TTRPG

It takes a village to raise a child

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Tuesday, up let’s look at some versatile NPCs.

Not sure if today will lead to a dark turn but lets see how we can use the NPCs to our deepen our adventure this week. As with yesterday these characters are not tied to a plot, but are meant to be versatile, fluid and ready to be slotted into any adventure that we want someone to fill that void where a player askes “Hi stranger, what’s your name? What brings you to Sleepyhollow this time of the year” having one of two of these guys/gals up your sleve can save you embarrassment when all your NPCs have names starting with the letter B.

Characters of flexibility

Baxter Henderson

05TuBaHe

A relatively unremarkable child of 16, Henry has blonde hair and brown eyes that sparkle with mischief. His unkept hair, hodgepodge clothes and scrappy attitude reflect his life between families.

Unlike other children Baxter didn’t have a single family who brought him up as he drifted between families, his own flesh and blood relative’s either passed away or wanted nothing to do with him and so he found a roof where pity or mercy would provide one.

Having grown up between households, Baxter ends up in trouble. Whether it’s the city guard, his family, local gangs or city merchants he had spent time in jail before he reached adulthood.

Sarah Lune

O5TuSaLu

Sarah was born into the family of farmers. Quick of wit and blunt as a smith’s hammer she was known to get into trouble with the other farming families when she quickly outsmarted and out-paced their sons and daughters on market day. 

Not resigning her fate to be the face of her family’s market stall she has tried to find work in other aspects of her village’s life but nothing has quite stuck.

With her long red hair and hazel eyes she has had many farmers offer their hand in marriage, whether for an increase in their own land or because of genuine interest Sarah doesn’t give them much consideration before turning them down.

Ned Talksmuch

05TuTeTa

Ned is a wandering minstrel who seems to have a habit of getting himself into trouble. Attractive and charming to a fault he can frequently be seen climbing out of windows in some state of undress. 

Ned however is fond of animals and the majority of his songs and poems are about them.

Born to adoring gnome parents he has a tendency to talk very quickly, especially while drinking or singing, which is what he does most of the time when he isn’t climbing out a window. Despite being born a gnome Ned displays very little characteristics of a gnome being just shy of the height of a normal human and resembling a young human male how he was born from gnomes remains a mystery to many.

Thanks for joining me today in looking at three very vague NPCs that could help, hinder or directly be a part of our adventure for this week.

As I have mentioned previously the theme of this week is randomness. I had my wonderful wife whip up some character portraits for me (using artbreeder of course) and I had a look at the images and came up with a small blurb about them to get the sparks flying.

This week the NPCs are meant to be generic. Any of them could be involved in any of the plots for this week, any of them could have a twist to throw the partys way and any of them could turn into and advesary at the right moment.

Thanks for joining me today to see where this adventure with full randomness… well as much as can be tollerated when writing an adventure hook.. Don’t forget that if you see a particular NPC you like you can please use them in your games, add a comment to the page and let us know how they turned out.

Oh and don’t forget to roll with Advantage!
The Brazen Wolfe

Variety is the spice of life.

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Hello Monday. This week we mix it up a bit. There is fluidity in open ended adventures and since we have been doing this for five weeks now I think it’s time to have a look at extending the randomness and going through a few thing that cross my mind when looking at adventures

This week we are looking at 4 randomly generated adventures that I don’t quite remember using when I was playing this game system when I was… 22 so a number of years ago now. The real challenge of this week for me will be to implement an approach I ahve been refining for a number of years now looking at how to improve my improvisation skills as a dungeon or game master.

Created in Gimp from a personal photo.

Let’s have a look at the four randonly generated adventure hooks today.

Flying Menace

O5MoG97

A flight of wyverns have been taking a village’s sheep and cattle. The farmers have called for aid in getting rid of the beasts. The village has requested aid but no one has responded to the request of a farming village as the pay does not seem to be worth the risk.

For the love of the gods

05MoG16

The holy symbol of a high priest has gone missing and without it the prayers to his deity are going unanswered.

Condemned until proven innocent

05MoG25

An innocent man has been sentenced to death, his public pleas for help (as he is kept in a suspended cage in the village square) are a constant as he pleads innocence.

Practically Barbaric

05MoG43

A tribe of trading nomads have gone into a frenzy while within the city walls. Their destruction and strength is sufficient enough to overpower the city guard.

A shorter post today as I wanted to keep the theme of the adventure short. This week is really focusing on improvisation and having a lot of prep work done on the adventure or NPCs (to some extent) can be detrimental to having a fluid feeling improvised game night.

The main reason for this week is the game of OpenLegendRPG I had on the weekend. Where I went in wanting to flex my creative prowess with little more than a “wandering Plot” more on that later. Using the description of the level 1 characters, a area (based off a city map from current times) and the driving theme we had a 4.5 hour adventure with ups and downs, discoveries and betrayals that ended with the table enjoying the adventure and wanting to discuss the session for the following 30 minutes.

OpenLegendRPG encourages (needs) strong improvisation skills due to its “your attempt failed however..” approach with action checks, attacks, spells and decisions that require a dice roll. The ideas is to not have a party stuck being a door if the rest of the story is on the other side of the door but they lost the key. I have also applied a similar approach to Dungeons & Dragons multiple times in my current 3 year campaign – each time it only further encourages my players to explore and do what they want to do, rather than what I have planned for.

And thanks to my new subscribers – I hope you are able to make use of what I post here whether it is for TTRPG, writing a series of short stories or spinning a goodnight story for your children instead of reading the same book for the seventh time that week.

As always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Weeks wrapup

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

This week was a busy one. A final push for work before going on a short break during my daughter’s school holidays and a break from normal work to focus and jumpstart a few projects I’m working on.

This week we used art breeder a lot. From npc images to inspiration for encounters artbreeder was there.

We also used a lot or Kobold fight club, tetra-cube and hero muster to generate the encounters for the party and used the most common form of inspiration for me, sensations, imagery, and emotions felt during my childhood.

This weeks encounter is based on something that both my younger brother and I swear happened.

We both grew up, predominantly on a small farm about 20 minutes from city on about 16 acres (approx 6.5 hectares). The house was at the front/ top of a hill where I remember planting around 3000 trees with my family early when we moved there. As time went on we became more bold to venture amongst the budding forest and especially at night.

Towards the back of the property there was two paddocks of creek flats, where the creek that ran through the farm would overflow and so only tall bushes of grass and trees along the creek bank. One such night when my brother and I were in our teens we were out the back paddock amongst the creek flats. I distinctly remember looking at the tangled maze of branches that framed the waters edge with unease that night, and to be perfectly honest every night since. We were just discussing how to best cross the creek, I believe it was late spring or early autumn as the night was warm but the ground was damp and loamy. As a cloud move across the bright moon a mind shaking sound resonates from our neighbours paddock (who shared the same hauntingly still tree line and creek). A howl. Cliche I know, but hear me out.

As I wondered if I was hearing things my brother asked me ‘Did you bear that howl…?’ a genuine nervousness in his voice. It wasn’t just my hyper active imagination playing tricks on me, like when you see shadows moving through the backyard or a room (more on that another time) but it felt real and I wasn’t alone in hearing it.

Well we didn’t cross the creek at night next to that foreboding treeline and as we jumped three fences to put as much between us and the source of the howl we always worked in pairs to make sure that one person always watched the treeline.

Walking up past the trees, that forest we were so proud of planting, ever few steps felt like s minute had passed, that feeling of dread and unease didn’t leave us until we bad passed through another 5 gates and was in our backyard again.T

The feeling of that night, not the source of the sound, is what I wanted to capture this week. Dread, foreboding, unease to the point of nausea and then most importantly, Relief. Knowing it was over.

Well, this week was really fun. The exploration of old memories and feelings and applying a framework or story around what could happen or be the cause of something is what made this week a bit.. more.

As always, a big thanks to everyone who read the material this week, it gives me no small amount of joy to see people visiting to see what I have written this week. Feel free to comment if like or didn’t like something as that’s the only way to hone a craft, practice and criticism.

As always, don’t forget to roll with advantage

The Brazen Wolfe

Don’t go into the woods tonight

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Sun.. no Saturday today! Shaking things up as I am beginning a first step to another journey tomorrow. Testing out the theme for a OpenLegendRPG campaign sometime this weekend which is paying homage to a setting I started years ago. But I will save that for a writeup of the session tomorrow.. Or Monday – will see which day the session is run.

So today, I decided to focus on the idea of the genius, but mad, wizard archetype and how a creature created by that chaotic mind would function in a game. So without further waffle let’s have a look at this week’s adventure hook!

The Wyrdwood

An announcement goes out to all the cities, keeps and towns within the kingdom. Sir Percival’s yearly tournament is on and this year he has a surprise for all.

Keen to prove themselves; or looking at the reward for winning the competition, warriors, squires and aspiring adventurers come throughout the land to participate. But something has gone wrong and a separate more discrete call has gone out seeking adventurers who can track something deep within the woods. 

This call to aid, however, did not go out to the Party – they are here to watch the festival, or partake in the jollyment or place wagers on their favourite warrior in the tournament. 

The plot

Sir Percival’s house wizard, Winnifred Winterleaf, was charged with creating a beast for the grand finale – a monster forged from the natural power of the Wyrdwood itself and something that would create a spectacular fight for the visitors to watch. However, in her endeavour to fulfill her lords request she dipped into the wrong type of magic and produced something more. 

One night whilst scrying to foresee the outcome of the tournament, a girls gotta make a living, her vision took a darker turn. The beast was amongst the woods, stalking the wannabe knights in their silver glad armour, one by one they were ripped up into the treetops until there were none left. 

Breaking her vision she found her lord draping a cloak around her shoulders – it was only now that she realised that a layer of rime had coated her skin. The beast had escaped and it was not but three days until the tournament was to begin. 

When the party is found they are assumed to be the heroes summoned for. When they accept the quest they are given a pendant and a number of matching rings. They are told to put the pendant on the beast and when doing so they will be able to locate and sense it without falling ill to it’s magic.

One of Sir Percivals vassals discovers that the beast is missing and organises all the warriors to go in hunt for it. At this point the lord sends for the party and requests for them to find the beasts before it takes any more lives. Furthermore Cordelia also went out to try and stop as many of the warriors as possible but she hasn’t returned from the forest.

The people

Sir Percival Winterbourne

04TuPeWi

Roguishly handsome, Sir Percival Winterbourne has medium length brown hair that appears to glow with red tints when the Autumn sun hits it. His grey-blue eyes are full of warmth and he carries himself with a welcoming stature.

Percival speaks with a warrior’s intellect, that is to say that everything he says is calculated, weighed and deliberated regardless if he is attending his court or walking amongst the people of his city. Aware of the prying eyes and ears in his vicinity at all times, Percival is a master strategist which is understandable considering his past.

Percival gained his knighthood and Lordship by infiltrating a rival kingdom’s gatehouse and overpowering the guards with a handful of knights. This, however, went against the orders of his commander but spared the lives of hundreds of warriors on both sides of the battle. The king, finding his judgment sound and unquestionable granted him titles and land where his now growing mass of followers now reside as his knights’ bastion.

Cordelia ‘Cordy’ Carpenter

04TuCoCa

Cordy is an attractive but boyish young squire who works under one of the knights in Sir Percival’s court. Her long walnut hair reaches past her shoulder blades but she ties it high and close to her scalp as to be judged on her skill with a blade and bow instead of her gender.

Being the squire to Sir Percival Winterbourne was no small deal. Having been born into a family of woodturners Cordelia decided that the life of her wood, sawdust and splinters was not for her. She crafted a strong short spear and trained with it in secret – disguising herself so that no one would recognise her as a woman foremost or as the daughter of a carpenter.

On one such sparring session Sir Percival happened to walk by and stepped in for her opponent. Not holding back Cordy was approached and was offered an apprenticeship under Sir Percival to be his squire. Cordy now wants to prove herself worthy of the trust that Sir Percival put into her and does her best to carry out his wishes.

Winnifred Winterleaf

04TuWiWi

Normally seen standing a few feet to the left of Sir Percival at all times Fred appears to be a young lady of fair appearance. Her bright orange hair is rarely seen without an old leather hat that contains the wild nest-like hair underneath. Her eyes and ears give away her elven heritage but she is normally quiet and calculating, a harmonious pairing with the knight she serves.

Prone to talking in riddles Fred is channeled chaos. Unpredictable yet powerful, she acts as Sir Percival’s court wizard.

The Encounters

Two main settings for encounters for this adventure.

Encounter 1 – That aint’ no bunny lad. Thats a worg

A pack of worgs stalk the party as they travel through the woods (D&D5e = 3, open legends = 4) – they would attack whilst the party is setting up camp at dusk if advantageous to do so or would otherwise try and ambush them in the failing light.

Dungeons & Dragons
OpenlegendsRPG

Encounter 2, at night after the worgs have been dealt with the party would wake to hearing a distant, soft call for help. A successful DC15 investigation (perception in OLrpg) check would note odd notes in the voice calling out.

Upon investigating they see the form of a slumped warrior knight leaning against a tree holding a flickering lantern – but as soon as the party approach the figure the party member at the back of the pack will have something attempt to grapple and restrain them (stop from talking) and lift them into the trees. A successful counter grapple (or Might / agility for OLrpg) would see them slip out. As the party reach the suit of armor it crumbles and the lantern goes dark and falls to the ground. The party then find themselves far from their camp (illusion, investigation check dc 15) with another figure not far from them slumped down and not moving, a glowing mote of light coming from a rod like object. This is the Wyrdbeast. 

If it is approached it will attack (surprise) the party (unless they succeed on a perception check) and will attacl until it takes damage. Upon taking damage it summons a Wyrd in its place and disappears 30ft as per the misty step spell. When the Wyrd dies it crumples into a heap of wood and body parts an anguished cry for help (Help me) resounds in the woods from the beast followed by laughter a short distance away – where the Wyrdbeast is hiding. 

This repeats 2 or 3 times until the party discovers their missing companion (or if their counter grapple check passed) a real survivor in the same position of the copies or Wyrdbeast. Upon reaching it the beast and two mirror images would try and attack the most isolated party member using illusion to try and convince them that it is an ally who discovered something near a tree. But the ally is someone not from the party – they are sure (100% sure) that the person who is talking to them has been with the group the entire night.

If the Wyrdbeast can be reduced to 20% health points or the party manages to put the pendant on it would create a series of mirror images and retreat to its mountainous cave – screeching the entire time. The party would find a trail of dead, dying and wounded warriors in the morning leading towards its cave home. In several cases it looks like beasts of the forest (worgs or otherwise) appear to have tried to take the bodies or harm the wounded but they show deep clawed furrows in their bodies (a survival check would reveal) that the Wyrdbeast inflicted the wounds. 

Encounter 2 – Are you afraid of the dark?

Once the Wyrdbeast has fled to its cave then the party can find the final encounter there.

The cave is a 50ft climb up a hill, with one of Sir Percival’s knights hanging from a branch near its entrance. The cave is narrow (5 ft wide) and the first passage is about 50ft before it turns sharply to the south, cutting off any light from the morning sun. The first passage is a tangle of branches, rocks, discarded armor and bodies. 

There are another three passages in here, one of which (dealers choice) has Cordelia alive but unwell (mentally). The Wyrdbeast is dwelling in a suit of armor and if discovered will attack with itself and 2 Wyrds (copies of itself) also clad in rusted and heavily damaged armor. It won’t run any more but will use its legendary action to take up a new suit of armor as its shell if it suffers 20% of its HP in damage. It will have 5 suits around the room, including the 2 that the Wyrds are in.

The outcome

After the hunt is over the party should return with Cordelia and any other contestants they found alive. The lord offers all of them a position as Cordelias Squires, which Cordelia is taken by surprise as only knights have squires (and thus she is knighted). The party should refuse and each receive a token of renoun from Sir Percival which will grant them the status of a lord or lady, without the title.

Thanks for joining today for what I hope will be a memorable encounter. The purpose of this is to add in an element of perceived danger, of horror and something that the party members should feel a sense of real accomplishment from finishing.

For stat blocks have a look below for the files if you want to use them.

worg-1Download
worg OpenLegendsDownload
wyrdbeast-open-legendsDownload
wyrdbeast D&DDownload
wyrd-OpenLegendsDownload
wyrd D&DDownload

If you like what you have read today, or better yet run the adventure feel free to let me know! I would love to see how you found the adventure and what your party thought of it. And as always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Hunt or be hunted

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Fightnight! yup, it’s Friday already and I am hoping what we have in store for today is exciting.

Today we are going to look at both a few random encounters and a boss fight where the players will need to take care of what decisions they made during and leading upto combat.

All the below encounters and monsters/things that have been chosen assume out little party are level 2 and that we still have 4 of them.

Things that stalk and hunt

04FrWo

Worgs, large evil wolves are generally found with their golbinoid counter parts. Known to be almost as cunning as they are vicious.

As for encounter balancing we should consider having 3 Worgs which gives us a hard encounter.

Dungeons & Dragons Statblock from tetra-cube

As for balancing for Open legends we can have 4 wargs in the encounter and still have the encounter reasonably balanced.

Open Legends statblock created at heromuster

Closing notes

The Wyrdwoods are home to many beasts, but none such as this.

04FrWyrd

Two options here, something from a dark dream I had once upon a time and a monster that evokes fear in many new and relatively seasoned players.

We should consider having only 1 such monster when balancing our encounter this time

Dungeons & Dragons Statblock from tetra-cube

As for balancing for Open legends we can still have only 1 of these creatures as we have scaled it upto a boss encounter. To read more about that have a look here.

Open Legends statblock created at heromuster

Both the Wyrd beast and Basalisk should act the same to give a truly frightening encounter. Attack the players and disengage when they can retreating to their cave when they suffer enough damage. Both should be ambush predators and utilising their petrifying gaze, or fear and creature summoning to the most.

That’s it for Friday ‘Fight-night’.

Thanks for tuning in or today’s post. I had a bit of fun looking at how the stat blocks between D&D and OpenLegendsRPG using both Kobold-fight club, heromuster, dnd SRD and some inspiration from a few sources over the past week.

For those looking into OpenLegendsRPG it’s a jump from the systems we are used to and for DMs (GMs) that jump is quite large.

Don’t forget if you like something you see feel free to leave a comment and as usual don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

The wooded path and the cracked earth…

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Today we are doing something a bit different. Much like most DMs I started to run games early on with having notes on what is in the room, keep, crypt, etc. and describing it. So today is a bit of an ode to those times where we have a rough idea of what is there, what we want in there and how we want it to play out

Today’s artwork was created in artbreeder, apparently they don’t just provide character portraits but have a, somewhat limited, selection of scenery or landscape art that you can tinker around with.

Wyrdwood Forest

04ThMa1

The light flitters through the thick canopy creating a dark mottling on the uneven forest ground. Moss, fungi and lychen cover the fallen branches and trees that create natural dense walls in the forest. A sudden burst of movement startles the party as something darted through a bush making some trees shake as it passed by with haste. The poor lighting, uneven slippery ground and natural walls of greenery make stalking prey feel more like being stalked.

It will be night time soon, the group should find a place to rest for the night where they can easily defend. Little do they know that the wyrdwood is home to not just game and the beast they stalk. Fouler and dark things have picked up their scent and they best be quick in finding a safe place to rest their weary bodies.

The players should feel uneasy when descibing this part of the forest, no straight line of sight, bushes and trunks of trees make it nearly impossible to see more than 30 feet in any direction unless they have made it to a clearing. But, clearings normally attract predators who know prey can be found in such places.

I would use the forest map at night, a dark place, low visibility, something perhaps stalking the party (or being stalked) can lead to some tough but exciting encounters where it’s not about how hard you can swing a sword, or just casting fireball – parties have to be smart and resourceful to survive a night in these woods.

The cave

04ThMa2

The party after surving the night make their way to a platue where they have tracked the beast to several rocky outcrops that burst from the ground like the earths claws digging it’s way out from its eternal prison. The creature having left a trail of things it has feasted on appears to be in a cave at the base of one of these stony spires, the found stench of decay evident that this cave was home to something once before before it’s new resident evicted them.

The cave system is wider than most, about 10ft across and moving deeper than abotu 50ft the party find themselves cut off from the outside light. There is a presence here, cunning and calculating which the party are aware of. A bead of moisture hits the flickering torch that the party carry causing it to hiss too loudly for the enclosed space. As the party continue down the rough hewn walls of this cave fresher body parts of animals and what appears to be men and women can be found hung from spikes on the roof – the creature having a taste for softer meat once it has greened for some time it seems. A burst of wind from somewhere causes the torch to threaten to go out, and it’s then that the party hear the clack clack of talons approaching from the next bend.

Caves are hard to do without maps, I generally follow a formular for mine. A winding trail in, a larger cavern that could fit a few people comfortably and then a few branches from that room that go into smaller ‘rooms’ where the party would find grissly discoveries or perhaps the last will and testiment of an adventurer who knew they time amongst the sun and clouds was coming to an end.

Not having a map to refer to can cause the party members to become very aware of the surroundings. Instead of moving to a position on the map they now have to look for such a position by asking the DM. The DM needs to think on their feat, say yes or no and remember what they have said. Having a rough drawn map of what they plan to describe can help – or even a few dot points for each “room” or place you want the party to go to can make things easier, but improvisation breeds immersion – and it’s a muscle on the DMs character sheet where they get better with using it the more you use it.

I won’t keep people any longer today, I just wanted to say thank to those who use these thoughts or things I create here – if you like something you see, or don’t drop a comment and let me know about it.

Don’t forget that tabletop games are meant to be fun, if you are not having fun doing it then switch it up. Dont bring out the dwarven forge tiles (I wish!) or the grided dry erase board, describe what the paty see, explain it and work that creative muscle. Don’t forget to look for your spark this week and don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Something Wyrd comes this way

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Wednesday, perhaps the deciding day to whether your week is overall great or overall a write off, can set the mood and tone and mood of your week. It’s no mistake that it’s the day for twists and changes in plots here at Brazen Wolfe Tabletop.

I want to try something a bit different for this week’s twists, so let’s drive in as it will takes me a while to write. A reminder to all my readers out there, these come from the (sometimes dark) recesses off my mind and, for the most part, excluding inspirations that I note down, everything is a Brazen Wolfe Original.

Knights honor is more like guidelines

The flickering candlelight did nothing to dampen the focus of Fred. Her flashing orange eyes like pools of liquid Silver reflecting the dancing flame that she stared into.

A noise, perhaps from her scrying, perhaps not, barely registered past her focus as she stared at the image’s that she conjured up into the flame. 

Men and women in silvered armour danced within the flames, their banners and shields spotted as if passing under thick but miniature clouds that blotted the sun. A screeching, keening cry of predator, familiar but unrecognisable, pierced through her mind as she struggled to focus on the candle and the images it procured at her behest. A thudding now joined the sounds of the hunt, flashes of silver turning red, browns and greens liquifying before her eyes as the keening screech caused her eyes to water. 

The constant thumping now turned into the rythmic thumping and crunching of wood as more silver turned red and browns pooled on a mottled carpet.

‘Fred!,’ a familiar voice called as a strong but caring hand gripped her shoulder, ‘come quick, you need to see this’ Percy commanded as he wrapped a cloak around her shoulders.

‘I know… It’s escaped,’ Fred said with a sigh, the candle fluttering out as her conjuration ended. Wiping the trickling blood from her nose Fred stood up from the padded chair and noted the splintered remains of her door.

‘Three nights from now, the silvered will fall onto the mottled carpet, It’s hunt complete. The Wyrd dwells amongst a patchwork roof without defined walls’. 

‘So it’s in the Wyrdwood huh,’ Sir Percival mumbled as he ran his hand through his beard in thought, ‘I guess we better find a way to bring it back or put it down’ he mused before walking through the ruined door.

‘Next time it wouldn’t hurt to knock Percy’ , Winnifred remarked as she bundled the cloak over her shoulder and followed the man she served.

‘I did’ was all Percy said as he turned down the hall and headed off towards the arena.

04WeSc

Winnifred is the creator of the creature, as such she has an understanding of it’s motives and  nature. She created it to be a challenge, to learn and be something more than a puppet, however with no strings attached it began to wonder why it had to obey directions from it’s creator.

04WePlt

Sir Percival brought the beast in for a single purpose, the removal of certain knights from a rival court. What wasn’t planned was the captured beast escaping and beginning to hunt his citizens.

Chad

04WeCh

Chad, knowing about the hunt beforehand after seducing the right ladies at the court, worked his way into the holding pen and sabotaged the holding mechanisms to the pen to make sure the beast could escape.

Once notified of the beasts escape Chad volunteered to go after it himself so that he would be considered as the next knight to Sir Percival.

These variations on the beast can drastically change the course of the adventure and with little tweaks it increases the variety of encounters you can have in this adventure.

I wanted to keep the twists closely related to the plot of this adventure, stemming back to the original inspiration of this week there is very little shades between black and white.

The aim of these twists is to show that by keeping a single plot in focus you can spin up several alternative adventures. Having this flexibility or being able to improvise when something goes a bit off the trail can make the adventure feel natural and increase the immersion the players have for your session.

As always, if you like something in particular please let me know, and don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

Those who dwell in the Wyrdwood

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Tuesday again. Today we are looking at a few people who live near Winterbourne Keep or the city that sprung up around it. Each NPC (Non-player character for those new to the game genre) here brings something to this week’s quest and can bring a lot of fun, intrigue or drama to the story that we craft for the players.

Today I go back to using Artbreeder for character portraits as I love the creative nature of it where you can tweak the little things on faces to get a whole new NPC portrait.

Winterbourne City

Sir Percival Winterbourne

04TuPeWi

Roguishly handsome, Sir Percival Winterbourne has medium length brown hair that appears to glow with red tints when the Autumn sun hits it. His grey-blue eyes are full of warmth and he carries himself with a welcoming stature.

Percival speaks with a warrior’s intellect, that is to say that everything he says is calculated, weighed and deliberated regardless if he is attending his court or walking amongst the people of his city. Aware of the prying eyes and ears in his vicinity at all times, Percival is a master strategist which is understandable considering his past.

Percival gained his knighthood and Lordship by infiltrating a rival kingdom’s gatehouse and overpowering the guards with a handful of knights. This, however, went against the orders of his commander but spared the lives of hundreds of warriors on both sides of the battle. The king, finding his judgment sound and unquestionable granted him titles and land where his now growing mass of followers now reside as his knights’ bastion.

Cordelia ‘Cordy’ Carpenter

04TuCoCa

Cordy is an attractive but boyish young squire who works under one of the knights in Sir Percival’s court. Her long walnut hair reaches past her shoulder blades but she ties it high and close to her scalp as to be judged on her skill with a blade and bow instead of her gender.

Cordy is potentially the most loyal and dedicated squire’s that can be found in the court and her bravery has been tested a few times before in performing her duties as a squire.

She longs to strike out on her own and prove herself a knight by her own merit instead of being judged based on her gender and looks alone. As such she goes to a great deal to hide her immediate womanly appearance but will not deny her truth if questioned.

Winnifred Winterleaf

04TuWiWi

Normally seen standing a few feet to the left of Sir Percival at all times Fred appears to be a young lady of fair appearance. Her bright orange hair is rarely seen without an old leather hat that contains the wild nest-like hair underneath. Her eyes and ears give away her elven heritage but she is normally quiet and calculating, a harmonious pairing with the knight she serves.

Prone to talking in riddles Fred is channeled chaos. Unpredictable yet powerful, she acts as Sir Percival’s court wizard.

Chad Taylor

04TuChTa

Strong cheekbones and broad shoulders are the first thing that people notice about chad. Hailing from a distant land Chad is charismatic and well liked by the court.

Chad is driven, almost to a fault. First to volunteer for the dangerous mission or the errand that people expect him to fail, Chad lives to prove people wrong.

Thanks for joining me today where we looked at a few NPCs to flesh out any adventure. With a few small adjustments any military like setting these NPCs could form the basis of an adventure.

Have a good night and week and oh and don’t forget to roll with Advantage!
The Brazen Wolfe

The Tournament

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

The inspiration for this week’s Adventure comes from my youth and where I grew up.

I grew up on a farm where the lights from the cities couldn’t reach. The inspiration comes from two places on the farm. The flats had a creek cutting through it which was surrounded by a dense mass of elm trees. During the daytime it was a place of wonder and adventure, at night the light from the moon and the stars could barely cut through the dense canopy and the only sounds was the creek trickling or of things in the darkness.

The second was up the hill towards the house. A forest of nearly 3000 trees.
At night great patches of moonlight created a patchwork of greys amongst the trees. In the spring and summer the thistles would grow so large that they turned living walls of green, which also created little nooks for things to hide in and stalk prey…

So this week’s plots will revolve around a lord, his wizard and a hunt amongst the trees disguised as a tournament to choose the lord’s next guard.

Picture by Brian Ralphs, found here

The knight, Sir Percival Winterbourne, is a tall and impressive figure who had one of the largest allocations of land in this kingdom. His royal guard are revered across the land and a great many songs are sung about them in the taverns of the surrounding towns and cities. Each year Sir Percival sets up a contest of champions to select one amongst the candidates who would be deemed worthy to become one of his Guard. This year it’s different from the normal jousting and martial arts, it’s a hunt for a great beast in the woods and the party that brings back the beast, alive or dead, are the ones who would claim the prize.

A beast scorned

04MoSt1 / 04MoLe1 / 04MoEs1 / 04MoFe1

The king spared no expense this year, he has brought in an exotic beast from a far away land and has let it loose in the nearby Wyrdwood forest.

Or so that’s what he wants everyone to know, to be truthful the beast was meant to be the final test for an individual in the area. A final test of bravery and skill that would bring fame and glory, and not to mention riches to his people from the crowds that attend his yearly tournaments, however something went wrong and the beast escaped its captivity and the knight believes that it is somewhere in the forest.

The Party has three options here for this quest this week.

  1. They are participating as a group to earn favour of the Knight (04MoSt1).
  2. They have been hired to help a young aspiring squire achieve knighthood, he is passionate, savvy but needs a team to participate (04MoEs1).
  3. The knight hires the party to find the beast and report back on its location, or if possible capture it alive so he can still have his tournament (4MoLe1).
  4. The party arrives a day after the competition has begun. The Knight has one of his courtiers trail the party (poorly) before appearing before the group and asks them for discrete assistance. None of the participants have returned and Lord Percival believes them in danger. He requests the party to bring back the survivors or the bodies of those lost so that they can have a proper burial. (04MoFe1)

Thanks for joining me for the beginning of another week, this time I am following the traditional zine format where you have a single adventure focused on in the book which just gets expanded from there. So this week we are exploring the family farm I grew up on, well sort of, and in particular the feelings, emotions and sensations I had on that green hill at night.

Without taking up too much time I just wanted to reflect that this is the fourth week I have been writing and I wanted to personally thank those who read and interact with these musings from my mind. A big shout out to the people who are following me as I can’t tell you how humble I feel that people want to subscribe to read what I type here – thank you.

As always don’t forget to trigger that spark of imagination that drives adventure and don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe

What lies beneath Sparrows Rest Keep

thebrazenwolfeLeave a comment

Sunday already, a bit of a delay in getting this out this weekend as the day after a D&D session normally finds me quite tired and brain numb. But I am pretty excited to present what we have today and hope that it finds everyone ready to roll some dice.

Sparrows Rest

The party find themselves approaching the quiet town of Sparrows Rest in the afternoon after hearing that their mayor was offering a tidy sum of gold for adventurers to come to the town and solve a problem with discretion.

Upon reaching the town they are greated warmly by everyone as if they were old friends, making their way to the Dusty Spade, the local Inn, they soon find out that it’s just how the people are in this town, friendly and welcoming to a fault.

The Innkeep advises them that the Mayor was called out to a farm near the keep around midday and that he will seek out the party when he returns from assisting the farmer. The party settle down in the inn for a meal, hungry and not wanting to have rations after eating them over a few days travel and they begin to see the townsfolk trickling in to avoid the afternoon sun.

A loud, prudish boy on the verge of manhood struts into the Inn, several villagers cheer his name, Tim, as he saunters yup to the bar, pushing a few gold pieces over to the Innskeep, Rose Longhammer, as he buys a round of drinks for all present.

He begins to tell a tale of how he lost his grandfathers sword in the belly of a cowardly monster the size of a horse up at the keep at dusk the night before. Several villagers console him but braise his bravery at fighting something that large. His ego seems to swell and another tale almost begins before he notices the party watching him. He approaches the parties table, ordering more ale for them as he does, and sits down without asking. Announcing that he is Tim Carpen, pausing as if expecting applause he continues when none issues forth from those at the table.

He has lost his sword and he wishes the Party to return it to him. He is about to start retelling the tale of his heroics when the Inn door bursts inwards and in steps a weathered but rather unremarkable man. He takes a hat off and wipes sweat from his brow before nodding to Rose and making his way over to the group.

“I would speak to you at my residence if you would be so kind to join me.” he whispers to the party as he waves off Rose returning to the table with several tankards of ale, purchased by the now displaced Tim.

The plot

The Mayor has a problem, crops keep disappearing and every morning something else is missing from the farms in Sparrows Rest. It started a few moons back but it’s become more apparent and they have a holy day approaching that the mayor is concerned will be ruined if the village loses any more of the potential harvest.

The farms crops keep disappearing, sheared off at the ground as if a great scythe had swept in and reeped the crop. It started with a few bags worth of wheat, but last night an entire field disappeared and before that another farmer lost a herd of goats.

The farms closest to the ruins of the old keep appear to be hit first and hardest and even a villager or two has gone missing but no other adventurers who have come to aid the town have been successful. The mayor asks the party to find whats happening to the crops, the livestock and the villagers before its too late. They are to start at dawn and they can have two chests of gold (1500gp) if they can save the village.

The people

Rose Longhammer

When the party return to the inn Rose would put them up free of charge as instructed by the Mayor. After a meal, a few ales and the other patrons disperse Rose tells the party how her she runs the inn by herself now, he daughter used to help her a few months back but thats no more.

If the party investigate it turns out Rose’s daughter and Rose’ brother were the first to disappear, vanished overnight with no sign of struggle at their house. The door was found open and the remains of their wolf-hound was found a day later near the ruins, little more than bones and a few scraps of fur left. She requests that if they do find any information about her brother or her daughter, Susanna, that they bring it back so that she can have closure.

Tim Carpen

Potentially displeased by the Mayor taking the attention from the newcomers ignores the Party and publically states that they must be adventurers of very little renoun to be so poorly equipped to assist the village. His parents are perhaps the most influencial family in the town as Lady Carpen’s (Tims mother) ancestors once defended the lands from what is referred to as “the culling” as massive battle that saw thousands of lives lost, and their bloods, bone and flesh has now enriched the soil.

Tim, secretly, is a coward. Having been at the ruins looking for Susanna, his boyhood crush, had seen something in the ruins and fled, losing his blade as he ran.

Mayor James Goodfellow

A great man with a large heart, he only wants what is best for the town and its people.

The Encounters

The Inn

As the party sleep that night they are woken to a scratching at the wall and something dark on the streets. A few torches and lamps are lit but they are slowly being put out, lamp by lamp.

IF they investigate the party wound find Rose returning from the direciton of the Keep towards the Inn. As she sees the party a furred hand would clamp down over her mouth and drag her between houses.

The culprit is a four ratling skulkers, small by human standards but cruel and fast.

The ruins

Files

overkeep-map-with-notes-and-poiDownload
underkeep-map-with-notes-and-poiDownload

Dusk, if the party approach the ruins at night they would find their way uptowards the keep before they are ambushed (see over-keep map) at point of interest (POI) 3. If more than 50% of the attacking forces are salin then they retreat back to the trap door and disappear down it – revealing the entrance to the lair (point 2). Each time the Party return to the keep without finding the trap door change the ambush site and the composition.

Click here for >>>Encounters<<<

Nightly attacks will happen on the city if they Party dont uncover the source of the Ratlings at the keep. Dusk or during the night.

The underkeep (see map) should have encounters of a few warriors or skulkers at POI 9, 4.

The Encounter of the black rat will be in POI 8.

In POI 7 there should be the brooder encounter but also Rose Longhammers daughter is in the pit, bound with manacles and tending to the rats.

The outcome

The party once defeating the ratlings can return to the village with Rose’s daughter. Decide if the party find Tim’s sword as well.

Once the party return the mayor will give them their small chests of gold (1500gp) and will decalre that the party will always have a place in Sparrows Rest. If the party return to sparrows rest in the future there will be a furnished house that is dedicated to them and a few acres of land that is tilled for them.

Thanks for joining for this weekend’s write up, hope the adventure brings your players some enjoyment.

As always don’t forget to roll with advantage,
The Brazen Wolfe