Tabletop

Whispers in the Roots

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This week we delve into the party being hired to investigate the reported whispers in the roots of Parsh Forest as the tensions of local villages and towns runs high. Something dark is mustering within the trees and the party are here to save the day, well night.

So let’s sit down, grab a coffee and torches and let’s investigate tonight’s adventure!

Something dark dwells within the Parsh Forest as reports of people going missing, cloaked figures disappearing in plain sight and hulking figures walking between the trunks of trees, watching those who dare travel through the roads. The local guard and militia are too scared to go into the forest due to the reports.

A call for aid has been issued for anyone brave enough to unravel what’s happening within the forest and to put a stop to it. But, there is more than mere sightings of strange creatures to contend with as the adventurers, nay heroes will soon discover.

Whispers in the Roots

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Parsh Forest – Created in Nightcafe.

The Parsh forest is a place that has fed and sustained the surrounding villagers for decades. However, lately only dark rumours and missing people have been coming out of the forest. As the party sat and listened to the rumours of the forest and what the villagers have seen at night the wilder the stories became.

“I saw it, I swears it. A creature with two heads as tall as a tree walked across the road in front of me. The horse screamed and before I could stop er’ she bolted past the creature and all the way here.” one merchant said between drawing on is pipe and filling the area with the pungent smoke. “I’ll tells you this for free. The forest is cursed. I’m planning on leaving, packing up shop and heading in the other direction.”

“My daughter went missing.” a woman broke her silence watching the man with disdain. “Gone. Her blue ribbon that she tied her hair up with was found snagged on a tree branch a few feet into the woods but that was the only sign the local hunters could find.” she said, emotion broiling just beneath the surface before she hurried herself away.

Seven children had been taken and one unlucky hunter hadn’t returned after searching the forest for his sister. The parents, grandparents or carers of the children had approached the party and described the children that had gone missing. No commonalities except they all lived in the forests near the woods. Boys, girls, young and older had all gone missing with the hunters having not found anything within the forest.

That was until the party asked the hunters who were getting more drunk as the night and conversations went on. “Go into the forest? You mad? You’ll die in there. That’s why I never,” one paused to hiccup, “I never went in. I just told them I did.” he blurted out. The other hunters near by gestured him to be quiet and shushed him but it was too late. All of them revealed that they were too scared to go deep into the forest for fear of their own lives.

There was one person that wasn’t present tonight, an old hermit who was rumoured to have elven blood in his veins. Older than many parents of those present he had kept a history of the forest and the villages but in his growing age his stories became more jumbled and the truth harder to separate from folk tales.

The whispers in the roots of Parsh forest call the party to action this week much like I call you back each night. Thanks for visiting tonight but don’t forget that this is just the beginning of the adventures ahead. Tomorrow I will be introducing the hermit and you wont want to forget what he has to tell the party. And finally, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Ember Games

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This week I continued with the creating a shortened Zine, something that fits on a single A4 sheet of paper with just enough information to set the scene, plot and hook with some NPCs sprinkled through that it could be used in any system.

I think its still working well so without any further waiting I present The Ember Games, in the short format, as a fun one-shot to assist GMs when they need a night out of the books whether you run Pathfinder, Open Legends RPG, D&D or any other RPG System.

There is references to the blog nights which are D&D centric (regarding Friday night’s Stat-blocks) but this adventure can be used system agnostic more so than my regular Zines. As always Kobold fight club can be used to quickly balance an encounter for Dungeons and Dragons and Tetra-cube provides the stat-blocks for many of my D&D creatures.

So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Ember Games, and that your rolls are made with advantage.

The Ember Games

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Ember Arena – Created in Nightcafe.

The party had made their way to Mylos for the ember games, a multi-day contest where the noble houses of Mylos pit their best warriors against each other at the hopes of receiving the prize at the end of the vault, an unlimited wish. 

At the Inn that they were staying at for the night, the Dusky Mule, the party entered in a game of chance with and by a stroke of luck they won prime seats to the Ember Games, near the front of the arena. The following day the chorus of celebration coming from the Arena reached their lodgings and they made their way to the arena for a full day of competition.  

PDF adventure – The Ember Games

The Ember GamesDownload

Thanks for joining me today for another Zine this year. This is a condensed version of the Zine, but I hope the format works and is good to look at! Please feel free to leave comments if this format is appealing – so make sure to grab a copy of the PDF.

Next time you get a party together consider running this adventure and I hope that you enjoy it.
I hope you don’t miss a thing so come back daily in the coming week and year. This is so you can experience the creation of the next adventure as it evolves and shapes out. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

2024 Campaign Adventure 15

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Good evening all and welcome to the fifteenth day of adventuring for my party. While I will endeavour to not give away the campaign, adventure or plot moving forward (in case my party read these updates!) I will attempt to write up each adventure this year continuing with my 2024 Campaign Adventure 15 – continuing on from the 2023 adventure.

This is a continuation from Campaign adventure 14 as the party continues on their first mission as members of the investigation of the strange creatures in these lands.

2024 Campaign Adventure 15

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Plot:

Prisoners

The cages surrounding the party had several dead bodies laying within of various more monstrous or considered to be uncivil humanoids. Several gnolls watched the party nervously in a separate cage, a few kobolds a lone Goblin and three orcs, a small family including a youngling huddled together. A single goblin was suspicious of Kai and his party and offered a blessing to Grummish to Kai, the one eye’d god being a common deity for the green skin races of this world.

After a quick conversation the party believed that the creatures within the cage were captured by Mayor Tom and some of his men. The Orc family recounted how they were simply passing by the village with their clan when they were attacked and captured by the Fustmach soldiers. Once captured they were taken into a cage within the mines and there they were knocked out, eventually waking up in the cages below. Every week more of their kind were taken to the surface and they never returned.

Convinced of their innocence Kai picked the locks to the cage and set the captives free. Tater and Groku escorted the captives to the surface through the lift system they descended through. Armaeth began to search the refuse pile while the captives raised to the surface and uncovered something familiar. The same sigil that they had received from Gwen when they joined the cause; Fredrickson’s sigil.

However, one of the Gnolls thought that they deserved more room on the escape platform and tried to shove off the other races, but quick thinking saw Tater save the Kobold and goblin. However the gnoll fell to his death, splattering like a pancake beneath the cage.

Kai fearing the worst summoned a cushion of vines through the entangle spell to try and provide a slower descent if another creature was to fall. But while Tater and Groku convinced the rattled and shaken villagers of Fustmach to let the monstrous humanoids, the prisoners of Mayor Tom, flee the city without attacking them and, due to the gnolls savagery, it was best if they hid indoors for a period of time.

The lost one

While Tater and Groku handled with the release of the captives another creature caught Kais attention. Hiding both him and Armaeth hid and watched as a large, juvenile of the large bat they fought less than forty eight hours ago crept towards the corpse of the gnoll. However the stunted limbs and white fur labelled this as an albino, likely rejected by its family – but due to failed rolls it was not evident.

Kai’s wild goblin instincts kicked in and he, once more, stripped off with his one arm and slathered himself in gnoll guts and gore. The bat however was hungry and started to attempt to eat Kai, its fangs unable to piece the bracers that had melded with the goblins flesh. Kai sprung and failed to grapple the infant bat and it fled to hide amongst the brambles he had created earlier.

But Tater and Groku were on their way down and the light from the torches, as Groku definitely needed light in a place this dark. The bat startled by the light and blindly fled into Kai’s range. Tater took this as a threat to the goblin who was unresponsive to his warning cries and shot a bolt from his crossbow. Kai threw himself in the path of the missile and in his grapple of the bat managed to protect it from the crossbow bolt. Armaeth then flew up and exchanged frustrated words with Tater and Groku who understood that Kai was just trying to tame another wild creature.

After feeding the bat and calming both it, and the now-less-feral goblin down they discussed what was best for the bat. Returning it to its parents was the best plan and so they set forth deeper into the cavern, through the maze of stalagmites and their mirrored stalactites. Finding another creature, a larger juvenile bat they followed it into a passageway, a bore mark from something much larger much longer ago and they went deeper into the cave.

That was until Tater revealed that they hadn’t killed the mother bat, that it was assumed it died of its wounds and they had not seen it actually become deceased. Soon the path of the cave expanded and they could sense large tremors as the young bat they were following climbed the wall into a larger space beyond the passage. As Kai released the albino runt they watched with horror as the parent, a massive injured bat, rejected its young in front of them. As Kai darted forward a second presence, another adult bat was located as it watched the runt struggle to move on the ground.

As Kai reached the runt the large bat, much larger than the other one they had fought, watched him scoop up the young and waited for him to attack it, its partner or the other young. As the Goblin carried the rejected offspring the large bat retreated. But now the party had another, much more voracious mouth to feed and a long, long process of trying to domesticate a wild, feral creature. Perhaps the half-feral goblin was the best fit for the job.

Unexpected message

Entering into the village once more they retraced their steps back to The Fat Sow where John, the halfling establishment owner told Kai firmly that the bat was not to stay in in the inn and that he was to try the stables. After a brief and fruitless deception the party took the bat to the stables and ran into Dinkleberg, Greta and Hans who thanked them for saving Hans, and them, from the monsters and from Tom, who was the most monstrous of all.

After a brief discussion including a lecture about monstrous humanoids being just a person as any human or dwarf they left Batrick, the albino bat, with them to be healed and fed with some milk. In the mean time the bat would roost in the wagon until they could work out what to do with it. They then returned to The Fat Sow, ate, drank and rested before there was going to be a town meeting the next morning.

With sun rise they explored the town a bit more, Kai sending a raven to Gwen in Warrensdeep to provide an update on the mission progress. Once they returned to the inn they partook in the meeting and suggested that there may be others who are as guilty as Tom and that it couldn’t be him alone. After another lecture they went their separate ways, Kai on his inquisition to find the co-conspirators of mayor Tom while Tater went and used the Local Smiths forge to re-forge his fathers axe, which he broke, into a halberd. In exchange Tater was to work the forge and help with the other blacksmithing requests of Fustmach.

In Kais exploration he checked on Batrick and satisfied that it was doing as well as could be expected he continued his exploration. Deciding with Tater, Armaeth and Groku that they would keep vigil over Mayor Toms house that night to try and trap any other collaborators in the cannibalistic processes. However before he could prepare for this further Kai discovered a raven waiting for him at the wagon.

The raven had a message tied to its leg and as Kai took it and read he uncovered something shocking.

You found my message. I am safe but do not trust the order. There is a corruption within that needs to be cut out. Be in touch in the future, watch for the ravens.

Fredrickson appeared to not be dead but was in hiding.

Main NPCs:

Sidekicks

Armaeth
Groku

Thanks for joining me tonight for a hybrid of the continuation of my campaign as well as the seasonal adventure for my group, the final part of last-last years Dice-ember one-shot!. Don’t forget to come back again tomorrow for more content. And, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Manticores Galore

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This week we have manticores galore with Samsone being a juvenile manticore and the larger creature, you guessed it, being a adult one. But something much more than just a normal adult one as you’ll see shortly.

So let’s sit down, grab a coffee as we roll into tonight’s encounter!

Manticores Galore

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The juvenile manticore known as Samsone isn’t much of a fighter. Big enough to not be identified as anything other than a young manticore but not big enough for people to want to ride it. When threatened it will use its speedy flying speed to try and get away and failing that a quick volley of its tail spikes will see its pursuers retreating.

Juvenile Manticore – created in Tetra-cube

Then we have the big monster for the week, the Alpha Manticore. Not just a large manticore, oh no this is the biggest, strongest and oldest of their kind. So much that its scarred hide has become more resilient than it has any right being. Able to intimidate most creatures with a fearful roar and a wide range of attacks and legendary actions that will keep any hunters guessing.

Its well honed senses, particularly hearing and smell, enable it to hunt its preferred prey, sheep, to its hearts content.

Alpha Manticore – created in Tetra-cube

Thanks for joining me tonight as we looked at two variants of the normal manticore. I can’t wait to send the alpha manticore at my party and watch them take a few steps back in a panic when it starts to fight more ferociously than what they were perhaps expecting. Don’t forget to come back this weekend as we continue this adventure and some other content and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Farmer’s Barn

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Back to the maps this week and we have a rather quick one whipped up with the Farmer’s Barn. This week we have a, rather large something flying around above the barn that the party are currently in so, its likely that this will be where the encounter is!

So sit back, grab a coffee, and let’s explore tonight’s Map!

Farmer’s Barn

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Farmer’s Barn – Created in Inkarnate.

Two ways in and out of the barn, one overtly being the front door and the other leads to where the windmill is. There is plenty of dry hay within the building perfect for being lit on fire which could cause problems depending on what the creature is that is outside the building. Outside the barn several tree’s that could provide a small amount of cover but be warned. The creature that hunts them is an expert predator.

Three dead sheep lie in the grass outside of the barn at the edge of some of the trees, the ground under them torn up from talon, tail or claw. What ever the cause of this those sheep could be a distraction or, lure something nasty towards them.

Not super complex this week with only three or four layers to the ground texture, one more to highlight the scratches in the ground. Simply highlighting with some transparency constructed the barn and the fence was exceedingly simple.

Thanks for joining me for another map making night. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow to finish off the week strong and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Samsone’s Escape

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Not all creatures that are pets are cute and cuddly and Samsone is definitely one of those as we explore the mystery of Samsone’s Escape. It is not odd or rare for nobles to have exotic pets but I am sure that this youngster is something that hasn’t been seen near the courts before. However despite what he may look like he is, apparently, quite sweet and surely couldn’t be the source of the missing sheep or people.

So let’s grab a coffee, put on some rather thick gloves and let’s go wrangle this kitty!

Samsone’s Escape

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The party had head towards the city after they had gathered as much information from the Blackmane’s estate as possible. They had not been travelling for more than an hour before they ran into a farmer herding his sheep away from the city.

“Hail travellers, spare me a moment if you would.” he called out as they approached. As they got near they noticed that several sheep had large injuries that resembled larger slashes and cuts than what they had seen at the Blackmane estate when investigating Samsone’s pen. “There is a beast out there that has a taste for sheep. They called me crazy when I claimed that my animals had started being taken by a monster but I’ve seen it. Large scaled wings, a long tail with a barb. I’ve heard the stories. It’s a wyvern for sure.” he said with conviction.

“They think me mad. No wyverns in these lands for years, centuries they had claimed. But look at my beauties. All of them had injuries to prove they been beset upon by a foul creature.” he continued. “So I’ve left. I’m taking my sheep left the old farm and I’m leaving. The guard wont save me, the kings men don’t believe me so it’s the only thing that’s left. The old mill will have to turn itself now.” he said as the sheep started to get away from him, slowly. “Farewell! and watch the skies!”

Samsone – created in Nightcafe.

Sure enough the party came across a Mill with a farm attached. As they walked past one of the doors to the barn moved despite there being no wind. Approaching the barn they heard the sound of foot steps on hay and something hard like horns, or claws, scratching at the wood of the door. As they drew near the scratching stopped and rushed movements could be heard as something scurried behind the door.

Entering it was pretty hard to miss the creature that was currently attempting to push itself between haybales to hide. A baby manticore with what appeared to be a sky blue collar was trying its best to hide from the party. A large bronze emblem of a “S” hung from the collar as it jumped from bale to bale to try and create distance between itself and the party.

Samsone was a baby Manticore. Despite being only a youngster it was the size of a large dog with powerful muscles, a scorpion like tail and large bat-like wings. Small horns sprouted from its forehead and a thick mane of hair was already proudly on display. However as they pondered what to do about the creature it looked suddenly alarmed, looked towards the roof and dove deeper into the barn.

Thats when the party heard wingbeats of something large passing above the barn. Large powerful wings carried an unknown creature nearby as it circled the farm and barn. A reverberating growl pressed down upon them and dust rained down upon the barn as the creature neared and expressed its displeasure, or hunger. Perhaps the farmer was right, perhaps it was a wyvern that had taken his sheep and that left the question. Why did Anzia Blackmane have a baby manticore as a pet. And of course, what was the creature above them.

Thanks for joining me for another twist night. Tonight we revealed Samsone but not quite the true villain of this weeks adventure. So if you want to follow along more don’t forget to come back each night and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Anzia Blackmane

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The true client this week isn’t Fergo Blackmane but his Daughter, Anzia Blackmane. An eccentric young woman who doesn’t quite dodge around questions but definitely makes getting useful information harder.

Let’s settle down, pull up a stool and let’s go to tea with the nobles daughter!

Anzia Blackmane

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Anzia Blackmane- Created in Nightcafe.

Requesting an audience with the royal family may have been easier than a simple meeting with the Blackmanes. Several guards stopped and asked questions about the need for their visit to the Blackmane manor and some even sent them in wrong directions until a maid appeared and invited them to tea with Anzia.

The caution wasn’t warranted of course but the trip to the sitting room was eye-opening. Weapons from dozens of cultures and people lined the hallway along with fine armours that varied from riding leathers to exquisite plate mail. Portraits line the walls of heroic figures hunting monstrous creatures and several trophys from such endeavours were mounted on walls or pedestals.

They stopped in front of a large set of double doors where the maid bowed and announced the party. Inside a young woman sat sipping on tea with a bunch of cups, saucers and pots displayed in front of her. “Do come in. I hope that you are making good progress in finding my Samsone, he is such a tricky fellow.” she said in a tone that didn’t match her looks. As she looked between the party members she sighed. “I did tell father that we had to get the best to retrieve Samsone. I believe that he is stolen but father insists that he simply got out. A good boy like that would never leave voluntarily not after all the care I have provided for him.” she paused to sip from her tea.

“No he must have been stolen. Please find my Samsone and return him to me. He is a rather large cat and has redish brown fur. You will recognise him the moment you see him I am sure of it.” she added after a brief hesitation. “Oh and do be careful, the servants have informed me that there is rumours of a large fearsome creature prowling the city. Be careful not let it hurt Samsone or we wont be able to uphold our end of the reward.”

Thanks for joining me tonight to meet Anzia Blackmane, descendent of a famous and decorated hero of the kingdom. A bit eccentric but obviously cares about her pet, Samsone. Don’t forget that we will expand the adventure each day this week, so make sure to come back daily and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Anzia’s Pen

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This week we investigate the the breakout at Anzia’s Pen, a noble’s daughter who’s pet broke out of the pen it was housed in. Except this pen was well made, sturdy and the wreckage left behind hints that something about this is off.

So let’s sit down, grab a coffee and let’s search for clues in tonight’s adventure!

Owning a pet is hard for children regardless if they are look after it themselves or have someone looking after the creatures on their behalf. But when this pet goes missing and rumours of a monster are flooding into the city the party is called in to be discrete in returning a nobles pet before someone makes a mistake.

In a race against time the party search for the missing pet of Anazia, the nobleman’s daughter, which smashed through a door to escape its pen. Can they find it before it gets itself into trouble. Meanwhile stock, pets and even a beggar are rumoured to have been taken by a monster that is roaming the streets. Could the two be connected? What type of pet can smash through a door like that and what roams the streets?

Anzia’s Pen

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Anzia’s Pen – Created in Nightcafe.

The left the nobleman’s house after taking a job to investigate a missing pet. It’s not that they were short on gold or starting out new but there was something about this that seemed too good to be true. And sure enough the nobleman was indeed offering one hundred gold pieces to find his daughters missing pet with the guarantee that no one else saw the pet, that it was done discretely and fast.

A servant walked in front of them showing them to where the pet was kept. They were on the outskirts of a small city, not walled and as protected as a major city but it had a few ramparts and towers watching out around the neighbouring lands. They were in a kingdom controlled province where the king and queens soldiers patrolled the lands and kept it safe so there wasn’t a standing army here.

A few guards waved at them as they past gate to the stables and were moved towards the side of a stone building, crafted from big slabs of granite and bound with a clay mortar that looked sturdy enough to weather what ever came this way. However when they saw where they were heading they slowed down in their pace. A large amount or rubble lay on the ground. Shards of cracked wood lay on the ground amongst some clay covered stone which had fallen from the building.

A large double door had its lock burst outwards with evidence of either axes or swords having smashed through the door. However as they moved closer, the servant stopping a dozen feet away from the door, they notices that the blade marks had come from the inside. What ever had broken this door had chopped and hacked at it from the inside outwards.

Inside a large mount of straw lay scattered around with a water trough, saddle for the horses and small sticks scattered about the room. What ever had been in here was long gone but it appeared to be a large cat of judging by the hair, the musty smell and claw marks on the wooden beams, the stone and the inside of the door. Either someone had tried to break their way out of the pen or the creature had itself.

What made matters worse was that they had missed out on a job to investigate rumours of a monster before accepting this one. A large creature had reportedly been seen attacking a beggar in the city. No one had found the body but there was enough blood to suggest a serial killer or something like a dragon, were wolf or something monstrous.

Several flocks had been attacked, mainly sheep had been taken but a guard dog had been mauled and left to die near where its flock had been taken. A reward had been put out and of course the local guild had monopolised the reward as quickly as possible. The nobleman who’s daughter, Aniza, had discovered her pet gone seemed to be concerned that their pet could be mistaken for the monster and killed. This had of course raised concerns and questions but the man had assured that the pet was innocent.

Regardless of the truth something was going on here and the pay was starting to look trivial compared to the amount of work required in the job.

Thanks for joining me again for another week of adventure with Aniza’s Pen. Well into the last third of adventures for this year and I wanted to go back to a ‘feels like my first adventure’ feel. But wait and see what twist we have this week. So to stay up to date and to find out more don’t forget to come back each night this week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Thren of Sarkret Forest

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This week I continued with the creating a shortened Zine, something that fits on a single A4 sheet of paper with just enough information to set the scene, plot and hook with some NPCs sprinkled through that it could be used in any system.

I think its still working well so without any further waiting I present The Thren of Sarkret Forest, in the short format, as a fun one-shot to assist GMs when they need a night out of the books whether you run Pathfinder, Open Legends RPG, D&D or any other RPG System.

There is references to the blog nights which are D&D centric (regarding Friday night’s Stat-blocks) but this adventure can be used system agnostic more so than my regular Zines. As always Kobold fight club can be used to quickly balance an encounter for Dungeons and Dragons and Tetra-cube provides the stat-blocks for many of my D&D creatures.

So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The Thren of Sarkret Forest, and that your rolls are made with advantage.

The Thren of Sarkret Forest

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Sarkret Forest Entrance – Created in Nightcafe.

The party arrives in the beautiful yet eerily quiet elven city of Wellspring, known for its vibrant arts and bustling streets. However, they find the streets deserted and the elves fearful. They reach the Moonbow Herbalist & Alchemical Supplies shop, where a young elf named Tyreal greets them nervously. He explains that the head alchemist is unavailable and reveals that the city is plagued. Tyreal is attempting to create a cure but is missing a crucial ingredient, Thren Root. He asks the party for help in retrieving it, promising a reward from the king and queen.

PDF adventure – The Thren of Sarkret Forest

The Thren of Sarkret ForestDownload

Thanks for joining me today for another Zine this year. This is a condensed version of the Zine, but I hope the format works and is good to look at! Please feel free to leave comments if this format is appealing – so make sure to grab a copy of the PDF.

Next time you get a party together consider running this adventure and I hope that you enjoy it.
I hope you don’t miss a thing so come back daily in the coming week and year. This is so you can experience the creation of the next adventure as it evolves and shapes out. And as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

30 Minute Challenge, Forgotten Guard

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So another Saturday has come and instead of following the trend of a Openlegend RPG character from the previous weeks I wanted a change. Tonight I wanted to go back an do a 30 minute challenge focusing on something randomly generated and expanding it to a one shot adventure within 30 minutes. Todays 30 minute challenge, Forgotten Guard is to looking at what a forgotten guard could entail using, mainly, my experience as a avid TTRPGer and DM.

The normal self-imposed restrictions are in place.

Rules of the challenge for me

  • Single word or theme
  • 30 minute timer
  • Must be a playable adventure
  • Must have at least one driver (Antagonist/protagonist)
  • Must be D&D centric and attempt to be of the fantasy variety.

Time started: 21:04 AEST

Overview: The party stumbles upon an ancient, overgrown temple deep within a mystical forest. Legends speak of a powerful artefact hidden within, guarded by the spirits of an ancient order of warriors known as the Forgotten Guard.

30 Minute Challenge, Forgotten Guard

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The party have heard rumours, tall tales of a temple within a dense, enchanted forest that holds unclaimed riches and an artefact of such power that a legion of knights thought it dangerous enough to seclude themselves away from the world to guard. The tales, mainly from drunken bards, go so far as to claim that the knights are still haunting the temple, forever cursed to guard the treasure that they swore their lives to defend.

It is all thought to be tall tales until the party are approached by one such bard, an older elf, while in the Half-moon tavern. Supposedly he had heard from a group of adventurers that they were chased out of the nearby forest by a host of spectral knights after the had discovered a vine and moss covered temple. Ancient and crumbling but still defended so keenly by these spectral soldiers.

The bard offers them a small sum of gold if they could accompany him to the temple in order to locate it. He wants to be the first to record the temple and tell the tale of the heroic adventurers who discovered what lay behind the phalanx of ghastly guardians. It’s riches would be split twenty – eighty with the bard claiming what they found most valuable but only after the party had the first sweep of what treasures lay within.

The trip to the temple was non-eventful and it was mid-afternoon by time they reached the forest where the bard had heard that the adventurers had ran from. He consulted a hand-drawn map (on the back of a napkin from the tavern) and moved them further along the road before pointing confidently deeper into the forest.

A few hours later and nearing dusk they came across the first evidence that they were nearing a building. Rocky pillars stretched through the trees, vines and other vegetation like ribs of a colossal creature. A discarded new shield with a large cut from a broad blade was discarded near the track they had travelled towards the temple a long with a pouch of what appeared to be spell components.

As they approached the rumours appeared to be true with several armoured spectres drifting from the building to create a barricade to the door. Behind them, resting against the door lay the skeletons of knights a rusty long sword, remains of a rotten shield and tarnished and pox-marked plate lay.

The confrontation was intense and vicious with the bard calling out to them with unhelpful suggestions. However the music that the bard played as she fumbled the lyrics to a song he was crafting on the fly gave pause to the knights who began to hesitate in their reckless attacks against the party. The last of the guards fell and the old temple doors lay closed and rotting.

As they pushed through the doors the skeletons from the fallen knights crumbled inwards causing the metal weapon, armour and bossing on the shield to clang loudly.

“Who disturbs the forgotten, who comes to claim which should not be” A voice rose from the ground at the end of the antechamber.

A voice from the back, the elven bard, strode forward “Sir Tamell…” he said with a shaky voice.

“It can not be. Ymrick?” An imposing figure manifested from the ground and stood in between the pews. “My friend, you have grown old.” the knight called back.

“It is not I who has grown old. Tamell, you must rest. You’re a shade of what you used to be and I can not bear to see you like this.” Ymrick, the elven bard, replied.

“I see you are not alone. Your companions have proven strong by besting my brothers. If their intentions are to take the artefact and use its power then I can not let them live, unless.” he said as he brought forth a spectral great sword. “Best me in fair combat and I will relinquish the artefact to you and consider my oath fulfilled.”

Objective

The party should aim to beat the knight or find another way to grab the wand on the alter behind the large spectral knight. If they beat him fairly in combat (all vs one is fine) then he will dissipate along with several other ghostly knights who came to watch.

If the party engage in non-honourable tactics then the knights on the sides of the room will open fire with spectral bolts from crossbows as they broke the code of honour.

Time finished: 21:32 AEST


Thanks for dropping by tonight for a quick adventure writeup. Let me know if you’d like to see more of these style quick-writeups in the future. Don’t forget that tomorrow is ZINE night so make sure you come back for that and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe