Tabletop

Flying True colours

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This week we find out that two of those with the adventurers are finally flying their true colours, and one is merely doing as they are told. Maybe. If the party don’t willingly engage the creature beyond the Deep Dark then we have two methods to bring the story to a conclusion. So sit back, read on and lets investigate what happens!

Flying True colours

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The first “IF” is easy. The party decide to confront the creature beyond the veil and both Viktira and Lucile have theories on how to get beyond the portal, the deep dark. If they do then there is no confrontation but there are some concerns shed by Morali and the Melarn sisters who try and talk them out of it.

The second option(s) are less evident.

The party wake up after a very restful rest feeling revitalised to realise that Alex is sitting there sharpening his short sword and waiting for them to wake up. Viktira, Morali, Qistra and Umnel are bound and gagged nearby but Lucile is nowhere to be seen. Alex explains that this was the only way that Lucile had worked out a way to stop the creature from coming through the portal.

But Viktira protests and either when she is ungagged, or she wriggles free she explains that she had heard a voice guiding her here since the swamp. Telling her to do things that led to the collapse of the well of souls as well as to her capture and ‘safe delivery’ to this place. She had realised too late what it was and through force of will, during the parties battle with the fiend something triggered and she realised what it was. The fiend wanted her to come through the portal, to be a host for the creature and to set it free.

She felt the same presence from Lucile as she bound her and walked towards the deep dark. She believes Lucile is being used by the creature and that she will free it willingly or otherwise.

The alternative is that the party interrupt the above and Lucile is used as a channel for the creature beyond the veil. The deep dark’s seal will break in less than a lunar cycle at which point the creature will be free. The creature is actually bluffing here (a successful insight vs deception contest will reveal this). It is currently weakening the bonds and will be out within a few minutes now that it has a vessel nearby that is under its full influence.

Lucile carries several magical items on her and a few of them are for her protection, spells stored in items that will provide her a sanctuary. If the ruse is seen through the creature will use the items to create a transparent force field and a powerful sanctuary effect. People would need to pass a wisdom saving throw to break the compulsion to not attack the forcefield or Lucile and then they would need to get through it (Leomunds tiny hut).

She will then start channelling a ritual and the creature will start to manifest within the centre of the ritual – but only partially – this is where the party need to defeat a weakened creature as it is split between planes.

Alex Portand – Created in Tetra-cube.

This is where we leave this week – the verge of the finale of this years content (except for the “Dice-ember” Christmas adventure.) Don’t forget to come back this weekend for more content, zine or two caught up on and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Camp in the Pit

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A nice simply one since its been a few adventure-sessions without a long rest as the party set up camp in the pit. If you want to interrupt the beauty sleep, or, depending on how the party decides to move the adventure forward we can use this as a basis. So let’s sit down with a coffee and explore tonight’s quick map!

Camp in the Pit

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The map is quite simple. A raised ledge within the pit itself which is big enough that the party can rest. It’s also close enough to the ritual circle that they can keep an eye on the Deep Dark in case something comes out, or goes in.

Campsite in the Pit – Created in Inkarnate

Not much of a description for this weeks map – and this weeks adventure will likely roll into the previous conclusion as we prepare for the final confrontation in two weeks time. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for some stat-blocks (on the off-chance we need to give a bigger nudge to the party) and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Culmination of Acquaintances

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The Culmination of Acquaintances is what is in store for us this week as we move forward with the last few weeks of this adventure. Tonight we have a visit from an old acquaintance who may be just the person to convince the party of their next step, or maybe not. So let’s sit back, grab a coffee and roll into tonight’s adventure!

The Culmination of Acquaintances

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The party looked into the small fire they had made and the many, many pyres that they had to burn some of the corpses that had remained after the fight. The survivors of the cocoons had nearly all left now as some had stayed behind to help move some of the bodies out of the calcified web and towards one of the cities.

Talking to Qistra and Morali the city of Duraegis was directly above them and a few tunnels lead up and out of this room. They had been told from some of the survivors that they had been taken directly from the city and down into the Deep Dark. But as the party listened to the sisters and the young Lolth priestess they couldn’t help but notice another set of figures moving through the droves of people leaving. A bright torch moving into the pit itself, crossing the web-bridges and making their way to themselves.

The Drow with them, and Viktira noticed and started to watch with interest as two cloaked humans appeared next to them. “When we first met I couldn’t imagine what you have been through,” a familiar voice said as Lucille Bendercuff and Alex Portand pulled back their hoods. “We visited the Ice Spire, well what little remains of it. There wasn’t much apart from the remains of a dead giant in a ruined building. But my scout let us know that you had been seen moving towards Ferklend and the well of souls.” she paused as she sat down and pulled out a map.

“We found a man named Rike who told us all about you. He said that you had saved the town from the undead and then headed off into the swamp to stop a catastrophe. And we found a bunch of rotting corpses and ruins.” Lucile paused as she revealed the parchment she held. “We deciphered the runes and each of these places form some kind of seal. Two of them have failed completely but this one,” she nodded towards the Dark pit at the centre of the ritual circles, “looks to be fine. The issue we have now is that it’s now just a matter of when, not if the creature can come through this ‘Deep Dark‘ as it acts like a portal. I theorise it may be able to be sealed from the inside permanently based on some other books and scrolls I read from Andrasa.”

The party looked between the scribbles in common, the still slightly thrumming portal to another dimension where some fiendish master was contained and the notes around the ritual’s failure and how to prevent it. Other notes theorised what the creature could be but most of them settled on a greater fiend or some nature. Something that was powerful enough to warrant the greatest sorcerer of these lands and a group of heroes from a bygone age’s combined strength to best.

More questions came up unbidden but conclusive answers were few. The matter of the Portal, the ritual and how to deal with the creature remained a decision for the party.

And that brings tonight’s update to a wrap. Thanks as always for visiting but don’t forget that tonight is just the beginning. There is two more nights, tomorrow may hold something different for a change, and Friday – where we may not have an encounter as such but there will be some moments that the party will need to intervene. So I will see you again this week and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

A Brazen Dice Magazine

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So the past few weeks I have spent some time learning 3d modelling, primarily in tinkercad, with the aim to create some useful tools and widgets for both my TTRPGS and my wargaming. A while back I used some spare foam-core board and created a way to store 20 dice in rows so I could easily access the right number of dice quickly without spending ages counting dice.

I, well I call it this regardless, “dicelexia” – I struggle to count dice as they lay on a table. So I try and limit myself to only having 20 dice available at my hands at any one time. When I am not rolling dice actively I would put my dice back in the holder, a “DiceMag” which stored 4 columns of 5 dice for 20 dice in total.

To ensure that it transported well I also sculpted from epoxy-putty a ‘lid’ that encased the entire DiceMag and was secured, quite well, with magnets. However I found out the hard way what happens if you dropped it. Picking up 20 dice in a gaming hall was not ideal.

So a year and a bit later, I think, I got myself a 3d printer and created the second version. Tonight see’s the first prototype (another improved version is ready to print) that improves on getting the DiceMag out of the lid and the strength of the magnets to bind it all together more securely – because, well… Magnets are great.

Version 1

Current Version

The circle, painted to represent my logo’s Brazen Moon is hand painted and something that I might experiment with. It’s designed to be a flat surface to paint on, apply decals or something else to give a creative freedom to who ever has such a DiceMag.

I am sure that I will have other versions of this – but for me this is something fun, useful and perhaps something valuable to the broader community.

Thanks for your interest in my side project!
The Brazen Wolfe

The Creature Once Imprisoned

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Today we once again look beyond the veil to see what is occurring beyond the scene of the players and with the creature once imprisoned. Despite what they have been through the past few days (weeks worth of adventure) the evil rest for no man, or woman and so we see them carrying onwards. So let’s get back to the adventure!

The Creature Once Imprisoned

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Larituron had been defeated and the flow of energy had ceased. What’s worse is that the fiend had borrowed some energy from the creature to corrupt and use the ritual the witch Andrasa had used to bind it in the pocket dimension. Upon the fiends death that energy was lost forever and as the ritual to siphon souls to it was ceased, permanently now, the creature was nowhere near strong enough to emerge itself, yet. 

However the adventurers who had defeated Larituron still stayed close to the Deep Dark. They had proven themselves capable enough and their essence, if consumed, would be enough to break out of the pocket it was contained within. But, the creature hesitated on that thought, that would mean confronting these adventurers and that was something it didn’t like the odds of. Well, perhaps a fair fight would be one sided in their favour but it was rare when there was a fair fight.

The creature had one or two more agents at play and eventually it would find a way out, but it needed these adventurers dead. Calling in a deal the creature expended some of its precious energy to reach out to the mind of one that had been foolish enough to barter with it. Soon the mortal would find out what it truly means to sign a deal with a devil.

As the party watched the slow exodus of the cavern they noticed a few stayed back and watched the party nervously. The Melarn sisters, Morali and Viktira had survived through it all and were walking over to the party.

Their faces were rife with nerves but that was probably due to the battle with the giant fiend, the capture and then life-draining that they had just witnessed and gone through. “So, you never mentioned that you were this powerful before. Do you mind if we stick near you for a bit? I figure it’s probably safer by your side for the time being.” Morali asked, with the Melarn sisters nodding in agreement, somewhat reluctantly.

Thanks for stopping by tonight. Now the guessing games can begin as we have a bit of a social encounter for this week and maybe a brief pause in combat. I feel like the last few weeks haven’t had any downtime which may cause issues for the party. Regardless, don’t forget to come back each day this week to follow along and try and see if we can identify a pawn and, as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The Crossroads at Serendipity and Destiny

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Following immediately on from last weeks climatic adventure the party find themselves this week at the crossroads at serendipity and destiny. This hopefully will be an easy decision for the party but we will have to wait and see what happens. Let’s not wait any longer to see what this week has in store for us. So sit back grab a coffee and let’s roll into this weeks adventure!

The Crossroads at Serendipity and Destiny

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The creature known as Larituron lay dead on the altar and the energy that was pulsing towards the Deep Dark, a binding ritual and portal to a pocket dimension, had vanished. The death of the fiend had caused the channelling of energy to beyond the portal was cut short of its endless cycle.

But the choice of what to do lay with the party now as the fiendish creature had revealed that her master was beyond the portal and it was nearly at full strength. The cavern had gone silent once the death of Larituron with the spiders, remaining ettercaps and driders fled into the tunnels after the fiends’ compulsion ended. The remaining captives in the cocoons were slowly dealt with and soon the party were left alone with the body of the fiend and a decision to be made.

The party managed to rest for the first time in what felt like days, eating from the supplies they had found and brought with them when leaving Kalehgrul. The threat of something more powerful than the fiend that had to be bound by a powerful mage and heroes from a distant age was not something they had planned for.

The alternative, the promise loomed that the fiends master it was nearly strong enough to break through its bindings. If the tidings from the Ice Spire and Well of Souls beginning to fail, or having failed was anything to go by then it was only a matter of time before the creature broke through.

The question remained, was the better idea to confront it beyond the Deep Dark or wait for it to appear in the material plane?

Thanks for dropping by tonight to continue following along. Tonight marks 683 nights posting in a row, consistently and it also marks the near-end of this years content. So thanks for continuing to follow me on this journey and for not forgetting to join me again the next day. The rest of the week will set the decisions in motion and we will have to see what we lies ahead for the party. And, finally as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The House of Spider Silk

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Tonight and I have created a zine for a long over due adventure, The House of Spider Silk. This adventure can be used system agnostic as we explore other RPGs out there other than D&D. So please adjust to what ever creatures you are using in your adventure! However as always Kobold fight club can be used to quickly balance an encounter for Dungeons and Dragons and Tetra-cube currently provides the stat-blocks for creatures in this adventure.

So I hope you enjoy this weeks adventure, The House of Spider Silk. There is a lot more content within the Zine, again, this week so if you want to get the full experience then download the pdf!

If you like this format please let me know and I hope you enjoy.

The House of Spider Silk

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Mushroom Cavern – created in nightcafe.

Disorientated and tired from the fight with the vampire in the Carrion Swamp at the well of souls the party find themselves whisked away as the magical backlash of the Well of Souls collapse attempts to link itself with one of the other places of power that form the tri-seal. 

However as the well of souls was failing the magic wasn’t quite accurate and the teleportation led them in the right direction, but not far enough.

PDF adventure – The House of Spider Silk

the-house-of-spider-silk-1Download

Thanks for joining me tonight for another Zine. This one had more content added to the Zine but like a few of my other ones I kept that in the Zine, not the blog. So you will just have to trust me on that and grab a copy of the Zine to check it out.

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. 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

Alternative traditional Magic Weapons

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Welcome to another Musings Saturday where tonight I want to look at two Alternative traditional Magic Weapons that use a underappreciated resource – the hit dice. A quick search revealed that this has been done before and at least several people have come to the “same” conclusions but I have a specific thing I am wanting to explore.

Alternative traditional Magic Weapons

The gap identified

The gap I have that really started me thinking about other alternative traditional magic weapons is the old roleplay story. Your player may have been gifted the bow from their teacher and asked to look after it just before they went to fight a dragon – of which they never returned. Since then the character has always used this bow and felt a strong connection to their mentor when they use it.

This roleplay aspect that drives elements of the story forward, and a times drives many decisions the PC would make is what has me focused tonight. This concept is similar to ancestral weapons where a weapon grows while you wield it and unlock its secret but the emphasis is on player grown and it fuelling the weapon.

For this purpose I have a ‘Parasitic’ and ‘Symbiotic’ alternative to an ancestral blade.

Parasitic

The parasitic alternative traditional magic weapons is as the name suggests. Probably found in weapons that consume ammo or ‘charges’ these items consume a hit dice from who its attuned to to return or generate either a random or a pre-determined number of charges for an item. This means that at level one the item may be quite weak and able to be used once per long rest (depending on the charge mechanic) but at higher levels it could be truly spectacular.

Take the Emberborn wand for example – created by a wizard that spend most of their time studying in volcanic lands.

The wand has three spell effects, Burning hands (1st level) , Scorching Ray (2nd level) and Stinking Cloud (3rd level). To cast Burning hands at 1st level its a single Charge, and then its 2 additional for 2nd level and a further 3 for 3rd level (and so forth.) the cost to increase the level of spell slot available it accumulative.

  • 1st level spell slot – 1 charge
  • 2nd level spell slot – 3 charges
  • 3rd level spell slot – 6 charges
  • 4th level spell slot – 10 charges
  • etc.

As an action you can spend 1 hit dice to generate d6 charges. (or 3 charges flat) which expire after a long rest. This means that a magical item like this will scale with player level and may find more use as the party progress onwards. The alternative is that it always starts with 7 charges but to ‘feed’ into it to keep it stated and charged it takes 1 hit dice from your pool and rolls that to regain spent charges.

Symbiotic

Now the symbiotic alternative to traditional magic weapons is a bit different but the same principle. Instead of fuelling charges you push the hit-dice into the weapon (or item) to ‘level it up’ for the day. The item then is powered at the level it absorbed hit dice from its attuned wielder which may get better every ‘rank up’ or, they will get better every odd number (which aligns with class features, normally…)

These effects would stack to ensure that there is a sense of worthwhile investment in the blade but they reset on dawn (end of long rest-esque period).

As an example the same wizard created the Emberborn Blade (a short sword).

  • Level 1 (Power: 1) – +1 to attack rolls
  • Level 2 (Power: 3) – Attacks deal an extra 1d6 fire damage, the blade also sheds light in the same manner as a torch
  • Level 3 (Power: 5) – +1 to attack
  • Level 4 (Power: 7) – Upon landing a successful hit the wielder can cause an eruption of ash and cinders in a 15ft cone starting at the point of impact. Creatures in this must make a DC 15 constitution saving throw or take an additional 2d6 fire damage and are blinded until the end of their next turn.

This blade was designed to be balanced, mostly, from 1 Hit dice = 1 charge and gives a strong advantage to the wielder if they are willing to live life a bit riskier by not having any hit-dice to heal during a short rest… Or fuel other magic items that is.

That’s it for me tonight. I will look at what this system could look like as it has promise and if I can work our how to balance it I may create a few items to share. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for more D&D content and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Larituron – Lord of the Pit

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Larituron – lord of the pit has finally been revealed and she may be a bit too strong… But we must soldier on and count on our parties, also being quite strong by this point, and their abilities and ideas to get them through this adventure. So don’t take my word for it and check out the stat blocks below!

Larituron – Lord of the Pit

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The fiend known as Larituron is the mistress of the deep dark. She serves the creature that the mage Andrasa bound using three points and has grown to some considerable strength since escaping the purge of the mage and the heroes that aided her in the final conflict that bound her master. Working diligently to build up her own strength and to siphon energy to her master she has claimed the deep dark, and some of its denizens, her own.

She fights in hit-and-run tactics (comical for a creature as big as this) and looks like a huge, fiendish drider. Thick chitinous plates cover her body and she uses her sharp legs to impale prey if they get too close.

She has called the cavern where she lives in home for centuries and knows how to read its latent magical properties as well as use what she has constructed here to her advantage.

Larituron – Created in Tetra-cube.

Phantasm Spiders

Now while the last ones were illusionary these ones are more physical manifestation of Larituron’s on magic. As each spider dies they disappear however, they can’t be ignored like the previous ones.

Phantasm Spider – Created in Tetra-cube.

Thanks for dropping by tonight and checking out our big-baddie, well the second in command. This weekend will hopefully see a continuation of catch up on some of the lost adventures and maybe some work on the final one, but that maybe done behind the scenes. Don’t forget to come back and check out the blog daily and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Source of the Webs

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Tonight we look at the source of the webs, the epicentre of where the webs are based and oh boy do we have a big one tonight. As the second last major encounter of the year, before December that is I wanted to make a massive encounter, something I hadn’t done in a while. So let’s sit down with a coffee and explore into tonight’s map!

Source of the Webs

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The map itself is 300 by 15- feet with the plan to have most of the map utilised. But more on that tomorrow. The edge of the formations have many hand and foot holds so falling over has a last ditch attempt to stop from themselves from falling. But it’s a very long way to fall if they don’t make those crucial rolls.

The web bridges aren’t the only way across the platforms with the distance being, in some cases, jumpable and others having a lower calcified web ledge that will enable the party to climb down and across.

Centre of the Pit – Created in Inkarnate

This map is meant to be fully explorable with the encounter going across all of it and with no where to go, and the Deep dark portal at the centre of it there is some options for the party to fight with a tactical advantage.

That’s it for us tonight with the party finding the source of the webs, both in place and creature. Tomorrow we have a look at the lord of the pit and what she brings to the table. So don’t forget to come back tomorrow and as always, don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe