Terror in Tepest

Tonight I ran the second session of the Season of Horror at Dungeon Dwellers in Portsmouth, Ohio. After saving townsfolk from the graveyard, the party made a deal with Inza. The witch told them that if they seek out the shadow ravens that caused the graveyard incident, she would send them home.

One of my players wasn't there, but a new players was. My players were:

• Bugbear Ranger (Hollow Warden)
• Dwarf Barbarian (Path of the Berserker)
• Lupin Druid (Circle of the Moon)

The mists led the party to a harvest festival in Tepest. They feasted with townsfolk and were hired to make sure a ritual site was set up properly. When they arrived they found a hobgoblin captain, some bugbears, and signs of a struggle. The hobgoblin claimed a druid let them have this abandoned home. There was a stand off, until the ranger climbed over a wall and caused the ritual effigy to animate into a death's head tree. The druid (who'd misled the humanoids and created the tree using the shadow raven) joined the fight. While the hobgoblin and her crew fought the tree and druid, the party fought flying death's heads. Eventually the humanoids were killed, but their attacks had weakened the party enough to finish off the tree. A shadow raven escaped the tree and was banished. The party grabbed some loot before the mists took them.

The session was fun. Encounters two and three were combined because of the ranger's actions, but it worked. My only disappointment is that I was never able to do the quirky thing the death's heads have. If they reduce a character to 0 HP, the creature is KO'd and the head replaces theirs's permanently. You then get to roll on a random head chart. They change is just cosmetic, but it's wild.

These scenarios are fun. There are three more. Come back next week to hear about Death in Darkon.

Never Punch Down. Always Punch Up.

Here's the next member of Dispatch's Z-Team I'm giving the DCC treatment, Punch Up. 

Colm, otherwise known as Punch Up, was a circus strong man who madea deal with a sorceress. She gave him the strength of 10 men, but have the height of one. He knew he would be regulated to the freak show because of his stature so he became an alcoholic and and became a fighter. He eventually turned to crime. At some point he ticked off the wrong criminal, leading to the assassin Coupe' being sent to kill him. The two fought but their fighting soon turned to sex. They dated for a bit before joining SDN's Phoenix Program.

Punch Up: Init +3; Atk +6 punch (2d4+6); Crit V/1d14; AC 12; HD 6d12+24; HP 54; Mov. 20'; Act 1d20+1d14; SP feels no pain, regeneration, signature move; SV Ref +4; Fort +8; Will +3; AL N

Signature move: Also known as the Nut Cracker and Ball Buster, Punch Up's signature move is punching opponents in the genitals. On a Critical Hit against a target with genitals, instead of rolling on the table he can choose to do his signature move. The attack does 2d8+6 damage and the target falls to the ground and rolls around in agony for the next 1d4 turns.

Regeneration: Punch Up regains 1d2 hit points at the beginning of each of his turns.

Music Monday - The Legend of Grog Machina

The new season of Legend of Machina is on Prime. If you want a totally accurate summary of previous seasons, check out this jaunty tune from Grog and Pike.

Dagger Danger

June 11th is International Day of Play. In honor of that D&D Beyond is offering another free Borderlands Quest for anyone to claim.

Dagger Danger is a short quest the player's find on the job board in the Keep. The characters are tasked with interring a kobold lair and retrieving a heirloom dagger. It's short, but includes a few kinds of encounters, a variety of foes, and some roleplay opportunities. I'll be adding this one to my Heroes of the Borderlands sessions.

If haven't already, you can still claim last year's adventure, Goblin Trouble, for free as well.

18! 18! 18!

Shared this with a few of my regular readers already, but this idea is hilarious, brilliant, and I think I'll use it in my next game. 

Speaking of my next game I'm thinking it's going to be a D&D 2024, I think like D&D Beyond I'm just going to referring to it as 5.5. I have at least two players and am working on recruiting more. The plan is to start the game after Origins. 

This is my current plan for session one start with the adventure Everyone Dies At Turtle Bay from Faster, Purple Worm! Everybody Dies, Vol. 1. These are scenarios based on Faster, Purple Worm! Kill! Kill!If you aren't familiar with it, I see it as a mix of Critical Role and Who's Line Is It Anyway?  Each episode is a short session of comedic D&D actual play that always ends in death. Back to Turtle Bay, the characters will start out as prisoners in Turtle Bay. They are conscripted to investigate a ghost ship in the bay (a red herring). If the stop the boat they get their freedom. Unfortunately they find out how Turtle Bay got its name. In the adventure as written, the 1st level characters are killed by Dragon Turtle that lives in the bay. However, just before they creature kills them the session will fade to black and end.

The beginning of the next session the characters will find themselves on a winding road headed to the Keep on the Borderlands. How did they get there? That's up to them. I honestly think it would be funny if they pulled a Jack Sparrow and told a new story every time asked. 

Going back to the goblin trap above. I think I will put a door at the end of the tunnel in D2. The three goblins will be in that room with the dwarf prisoner, Vinx (who will be gagged so she can't spoil the fun).

Grave Awakenings

I’m running the Season of Horror at my FLGS. Characters are third level and players could either make them using rules from Ravenloft: The Horrors Within and the 2024 PHB or they could use premade characters. The premade characters are the party form this season of Dungeon Masters (which just wrapped up and was fantastic).

A majority of the three-hour session was used for character creation. Because of that we didn’t really get to play most of the adventure, Grave Awakenings.  While most sessions this season are 90 minute one shots, Grave Awakenings is designed to be a three hour “Encounters Celebration” event. The event is designed for up to four tables playing the adventure simultaneously. It’s a cool idea, but we only had six players total so this couldn’t happen. 

I won’t spoil the adventure, but the premise is cool. Multiple groups of heroes are drawn into the domain of Sithicus to cleanse a graveyard. There’s a ticking clock mechanic because townsfolk have been buried alive. There’s also the protentional for a character to become a wereraven. 

My group got through one combat and then we had to call it a night. The other group aggroed the graveyard and got pretty far. I spoke with the other DM and decided that instead of continuing with this adventure we are just going to move on to the second adventure Terror in Tepest next week.

Fuccubus Friday

This one combines two of my loves which made it an obvious Fuccubus Friday pic.

Source

There Must Always Be Nine

The Coven of the Nine is a third-party folk horror adventure for D&D 2024. I randomly came across it on Etsy and it immediately caught my eye. The art is evocative and kind of reminds me of tattoo art. The premise is right up my alley as well. A coven of nine hags has infiltrated a fishing village. The party is sent in after another group of adventurers goes missing while investigating. The adventure was written and contains illustrations by Will Humberstone and Luke Stuart. I absolutely love the art! It reminds me of old school sailor tattoo art. I also appreciate the color choices for the book. While the pages are white, the rest of the book is black, red, and shades of blue-green. It just gives everything a hag vibe. The color is used effectively in text too. Proper nouns, monsters, and magic items are introduced bolded and in red. This makes them harder to miss.

The adventure is broken down into three parts. The first takes place in the fishing village of Oshorio. In addition to the history of the region (which is tied to the adventure), we’re given a nice town map with 18 locations. Pretty much all locations have some lightly fleshed out npc’s attached to them (with a quote for good measure).

After investigating the town, the party will make their way to the second part of the adventure, Rotwood Bog. This appropriately named location is filled with all kind of nasty creepy crawlies. There are a few encounters (with maps) and encounter tables listed.

The final part of the adventure takes place in the lair of the hags. Like the lairs of certain legendary hags, it initially appears as an unassuming hut, but its much more than that. The lair is located on the remains of a huge tree with ties to the Shadowfell. There are a variety of encounters that can take place here, even including some puzzles.

The book ends with a lunch of crunch. There are many new monsters to torment your party with (mostly hags and corrupted fauna). Several new magic items are presented to help and hinder adventurers. Finally there is a really helpful glossary of important names and places for the adventure. 

The Coven of the Nine is a great mix of action, exploration, and intrigue. It’s dripping with insidious folk horror. Plus, it’s just a gorgeous book. If you play 5e (specifically 5.5) and love folk horror, this one is worth your time and money.

The Coven of Nine - A TTRPG Adventure - Etsy

The Literal X-Men

 If you need a good laugh, check out this piece by Frederik Hornung.