31 October 2020

Halloween Adventure/One Shot

Are you looking for a spooky/eerie one-shot, to run this Halloween? Well. I have something interesting for you. This is not your usual one shot, and is designed to push your players into experiencing a story in ways they (hopefully) won’t have done previously. The techniques employed in this adventure are actually straight from the repertoire of magicians, mentalists, and séance workers...


A Little Background


Outside of being a DM, I have a few other interests. Until The Event™, I was working as a full time, professional magician (and magic teacher). Unfortunately, the virus put that career path on hold (don’t feel bad for me though, I’m now working in a great place, and really enjoying myself). That doesn’t mean I don’t still perform, and it certainly doesn’t mean I’m not still thinking of new ways to put my skills to use. For a long while, I have wanted to combine my love of D&D and my love of performing magic together in a meaningful way (card tricks don’t really fit in the setting, I find).


In this adventure, I will be teaching you (fellow DM) a couple of techniques to create a truly magical atmosphere at your sessions, as well as giving you a fully written horror/Halloween themed adventure to employ them in. The techniques taught here have been around for a long time, with one dating back to séance workers in the 1800’s, and should bring an incredible element of mystery/unease to the table.


The Techniques


The first technique I will be teaching you is a very old idea. It is believed that ‘mediums’ in the 1800’s used it in seances to trick their audiences into believing they were possessing of some otherworldly power. Simply put, it is a way of producing a scent for your players to smell, without your hands ever leaving their sight. Mediums would often produce the scent of lavender (or other similar flower) whilst sat around with hands linked, when trying to communicate with the spirit of an elderly female relative. Most of the time, the audience would associate the scent with their dearly deceased grandmother, and immediately believe her “presence” to be in the room with them.

24 October 2020

Elemental Motes

Elemental Motes are tiny elemental spirits, which are bound to a specific location and elemental source. Often created by powerful spellcasters, Motes are bound to protect whatever source of elemental energy (water, earth, fire or air) that they were created from, and return to that element when they die.


Elemental motes are unable to travel more than 50 feet from their source, and are supernaturally tethered to that location. Even if an elemental mote is killed, it will re-emerge from its original source 7 days later, alive and well, resuming its protection of that area.


Elemental Motes cannot be summoned through the “Conjure Minor Elementals” spell, or any way other than the spell Create Elemental Motes, which can be cast by Druids, Sorcerers and Wizards. Traditionally, druids tend more towards Earth and Water Motes, whilst Wizards and Sorcerers prefer Fire and Air Motes (though all three can create all types).



Create Elemental Motes

4th level conjuration (ritual)


Casting time: 1 hour

Range: Touch

Components: V S M (a small glass vial containing the element intended to create, a gemstone related to the element (water: sapphire, fire: ruby, air: diamond, earth: onyx) worth at least 400 gold, which the spell consumes)

Classes: Druid, Sorcerer, Wizard

You touch an elemental source, or something connected to an elemental source (eg. a torch for fire), and focus your energy into it. As you do, the innate energy trapped in that element coalesces into an elemental being, bound to the location. You can treat up to a 10 ft.2 (up to a depth of 5 ft.2) area when you cast this spell, and the amount of area you are focussing on determines the number of Motes you can bind. You can bind 1 mote per 5 ft.2, up to a maximum of 4 Motes (at 4th level). These Motes are bound to the elemental source, and area, they were created from, and can move no further than 50 feet from this point ever. They will protect the area with their lives, and will fight any creature not regarded as friendly by their creator should it come near.


The elemental source that a Mote is created from can not be moved by any means, and doing so would destroy the Motes bound to that location.


At higher levels:

When you cast this with a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you can increase the area treated by 5ft.2 per level of the spell above 4th.


17 October 2020

Twin Rocks Battlemap

This week, instead of posting a map with 8 random/unconnected potential combats, I thought I would write them with a common theme. For this battlemap, you will receive 2 encounters, each scaled for a number of different level groups, and with different enemies depending on the level of your players.

The Map

The map this week is a 30x30 square map, designed to be used as a section along a road. The map itself contains a small wooded area, two large rock formations (connected by a bridge), a campsite, and a road leading between the east and west sides. When designing this map, I wanted to play on a number of different terrain options, including giving players multiple levels of ground, areas of cover/half cover, and a few ways of interacting with the terrain outside of typical combat.

I will discuss the different areas of the map, and how they can be used to their fullest, on the next page.




The Rocks

The central focus of this map are the two rocky formations that make up the main body of the design. Each rock is a different height to the other, and both have a sheer rocky wall up their sides. The intention with these is that they are possible to climb, but not easy.


The leftmost rock (with the ladder up the southeast wall) is the shorter of the two, standing at one 15 ft. high above ground level, whilst the rightmost rock is 25 ft. tall. Both are considered difficult terrain to climb, and require a skill check to do so. Depending on the level of your party, I would recommend setting the DC’s of these skill checks at different difficulties (and will suggest these below, later).Given the height/size of these rocks, it is up to individual DM’s discretion as to whether or not creatures on top of them receive the benefits of half/three-quarters cover from different angles.

14 October 2020

Terrain Actions: Plains

Now, I love combat encounters in D&D 5e. I actively enjoy running fights (in moderation) in my games. Even if it can sometimes take 20 minutes to get through 6 agonising seconds of actual fighting, it is an integral part of the game, and one a lot of players/DM’s enjoy. Sometimes, however, they can fall flat.

Say you have an amazing monster for the party to battle, but it’s by itself, and doesn’t have legendary actions. Say it’s also not in its lair. What do you do? Let the party wail on it 4/5 times for every singly turn it gets, and not fight back? No! This is where using terrain actions comes into it!

A Terrain action is like a lair action in 5e, but can happen anywhere in the world! Rather than the monster getting a special bonus move, created by being on its home turf, the environment itself actually becomes an integral part of the battle. The bulette, digging holes through the ground, is a threat, but what about its tunnels? Surely some of them will be close to the surface? Surely some of them will collapse, if under stress? This is exactly what I included in my Bulette Ambush encounter, in my Waterfall Battlemap post.


I like to use Terrain Actions in a lot of my combats, as I feel they add an extra layer to the gameplay. I treat terrain actions as a separate action each round of combat, occurring (normally) on initiative count 20 (losing any ties). When using them, be sure to do so sparingly, however, as they can bog down the game if used all the time, and could become predictable. You want to use them as a nice surprise to keep your players on their toes.


In the following list (and in other lists, coming in the next few weeks), I hope to provide you with a selection of different terrain actions you can include in your games! These will each be aimed specifically for certain regions and areas within the game world, like this one, being designed for:

13 October 2020

Snowy Woods Battlemap

Due to personal time constraints, and the move happening in full this week, no new adventure again… Thankfully, people really seemed to like the format for last week’s free resource, in which I put out a battlemap with 8 random encounters. In keeping with the format (and given that it takes considerably less time to create/write them), I have done the same again! This week, I have created a snowy backdrop for winter/tundra themed settings (that can still work in most (if not all) games).


The Map


The map itself is a snow covered woods. In the top right of the map, you will see a small hut, complete with an outside fireplace, and storage. To the bottom left, there is a frozen pond, surrounded by a rim of rocks/boulders. The map was designed to be a slight hill, with the “cliff” edges representing the steeper sections of incline, and the house at the top (but obviously, this 100% depends on how you want to use the map). The provided encounters should be fine for the levels stated, but they are by no means the only use for this map. If you like the encounter, then brilliant! If you just like the map? Also 100% fine! You can run any encounter for winter/snowy/tundra settings on this battlemap.


12 October 2020

Make-Up Week

 No new adventure last Saturday… This was entirely due to the move taking up more of my time/life than I had hoped. Thankfully, we're all settled in now, and I have had a chance to get back to it. The Map + Encounters I had been planning for last Saturday (the 10th) will instead be getting put up tomorrow (the 13th), and I will hopefully have another ready for this weekend as well. Until then, thank you for keeping up with my work, and I hope you enjoy the next few posts!

03 October 2020

Waterfall Battlemap

Unlike my usual weekly adventures, this is more of a resource for DM’s, GM’s and everyone else who run games. Instead of a full adventure, this week you will get a square map, designed for anyone to use in their games, and 8 different battle encounter suggestions. Each encounter will be unique from the other 7, and there will be two encounters for each level bracket (1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12).


The Map


The map for this week's resource is designed to be usable in many different situations. It is a square map (25x25 squares in the gridded version, but if you use the un-gridded, whatever dimensions you wish), built for encounters in a number of different situations. This weeks map is a waterfall scene, on the edge of a woodland/forest, with a sheer cliff and a broken campsite. If your party are travelling between locations, and you want a quick encounter map for; cliffside, woodland, forest edge, campsite, river or road, then this could easily fit into your game.


If you have a battle you would like to run, then this map should be a good fit for the above settings, but if you don’t know what to run, then have a look through the below suggestions. I have included 8 different combat encounters, designed for parties of different levels, to fit the map provided.


Daytime Battlemap

01 October 2020

Sorry!

 I'm very sorry to say it, but there won't be a free adventure this week, due to unexpected issues arising in my personal life/at work. Due to these issues, I have not had time to sit down and create a full adventure. Thankfully, I have found a little time to make a battlemap, as well as a list of possible combat encounters for all (most) party levels! This week won't be even close to the usual level of detail found in my Free Adventures, but it will hopefully be a great resource for DM's, GM's and everyone else to use in their games as/when. I hope to release a few of this style of Map + Encounters whenever I find myself unable to dedicate a proper amount of time to a full adventure in a week.

26 September 2020

A Hairy Situation - Free D&D 5e Adventure

Another week, another adventure! I will readily admit that a lot of my adventures aren't very serious. This is, frankly, by design. I enjoy writing adventures with an element of comedy to them (which is why I love Boggles, Nilbogs and that whole vein of creature). I do, however, also enjoy pushing my players in a moral sense on occasion. This adventure is a great example of that, as I hope you will realise by the time you reach the epilogue. This can be a really interesting beginning to a longer story, or be played as a dark standalone adventure, and I really hope you enjoy running this for your groups.


The Build Up


Whilst the party are first beginning to investigate a new town/village, let one of the rumours they hear be that a family were attacked nearly a month ago, on a full moon, by some unknown creature. No one survived the attack, and all of the bodies were covered in scratch and bite marks. Every couple of days, in game, have the party overhear worries about the same happening again, this month. The party will, of course, assume a lycanthrope of some variety, and this can be easily confirmed by asking any of the locals what they think - a Werewolf is living somewhere in the area.


If the players ask about the state of the moon during the evenings, let them know that it is nearly full, probably only 2 or 3 days left until the next full moon. The day that the full moon is due, have them approached by a relative/friend of the deceased family.


Another fun rumour to plant is that the woods in the north have recently become more hostile, with dangerous creatures/plants becoming more commonplace.


The Quest


The relative will ask the party if they can investigate the area. He/she will ask the party to stand guard in the town, preferably near their house, and keep watch after dark. In exchange for this service, they will offer to pay the party 100 gold (obviously, the party will want to haggle - the NPC will offer to throw in a family relic, a necklace worth 75 gold).


Regardless of whether or not the party accepts the quest, the next part will happen almost exactly the same (except they won’t get paid).


In the Village at Night


If the party agrees to the job, then they will likely be stood guard outside the relative’s house when this next part happens. If they do not, then make sure to ask them whereabouts in the village they are when the sun sets.


After the sun has gone down, and the moon is high in the sky, the party will hear a howl, coming from the opposite side of town. Shortly after hearing the howl, they will hear a scream, seemingly having come from a fully grown human man. If (when) the party investigates the scene, they will find a villager/town guard (your choice) dead on the ground. The body will be covered in bite and scratch marks, and there will be a trail leading away from the settlement, into the woods to the north.


If the party asks around, any villager they talk to will comment on having seen something/someone running away to the north, holding what seemed to be a child. If the party doesn't ask, they won’t know. So hey, either works! Either way, the trail will lead the party to the woods in the north, where the adventure will begin for real.

20 September 2020

About my Maps (FAQ)

 So. A lot of people ask questions about my maps. Either in comments, in private messages, or on Reddit. I thought this would be the perfect place to address all of them (along with a few extra details).

How Big are your Maps?

I make all of my maps in a 4:3 aspect ratio. The maps are 8,192 x 6,144 pixels, and designed to be 32x24 'squares' wide. Unless otherwise stated, this will be true for all of the maps released through Osrynn's Oddments. I use this format as it easy to work with, and gives me a uniform size to work with (as well as occasionally pushing me to work within constraints).

How Big are the Squares?

Like with all (most) D&D 5e maps, one square on my maps equates to 5ft. of space. If a map seems too small to fit an area, you can always describe it as being a mid-section of the area being explored. (for example, with my "Cave of Two Paths" map, it is, understandably, not a very long passage to be a route between two towns. When I run that adventure, I describe a long walk through the forest/woods to get to the cave, and a winding cave path before they even reach the point the map begins. After the party leave the mapped area, I describe another passageway out, followed by the changing scenery leading to their next destination)0

What App/Software do you use for making your Maps?

I use the web-based cartography tool, Inkarnate. It is a really good system for map design, and full of helpful features for designing. I personally use the premium option, but you can make high quality maps just as well in their free version (just without a few of their newer/experimental features).

19 September 2020

Into The Fey Woods - An Adventure for players leveled 2-4

It's been a while! I'm really sorry that I haven't posted anything for so long, but as I said in my previous post, thing's have been a little mad. Here's my latest adventure, with a little bit of a Fey theme. I've recently started running a new campaign, and am really enjoying where it might be going, so have decided to share some of the adventures i'm using in it with you all. I'm afraid to say that there are no new monsters of stat blocks for this adventure, but I hope you like the map, the adventure, and the other aspects of this week's offering! (This adventure should be hard/deadly for a party of level 2's, average difficulty for level 3's, easy for level 4's, and trivial for anything 5+)

I really hope people like the slightly more 'unique' take to player rewards I've used in this adventure too!


Build Up

If you want to base this adventure in the town/village/area that your party is currently in, make sure to drop a few hints in the sessions leading up to it. Mention the local woods having a close connection to the Feywild, and how it is not often entered by the locals. Mention some of the antics of a few of the residents (the boggles leaving oily puddles and playing jokes on locals, rumours of super-fast creatures that sneak into houses and steal items (the quicklings), etc.), and local myths about dangerous creatures living in the darker areas of the woods. One day, a pixie from the woods will fly up to the party and beg them for their help.


If you want to use this as a way of moving your players to a new area, simply have them run into the Pixie at some point in their travels, and have her ask them for their help.


The Quest


The party are approached by a Pixie, who lives in the Fey-Woods, and needs their help. She, and a number of other fey creatures, live in the woods (a place closely linked to the Feywild). Unfortunately, something has come through from the wilds, and it isn’t friendly. 


She will ask them to help her get rid of the threat, and in turn will promise them a blessing. She will tell the party that she has sealed the interloper in the Pixie glade, deep in the woods, and that the party will need three crystals to unlock the barrier she erected to keep it there. She will hand them one of these crystals, but apologise for losing the other two during her escape from the woods. When the party has all three, they are to place them into a tree stump with three holes in, near the pixie glade.

16 September 2020

I'm Back! (Sort of...)

 So! I am aware that I kind of, appeared out of nowhere, uploaded 4 separate adventures/maps, gave you some funny stories, and a few new monsters, only to vanish a month later. Well! There is some good news, I got a new job. It was a little... hectic.. to say the least for the first few weeks, and I barely had enough time to run my own two regular games for that time (let alone writing material for you guys). Well, it's calmed down somewhat, and I now have a good amount of free time between workdays now, and have re-started writing adventures for this blog (and Reddit, of course).

I had to stop writing the adventure for the Goblin themed story halfway through the process, and as such kind of lost where I was with it. A genuine shame, as I really liked where that one was going (the Nilbog is still my favourite monster in D&D 5e to date). I promise that I will pick it back up at some point (maybe in a few weeks or so), but for now, I'm running a short, separate campaign for my Wednesday group (a player can't make it for a few weeks, and the story was really starting to explore his backstory/quest, so we all agreed to start something as a side-campaign), and will be uploading slightly changed versions of the sessions I'm running for them on here on Saturday mornings. After I finish running the campaign, I will probably compile it into a larger PDF, with all of my NPC's, my story-line linking the adventures, and all of my other fun ideas and nuances from running the campaign myself.

If that sounds like something you would be interested in, please keep an eye on this space, as I plan on uploading in onto somewhere like itch.io, as a pay-what-you-want product. Any donations made through Ko-Fi in the next 4 weeks will also recieve a free copy of this PDF (just send me a message with proof of payment, and I'll get it to you when it's out).

It will be a funny, ready to play adventure, designed for a group who don't want to take themselves too seriously. It will be designed to be played over 5 sessions, with one adventure being played per session. Rather than using traditional levelling systems, the party will gain a level at the end of every session, beginning at first level, meaning they can quickly learn their characters, whilst also getting to try something they might not usually play.

Seriously. our usual gunslinger fighter is playing a rogue, the usual (edgy) rogue is playing a bard, the sorcerer is now a minator paladin, and the halfling cleric is (also) playing a tortle paladin (yeah... two paladins...)

29 July 2020

Praise the Nilbog!

I so often talk about the adventures and escapades of my Sunday D&D group, that I neglect to really mention my Wednesday game. This isn't because of favouritism, or because they don't have some hilarious stories (one of the party has made it their mission to build a pair of exploding gauntlets, but that's a story for another time), or anything else. It's simply that I haven't been running it as long, and haven't had as many sessions with them yet! This week, however, my free adventure will be using one of my favourite monsters of all time in 5e: The Nilbog.

The Nilbog can be found in Volo's Guide to Monsters (an incredible fifth edition book, if you don't own it, treat yourself), on page 182. It is, for all intents and purposes, a Goblin. It is also going to drive your party mad. For a CR 1 monster, it has some of the most fun and ridiculous abilities, that could prove a challenge to even higher level parties. When I ran the Nilbog in my game, I used it as part of a larger goblin ambush: There were two Worg riding Goblins, 6 Goblins on foot, a Hobgoblin, a Bugbear, and the Nilbog (I don't do things by halves when I want to challenge my parties).

The combat began pretty normally, when the party had their train (mildly steampunk setting, mostly still high fantasy - alchemical engines instead of actual steam ones) was stopped and raided by a tribe of goblins known to be living in the area. The Hobgoblin lead the assault, commanding the troops to where they needed to be. All the while, the Nilbog was doing... well? Not very much. I even wasted its entire first round of initiative to describe it dancing on the spot, laughing maniacally. I made sure the party heard the description of its Fool's Scepter (a reflavoured Mace), it's oddly coloured jesters garb, and the crazed look in its eye.

The party began to quickly pick off the first wave (the riders and two of the goblins on foot) before I decided to unleash what would soon become the funniest monster I have ever used in a game. Everything was going perfectly for the party, until I uttered those fateful words: You want to shoot the Nilbog? Great! I'll need a Charisma Save. As luck would have it (for me, not the party), the save was a fail. A bad one at that (they rolled 4 or 5 I believe). When I told them about the Nilbog's trait: Nilbogism, everyone fell about laughing, having learned that the gunslinger now had to spend her entire action (for two rounds of combat!) praising the Nilbog, instead of killing it.

25 July 2020

A (Kob) Old Fashioned Haunting - Free D&D 5e Adventure

So before I get properly into the adventure, I want to make a few points about this one. This is very different from all of my other adventures, in that it is not actually dungeon crawl/fighting themed. This week's adventure is a mystery! As such, I have written it to take a certain amount of time, no matter what, and hopefully give your players a good time.


This adventure starts off with a relatively serious tone, but that is by no means how it will likely end. It is not designed to be a combat based adventure, but we all know what players can be like (indeed), so I’ve provided statblocks for the Kobold Thieves and Kobold Illusionists, should your players decide that peace isn’t an option. That said, I really like these little guys… It’d be a shame if anything happened to them.



The Build Up


To build up to running this adventure, you actually have nearly nothing to do! You can run this game as a one shot, as part of a larger campaign, or even as a great first session for a new group. If you want to build up, I would recommend the following:


When the party arrives in the town/village where you will be running this adventure, let them hear the rumour that a local homeowner is struggling to sell his house, and that he recently had the local priest over for tea, only to have a large argument with him, as the two parted ways. If you want to build further, you could always let your players see the house, describe the place as a very pleasant looking place, with a “For Sale” sign outside. If they want to look at the place, let them see something move in one of the windows, but don’t let them know what.



The “Quest”


Depending on the level of the party you are running this adventure for, you will have to present it in different ways. Below, I will include three different ways of introducing it, and how to approach the PC’s about it.

19 July 2020

Jar of Bee?

So in my last adventure, I included a "Crate Loot Table". It was a d6 table full of utterly useless things. I love to put random things into my adventures to make it seem more realistic (you search the box, in the basement? Of the Necromancer? Sure. Have a zombie). Another thing I love is the Jar of Bee. Similarly to the Undead Finger, one of my favourite pieces of "loot" (I use the term lightly) to offer to my players is a jar, containing a single bee. 

Why is it there? What is its purpose? Will it die? I only have one of the answers to those questions, and it's yes, the bee can die. I gave three players a "Jar of Bee" in session 3 of my Sunday group, and wow. One regularly messages me privately to let me know he is putting in some food (leaves, flowers, that kind of thing) for his bee. Another has named his Tim. The third? He forgot he had it. After about 10 sessions he asked me "Oh! How's my bee doing?" to which the only response I could give was; "It's dead." Poor guy... He was actually quite sad he let his bee die. I felt a little bad after that one.

Have fun with it, and see if your players actually find a use for their Bee Jars. Why not? What's the worst that could happen?

18 July 2020

Necromancers Tower - Free D&D 5e Adventure

Three weeks! I'm actually so happy that I've gotten around to my third adventure so soon. This week is a higher level adventure than my last two (aimed at players levelled 8-10), and the first to contain Lair Actions. After this, I'll be taking a break from combat themed adventures for a week or two, and put my focus to creating some mystery adventures, for players of any level to take part in, and hopefully guaranteed to bring an interesting element to your game table.


Without any further ado, here we go again!



Necromancers Tower


In this adventure, you will take your players on a dangerous journey, into the lair of a powerful necromancer, where they will face against elemental beings, undead, and even the mad wizard himself, in a desperate bid to stop him from raising a dragon from the dead into his service. This adventure is designed for a higher level party, for players levelled 8-10, and should drain them of both their strength, and a good amount of their health, in the lead up to the final confrontation. The main thing to try and do, is to keep the pressure up. Make sure the party know that, should they take a rest, they might be too late to stop whatever the necromancer has planned.

Build Up


To lead up to this adventure, begin spreading rumours in the town/city the party is currently in, about the wizard who has recently moved into the old tower on the outskirts of the city. Have a few different NPC’s talk about him, some saying that he seemed polite and well read, others that he gave off a weird aura/gave them weird ‘vibes’. 


The session before introducing the quest itself, have the rumours turn darker, and let the players know that a lot of plant and animal life surrounding the tower has begun to die. Plants are withering for a mile around, birds won’t fly above it anymore, and a lot of small rodents have been found dead.


Depending on what type of campaign you are running, and whether or not the party is known to the local authority (Duke, King, Mayor, etc.), will decide how they are approached about the job. If the party is known by them, have them brought in for a private audience with the local ruler themself. If they are new to the area/on the run, they can find the job posting in either a local guild hall, be contacted by a high ranking member of an organisation they are involved with, or find the poster on a local jobs board.

15 July 2020

Monster Spotlight - Earth Mote

Following on from my "Water Mote" post a few days back, I thought I would introduce the next Elemental Mote in the series: the Earth Mote. Similarly to its aquatic cousin, the earth mote is a new type of elemental creature for D&D 5e. Its primary method of fighting is to hide underneath the ground, only coming up to throw itself at a target to attack, and it has a pretty hefty AC for a CR 1/4 monster (plus a bunch of resistances and immunities). 

The Earth Mote will be featuring in my up-coming adventure (due for release this Saturday (18/07/2020)); The Necromancers Tower. It will, despite the inclusion of this low level monster, be an adventure for mid to high level players (levels 8-10), and will, quite obviously, be heavily focused on the undead and necromancy. In a bit to make sure the adventure wasn't 100% undead, however, I decided to use a couple of earth elemental creatures to guard the outside of the tower, and the Earth Mote was just the perfect fit...

For those who didn't see it before, I will include the introduction to Elemental Motes below, as well as a little more information about this new enemy! (This will likely be the last Elemental Mote creature I will post on here, as the rest will have to wait until I put out the final product/PDF.)

12 July 2020

Monster Spotlight - Water Mote


To begin, a little context: In my most recent adventure, "A Cave of Two Paths", I introduced the "Water Mote". It was a tiny elemental creature that resembled a floating ball of water. It attacked adventurers unlucky enough to venture into/near its pool, and it had some really fun mechanics.

When I started writing the Cave adventure, I knew I wanted some kind of water based creature for the party to fight. My first idea was to simply use something like a Water Weird, but one enemy? not much of a challenge. But two would be way overpowered for the low level of the adventure. I also considered using a Sea Hag, a school of Quippers, and a few other weird fits (none worked like I wanted them to). Eventually I realised this would be where I would have to include something new for this weeks release.

I liked the initial idea, of the Water Weird, as it would be completely invisible to the naked eye when the party entered the room, and would provide a fun challenge for them to cross the lake without "waking" it. So with two rules in mind ("invisible in water" and "will react when the party touch the water") I began work. The end result, you will see below, and it includes everything you need to run the Water Mote really well in your campaigns!

11 July 2020

"A Cave of Two Paths" - Free D&D 5e Adventure


Well here we are, week two's adventure. This time I've gone for a two pronged dungeon format, where the players can pick the route that they will face. In one pathway, they will fight against human enemies, and have to cross a potentially perilous path, whilst in the other they will come face-to... face? With a number of cave dwelling critters (including a brand new water themed elemental monster, and a statblock for newly hatched giant spiders).


This setting non-specific adventure is designed for players levelled 2-3, will definitely kill a party of level 1's, and probably be a little easy for level 4's. But as always, you can use the map for your own ends, and add whatever monsters you like (should you wish to). I hope you get the most out of this, and it fits into your games!



"A Cave of Two Paths"


Build Up


If the party is looking for work, let them see a bounty poster for the bandit leader, rumoured to be living in the cave system mentioned later, 100 gold (dead or alive), redeemable in the settlement either side of the cave pass. Should they take this job, on their way out of town/the city have them approached by a tired looking man, in ragged clothing, carrying a sick child on his back, asking them if they are heading to the caves, and if so, can they provide him safe passage?

09 July 2020

Cave Map - Coming Saturday!


A Sneak Peak
This Saturday, I'll be releasing my second 1 session adventure! This time, in a cave. There will be some fun combats, some great monsters, and a couple of fun hazards/mechanics, so I hope you all enjoy it!

08 July 2020

Monster Spotlight - Sewer Monster


The Sewer Monster
When I put together the "A Crap Job" adventure, I wanted something a little different/unique to finish it off. I'd changed the Quipper statblock to make it more "sewer friendly" (thematically speaking, at least) and spent about an hour trawling through different monsters, books and notes to see what would be a good fit for the mini-dungeon. The answer? Too many things would work! There are slimes/oozes a-plenty. Rats and their relatives are perfect. Fungi? Fuck yeah. But what to top it all off?

Why not a hulking mass of tentacles, designed purely to give the party a hard time, and cover them in raw sewage while they're at it! I enjoy running more gritty games, and like my mechanics to be believable to a certain point. You stepped in crap? Oh well, not the end of the world. Clean your boots and you'll be fine. You got covered in crap up to the knees (or worse)? People aren't going to want to talk to you till that's sorted.

07 July 2020

Monster Spotlight - Undead Finger

The Undead Finger

I won't lie, I love stupid monsters/creatures. And you don't get much more stupid than a single undead finger. It has 1 foot of movement speed, cannot attack, and cannot communicate. What is it thinking? Why is it there? What sort of f***ed up DM would give their party such a bizarre... thing?

I have an answer to the last question. Me! In every campaign I run, I make sure to include (in some weird, offshoot room the players aren't likely to explore) an undead finger. Of the two campaigns I am currently running, only one of them found it. I'm about to start running a third group (all complete beginners) and can't wait to see if they get it.

So. What does it do? Well, the only real answer I can give is "Very little". It makes the players laugh/smile when they find something as bizarre as a single severed finger that seems to be crawling about by its own accord, but it also makes them wonder what on earth it IS! It's really funny to see them try and work out what to do with/about it.

My current Sunday group (who have the finger) have been using it more than I expected.

Their main use? Interrogations. 

Yeah. Their bard (with charisma coming out of his ears) has been using it to aid in intimidation checks. He keeps it in his pocket until he needs it, in which point he takes it out, threatens an evil NPC with it, and if they don't believe him, he begins by shoving it up their noses. it, inevitably, begins to wiggle of its own accord, and tries to work its way further into the nose/head of whoever it has been placed inside.

There was also the time the bard asked about acquiring some sovereign glue... But that's a story for another time...


06 July 2020

"God Bacon" - A stupid idea that got out of hand...


The "God Bacon" Statblock

Now, this is one of those creations that I doubt anyone will ever use, or want to use, for that matter. But thought I'd share it as a funny story nonetheless.

The main campaign I run on a sunday evening, is 100% homebrew. I have a couple of homebrew races, I run a homebrew world setting, and even use my own (homebrew) pantheon. I will now stop using the word "homebrew". One of the deities in my pantheon, is Kell. Kell is the god of trickery and chaos (basically Loki from Norse mythology, with a lot of changing). One of my players asked if he could include Kell as a part of his backstory, and I loved the idea so much I granted it immediately. 

04 July 2020

A Crap Job - Free DnD Adventure for Level 4-6 Parties


So my first adventure! How thrilling. Every week, on a Saturday, I will release a whole (single session) adventure for D&D 5e. All of my adventures will be setting non-specific, and all will contain everything you need to run a thrilling game for your group!

This first adventure is a perfect fit for any urban setting, including cities and towns, and is 100% setting non-specific. I recommend running this for players levelled 4-6, though that (as always) is up to your discretion as DM. so without any further ado, let em present to you:

 

"A Crap Job"

Build-up

If you plan on running this adventure, I recommend dropping a couple of hints in the sessions leading up to it. The first thing to do would be to let you players know that a certain area within the town/city they are in has begun to develop a bad smell. Describe how the air in the chosen area has begun to smell of raw sewage (maybe even ask for a con save or two, to avoid gagging?), and if any of them ask, let them know that it “has been brought to the attention of the [relevant authority].”

The second thing to do would be to have rumours begin to circulate that the team of sanitation workers (or whoever you want to have sent down to check it out) never returned, and that the local authority (mayor, lord, duke, king, etc.) has sent down a team of guards to see what is going on.

Just before the party are approached about the job, describe how the smell is getting worse, and that a few businesses in the area are having to shut down (maybe even pick a favourite merchant of theirs?), as no-one is wanting to enter the area of the city without dire need.

Eventually, spring the invitation to the party, either through a messenger from the local authority (if they are known to them) or through a posting on a quest board (or similar). Let them know that they will be required to investigate into the cause of the sudden stench across the city, and that they will report directly to the quest giver.