but at night nothing that breathes dare to prance or prowl amongst the moonlight as a different god is worshipped in the dark.
Between pillars elven maidens can be seen to be carved into the stonework and at day they seem peaceful and even jovial. At night one might swear that the pillars sneer and watch those who cross their gaze, a predatory aura of dread washing those who seek solace from the horrors that stalk the woods
Map3
07ThMa3
So to do this map justice I will need my computer and a few hours. I ran this a hybrid of tabletop and theatre of the mind but the setting is such.
Before the party is a well travelled road through the woods. A sign up at the crest of the slight incline reads “Welcome to Starfall; Population 42”. Greeting the party as they reach the top of the incline is a break from the forest they have travelled through for the past two days and the beginning of open fields. Ahead is a small collection of homes and buildings that give Starfall a rustic homely vibe. The open fields continue as far as the eye can see to the right of the dirt road and past the houses a d straight ahead the tall buildings and smoke of a larger town or city can be seen. To the right of the road lays a hastily constructed barrier, rocks and beams of lumber primarily which seems to separate the fields and houses from what used to be fields and a house. Large patches of corn and wheat crops lay decimated so that no stalk of plant can be visible above the ground. Large stones lay at the end or amongst these barren patches and one even is nestled in what remains of a farmhouse. Past this ruined field (300 feet) a living barricade of ancient trees rise from the ground to stand defiantly against civilisation.
Thats it for today, sadly I seemed to have a fe computer issues and this failed to post yesterday, apologies everyone!
Using and creating maps add a certain element to our adventures and can really add something extra for our players. So don’t forget to have a look out there for maps to use, support the artist’s you use maps from or have a go at making your own maps!
As always don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Wednesday is here and with it brings something that I find hard to boil down into a yes or no response. What motivates characters (and their players) to do the weird things we want them to do. Why would they go into the dank hole filled with spiders, or wolves, or bears oh my! Why do they rescue the person who sold them bad healing potions not a week ago. Motivation and how we can use that to hook characters into sticking to the adventure at hand is something that takes a while to master – and I don’t truly think one can ever master it.
Let’s look at three motivations that we can use to bring our players into the session and keep their mind locked away until the final crossbow bolt pierces the witches heart.
Ask the Player
The title kind of gives it away. For the three options below to actually work we need one thing, communication between the Dungeon/Game Master and their players. The whole game is built around communication so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I bring it up eventually but here we go.
Ask your players at character creation to really think why and how they tie into this world. Ask them to weave a single NPC into their back story (not a novel, we all know how that goes…) and to tell you about themselves and their one NPC. A mother, boyfriend, old boss, someone they owe money or a favour to. Someone who you may want to weave into the game so that they become more connected to it
07WeCo
Connection; This is where the player has a connection that you can use. Whether it’s an old flame or a new flame at that, a debt owed or perhaps the want of a favour from someone there should be something that each player has in mind for what motivates their characters when it comes to the NPCs or potentially other PCs.
Make sure your players are ok with you putting the man who they owe a great debt to at the centre of your plot. Remember this is tying their character into the adventure at a personal level – you want to make sure that they are ok with how it twists and alters their characters’ story.
07WeGr
Greed; Now, I know what you are thinking. ‘BW – my player’s character is not greedy, they are a holy night who wants nothing of the mortal realm – their only motivation is to fulfill their oath and bring virtue to the land’. We have all had that player before, or presently, but what I want to touch on with Greed is looking at what motivates our characters, pure or otherwise, and how that can drive them to something.
Let’s look at the above example, The paladin who only wants vengeance for what happened to their innocent family and swore an oath to have it fulfilled. That desire, that conviction could in fact be an act of greed. I won’t get deep into it as it will take an entire night of writing but lets look at D&Ds alignment system. There is not just Good and Evil but there are degrees of it. A lot of greys between the black and white. Convictions, oaths, greed, desires can all be tilted slightly one way or another and the only thing that makes one good and not evil is the perception of the one wielding the sword.
Ok, best lay off the coffee.. Greed – use something the player wants and put it where they can see it. That artefact that they have been searching for – maybe the merchant has a map to where it is, but she wants a favour for it and she is cashing in now. Maybe the priestess is in good favour with the head of the church and the PC wants a blessing, or curse removed – Saving the girl may be the best outcome for your player.
To quote a dear friend of mine in his first ever DM session where I was his player. Greed is good.
07WeOs
Want; And now the very last one is rather simple. Your Party has agreed to just want to have a D&D session and they will say yes to just about anything. The past.. 20 something months have been rough, lets broach that topic for but a moment. I know that my usual band of 7 players has now become four and that they are almost always excited and ready for a game.
But that doesn’t guarantee that they will be ready to rumble come the urchin running towards them screaming for help as some nightmarish creature skitters up a wall and lunches at the boy. Talk to your party, I have set aside a rule of at least 24 hours before game time I ask the party what they are up for, regardless of planning a one shot or campaign. If it’s been a long week and they want to roll some dice I will tweak what I had planned to have some form of an encounter in, whether it’s a fight, infiltration or escape from certain death, I give them something that they want to do.
To be real – this used to be disheartening. I would spend maybe 4 hours (much like I am now) coming up with a plot, some NPCS, a map (where most of the time was spent – I have a potato for a computer…) and some stat blocks or DCs for the encounters or checks I wanted to give them, and when the group wanted something different I would feel a bit disheartened and disappointed that they didn’t want to explore the lost temple on the mountain – they would rather avoid being eaten by zombie gnolls. But now I honestly don’t mind. I think the turning point was experimenting with my current group, where no map, encounter or planning is wasted as I always find a way to use it for the players enjoyment.
This is it for the week – Not exactly twist heavy where we see the revelation of a hidden agenda, a personality shift, plot migration or something completely different but a twist in the preparationand planning that we put into these adventures.
Many DMs would agree with me, and players on that note (hence why there are always more players than DMs) that being a dungeon master is a lot of hard work and to be truly proficient in it takes dedication to one’s craft. This may be one or two weeks of non-stop Dungeoneering or it may be something that you build up to over the course of, say – I dunno. 24 years
Don’t forget to have fun, don’t forget to experiment and twist up how you navigate the twisted world roots of this game we play and lastly don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Tuesday has come and will shortly go, but as the end of the day draws near it gives the opportunity be to look at some NPCs that our party may meet while traveling on the road, round the campfire or in a tavern.
Today let’s look at some versatile NPCs that could become common features in your future sessions.
Traveling Companions
Sister Bella Moonladen
07TuSBM
A young half-elven woman of perhaps 20. She would be considered pretty by most who could see her long brown hair and green-hazel eyes. Most of the time she wears robes that mark her a priestess of Chauntea.
She is quick to offer aid and is free giving of the blessings her deity provides her to heal and bless those in need.
Until recently she was at a temple to Chauntea, but the death of her mother has brought her home and she is currently travelling with her Father, Brok, who she has not spoken to in over a decade.
Despite her fall out with her Father she still looks for the good and light in all creatures, much like her mother did, and as such she is slow to cast judgement and has gotten into trouble before where her trust in good was misplaced.
Brok Mason
07TuBM
Brok is a rugged, but handsome, half-elven male of around 50. He has a fine layer of stubble, large amounts of muscle and short cut black hair that is yet to see that caress of grey that human males of his age tend to show
Brok is slow trusting of people. Putting his faith in hard work, animals (like his dog and horse) and gold.
Once a well respected silk merchant in Lillydale he suddenly sold his shop and took to a darker business path, the movement and smuggling of people in who need to leave without a trace. This change in business venture caused his humans wife and his daughter to leave him.
What his wife and daughter didn’t know is the sale of his shop and pursuit of new employment was a deal made to prevent bankruptcy and his family becoming homeless.
Quick to judge and see the flaws in most people, Brok doesn’t make friends with many people, let alone clients as gold is worth more to him than the bonds formed between people.
Eloras Nightwalker
07TuEN
Eloras is a drow who spends most of his time traveling the darker paths of the world. He is tall even for an elf with dark purple hued skin and silver hair that is normally tired in a top knot.
Rarely seen, and when he is it’s only when he wants you to, Eloras is an stalker of beasts and people. Rarely hostile but not afraid to apply leverage when requesting a print of one’s meal, supplies or goods.
Eloras like most male drow was born into a family which s brutally ruled by the female family members. After his house feel into poor favour with the high priestess of Lloth how family moved closer to the surface and this led to his family being the target of a red dragons bad mood. He now hunts beasts on the surface to earn favour with his people so he can return to the dark.
Sincerity
07TuSS
Sincerity, or Sin in other circles, is a female Tiefling of around 30 or so. She is just shy of 5’2″ (157cms) with a curvey figure and long raven black hair that is occasionally tired back in a pony tail whens she starts to conduct serious business.
Sincerity is a merchant by trade and a damn good one at that. Able to source just about anything given enough time, she has quickly given herself a name in the towns and cities she prowls. Not only that but she has an almost supernatural ability to broker trade between people’s and before they knew they even wanted something she had already sourced it and delivered it to them for a ‘competitive fee’.
Not much of her past is known except she was the only adopted (?) Daughter of a sage who taught get linguistics and business very early on in her youth.
Some rumours have said that she is the product of a one night fling between her sage father and something summoned by him to grant him knowledge. Others say that her father was lonely and merely happened to help an old friend when they couldn’t look after Sincerity.
What ever the reason many people who cried metaphorical, or not, swords with Sincerity end up in a worse state than they were in before.
Thanks for joining me today to look at some NPCs. By not having then tied down, or giving them flexibility to run into players anywhere along their journey, with a valid feeling reason, makes them ideal for oneshots.
Come back again tomorrow for twists where we try to anticipate what our players could throw at us to bring their party onto the journey hook, line and sinker. Don’t forget that if you see a particular NPC you just have to use let us know how it went. NPCs are what we make of them and they all to the world something that our players will remember for as long time.
If you do comment, don’t forget to mention where you are from, what RPG systems you play with and what brought you here.. Oh and don’t forget to roll with Advantage! The Brazen Wolfe
Monday is here and my 7th week of plots and adventure hooks. This week we are looking at three very different plots all of which are Adventures I have run before, 2 in my regular campaign and 1 as a one shot Adventure. So that’s what this week’s theme is about, one shots.
Now a one shot had been described as a few things with a few rules over the years but for me a one shot is a non-linear adventure that is either completely separate from the main campaign or at least parallel to the main story (see side quest). This means that the story of the adventure begins and ends within the bounds of the adventure that should look to be wrapped up in between 3 and 7 hours (1-2 sessions). That’s how I see them and I have run a series of one shots under the format of “adventuring guild offers coins in exchange for your skills ” to some great outcomes.
One shots
The hardest thing about oneshots is how we tie in the players into the adventure – how we hook the individuals – We will explore that on Wednesday night when we have the glorious twists that can help push things over the edge for our players into the realms of “oh, now we have to help.”
What calls from the woods
07MoBW
The party are travelling to their home town along a long stretch of road and managed to broker a ride with a caravan rider and his daughter, a priestess of the Chauntea, the goddess of life and bounty. About four days ride from their goal they started to notice the occasional shriek from a nearby forest. The caravan rider informs the party that the woods are called the Banshee woods due to the sounds that come from them. Many Clerics, sages and wisemen have studied the woods and they have never found a creature or reason for the noises but they believed it to be a phenomenon with the wind and the curled and twisted trunks of the trees.
As the party continued they ended up joining up with another caravan or two who also had heard the shrieks coming from the woods but had thought nothing of it. On the 2nd night of travelling with the now 3 caravans the party ran into a fourth group of wagons that had set up in a defensive position around a large bonfire. Approaching the caravan the uneasy travellers are eventually coerced into revealing that they had been camped here for two nights now with one or two of the members of their caravan disappearing every night, including all their horses found dead on the first night.
The Father and daughter not wanting to leave these people in need decided to stay with the group and, as the sun was setting, they would take any people that wanted to come with them to the city to their destination. The party is pleaded with to help guard the caravan in the unlikely occurrence of the people going missing tonight.
Later that night as the party was on watch the one closest to the forest seems to nod off. Without realising a scream comes from the camp – The preistess of Chauntea has gone missing and drag marks indicate she was taken from her tent and towards the forest. The party member closest to the forest remembers a vague dream-like vision of a woman floating across the grass between him and the forest before seeming to slide past them and into the tent with the priestess.
On eight legs they stride forward
07MoWeb
The Party having reached their destination, the lost town of Mildover, they find the mining town in ruins. Situated between two peaks of the Spike, a series of tall, jagged mountains that rupture from the earth like spears erupting from the earth. Once a prosperous mining town it fell into ruin where it was discovered that the town’s local herbalist was actually a practitioner of dark magic.
As the town burned her the herbalist, Ingrid, cursed the town so that it would never prosper and with her dying breath she uttered a string of dark mutterings that summoned the dark things that scutter on webs of stolen breath.
Laughing at the curse, as the naive often do, the town went back to business. A week after the miners returned to their toil they started to notice more webs than normal were in the mines, along the beams and even some of the walls of older mine passages. When the first miner went missing they thought nothing of it, but when a second and third disappeared whilst in the mines the town became fearful. The skittering of long chitinous legs could be heard at night and the webs became thick like spun fabric. Not long after the fourth townsfolk went missing, the smith that lit the fires under the herbalist-come-witch, the town was deserted and eventually surrendered to webs.
The party is here to recover an artefact that the town left behind in their haste to leave the town.
A seige in the night
07MoRo
The party sitting down in the tavern, after a long week of adventuring, are approached by a wealthy merchant who has given them work in the past. The merchant has a problem. A farming village a few days travel from here has requested an unusually large order of military supplies. The merchant needs the supplies delivered but also wants to try and prevent any hostile actions that they may be planning as he has invested interest in what he suspects is the target of the farmers’ ire.
Upon reaching the town the Party notice that a hastily built wall has been built midway through a large field, on one side there is crops of corn and wheat and on the other side is what remains of the same crop, except great swaths of the harvest is cut off at the ground and huge boulders that seem to be the cause of the destruction have appeared in the field. Talking to the farmers they suspect a tribe of wood elves is ransacking their farms, destroying their crops by use of large boulders. One of the boulders even crushed one woman’s house who has yet to wake up from the ordeal.
The Farmers want to take up arms and defend their land in the easiest way they know, attacking and killing the elves to prevent future attacks.
Thanks for joining to look at this week’s adventure hooks. I hope you are, like my party were, excited to see what the adventure holds this week.
I will take this time to announe that next week will be a shorter week as I plan on taking some time off from writing (and work) but I will still endeavour to post something daily, but I will likely on post one adventure rather than a potential 2 or 4 options. Don’t forget to come back each day of the week to look at the NPCs, Twists, Maps and Encounters for this weeks adventure. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Welcome to the end of the weekends writeup. This week we looked at taverns and Inns and how we could spice them up a bit.
With yesterday being a bit of a break from a creative day let’s crack on with the TTRPG content, but with a bit of a twist!
The Goblin and Lute
The Goblin and Lute (06MoGaL) is a drinking hall which seemed to appear from nowhere out of a morning mist. The rustic frame, old paint and dual layered building drew much attention as it was different from the other buildings in Ravenbrooke. Not that they were in any better starter of repair but the first creatures to step out of the tavern were goblins.
The city guard were called immediately, Afterall a band off seven Goblins stepping out of a Tavern is reason enough to work in these parts, but as the guard approached the goblins, one with an hilarious fake moustache announced the Tavern open and began the opening festivities. Several platters of food and ale were offered at the door, legal paperwork was produced to the hostile guards indicating that the goblins had indeed purchased the land from the city recently and had their papers in order. Soon the village were talking of nothing but the little goblin run Tavern and how they couldn’t wait until opening night.
Opening night was in here and as the first, daring I will add, patrons walked through the front door they were greeted by a room that was at least twice as big on the inside as it was in the outside. Large long tables with piping hot meals (mainly potato forward) were set up on the ground floor in a communal drinking be style with a second layer along the walls of the tavern that had smaller tables for more intimate or less communal drinking. The seven Goblins ran you and from startled guests and hurried into seats where they were urged to begin eating.
‘welcome-welcome. The Goblin and Lute Tavern had two rules. One, drink and eat all you want and we expect for you to pay with what you can remember you have. And 2, no harm, threat or malcontent is to come to any host, employee, patron or visitor whilst under this roof.
Those who do not follow the rules be well be dealt with by the tavern owner.’
And with that the air, wine, spirits and videos flowed all night. The level off merriment went from a subdued townsfolk to one of unbridled joy as food and alcohol filled the bellies of the hard working people.
As the patrons stumbled from their seats heading towards the front door they didn’t notice their coin purses were empty and as a Goblin.. err.. Lass offered a paying drink they thought nothing in of it.
‘our home speciality, a morning glory. You will start to feel better and recover from your night of drinking very quickly’
As the farmers, merchants and townsfolk left the front door and downed the shot of blue liquid they felt better instantly. After one step they realised the ground wasn’t spinning, two-steps they were walking straighter and taller and by the seventh step from the door they felt sober, clear-headed and the most content they could ever remember. But, they could bot remember a single thing from the night. Not what they drank, what they ate, what they spent their gold on. Nothing, but for what ever reason, they didn’t care.
The city guard lined up outside the tavern, expecting many ruffians, drunks and no-gooders to step out and they approached the first patron, readying themselves to deal with trouble they found themselves staring at a sober woman, smiling and getting the officers politely as she walked towards her home. The rest of the Patrons were the same with not one disgruntled or hostile person coming from the Tavern.
The following morning the goblins were everywhere in town. Purchasing food, supplies and goods from the townspeople. The money flowed freely and the goblins didn’t protest or argue if prices were too high or if they were barred from certain buildings. They smiled politely and wished the owners, merchants and farmers good day and went on to try and find what they were after.
This continued for many weeks and the village folk, with the exception of the guard Captain, Clarice, and her loyal guard men and women became more welcoming to the Goblins. Soon the entire town could be seen entering the Goblin and Lute atleast once a week, sometimes as frequently as daily, and the people of Ravenbrooke were happy. The townspeople also began to notice their crops were healthier, the fabric they wove seemed to be of higher quality and generally all those who visited the Tavern has some form of Goodluck.
The Guard captain Clarice sent her men in occasionally, sometimes to just report back on what was happening and once she sent in her lieutenant to cause a fight and get a black mark against the taverns name. But those guards who went in came back out happy, broke but without any memories. Her lieutenant though was found a few blocks from the tavern, drunk, disheveled (but not naked atleast) and vandalising property. The guard could only remember his orders and then coming to in a cell with a very stern captain watching over him from the other side of the bars.
This is where our adventure begins, the party members happening to stop by Ravensbrooke on their way through couldn’t help but notice the sunny disposition of the townsfolk, or the way that everything seemed to work out. On their way in a runaway bull carting barrels of ale was spooked by a horse from a traveller and ran down the road at a mad pace. Almost as if clockwork, without being aware of the bull, his owner or the speeding cart people seemed to flow effortlessly out of the way, a child playing with a ball tripped at the last second as the bull stomped where she had been but a moment before and just when the bull was approaching the party a little green goblin appeared infront of the party and the bull skidded to a stop. The goblin greeted the bull, gave its massive jaw a kind scratch before checking on the owner. Taking the lead of the bull, the globin walked upto the party and apologised for any troubled he had caused before walking the bull and ita cart to a tavern just down the road.
As the party decided what they wanted to do a coty guard approached them (06FrMi) and explained they they were expected and that they had come just in time. The guard would then escort them to the guard hall where Clarice was found head in hands and staring at perfectly penned legal documents (and if the party wanted to try and read it they would be referring to ‘The Globin and Lute’).
Clarice would go to explain that they have a problem. Violent and dangerous goblins had infiltrated the town and had somehow bought the goodwill of everyone in it. She would then hand over a bag of coins with 500gp inside it explaining that the 500gp was the agreed amount for them to deal with the problem discretely. She would cut off anyone who wanted or tried to speak as she explains that she needs proof that the goblins are a threat to the town and she needed the group to infiltrate the Tavern known as ‘The Goblin and Lute’ to support her damning evidence of their misconduct and evil intentions. An insight check would reveal she is lying, she has no proof but she is sure that the goblins mean trouble.
(06WeGaL1)
The party would have a small house offered to them by the guards as a form of a bonus. They can keep gear here if they want to or rest before they go to the tavern.
The party make their way into the tavern, a friendly globin face greets them and explains the rules of the inn. The party was only to bring in what they could deal without and on that condition they can eat and drink as much as they want as long as they can pay what they can afford. Also, if you are deemed to be of malcontent, ill will or intending harm to someone in the tavern you will be dealt with by the boss.
~:Ask the players what they want to do or if there is any plans:~
Once in the party can eat and drink what they want. As they leave they find out that 500gp has been taken or that they have only %10 of their original funds left if they left the 500gp from the guard elsewhere. They also forgot everything not written down or inscribed somewhere.
The guard would find the party and take them to Clarice. Clarice would interrogate them for information and get frustrated if nothing is returned. She would then subtly blackmail them suggesting that they would be branded as criminals and arrested for treason to the crown.
Upon leaving the building they would witness a woman begging a merchant to let her get food for her family to which the merchant refuses.
At this point one of the goblins brings a pouch of coins from its clothing and runs to the lady insisting that she dropped her coins on the way to the merchant.T
The goblin notices the party watching it and gestures for them to be silent.
When the party goes in again the goblins will be weary of them. Eventually the boss will appear and will question them.
If the party reveal that they are not working for the guards then it reveals itself as a fey creature who creates an environment for happiness so that it can gain magical power and provide happiness to those who give the Tavern patronage. By taking the money of the town the being can ensure that the money is distributed amongst those who need it and can use the positive energy to shift things subtlety, like moving children out of the oath of a bull.
It’s up to the party then what they do. They know the guards are wrong and the goblins are not what they seem.
This concludes week 6. If it comes to a fight goblins are normal goblins and I’d use a CR1 fey stat block (fairy or pixie perhaps). As for the guard use guard and knight stat blocks.
The idea behind this week was to look at non-combat encounters and explore other ideas on what a tavern or inn could be for us.
Thanks for joining and as always don’t forget to roll with advantage!
A bit of a different fight night today as we look at two concepts that, admittedly, I don’t employ enough. Non-combat or social encounters. These don’t only test our players abilities to handle social situations but also our own ability to handle non-stat block driven games and, hopefully, guide our players in refining who their character is outside of armour and away from their +2 sword of smiting.
The assumption
06FrMi
As the party enter the inn, the owner rushes forward.
‘Thanks for coming so quickly. I don’t know what I would so without you.. I.. I.. I didn’t know if anyone would come for that sum of gold but praise be that you came. I need help that only your team can provide’
The party state in disbolief as the inkeep, in some form of shock surely, produces a bag of coins. There has to be atleast 500gp in the bag!
The first of the ‘encounters’ to explore is a simple one. The assumption that the Party are something that they are not. We have two real posibilities here I want to explore (despite it being a rather open situation) and we will focus on two sides of the same coin.
I’m here to help… Well not really
This is where we have an NPC assume that the party are here to progress the antagonists agenda.
Whether they party are treated poorly by the innkeep and/or the staff at the tavern – or contrastingly, treated well by the Rival tavern owner or the city guard (who are trying to get rid of the goblin run tavern for example). For this we have two approaches. The party is approached and confronted outright, or (my favourite approach) the party start to have things go differently for them.
The local Merchant increases their prices,
The town guard approach them at the market and start to offer to show them more favourable treatment
The Bartender serves them the worst quality drinks and food instead of what was paid for.
etc.
The second is more direct.
The party has the town guard/rival invite them to dinner who expresses their gratitude for coming to the town so quickly. They also express their point of view on the party, how the goblins, or magical Tavern is a blight that is corrupting the good townsfolk and that they are glad that the party is here to put a stop to it.
Regarding how the party navigate, with words or dice, they may find themselves in a situation where neither side trusts them. The bartender see’s them having dinner with the rival owner. Or the Goblin sees the guard treating the party more favourably. This small encounter and how the party navigate their way through the complexities in social situations can lead to some interesting moments that force the players to really think about the type of character they are role playing.
Clues…
06FrCl
The party don’t remember much, but the wizard who has a knack for writing things down finds out that the entire sleeve of his robe has his, admittedly very expensive, spellbook ink scrawled in magical runes and text down the inside of it.
‘Not what it seems’ , ‘Potent charm’, ‘Floaty float face’
Unsure of what it means, their memories being what it is it appears as though part of the plan had worked. They knew that the goblins were charming people in their tavern but none of the party could work out what.. Floaty float face could even begin to mean. There was only one thing for it. The party had to go drinking again.
Puzzles
Not all encounters require a sword, in this case the quill was indeed mightier.
For this one we are looking at solving something, a murder mystery where people are mysteriously dying when going to the Deaths Door Inn or where people are losing all memories when going out for a night drinking. Well that one isn’t so uncommon…
Setting up a string of clues and a trigger for people to find, or just giving the players the freedom to creatively work something out may be the key to a successful social encounter. Maybe the occurances at the Goblin and Lute only affect memory and the money that is on the person, not their books, clothes, ink wells etc. Perhaps they could try and write down what they encounter and then role play their sober self trying to understand what the magically drunkened version of them was trying to tell them.
Or perhaps, the party has to work out where the inn they were staying in transported them, a handful of other patrons and the entire staff to a magically unstable location and they have to work out why it happened, where they are and ultimately what or who caused it.
Having creative solutions to magical or difficult situations can, once again, drive the players to consider a different depth of their characters in which they hadn’t explored before.
The two social encounters are challenging. That is to say that as a DM we are easily able to drop in the statblock of an animated scarecrow (see Wandering inn), or town guard and goblins (see goblin and lute) and have the party fight their way out of something – but in this case that is the easy way out. By giving the players something where the sharp end of a pointy stick isn’t the solution they may find character growth and explore a depth of what their character can do and the different ways of solving problems that is still fun and rewarding.
This concept isn’t new. Murder mystery games or problem solving games as just as popular as ever. Cluedo, ultimate werewolf or even Among Us all feature no stat blocks, no real enemy to fight head on – but a series of puzzles or clues in which they have to solve in order to succeed.
Thanks everyone for joining me for a, honestly, odd shift in gears. I tend to default to combat encounters as I find that my party after a long day of work (and dealing with social encounters where it’s.. probably the wrong move to punch your way out of a retail store checkout or meeting with executives) they just want to send their AXE OF WRATH through the face of some ghoul or cultist that was trying to break the seals that keep their deity bound to another plane.
But, we don’t just organise these games for our players do we. As DMs we either love to suffer (haha.. a joke.. right?) or we really love to help tell a story and watch our groups of friends, coworkers and families have a fun time and enjoy each others company. But I find that I have also grown as a person over these last.. carry the 3.. 24 years (almost?) of DMing games and I have the party and what I am willing to try in these adventures to thank for it. Changing my style of DMing, or adopting small changes that aim to incrementally improve the way that I play and that my players experience this game world that I create for them and with them has shown me that I am capable of growth and improvement.
Maybe everyone just needs to push themselves out of their comfort zone to gain meaningful experience so we can level up gaming and ourselves.
On that note, don’t forget that this is just one option for an adventure, you are the puppet master, you create the world and lay out the scene for the players to experience and enjoy. If you and your players don’t like something mix it up! But don’t be afraid to level up your gaming and don’t forget to roll with advantage, The Brazen Wolfe
Brazen Wolfe Tabletop 