Tabletop

Lord Shrilleck

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Hi all a brief note before I get stuck into it. This is the post game thematic view of the skaventide vs Fyreslayer game I had tonight with a mate of mine.

Army lists will be down below.

Lord Shrilleck mighty grey seer, second to only Thanquol (for now-now) swung atop his glorious clamouring-screaming bell.

Looking over the great hall of carved stone he screeched threats of a painful death at the clan rats that pushed and pulled his altar over the stone.

“Lord Shrilleck, we have found-found dwarf things. Not many but they have a monster of fire with them. They sound the horn-horns or war and march-march towards our forces.” Lord Verseks chittered from below the screaming bell.

Breathing in deep the warpstone from the brazer below he drew in power from the chaos stone before shrieking out “to war! Kill-kill, stab-stab. Leave none alive!!” He called as he beat the bound rat ogor that was chained to his altar driving him to ring the bell faster and harder.

The three clawpacks pushed forward whilst twitching manic plague monks pulled the plague furnace as the three plague priests chanted their prayers in the name of the great horned rat.

Giant rata darted around the screaming bell, nipping at clan rats and the tormented rat ogor excited to just be there as three plague claw catapults were moved to take up position overlooking the battlefield to gift these fyreslayers the gift the great horn rat felt them deserving; a bubbling, writhing miasma of filth.

The horns reverberates through the halls as lord Veseks skittered leapt around the battlefield throwing down a seed of power, a crystalline seed of dark power that could creat rifts in the warp, tunnels in reality which the clever skaven could use to move and shift around the battlefield.

The front lines could be seen now and the skaven forces moved into position before the clamoring of bells and screeching of bloodlust rippled forth and the battle began.

Grasping at the winds of magic Lord Shrilleck tried to pull arcane energy to form a wall of protection around him but the winds slipped from his grasp this far below the surface and the spell failed with an audible crack that splintered lengths of wood from the altars frame chasing him to fumble and lose his place in the spell.

The plague priests weren’t much better, their prayers of worship and evoking the horned rats power were met with disapproval as their dark lord tested their resolve by causing great sloughs of flesh to bubble and peal off them. Lord Veseks was the only one to snare power and drifted through the realm again with a skitterleap, appearing on top of an dias of some kind, a place of tactical advantage but as he tried to drain the life force from the massing fyreslayers the magic was whipped away from him. His loyal, well loyal enough, clawpack ran to form a protective ring around him trying to curry favour with the grey seer. As piles of filth rained down on the dwarves causing several to drop to the ground, recoiling as disease and bubbling toxic waste was launched at them from the plague claws.

The dwarves marched on, their priests calling out their own prayers and bright flashes lit up the dim light as runes of ur-gold burst aflame as their power was released. Then the dwarves charged forward, a wave of battle crying dwarves crossed the distance between the rats and them in a blink of an eye. As fire rained down towards Lord Shrilleck and the clawpack surrounding him he snarled ay the globes of magma as they missed and bubbled menacingly on the ground around him. Then they charged. Lord Veseks out as much distance between him and the charging dwarves as possible while a fyreslayer priest appeared from a tunnel.he carved from solid rock with.a detachment of warriors who charged at an exposed plague claw. Lord Shrilleck snarled in frustration at the poorly spent resources as he turned his back on the warmachine that surely wouldn’t survive the onslaught.

As the magmadroth, a beast of fire and lava charged over the dias and crashed into the clanrats ranks the onslaught that awaited those rats was swift and deadly, none survived. At the bottom of the dias plague monks screeched out challenges as prayers were read from scrolls and books. Turning towards the right flank lord Shrilleck was surprised to find the plague claw being defended bravely by its crew who appeared to be doing well against the veteran warriors.

The fyrelayers pressed their advantage, pushing further forwards crashing into the monks with a shattering downhill charge as magmadroth and fyreslayer dwarf cut their way through skaven. Seeing an opportunity Lord Shrilleck ordered his rat ogor to pull his altar away but the rats he left behind to defend him were quickly cut down to half their size. The plague monks threw themselves with reckless abandon as axes bit into their chest, leaving large wounds in magmadroth and dwarf alike. Still onwards did the plague claws crew fight and somehow their warmachine, and them, were stil alive.

Now the magic whipped through the air Lord Shrilleck turned just in time to see Lord Veseks skitterleap just as an axe cut down through the space he occupied a moment ago. Coward! Lord Shrilleck pulled ay the winds of magic, trying to use the chaotic energies to rip the earth under the dwarves apart and send them into the fire they worship so dearly, this time it was more successful and he managed to catch the runeson and cause a grievous wound. He then pushes forth a pestilent wave at a host of hearthguard beserkers causing diseases to infect their ranks but nome fell to the spell.

The plague priests chanted prayers to the great horned rat and a crippling curse was placed upon the Priest on Magmadroth, the clanrats, monks and plague priests themselves fighting with more fervour as eventually their cuts brought it down.

However a invocation made from living magma erupted from the battlefield and stated to splash molten rock at the skaven nearby. As the lines began to fold lord Shrilleck jumped from his altar and slipped through one of the nearby gnawholes watching just long enough to see his altar, the plague furnace and the remaining skaven rout – a solitary figure, one of thr plague priests darted towards another gnawhole but as lava was shot through the Sky towards Lord Shrilleck he dove into the chaotic energies and moved through the tunnels in reality swearing vengeance on the fyreslayers. Despite slaying the magmadroth more skaven was needed. Perhaps clan skrye or moulder would be able to spare him some of their creations so he can kill the dwarf things and rid them out of the tunnels the skaven have use for.

Armies.

Skaventide

– Army Faction: Skaven
– Grand Strategy: Dominating Presence
LEADERS
Plague Priest On Plague Furnace (235)**
– Artefacts of Power: The Fumigatous
– Prayers: Curse
Grey Seer (140)**
– Artefacts of Power: Suspicious Stone
– Spells: Skitterleap
Plague Priest (85)**
– Prayers: Heal
Grey Seer On Screaming Bell (265)***
– General
– Command Traits: Cunning
– Spells: Plague
Plague Priest (85)****
– Prayers: Heal
BATTLELINE
Clanrats (130)*
– Rusty Spear
Clanrats (130)*
– Rusty Spear
Clanrats (130)*
– Rusty Spear
ARTILLERY
Plagueclaw (135)***
Plagueclaw (135)****
Plagueclaw (135)****
OTHER
Plague Monks (170)***
– Pair of Foetid Blades
Plague Monks (170)***
– Pair of Foetid Blades
Giant Rats (40)***
TERRAIN
1 x Gnawhole (0)
CORE BATTALIONS
– *Hunters of the Heartlands
– **Command Entourage
– ***Battle Regiment
– ****Grand Battery
TOTAL POINTS: 1985/2000
Created with Warhammer Age of Sigmar: The App

Fyreslayers

Army Faction: Fyreslayers
– Army Subfaction: Greyfyrd
– Grand Strategy: Hold the Line
– Triumphs: Indomitable

LEADER

Auric Runefather (125)*
– General
– Command Traits: Fury of the Fyreslayers
– Artefacts: The Daemon Slayer

Auric Runesmiter on Magmadroth (340)*
– Forge Key
– Artefacts: Volatile Brazier
– Mount Traits: Flame-scale Youngblood
– Prayers: Ember Storm

Battlesmith (150)**
– Artefacts: Nulsidian Icon

Auric Runesmiter (135)**
– Forge Key
– Prayers: Prayer Of Ash

Auric Runeson (80)**
– Ancestral War-axe
– Artefacts: Axe of Grimnir

BATTLELINE

1 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*
– Berzerker Broadaxe

1 x Hearthguard Berzerkers (320)*
– Flamestrike Poleaxe

Vulkite Berzerkers with Fyresteel Handaxes (170)*

Vulkite Berzerkers with Bladed Slingshields (160)*

INVOCATION

Molten Infernoth (70)

TERRAIN

Magmic Battleforge (0)

OTHER

Auric Hearthguard (125)*

CORE BATTALIONS:

*Battle Regiment

**Command Entourage

TOTAL POINTS: (1995/2000)

Thanks for dropping by, if you liked this style of report, Albeit not as detailed as others done in the past let me know!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the end of month writeup and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

Skaven sighted in Soulbound

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Hi all and welcome to fight night where tonight I am getting ready for a warhammer game against an old friend and rival who has requested that I bring my Skaven once again to the front lines and do battle with his noble Fyreslayers.

But, tonight being fight night and I did say that I would bring some more Soulbound this week I wanted to explore combat and the “Creature Stat Blocks” for Soulbound.

So I will take you through some of my beloved Skaven models and do my best to explain the concept of these stat blocks (as I am still learning how the system works).

So without begging forgiveness for any mistakes I made, let’s roll on!

Skaven in Soulbound

213FrSS

The Clanrat

Second only to labourers and slaves, Clanrats are the most numerous and low ranking of the Skaven. Despite this, like
all Skaven, every Clanrat is convinced of its superiority and the inevitability of its ascension to greatness. They clutch rusted arms stolen from dead rivals and seek any
opportunity to advance their station.
Individually, a Clanrat is no match for a prepared hero, in fact, a lone Clanrat is just as likely to squirt the musk of fear and flee than stand and fight. Yet Clanrats rarely fight alone, instead swarming together in hordes of frenzied fighters that throw themselves at their foes in a smothering wall of stinking flesh and chittering savagery.

So first things first, it looks a bit different to a Dungeons and Dragons stat block but there are a few things to go through so we will go from top to bottom.

The Clanrat is classified as a minion, they are lowest fodder on the battlefield and really only strong in numbers, as true to Skaven on the tabletop as possible.

They have Poor Melee, Accuracy and Defence (but rated as average with a shield). This relates to the ladder I mentioned in my first glance of the system. If you have poor defence then the Clanrat will need to have a Difficulty Number (DN) of 4 Body (Weapon skill) where from the dice pool they create from both their Body attribute (down the bottom of the block) and the levels in training they have in their Weapon Skill skill they need to roll 4 or better to beat your defence of poor. But, if you have Average defence then they will have a DN of 5 which means from your dice pool you need to roll a 5 or better to hit. If the Clanrats target has good or better defence then only a 6 on the dice roll will hit.

Having an armour of – means that any damage that is dealt (the number of successful hits + any damage modifiers from the weapon) isn’t stopped by armour. Armor reduces the damage dealt to the creature by 1 for each point in armour.

Toughness is the stamina before the creature takes damage through to their wound. Having a toughness of 1 means that they can have 1 point of damage allocated to them before they stat suffering wounds. The neat thing about toughness is that it will recover outside of battle if you spend a few minutes (I think 10) having a short break before charging into the next throng of enemies.

A wounds of – means that they are truly weak creatures and that by reducing their toughness to 0 that they will suffer a mortal wound and die.

Mettle is a resource which Characters and strong enemies have that enables them to push past the normal barriers in ones physical or mental training and or one moment gain and advantage. Having no Mettle is common for creatures.

Now Speed. To understand speed we need to understand how the game field is laid out in what we call Zones. A zone is an area of space, generally seen as 15ft but its broken up by natural barriers like a wall, fence, trees, door, a incline or decline (trench or parapet). The area where your Character stands is called “Short Range“, the zone adjacent to your zone is “Medium Range” and the zone adjacent to that (2 zones from you) is called “Long Range”

So if your character is in a room and you hear skittering outside the zone you are in now (the room) is short range, the space outside the door, a small field where a fence divides the wheat field and mill from the yard around the building you are in is Medium range, the field is Long range and the mill within the Field is “Extreme Range“. This helps to imaging distance as something relative rather than having a grid to move your character along 6 squares at at time which represents “30ft”.

Now back to Speed. If you have a Slow speed you can move anywhere in your move action to move within their current zone (short range) and must use the run action to move into the zone adjacent (medium range). A Normal speed, such as our Clanrat, means it can use a free action to move within the current zone “Short range”, use a move action to move to the zone adjacent (Medium range) and the run action to move into the next adjacent zone (Long range). Most creatures have a Normal speed but you can encounter creatures with a Fast speed which can move as a free action within their current zone and use the move action to move up to the two zones adjacent (Long range). See simple right?

Ok maybe not simple, its a big change to D&D but I think it does make sense.

Initiative is your Mind attribute and your the levels in training in the Reflexes and Awareness skills. I love this. No longer is it just who is quickest of body strikes first but those who are aware and keen of mind also can think and react quickly to danger. So our little Clanrat has an initiative of two.

Natural Awareness is really Soulbound’s version of Passive Perception.

Skills are shown here in their training level. Training level is represented by xd6 where x is the level the creature is trained in. This little rat has awareness (+1d6), Stealth (+1d6,+1) and Weapon Skill (+1d6).
You may notice that out little Clanrat has a Stealth skill of (1d6, +1) which represents that he is trained in Stealth 1 level and that he has 1 point in Focus. Focus is really a floating 1 value that you can apply to any one dice roll made. An example is needed I feel.

This Clanrat is sneaking up through the wheat field and wants to make sure he is not found, mainly so one of the other Clanrat’s around him takes the first arrows and not him. he rolls DN4:1 Body (Stealth) he has 1 point in Body and 1 level of training in Stealth so he rolls 2 dice. He gets a 5 and a 3 but has 1 point in focus so he turns that 3 into a 4. This grants him 2 successes (nice!).

The next is traits. These are little things that the creature can do that make it.. it really. In this case this poor little Skaven Clanrat feels stronger and braver with friends and begins to fight as one horde of seething, chittering rat-men when he has friends! When he is joined by buddies they become a swarm of Clan rats where you attack as one when they are in the same Zone. This is reflected by gaining +1d6 to their attack pool and having +1 toughness (where each damage dealt kills 1 Clanrat per toughness decreased). However, area of affects (spells, weapons with a spread property, cleaving strikes and the like) deal double damage to a swarm.

Now attacks. This creature has two attacks and can pick one or the other. In this instance the rust blade or the rusty spear *(note it’s not trusty.. its definitely rusty) these attacks are both poor, have 2d6 in their dice pool (1 from body and 1 from weapon skill) and deal x+S damage.

The Rusty blade deals 1+S Damage which is 1 damage base + the number of successes. The Rusty blade is one handed so the Clanrat can wield a shield with the stabby-blade an bring his defence up to average from poor). The Spear deals more damage (2+S) but is just as bad as the rusty blade but is two handed – so no shield (watch out little rat!)

Finally we are down to attributes.

Attributes are simple in Soulbound – Body, Mind and Soul

Body represents your physical strength, your reflexes and coordination, and your overall body awareness. Characters with a high Body tend to be able to hold their own in a fight and rarely balk at manual labour.

Mind represents your intelligence, your awareness and perception, your deductive reasoning, and your ability to think on your feet. Characters with a high Mind are often inquisitive, quick witted, and studious, and are adept at thinking their way around a problem. Mind is also important for wizards and practitioners of the arcane arts.

Soul represents your inner being. It is your sense of self, your spirit and determination, and your ability to resist the influence of Chaos. Characters with high Soul are frequently spiritual leaders or champions, and are absolutely assured in their beliefs.

All attributes feed into Defence, Accuracy and Melee effectiveness as well as toughness, mettle, initiative, natural awareness and skill tests. Each test will be based off one of the three attributes and then a skill. The attribute may change from time to time (so Awareness may sometimes be related to a Soul (awareness) check instead of a Mind (awareness) check if something is trying to overcome your resistance to chaos.

These also form your basic pools in combat. Body for Melee dice pools, Mind for ranged pools and spell checks (Mind (Channelling) test).

Now, I wont go through it all again but lets look at the brutal muscle of the Skaven forces – the Rat Ogor

The Rat Ogor

Stitched, grown, and mutated under the claws of Clan Moulder’s most demented fleshcrafters, then sold to the highest bidder, Rat Ogors are the horrific fusion of Skaven and Ogor. Hulking masses of muscle and claw capable of ripping entire battalions to shreds, the Rat Ogors are singularly violent monsters, who’s only drive is to kill.
While effective in the right circumstances, Rat Ogors are brutally stupid beasts, incapable of comprehending even the simplest of orders or using any weapons aside from their own teeth and claws. Yet with the symbiotic grafting of a secondary, and always unwilling, brain into the proceedings, a Rat Ogor is somewhat elevated. While the creature will never gain true intelligence, the parasitic brain can enforce its will upon the Rat Ogor, allowing it to follow commands, and more Importantly, wield weapons.

As you can see the Rat Ogor is a champion with exponentially better in melee a whopping body of 6 with weapons training (+2d6), a bunch more toughness (with Armor!) and a few other traits and attacks that make it a lethal killing machine.

I could go on and on giving more examples but, frankly, I don’t have that much time left in me for tonight and this would turn into a book rather than a blog post.

I am excited to bring some adventures through to you for Soulbound and hope to have a few games to build up interest for my local gaming group (and maybe beyond).

Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content including the end of March writeup (yes its April already.. but I will wrap up March first!). And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Snake Bite

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Hi all and welcome to another night here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop. Tonight, being Thursday, tonight is reserved for things that enhance the encounter, adventure or weeks experiences for the party whether it’s maps, additional rules (such as weather effects), creature stat blocks or magic items (like what tonight will be).

So a small writeup tonight to glance at a few items we could throw amongst the temple from this months adventure, or,

Items of the Serpent

213ThIotS

Creeper Cloak

The Creeper cloak looks to be made from the skin of a large snake with circular pattern on the scales.

The circular patterns on the snake shift when danger approaches and if the wearer and the cloak are attuned the cloak will extend and move the wearer (and itself) move a short distance away.

Other item ideas

Serpent Tongue earing

This serpent earing pierces the earlobe before looping behind the ear to allow the head of the snake to point towards the ear canal. Anyone who wears this earing can activate the earing by spending 1hp (as the snakes head bites the users ear subtly to draw blood) to be able to detect any lies spoken within hearing distance for 1 hour. The snake would hiss when it detects a lie but otherwise lays inert against the ear occasionally moving slithers backwards and forth.

Serpent Arrow

These arrows appear to be carved from a rich black wood to look like snakes but as they fly they turn into black writhing snakes. These arrows require the creature struck by them to make a DC12 Constitution saving throw vs poison or take 1d6 extra poison damage.

Hissing Amulet

This amulet can be fed poison or live snakes to grant the user a shimmering aura of sound that deflects arrows, magic and sword strikes. By pouring a vial of poison or placing a snake (alive or dead) against the amulet the wearer can gain 1d4+1 temporary hp.

Thanks for joining me tonight for the short writeup to look at some additional items that we could weave into the adventure this week.

Don’t forget to come back the next few days to see the end of month writeup for this month as well as any additional things that come up over the next few days.

Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

All light casts a shadow

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Hi all and welcome to another night here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop where tonight we look at twists and turns that can shake up the fundamentals of our adventure.

Tonight, like Monday I want to take a step away again and develop the environment that our party is walking into and so, with that, let’s roll onto it.

Walking Shadow

213WeWS

Running through the tall stalks of grain Rohun he called out to Ling who was lagging behind him “We’ve got to run, now! We will lose them!” he called, eagerness in his voice as he pushed the stalks and reeds away with his shield as the voice called out to them “Help” from somewhere up ahead.

As the voice came louder the more uncertain of its origin he became, eventually coming to a stop a few dozen feet from the wall that separated the next paddock and the mountains beyond. As Ling walked in front of him he was glad, not for the first time that he had her by his side when things by the fringe got weird or out of control. As the voices started to pickup, repeating words back to them Rohun was so focused on the noises and looking for a person speaking to them that he didn’t notice his own shadow elongate, slither up his body and wrap around his mouth.

The moment the shadow clamped down around his body, constricting him stronger than any creature he had encountered could, binding his arms to his sides, his spear to his arm and holding his mouth shut. It was impossible to move and when he felt a tug on his legs he fell forward on his face he was whipped back into the reeds with such speed that his only chance at survival and freedom was Ling noticing. As he stopped moving and he looked up through the reeds, blinking trying to clear the dirt that had been flicked into his eyes he stared with confusion then horror as he saw himself standing next to Ling in the patch of reeds he was just standing in.


“Run Ling. It’s all we can do now. Go now!” the imposter yelled as he took off, away from the reeds and shadows. Rohun strained against his bindings, moving and straining against the shadows themselves. That’s when he felt them moving him again, pulling him towards the wall and the mountains beyond. He cried out but the shadow around his mouth squeezed tighter, making sure to not hurt him or damage him but keep him quiet as his feet hit the stone of the wall. Then, after a moment of pressure on his feet he felt his legs lift and he started to move over the wall, turning around using what little control he had over his body he looked with terror filled fascination as short little creatures moved with the shadows to attack Ling, but not savagely enough to hurt or harm her seriously but enough to drive her away. He strained, pushed and shouted – praying to his ancestors to seek their assistance – just one noise, one movement enough to get Lings attention so she would turn around and see him.

He felt his feet flick over the top of the wall, then his calves, thighs, hips and lower back. The entire time straining so hard to try and get Lings attention. Pop! his efforts rewarded him with his right shoulder dislocating causing his cries to help to turn into cries of pain and shock. As he felt his shoulders reach the top of the wall he glanced once more at his friend as she stopped, paused and looked back at the wall just in time for him, engulfed in shadows to fall over the wall and land hard. Creatures, bald and naked with exaggerated features stood around him, their forms cloaking in shadows like cloth would be worn by humans. As they walked so did the shadows that bound him move as they headed off in the directions of the mountains – a strange garbled language being spoken but each of them holding a weapon, token, or something of the people of this land – victims from previous abductions no less. As he banged his head on a rock and his should smashed into something else hidden amongst the vegetation beyond the wall his mind wandered as he contemplated what his next move was – how does he escape to save Ling from the doppelganger and warn his people of the shadowy threat this close to their villages.

Thanks for joining tonight I hope that you are all doing well and that this update intrigues you as much as it helps drive my creative process to flesh out the happenings and plot for the party once they land on the new continent.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow night for more content where tomorrow is a bit of a free-formed night this week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

NPC refinement

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Hi all and welcome to another night here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop! Tonight I wanted to touch on how we can refine our important NPCs just that little bit more so that when a player asks us them a question like “Whats your family like?” we are prepared with a well thought out answer – whether or not the NPC chooses to disclose this answer is another story.

So taking a leaf out of the Soulbound core book I wanted to delve a bit more into the idea of refining those key NPCs. I wouldn’t suggest spending hours on these questions for all NPCs but maybe limiting it to a quick minute for each significant (not Key) NPC so we can look at having something prepared for for when our players do ask these questions (or similar ones).

Now instead of “What is your name?” “What is your quest?” and “What is your favourite colour” these questions are designed to prod and poke a bit further and to encourage character development.

“5” Questions

What was your childhood like?

This question really drives a few deeper thoughts, did they have present parents? A guardian? A community? No one.? Was there siblings or people they got along with? What was their social economic status like? Wealthy, poor, somewhere in between? Happy, sad, filled with fear or love or both?

This question poses a few bigger thoughts and can probably be enough to flesh out enough of a basic character that the party doesn’t spend a lot of time with.

Who do you least want to run into and why?

Old romantic interest and how did it end (if it did)? What’s their name? How did you meet? What did they do to you? What did you do to them? Where would be the most common place to meet them and why?

Establishing a connection can help drive narrative and quests or at least adventures for the party. Having a person responsible for grief, anxiety or fear means that there is a response when that person is encountered by the party which drives the story and character development.

What motivates you to do what you do?

What do you desire? What do you fear? What are you running from or towards? Why are you doing this?

This one is maybe a bit of a bigger more ambiguous question but it can help with an important question – what motivates the character to do what they are doing – plain and simple.

What do you think is overrated in this world?

A virtue? A freedom? Money? Food? What is it that they think the world could do without?

This one isn’t too difficult and I would maybe save this one for those really deep and importance characters that you just want to really develop and refine. This could help identify character flaws, their alignment (Evil-good), refine their motivations and potentially get a bigger glimpse at their personalities than what the other questions could reveal.

What can’t you live without?

A pet, item, trinket or other possession? A substance (addiction)? A person? A faith or belief? A talent or skill?

Short of the obvious (food, water, air, sunlight) this can introduce interesting little character flaws, dependencies or traits that make the character who they are. If they have an alcohol problem but believe in the guidance and forgiveness of Torm then this is also something that can be explored and used by a good DM to drive plots, stories and the Player character development by interacting with this individual.

The above questions, although maybe not as comprehensive as some that are out there like this one (The Ultimate Character Questionnaire) could be used to flesh out an important NPC or Character in general to help shape and drive their involvement in the stories you write or facilitate (as the players are the real story tellers in our games).

Thanks for joining tonight for a little refinement workshop on NPCs, I will practice the above and hopefully this week come back with a more full and refined character for our D&D campaign.

Don’t forget to come back again tomorrow to look at the midweek madness that is twists, turns and pivot night where we look at what else can shape the adventure we are working on and what can enhance the adventure we create.

And as I wish and remind you each and every night, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Shadows rising

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Hello all and welcome to the last week of March where I consolidate thoughts, take a bit of a breather and, collate a months worth of work into a single post that aims to be used as an adventure of its own.

Today I want to expand on some plot thats happening beyond the reach and sight of the party but something that helps drive understanding of the situation for the world we are steering into.

Shadows amongst the stalks

213MoSatR

Ling walked along the road using the haft of her spear as a walking stick as she and her patrol partner walked along the stone fence that was the border between the fields of wheat and other grains and where fields gave way to buildings and houses.

Pausing Ling watched over the tall stalks of crops, watching them sway in the light cold breeze that came down from the mountains to the north – the seemingly unending tide of crops eventually ending at another small wall that indicated another boundary between property under the Harimasu families land. Squinting, the setting sun to the west causing shadows to drive lazily amongst the stalks of grains she watched as a cloud caused rippling shadows to pour over the far wall giving them a writhing look briefly. Yawning and stretching she continued her patrol, her partner a few feet ahead now but within ear shot and a close enough distance if required to assist if anything went poorly quickly.

“hello” a soft voice carried from the paddock across the wind causing both Ling and her companion, Rohun to stop and look across the field for th owner of the voice. “Hello” it came again, this time Rohun and Ling climbed over the stone barrier and stood in th waist high stalks.

“Hello?” Called Ling,

“We are from the Harimasu family guard. Do you need help?” Rohun asked gripping his shield and spear tightly.

“help” The voice called back, a soft tone that sounded distant and muffled. Ling and Rohun walked through the crop sticking to each others flank and moving in the direction that they thought the voice was calling from. A few moments later the voice called again, this time stronger with more urgency “Help!”. Rohun and Ling began to jog in the direction.

“we’re coming to help. Hold on!,” Ling called out.

“Where are you, show yourself! Let us know where you are” Rohun called.

“Help! Where are you?!” The voice called back. Louder and more frantic which made Ling and Rohan run. “Help!” It called again once more closer. “HELP!” This time shockingly loud, close and desperate.

Then the other voices began. “Help”, “show yourself”, “coming.. we’re coming!” The voices rang in a chorus as the stalks of grain rattled and shook all around them. Stopping, their blood Freezing Ling and Rohun looked back towards the road, they were hundreds of feet away, near the next wall. The rustling continued, now aware of the situation they could pick out their own words and voice being spoken back at them.

“Run Ling. It’s all we can do now” Rohun said. Gripping his spear “Go now!” He yelled running towards the road and Ling running next to him, the stalks either. side of them bending and shaking as shadows moved between and through them.

The first attack came quickly, the shriek of rage inaudible through the cacophony of words, their words, being spoken back at them. Burning hot scratches appeared on Lings back and as she spun around she heard Rohun grunt as he was also attacked, their aggressors to quick for them to see or counter attack. This continued for what seemed like minutes then with a final high pitched “WE’RE COMING!” they stopped and Ling and Rohun jumped the wall as best they could, their backs, legs and arms a patchwork of cuts from talons.

Looking back over the field they sprinted through they noticed the same shadows cast by the clouds reversing over the wall towards the mountains.

Well, thats it for tonight. The threat that the party is coming to aid with has almost reached settlements and are becoming bolder to attack during daylight.

I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into what’s happening elsewhere and, like me are excited for whats to come.

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more content, and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,

The Brazen Wolfe

Soulbound – Warhammer Age of Sigmar TTRPG

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Hi all and welcome to a Saturday writeup where it was triggered by a message coming through this morning. Like most Saturday mornings I was greeted by the bombardment of notifications informing me that thee was another post in the Warhammer group that I am a member of and I was greeted by a welcome surprise.

Soulbound – the TTRPG that was released by Cubical7 in conjunction with games workshop had a humblebundle where you could get 24 books, yup, 24 books for the TTRPG for the the low price of around $25au. Now my love for TTRPGs as well as my love for Warhammer merged into one low priced bundle that supports charity – how can I say no?

To be truthful I had been looking at soulbound for some time now, not that I have grown out of love with Dungeons & Dragons or OpenLegendRPG but as a way that I can explore another format, another set of rules and broaden my understanding of what’s out there while I try and work out the best system for me when I try to create a RPG system of my own – but more on that another time when I hopefully have it more fleshed out.

So the long and short of Soulbound is really you take command of a hero from one of the forces of order, death or destruction and you take your character and fight your way through Goblins, Orruks (Orcs), zombies, ghouls, Skaven (my favourite little critters) and a whole bunch of other chaos warped things to sink and axe, hammer or arrow into.

Your hero will have a set of Skills, Attributes and talents that generate more dice for the pools which you can use to achieve actions by meeting a difficulty number (DN) and generating the required number of successes based on the requirement the GM put on the check.

In Dungeons & Dragons and many other d20 systems you have a few dice, modifiers or items that enable you to meet and beet a Difficulty Class (DC) which determines the success or fail of the action. With Soulbound you have a pool of dice that you would roll to try and beat the difficulty number with each dice. So each dice you roll has the potential to cause you to succeed and what’s more – its only a d6 (not a d20) so if you needed to roll a 4 (DN4:1) and the check, to jump a fence or barricade for example, required you roll succeed only once. Then if you roll a 3 dice on average you should be fine. This style of mechanics means the more dice you roll the more likely you are to succeed and I do have a fondness for rolling lots of dice.

Now I have only spent a hour or so skimming over the character creation guide (from the core rulebook) but the concept is looking at adding your base ability (Body- Physical prowess, Mind-mental aptitude, and Soul-Spiritual presence.. I guess) to the skills you are trained in to establish what your Melee, Accuracy (Ranged) and Defence rating is from Poor to Exceptional. The higher number your skills and attributes the higher quality your rating is and the higher rung in “The ladder” you are in.

This Ladder is used primarily to determine the difference in quality between the attackers skill and the defenders defence. This determines the Difficulty number on the attack roll to deal damage to try and defeat your opponent. This is a bit complex but once the maths is over then the system is quite.. simple from what it looks like.

I will look at this a bit more over the coming week and hopefully I may try and have a Soulbound Saturday where I post some Soulbound content where I play the game with my fellow warhammer players – well that’s the idea.

While the bundle is cheap on Humble-bundle I would suggest going to have a look at it and see if its something for you. Saving (I think) a bit over 90% of the total cost of the books that are in the bundle for this amount of content is pretty incredible.

Don’t forget tomorrow is the final writeup for the week where we take the party into the temple and confront a bunch of snakes, and their abyssal lord.

Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Ophidian Island

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Hi all and welcome to the end of the week writeup and, the last week of content before I produce the end of month adventure that looks at the last 4 weeks (yup. 4!)

This week we saw our party have to make an emergency stop on a lost island after their ship, the Red Fleets Dancing Drake was attacked by pirates. However unknown to them this island was home to a powerful creature who had claimed the vacant, fertile land as its hunting ground and with its demonic powers it had empowered its servants to kidnap any who dare take refuge on its sandy shores.

So without any more drivel or waffling on let’s get to the write-up!

Ophidian Island

As the storm subsided the party and the crew made their way across the waves their ship having sustained damage from the fighter and the Storm. It was on the second day that the crew saw across the waves and island with tall trees scattered across the island surrounding a lone mountain. Jutting from this mountain was a tall steep spire which towered above the island and into the clouds above.

As the ship limped its way to the sandy shores Kyoko limped forward having sustained a crossbow bolt to her leg during the pirates attack. “Alright crew. We rest here for three days. Get some in wood to repair the ship, get some fresh water and food and we leave. Anyone late to the ship in on the sunrise of the third day gets left behind” she commands and the crew, most of them fully healed from Lizbet, rush off to complete their captains orders.

She beckons for the party. “My maps show this island but warn people to not set up camp, they believe this island to be cursed. Can you keep watch over the crew, Siu and Lizbet to make sure we all leave this island in one piece, or at least the same state we arrived in” she requested, grimacing as she lent the wrong way on her injured leg.

The party nod as Kyoko turns to head back towards her cabin and maps. She had insisted on Lizbet healing her crew before using magic to heal her leg, Lizbet had used all her magic on the crew and was yet to fully recover her magic to heal the captain.

A hour later a group of four crew members run towards where everyone was set up not far from where the ship was moored, the deep water of the cove perfect for a ship of this size.

“we’ve found another ship that looks untouched that would have all the gear we need to make repairs. The other crew are too spooked to enter it and we are finding it hard to get the materials from the trees to make repairs. What should we do?”

Area of note

The breached boat – The crew members that scouted out the beach just north to where the Dancing drake reported in finding a large multi-sailed ship that had a abnormal breaching in its hull that was the ships doom, apparently. The ship itself contains enough material to repair the Dancing Drake and provide spare sail in case something goes wrong, though it wont be Red. However, whilst on and near the ship recovering the materials the party kept seeing glimpses something watching them from the ship – the crew members calling out saying that its the lost crew of the ship who have taken refuge onboard their broken ship.

The Beach – the beach is a mixture of soft, fine sand and smooth pebbles that coat the edge of the island in a welcoming soothing blanket of warmth. The sand, however, is so find that tracks of all kinds seem to melt away quickly with but the faintest of breeze so it’s easy to get lost and not to notice the presence of animals or other creatures until its too late.

The Forest – a relatively humid jungle has sprung up not far from the beach and waters edge. It’s home to mainly snakes of all sizes but any trace of them from when the party first encounter them seem to have disappeared once they enter the jungle in true after the disappearance of their crew and Captain Kyoko.

The Mountains – A large range of mountains has erupted in the centre of the island – large and imposing and so closely clumped together that they could be considered a single large mountain. Fresh water streams form pools at the base of the stone cliffs and, with some time searching, statues of humans bound and constricted by giant snakes can be found littered around the mountains base. Other ruins, evidence of settlement can be found and a large winding staircase was crudely cut into the side of the mountain leading towards a singular jagged spire that juts from the mountain into the sky like a spear piercing the clouds and heavens above.

The temple – at the base of the spire is a large, well crafted temple that is guarded by a large snake statue. The statue is so well crafted that it appears to be a snake until people notice the worn out foot and hand holds that appear to lead up to the snakes snarling jaw where two large blood stained fangs have been a carved out of white stone. These fangs drip with a sickening ichor and appear to have blood seeping into the white stone as the party examine them. The abyssal scripture around the statue states “the faithful, anointed by the serpents venom will be blessed by the serpents gift and will be welcomed as one of the faithful” and only once one of those present has placed blood upon the fangs will the statue briefly come alive and move to the side revealing the steps down. Those who force the snake fang onto their arm as a way of anointing the fangs with their own blood in this manner will feel the affects of snake venom (poisoned) but will feel a sense of unease like a creature is beckoning them into the dark depths below.

The Temple itself is filled with snakes, some forming a single humanoid shape when they encounter the party attacking as a swarm. Behind large sealed double doors an Abyssal Naga waits for the party.

NPCs in this adventure

Choi Fang

Choi is one of the crew members that managed to be spared from the abduction of the the rest of the crew as he was with the party near the other beached ship.

Koyko Harimasu

Kyoko and several other crew members were taken by the snake servants and are unconscious within the temple. As she still suffers a wounded leg (Lizbet being unable to heal her due to her magic needing to replenish and Kyoko insisting the crew take precedence) she is unable to move quickly or defend herself adequately.

“Wild girl”

Living on the island after having escaped the Naga within the temple when her ship’s crew and other passengers were taken after a freak storm ripped a hole in their hull, or so they think it was the storm.

Living on the island with the Naga’s servants has made her cunning, stealthy and self reliant but the potential of leaving with the adventurers made her do something that she swore she wouldn’t do. Hope. She trails the party, wedging the stone serpent statue open so they can escape whilst following behind them making sure that she is there in case she can help them leave with their lives.

NPCs

The Dancing Drakes Crewmates. Several crewmates are with Kyoko and unconscious within the temple. Luckily Siu and Lizbet seem to have been spared (safely onboard the Dancing Drake instead of being on shore)

Environment and running the adventure

The Island –

The wind and fine sand makes tracking difficult (other than the site where the crew was ambushed where the volume of disturbance makes the tracks easily readable). Any survival check to look for tracks or signs of life are made with disadvantage on the beach. The sounds of the jungle in the trees, and the wind howling through it makes sound dissipate before it reaches the ears giving disadvantage on perception checks that rely on hearing.

The Temple – Entrance

Simply put, placing blood on the white fangs will cause the door to open. The script is written in Abyssal (except some parts in common have been added saying “Serpents Gift” – referring to the dripping white fangs and the ichor they produce.

Any blood smeared on the fangs will do and the puncture of the skin to place blood will inflict the poisoned condition on the person (DC18 to resist…) but that person will feel a strong connection to the temple afterwards. Many people can voluntarily be poisoned and each of them will gain the following:

-Advantage on saving throws vs charmed, paralyzed and poisoned from snakes or the Abyssal Naga.
-Poisoned condition until the end of a long rest.
-Advantage on perception checks to notice snakes.
-Advantage on Animal handling checks (snakes).

The Temple – Refer to map.

Original Map – Ophidian TempleDownload

Room 1 appears to be a small entrance room, small shrines litter the walls where the emphasis appears to be on the worship of snakes. There isn’t much else to this room.

Room 2 is a large room that looks like it would have held books and a small library at some stage – the wall opposite the party a decomposed bookcase has crumbled away from the wall and has revealed what used to be a secret door that lead into a small room beyond.

Room 3 and 4 were separated by a wall that has long since fallen down – the rooms appear to have been bedrooms once but have long since rotted away to nothing. Home to snakes with area being warm and humid there may even be several snake egg clutches in these rooms.

Room 5 (and trapped hallway) a small spike trap will shoot upwards on any who step on the pressure plate. DC14 dexterity check will see the person unharmed, if they fail 2d6 piercing damage and their movement speed will be reduced by 10″ until a long rest due to the injuries to their legs.

Just outside the Naga room there is a wide hallway – at the end of this two large Constrictor snakes would be coiled around humanoid statues by the door – they wait like statues until creatures come within 10 ft or they take damage – at which point they throw themselves at the intruders as their Naga commands.

Naga Room a Large hole in the roof (not drawn in as it was decided later) appears the only other way in or out, on the left side there is a hidden trap door that will lead to a small treasure room that is little more than a crawl space. To uncover the room a perception check of DC14 (or investigation once the door becomes cracked – see encounter) will reveal the room.

Encounter

For this fight let’s assume that the party is Level 4 and that they have had a full long rest before coming into the temple. The aim of this temple is to throw a few creatures at them during the temple to wear them down on spell slots and limited abilities to make the Naga fight a bit harder (as it is just a single creature…)

Room 1 will have a Giant poisonous snake and a Swarm of poisonous snakes in a swarm. They attack the first thing they become aware of.

Room 2 will have one Giant Poisonous snake per person in the party with an extra one lurking behind the chests in Room 5.

The hallway to Room 3 and 4 – this area will have several holes in the top of the walls near the roof – as the party members walk by them giant poisonous snakes (three in total) will drop down on the party.

Room 3 and 4 will have a single Swarm of poisonous snakes guarding the clutches of snake eggs.

Room 5 the trap will reset but once triggered it is easy to avoid when someone knows its there. The room itself will have a giant poisonous snake hiding behind the chests and will lunge and bite who ever comes close.

The hallway to the Naga room will have two poisonous snakes come from holes in the walls when the party walks past them – but they will attack before the Giant Constrictor snakes will attack the party (so to not overwhelm them) while these snakes attack the “totally-not-statue-snakes” will remain motionless. Once the party comes within 10ft of the statues the Giant Constrictor Snakes will attack the party and engage them.

Naga Room – the Naga will drop out of the ceiling once the party reach the centre of the room. Along the back wall the crew members and Kyoko can be seen unconscious, drooling and staring open eyed as if hypnotised or charmed. Once the Naga reveals itself it will attempt to charm the parties magic users and then knock the others unconscious (as it did the crew). It doesn’t hold back and doesn’t seem to care about getting injured (knowing it will revive in a few days time) and will guard its resurrection like a closely held secret. Once the Saga is slain it will fall down, convulse and in its death throws it will break the hidden trapdoor – causing a crack to appear and the steps beyond to become visible to those who actively look there.

Swarm of snakes

The snakes will appear in a humanoid form, walking forward on two shaky legs made from snakes slithering together and they will bite their target by throwing long punches and grabbing the party member within range – the arms, legs and body flowing over the target creature as fangs bite into any exposed flesh they can find.

Giant Poisonous Snake

There will be many more of these in the temple than there would be other creatures. They would attack in hall ways and shouldn’t be limited to just rooms. Dropping from holes in the ceiling or from holes in the walls will be the plan with these medium sized snakes.

Giant Constrictor Snakes

The guards for the Naga room – looking like statues as they curl up at the end of the hall.

Abyssal Naga

Horribly vain, evil and malicious this creature doesn’t hold back and will start to try and charm, bite and fight the invaders of its net.

During this fight however it is careful to not hurt or endanger the crew and Kyoko along the back wall having plans to sacrifice them to the greater demon it wants to curry favour with.

Treasure

Distribute the following in the 3 chests in the map

  1. Immoveable rod
  2. 1x Potion of Resistance
  3. Ring of Swimming, Ring of water walking
  4. Potion of animal Friendship
  5. Chime of Opening
  6. Potion of Hill Giant Strength
  7. 4 Art items – each estimated to be worth 250gp each to the right buyer.

Thanks for joining this week where we had a small detour and explored a bit of a dungeon, albeit a short one it was one never the less.

Next week see’s the winddown of march and the hopefully publication of the end of month adventure, it’s a big one so don’t miss out.

Don’t forget to come back this week for the linking adventure titbits and perhaps some Soulbound material (and hopefully an age of sigmar battle report write-up too as I missed out on my game last week..) and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Pit Viper

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Hi all and welcome to another night here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop where we create adventures weekly and we reserve Friday to all things fights (Fightnight!).

So this week we have found ourselves in a slithery situation where the party have come back to where their ship has set down anchor to repair and replenish supplies and the crew and captain Kyoko are missing. After some investigation, and a small wild looking girl pointing them in the right direction, the party came across a temple high in the mountains that appeared to be dedicated to snakes.

So tonight, lets look at some snakes.

Snakes in a Pit

212FrSiaP

So without much waffle tonight lets look at the stat blocks for this weeks content!

Swarm of Poisonous Snakes

A pile of snakes, the idea behind these will be the people that abduct and grab the people from the beach (the crew members and Kyoko) will be a bunch of snakes shifted into a humanoid form and when they are back in their temple, their prey before the deity that they worship (seen below) they return to their serpentine form.

Being a more challenging foe I wouldn’t expect more than one or two of these for the temple.

Giant Poisonous Snake

Not as giant as the giant constrictor snake but still large and dangerous these creatures, like the snake swarm above, will take the form of a humanoid to abduct victims from the beech. I would anticipate these snakes will be the main one that is found in the temple and will support either a swarm of snakes, the giant constrictor snake or even the Naga.

Giant Constrictor Snake

Reserved forms of the larger and stronger (more faithful) serpents that serve the Naga these snakes will be seen to have a place of respect – grappling a creature whilst the swarm of poisonous snakes slither forth and bite the prey that is grappled.

These snakes are large, as and with the 10ft threat range on the bite (same as the poisonous snake) makes these creatures a large threat.

Abyssal Naga

The commander, the boss of the temple and being highly intelligent, immune to conditions and poison and being able to cast spells these creatures are impressive to behold.

This creature wont be alone and should have a few snakes outside its room/alter and should reveal itself from hiding (having a high stealth ability). It should try and convince the party to worship it, as it is arrogant and believes itself above all others but when it fights it will attempt to control the biggest threat (mage) and will then attack the others with spells.

Thanks for joining us tonight, I hope that you enjoyed what you have read and are looking forward to the end of week write-up as much as I am.

Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more work, and if you have a word for my “one word challenge” then feel free to propose one for me to write to this weekend!

Oh, and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Way of the Serpent

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Hi all and welcome to Thursday night where we look at extra’s, maps and other things that we can add to our adventure to give it that little bit more.

Tonight I wanted to expand upon something that I had drafted out in the Serpent temple in a previous post, but wanted to focus and do a deep dive on the “how” to get into the temple itself and what it requires.

So without getting too much into it before the hand-drawn diagrams of the contraption let’s roll on with tonight’s write-up!

Snakebite

212ThSB

When the party enter the temple they are greeted by an imposing snake statue that is ten feet tall and the intricately carved serpent coils around a large dark stone that is positioned against the far wall. As the party approach the serpent statue a dank, warm draft comes from behind the statue where, upon investigating the party can see stairs leading into the darkness beyond and below.

Closer inspection into the serpent statue itself reveals deep, purposely crafted recessions into the statue itself leading up the carving of the snake towards the top where the gaping jaw of the hissing snake reveals two large white carved stone fangs that drip an ichor.

Looking around the room they are in they notice a scuff mark on the stone to the right of the statue that look as if a large, heavy stone object had recently and often prior moved across the roughly carved stone slabs that formed the floor of the room.

Large engravings in a foreign and abrasive language are carved into the door frame amongst images of slithering snakes and to read the words aloud gives the party a deeply unsettled feeling within. There is a single phrase that is readable in common “Serpents gift” that is repeated at different parts in the symbols.

The intention of this room is for the party to investigate the stone statue and uncover the puzzle – to be bitten by the serpent will bestow its gift and allow the worth to pass through.

The groves (as seen in the second drawing) are steps up towards the fang – investigation or high perception will reveal worn groves that looks like shoes, and blood in these recessions as if someone who was bleeding used them as a hand or foot hold.

The fangs themselves (the image of the serpents gaping jaw) are dripping an ichor that will inflict the poisoned status against any who take the poison into their blood stream. The statue itself just needs blood applied to the fangs which will absorb some of the blood and the snake will momentarily come alive and shift to the right, dragging the heavy black stone along with it and revealing the pathway down into the temple itself.

The language is abyssal and will read “the faithful, anointed by the serpents venom will be blessed by the serpents gift and will be welcomed as one of the faithful” – Serpents gift is also written in common beneath it as if translated once before.

Thanks for joining me tonight, to look at the additional content that we have to expand our adventure this week. If you like the content, or, like the hand drawn aspect of this weeks content please let me know so I can continue to work on my long forgotten drawing skills – it has been quite a while.

Don’t forget to come back the next few days for more Brazen Wolfe Tabletop content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe