Four Riddles

Lots of inspiration made me want to write this post for a long time. Riddles take time for me to write! The answers, of course, are hidden as white text on a white background: highlight them and they shall appear!

Players in my games, don't spoil these riddles for yourselves! I promise you'll encounter them all eventually ;)


As long as my jailors live, so do I
If they choose to set me free, then I die
a secret

I dream of the day I'm so tall

I tower over the world

All winter I slumber

In lightless cell curled

a seed

I am a painter

Although my fingers are stiff as daggers

Strong enough to break rock

I paint delicately

Soft enough to trace a dandelion clock

So quiet I can paint your whole house

Without you hearing the swish of my brush.

But be quick if you want to see my work!
A jealous rival scours it all away.

Ice, frost (jack frost)

I am a dancer,

Getting faster and faster

My partner doesn't move her feet

She sashays so sweet

Her dress is of colours bright as the day

But my suit is grey

I strive to get close to her

Although her touch is the finisher

of both myself and my dance

A moth and a candle

Harpy Tree

I'm liking making maps! It's just very chill, especially with all the greenery. I'm just sitting here plonking down moss, how delightful.

This is a continuation of my previous map of the owlbear den. I wanted to see what I could do for the tree above.

click for big version

Once again, it's designed to be open ended, for all your 'big tree in a forest clearing' battlemap needs. Once again, however, I'm also providing some notes! This should help especially with how to describe and interpret the map- extreme elevation is tricky to show in two dimensions.

now with numbers!

1. Owlbear den entrance. See description from the previous map. Climbing up the bluffs should be a pretty easy check, if they're climbing the roots or a low area of the bluff, but could still be a hindrance if rushed by combat. The bluffs are also steep enough to provide some cover for creatures cowering right at the base, against any attacks from the branches of the trees, but the harpies would be able to fly up to gain vision of anyone hiding there.

2. Base of the tree is littered with roots, creating difficult terrain in some areas. Climbing onto the large roots should be very easy and likely not take an action, climbing up the trunk of the tree slightly harder and takes extra time/movement. Darker area on the ground delineates the full extent of the upper canopy, not all

3. Large flat fungus shelf forms a handy platform. 20ft off the ground, 15 from roots. Can support people's weight no problem, but anyone falling on it from a height will snap it off, releasing yellow mold-like spores. This is the reason the harpies havent' removed it, despite it making access to their nests noticeably easier.

4. Large, high branch 40 ft off the ground. While very sturdy, not going to break anytime soon, it is a bit bouncy, and sways under movement. Acrobatics type checks to stay balanced, unless you sit down and scoot along on your butt at a greatly reduced speed. 

5. Harpy nests, 50 ft high. On a wooden platform securely fastened to the tree. Sharpened stakes on underside of platform make it difficult to climb directly up, high difficulty to avoid and failure means you take damage and don't progress. There are no spikes above the platform, so a creature could climb higher up the tree and then descend to avoid the spikes. Treasure: There are shiny baubles visible glinting in the sun! Mostly glass and beads, but a few genuinely valuable gemstones mixed in with the harpy poop.

6. Climbing higher than the nest grants partial cover from ranged attacks and flying creatures, as the branches become more dense. The absolute crown of the tree is 130 ft high, and climbable up until the last 15 feet. The apex is partly bare, with giant spikes of wood sticking up out of the foliage like a crown. The tree is the tallest in the vicinity, and from this height players should be able to see some cool points of interest in neighbouring hexes/areas close by.

7. Path leading west. Who's been using the track? Clearly not harpies (they fly) or things that would be eaten by harpies (they prefer to avoid being eaten).

8. Deep well (actually the shaft of a buried tower.) Vines growing makes climbing possible but not easy. Possible vines break, guaranteed if the character is loaded with gear and encumbered. Deep, deep drop- this and the 'path leading west' are also bookends for if I want to make more maps and keep adding on. 

I hope I placed the well far enough out of the way so that it doesn't overlap with where the owlbear den ought to be! But I think it's in the dead zone.

P.S. This map should probably have more treasure. And like... scenarios, and character motivations, and plot hooks. That's all up to you though, I'm not making a dungeon here, I'm just making a map with some supplemental notes! All you have to do is find a place for a giant tree with a nest in it and everything should be fine.

Owlbear Lair

 As part of my continuing roll20 DMing I've been making a few battlemaps. 

click for big!

An owlbear lair!

My intention was to make this fairly generic, so it's basically usable as an extension of a random encounter type situation. However, it occurs to me that a few features might benefit from some explanation, so I'll include a quick key:

1. Path leading to nest is well worn- owlbears don't care much about being tracked, because who would be dumb enough to mess with an owlbear in their lair? I included this for the non-zero chance that the players will try to lure the owlbear out or ambush it, in which case the entire rest of the map might be redundant. Oh well!

2. Entrance set between some enormous tree roots. Entrance is wide but low to the ground, and a bit steep, requiring an easy climb check to descend- which is fine when you can take your time, but if you're, say, being chased by an owlbear it's a lot harder. If I wanted to add on to this map, I would build the bluff above the entrance, and the branches of the enormous tree. What could live up in the tree that would happily coexist with an owlbear? Maybe some scavenging harpies? Harpies sound fun.

3. Mud-trough entrance. Owlbear doesn't get impeded, but humanoid characters slip and fall in the mud easily (as a Grease spell)

4. Owlbears like fresh food, especially to feed newly-hatched chicks (owlbears supplement their lactation with drip-fed blood). This owlbear has broken the legs of an unfortunate peasant and stuffed them in this hole- if he hears anyone he calls for help, possibly alerting the owlbear.

5. Passageway north partly blocked by roots. Acrobatics to wiggle through, Athletics to lift out of the way. Roots are infested with numerous small poisonous owlbear mites.

6. Dead end passageway, fresh claw marks on the wall. Owlbear has been working on a new passageway. Lots of roots, some glowing mushrooms- magic! If anyone know any good magic mushroom tables let me know. Elfmaids & Octopi probably does, right?

7. The owlbear's vomitorium. Numerous owlbear pellets in differing stages of decomposition. Each 10 minutes spent searching, character can roll to find something random. Successful check find an at-least-somewhat-useful magic item, failure roll on the Random Junk table. Make sure to describe the junk in an owlbear-themed way!

I do love rot grubs, so feel free to sprinkle some in here. This variety of rot grub doesn't infest owlbears, naturally (or maybe they do, just not fatally, so owlbear flesh is notoriously worm-ridden).

Wall to the south is very thin, can be broken through, either by an adventurer or an owlbear. Owlbear uses this as an escape route, although it's unlikely to flee from puny humans. It only cares about bigger owlbears, or dragons.  

8. This low part of the cave is filled with slick, deep, grey mud. Enough to drown in, but if you find a rock to stand on and balance carefully you can keep your head above the mud. The owlbear is too big to fall in (the ceiling is quite low), but it will happily punt an intruder into the mud- although not if there's only one intruder, because then it wouldn't have a nice snack for when the fight is over.

9. Owlbear has a cozy, dry sleeping nest made of leaves and sticks, and a round incubating nest with eggs. Nest is packed with manure, which the owlbear carefully adds and subtracts from to maintain the correct amount of heat. 

Battlemap: The Kraken's Eye

 Betcha thought this was a derelict blog huh? Maybe. We'll see if this is one of those 'do one post after a long dry spell in a last ditch attempt to revive it which promptly fails' posts. Wouldn't be the first time a project has gone that way!

What have I been up to? This pandemic moved all my games online, of course. So most of my D&D energy has been dedicated to learning how to run that. Roll20 is a learning curve I tell you, and I went down a bit of a rabbit hole where I decided every NPC and monster needed their own stat blocks typed in by hand. 

But now that I've got a handle on that, I've been turning a bit more to art, creating stuff to add to my games. So we'll see if that's a new element which can help me revive my passions for this blog. At any rate, I'm happy with the content I have for this post!

Behold, the Kraken's Eye, an new, cool, squamous-eldritch-horror battlemap for your roll20 (or other) needs: 

Click to Embiggen, ofc
15x17 in case you're wondering

This is ostensibly for the adventure 'Kraken Corpse Delve' (thanks to the estimable Bryce for his excellent review of the module). But really, what game doesn't call for a tense encounter perched on the eyeball of some lovecraftian horror? If you can't use this at SOME point in your game, well I don't want to tell you you're running your game wrong, but you may be running your game wrong.

Now the one problem with that module is the lack of maps. I know, 'theatre of the mind,' but for online games in particular I find an evocative map or illustration is a good way to focus the group's attention. In addition, the very same weird nature of the geography that would make a traditional dungeon map very hard to draw makes the use of a battle map potentially even more important. If I have no idea if a character is above, below, behind, or entirely distant from, another character, how can players be expected to keep track? This are narrow, asymmetrical spaces. I do like the claustrophobia and confusion a purely imagined space helps evoke, and for the majority of this adventure I'll stick to descriptions... but for certain key locations, a map adds a nice touch.

So here's the first, and the first one that caught my attention: a great eye, from which eye-monsters burst. The eye also functions as a kind of 'hatch,' and after it's ruptured or pried loose the players can climb down through the socket to access the next level of the 'dungeon.' I will be following it up (hopefully, if I don't get distracted and never return to this blog again) with a few other maps: the gills I think were one, and the portal room inside what I think is the kraken's brain? And maybe a few other mini-maps. I am intrigued by the idea of illustrating the section of the creatures claws 'jumbled together like lions' or something, even though I'm not sure any fights take place there. You'll have to add one of your own.

A few notes:
- the initial 'entrance' is intended to be via climbing down the long pink tentacle. However clambering over the large orange leg, rappling from the ceiling, or even clambering out of the pit, are all options depending on how you use the map.

- I hope I successfully conveyed height and distance. It's clear to ME, but I already know what it all means. In brief, the broken bits of shell are intended to be platforms, at least 5-10 feet off the 'ground, and the bottom right section features a set of rough, broken 'stair's that leads down to the green tendril-tentacle. The orange legs are either catwalks or 'ladders' to clamber around on. The shadowy area to the right is a chasm and is intended to be pretty deep (and full of weird spines and tentacles and glowing lights). the brown wall to the left, and the rock wall at the top, are intended to be, well, walls- maybe a little sloping, but really hard to actually STAND on. The jutting rock in the bottom right corner is intended as another kind of platform.
- the green-yellow tentacles should probably try to sting you if you step on them. 
- there's a lot of 'difficult terrain' on this map, but in general the large purplish area of skin is pretty clear and easy to move across. Use your discretion in other areas, and of course clearly communicate to players what challenges they might face moving around the space.
- I didn't put as much shadow in as I normally would, as over-shaded maps are a pet peeve of mine in roll20. Because you can set up light sources in the browser, having lighting too 'baked in' to the illustration itself sort of breaks immersion or limits flexibility. I'd place some light sources coming from the eyes, the glowing tentacles, or just some ambient light from the ceiling (fungus of course). However, I would be interested what other people's thoughts are on the matter. More shadows??

Let me know if you use it, how it works for ya, and if you use it for any games that aren't part of the 'kraken corpse' module! 

Ok see ya, and fingers crossed for the next post ;)

d100 Trash and Junk Table

Sometimes Many Goblins find a weird piece of garbage. Sometimes a slaad turns your sword into a random object. Sometimes a murderhobo is grubbing around, clearly unable to move on from this area until they find SOMETHING, but there's definitely no treasure, so you throw them a bone (entry 39) or an oversized moldy boot (entry 20)

I wrote these over quite a long period, so let me know if there are total duplicates and other things that I missed. Also, thank you to my D&D players for helping me crank out the last 10 or so! Very excellent garbage, team <3


d100 Trash & Cool Junk Table

1. A monster that wants to eat you! 1- carrion crawler, 2- fungus (yellow mold, purple fungus, etc), 3- Otyugh, 4- Rot Grubs
2. A paper wasp nest. Maybe a 50% chance it's full of wasps?
3. An ornate table leg that can be used as a club
4. Lead coin somewhat unconvincingly painted gold
5. bag of 100 small balls, like golf balls. May actually be golf balls.
6. Jar filled with live snails
7. Urn filled with ashes
8. tangled bundle of string. Very dirty, but quite sturdy
9. A ten-foot pole that's been duct taped back together
10. A large shell with a crack in it, in it you can hear static instead of the ocean
11. set of bone dice, poorly shaved in attempt to cheat
12. Bag of bent and rusty caltrops
13. A fishing net, holes in it badly repaired
14. Many socks. Do any match? Sort them to find out!
15. Rusty straight razor
16. Axe handle
17. Cool rock (1-purple band, 2- yellow speckles, 3-weird face shape, 3-almost perfectly round)
18. Shovel, blade split nearly in half
19. jar filled with green stuff. Food? Just algae & mold now.
20. single oversized moldy boor
21. Box of mostly unspoiled potatoes
22. Bag of crumpled pieces of colourful paper
23. A basket with a broken handle
24. Very stale scones, can be thrown as projectiles dealing 1d4 damage
25. Spoiled healing potion. Will heal you, but will also make you sick for 1d6 hours
26. Book missing many pages. 1- manual for operating mining equipment; 2- Harlequin romance; 3- hysterical religious text; 4- cookbook for cooking monsters & other dungeon creatures
27. Almost entirely used-up batteries, made of copper, light (nondamaging) acid, copper.
28. broken radio-type machine, only plays (loud) static
29. Several rope scraps tied together to make a 50-ft length. 25% base chance it breaks when used.
30. Many expired credit cards
31. Very scratched CD(s), records, or other recording media
32. Pens with broken nibs, leaky inkwells
33. Quite a few burlap sacks
34. fragment of a spell scroll. Not salvageable, but reading it gives you a minor headache and dizzy spell
35. Can of paint with 1/2 inch of goey paint at the bottom
36. Cracked amphora, no lid
37. Large candle stub 
38. long string, tangled and fragile but suitable as wick/fuse
39. A well-chewed femur, heavy enough to be a club
40. Bottle of wine turned to slightly sludgy vinegar
41. A thumbnail-sized ballbearing
42. A lot of somewhat moldy straw
43. Ripped pillow cases 1-polka dots, 2- zebra/leopard prints, 3- black, 4- cut animal prints (owlbears, froghemoths, etc)
44. Half a roll of tape-bandage. Not clean enough to use as bandage safely, without disinfectant etc
45. jack-o-latern, dried into a somewhat-sturdy container
46.  Stuffed toy, 1 - owlbear, 2- froghemoth, 3- behir, 4- displacer beast
47. chess set missing 1d10 pieces. Chess pieces are 1- dragons, 2-modrons/slaad, 3- geometrical shapes with arcane significance, 4- birds vs the church (very heretical)
48. Deck of cards, only 5d12 cards (if more than a normal deck, then its' several incomplete decks mashed together)
49. Book,  paper written on so many times as to be completely black
50. White Ink
51. Tin soldier (livery of nearest sympathetic empire, geographic or historic), bent, one arm missing
52. Sword bent entirely around like a pretzel
53. Tattered black cowl, blood will wash out
    
54. pretty gross smelling soap, too much lye in it so it stings
55. Perfectly fine boots, but they're a really obnoxious lime green
56. Manacles, locked, no key
57. A black box from an airplane. Doesn't matter whether your campaign has airplanes.
58. Single glove with six fingers
59. Fake skull. Kinda convincing, but not THAT convincing.
60. extremely scratched magnifying glass
61. Psychic paper, but it shows a random thing instead of 'what you expect to see' (1- picture of your/theirs/someone else's kids, 2- the number 'they were thinking of', 3- a queen of hearts, 4- a diary entry of one of the characters, 5- animal facts, 6- porno) 
62. Key (to a random locked door nearby, ideally)
63. Feather duster missing half it's feathers
64. Broom with all the bristles broken off way too short. 
65. Abacus with only 2d6 remaining beads, some broken runners
66. Burnt-out lightbulbs (1d6)
67. Painting in a frame. It's not very good (but that doesn't matter), and it's ripped and stained.
68. Beartrap, rusted shut
69. Bucket with a hole in  it
70. 2d6 cracked and chipped plates and/or saucers
71. Bent fork
72. A perfectly good sewing needle
73. Helmet, three-quarters melted
74. Shard of broken mirror
75. Small box with different fishing weights
76. Fused-up tanglefoot bag
77. Collection of 2d8 worn, faded, and cut up periodicals (Nat Geo, but with dragons... Unnatural Geomantic?)
78. A cheap trophy for an unpopular sport (1-lacrosse, 2- curling, 3- quidditch) 
79. A towel!
80. A chair with one leg that's quite a bit too short
81. 1/10th of a roll of tape
82. Bent & ruined lockpicks
83. preserved peaches so old they've turned into a kind of weird slurry- still edible tho!
84. Terracotta flower pots, 1d6 (stacked), 50% cracked
85. Quarter 'ration' of oil
86. Battered storm lantern that won't stand up straight
87.  bag of broken glass, safely wrapped
88.  Old atlas, out of date but not SO out of date to be particularly  historical
89. A full can of whipped cream. All the nitrous is gone. Nearby are a gang of whippet-high goblins
90. mold-saturated blanket
91. A jar of mismatched buttons
92. A single sandle, slighty magic, falls apart and bits float away if handled roughly
93. Large rotten molar covered in tooth-fairy dust
94. A tattered portrait of a decorated admiral with the face of a frowning cat. Did he ever really exist?
95. Leather bound journal filled with scratchings of a madman, final entry is only discernible sentence: "It's all true"
96. torn-off cover of a wizard's grimoire
97. 3d10 mismatched letters for typesetting
98. 1d4 strings of cheap beads (mardi gras style)
99. Shred of map. May show one useful landmark, not much more
100. actual kind of treasure! Use your favourite 'minor items' table or roll here.

Look at all that useless crap! And, maybe this list will be less useful to you if you run a more 'medieval' and less anachronistic fantasy game, in which case tweak the items to be more grounded, or use the short list below

1. turnip peels
2. old boot
3. string
4. nothing

And last but not least, a 5e version of the randomize object spell- although with that spell, less of the objects should be broken, so tweak the descriptions. And/OR add the seventy or so objects from the Goblin Punch 'Slaad' entry (including in the comments), and we're almost up to a d200 table! 

Randomize Object
2nd-level Transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V S M (bit of clay)
Duration: Up to 1 hour
Classes: Bard, Sorcerer, Wizard
This spell transforms an object no larger than a breadbox that you can see within range into a random new form. An attended object held by unwilling creature may get a Saving throw (wielder's Charisma save) to resist. The transformation should be as random as possible, and the caster has no control over the result of the transformation. At the end of the duration the object may get a second save, otherwise, permanent.

+1 item replacements

Some items, designed to be generally but not strictly more powerful than my 'd40 Misc Magic Items' table. Where as those were aimed to be 'odd and probably useful if you're creative' with a few more straightforward items mixed in, these are mostly weapons, in the vein of the 'replacements for +1 swords' posts of yesteryear

1- Mirrorblade
Once per combat you may, instead of rolling a d20, use the value of a d20 one of your opponents just rolled. You must declare this when they make the roll you want to mirror, and it must be used to do approximately the same action (attack for an attack roll, trip if they tried to trip someone, etc)

2- Chainsword

3d8, doubles deal double damage, triples deal triple. If you hit with this, you can't make any more attacks this turn.

3- Tent-Spear
1d10 piercing and force damage. When thrust into the ground (can be done as a reaction), creates a bubble of force. It has 20 hp and all attacks against it hit. If the hit points are reduced to zero, the spear is nonmagic for the purposes of attacking until the next dawn.

4- Kinetic Armour
Absorbs 5 damage from an attack, up to 25 damage total. The stored energy can be released as extra damage on a melee attack, or all 25 damage points can be released in a 10-ft nova around you Dex save for half).

5- the Pendulum
Metal sphere on a long cord. Changes weight, size, & length to maximize impact of it's swing. Targets within 10 ft take 1d10 damage, within 20 ft take 2d10, and within 30 ft (max range) take 3d10, but at a -2 to hit because they have more time to dodge.

6- Conceptual Sword
Looks like the minecraft sword, or what you picture in your mind when you think of a sword. Deals 1d8 psychic damage in addition to regular sword damage. Can be 'stored' in the wielders mind, in which case it appears as a tiny sword-cross-like tattoo on the temple. If it leaves your hand you can re-summon by imagining, so it can be thrown but not perfectly (it's a conceptual sword, not a conceptual throwing axe or whatever), so attack at -2.  Needless to say it can deal damage to ghosts, demons, faeries, illusions, etc- anything that's 'conceptual' or 'imaginary' in nature.

7- Mathematical Blade

Angular blade covered in numbers, squiggly formulas. Looks a bit like a very long right-angle triangle, complete with trigonometry markings. Could be found as a anything from a dagger to a greatsword. As you fight (has to be an actual fight), collect numbers rolled in combat (from damage or low d20s) until you have a full set (1-4 for a dagger, 1-12 for a greatsword, etc). A full set can be turned in for an auto hit with the blade (declare before you roll), or to turn a hit with the blade into max damage (can be used on critical hits for truly stupendous results.)

8- Ancestor Sword
Forged in a fire kindled from the bones of a revered ancestor, or a bear or something strong and awesome if an appropriate ancestor is unavailable. You have advantage to Strength checks and saves, and on Wisdom saves, while the sword is in your hand. The sword also deals damage to ghosts and spirits- it's actually two swords, one real and one ghostly, so enemies who can be struck by both (like many demons/devils, liches, slaad, etc) take both damages.

9- Mace of Many Metals
Studded with adamantine, silver, cold iron, oak, etc etc. Deals 1d8+str damage, and probably bypasses any and all damage resistance or immunity based on physical materials. Enchantments woven into the mace mean that it even deals 1d4+str damage to

10- Inevitable Sword
Every time you miss with this sword, you get a stacking +1 to your next attack with it, and +1d6 damage on your next hit. If you switch opponents, start over at 0- very similar opponents might count as the 'same' for these purposes.

Miscellaneous Magic Items 1d40

To be included in the 'miscellaneous items of variable but not enormous power' section of your random loot table. A section which every loot table should have, naturally.

One of the nice things about 5e is that having magic items as 'totally unnecessary, added-on elements' (that obviously everyone is going to use, cuz they're cool) means that you don't REALLY have 'balance' them at all! Consequently, you can design 'em to be equally useful in a 5e or an OSR game, with basically no conversion work between them. You can do that to some extent with lots of stuff, but with magic items you don't even need to file off the serial numbers. So if you're looking to inject a little OSR into your 5e game, magic items might be the place to start. Hopefully this will function like beautiful propaganda, and soon everything will be OSR-ified.


Miscellaneous Magic Items
(Roll a 1d4-1 (for the tens) and 1d10 for the ones.)

1- Legionaire Helm. Gives reverse telepathy-people can transmit their thoughts to you. Works over 100 ft, or ten times that if the sender takes full round to concentrate (or if they have corresponding Centurion Helm)
2- Brain Wire. Like headphones you plug into someone's ear and listen to to hear their thoughts.
3- Scissors of Precision. Can separate impossible things without damaging them. A persons skin, leaves off a tree, all the grey hairs on someone's head, turn a tapestry into its individual threads, cut all of someones clothes off- even cut someone off mid sentence??
4- Arrow of Dimension Door: when this arrow hits a target, whether creature or object, the shooter teleports to that location. Maybe they kinda ride the arrow like a surf board, or maybe the arrow pokes a hole in space-time and you hop through
5- portable door. This item can be worn as a shield, granting the ability to 'swallow' one missile or ray attack per round (as a reaction). It can also be placed against a wall to create a temporary doorway, large enough to walk thru while crouching. The shield can bridge up to five ft of stone or wood, one inch of metal, but is blocked by gold or lead. The item can be retrieved from either side of the door (there's a knob like thing that also serves as the boss of the shield), and the portal takes one round to close once removed.
6- moss arrow. Can muffle footsteps, help bypass caltrops, oil, grease spell, etc, can temporarily choke/blind a target (1d4-1 rounds, min 1, no save, disadvantage to hit cuz you have to target only the head, only deals 1 damage) (yes I stole this from Thief but I know you wanted it on a random table
7: Blue crystal lens. Like a miniature telescope, you can use it to see through smoke and fog, but only for about 30 ft in front of the telescope's point of focus. So to see further you might have to zoom in more, but that gets increasingly unwieldy to use during combat
8: Shell of the Zondervoze. Like a snail-shell-clam thing you wear on your ear (it has wire loops for this purpose). It lets you have a kind of weird, echo-y telepathy that transmits through the group unconsciousness. Make the players play 'telephone' to pass messages to each other to pass the message- the characters in between don't really hear the message, but their brains kinda shove the contents through, and maybe they catch little snippets, so don't enforce player-vs-character knowledge super hard for this one. Of course, the DM *can* also be included in this chain, but can the characters really trust the subconscious of the miscellaneous monsters hanging around? Characters can pass messages over any distance using this, but that's the basic area of monsters included if the DM gets looped in. In a cute little town this might be relatively safe, but in a dungeon probably just go the other way around the circle.
9: Bishop's Mantle. Provides a mystical ward that abstracts geometry around you. So long as you move diagonally (on a grid) you don't provoke attacks of opportunity. You can also move between objects if the diagonal dimension between them is free, without squeezing, weirdly phasing between them if necessary. While you wear this mantle, you cannot run or charge in a 'straight' line, and you have disadvantage on Acrobatics checks to avoid terrain difficulties when you're moving in a 'straight' line.
10: Knight's Mantle. You can teleport 15 feet at will (two squares forward, one to the side) so long as your movement takes you through a space occupied by a hostile creature.
11: Pawn's Mantle. On the first round of combat, you can take an extra move action. You can also hit people who moved past you in the last round of combat as if they were still adjacent. Unfortunately, you can only move 'forward' (towards your enemies) and you cab only attack the two squares to the left and right in front of you (you know, like a pawn)
12: Pouch of Sleep. You can use this pouch to 'store up' sleep and save it for later. You can store up to 1d6 nights worth (roll every day, excess leaks out and puts random targets to sleep). You can release sleep from the bag to cast sleep as the spell (one charge per night's worth)
13: Bag of Night. When opened, makes it the middle of the night. When used indoors, instead makes the room magically dark, and leaks into 1d6 adjacent rooms
14: Bag of Stars. You can open this bag to shoot stars at people.You can recharge it by climbing a tree or something and waving the bag around on a clear night to catch stars. Roll for each star: 1-2- faerie fire; 3-4- dancing lights; 5- scorching ray; 6 - moonbeam, 7- fireball, 8- sunbeam.
15: Sentient Arrow. Can fire itself at targets, about as smart as a bird of prey. If it hits it gets embedded in target, probably has to be rescued
16: Belt of Tails. Can magically grow different kinds of tails (lizard, feline, monkey, etc). Can be used like a whip, and can grow a whole bunch of tails and kind of helicopter them to prevent the first 1d8x10 fall damage. Can also hold small objects.
17: Abacus of Fate. Lets you count anything you can see. A giant pile of rice, all the stars in the sky, etc etc.
18: Spiral Bomb. Causes a spatial rupture, similar to a bag of holding/portable hole scenario. Sucks everything within a 10ft radius (DC 18 STR save to resist) through a very small gate, reinforced with adamantium. The target takes 8d6+20 force damage. If this damage reduces the target to 0 Hit Points, it is pulped and ejected into the astral plane.
19: Colour Bomb. Like a large hand grenade filled with scientifically admixtured chaos. Deals 6d6+1d8+1d10 damage. The d8 determines the damage type (1-poison, 2-lightning, 3-acid, 4-thunder, 5-cold, 6-fire, 7- radiant, 8- necrotic), and the d10 determines a random condition (1-damage is ongoing (half of original), 2- stunned, 3-blinded, 4-paralyzed, 5- deafened, 6- entangled, 7-sleep, 8-mutation, 9- madness point, 10-1d4 drunk points.)
20: Circlet of Rage. Allows you to spend a HD to get an extra d20 on an attack roll, you take the better one. You can spend multiple hd at once (so 3d20, 4d20,etc). You also take those hd in psychic damage (con bonus doesn't apply)
21: Cloak of Shrouding. Your face and identity are completely blurred out when you have the hood up. You can't be detected by long-range divinations, and short range divinations must pass a DC 15 save to effect you. No one can learn a secret about you by magic, unless NO ONE but you knows the secret
22: Eye-painted pebble. A blue eye painted on a stone, and a corresponding very small mirror. Looking into the mirror is like looking out of the eye.
23: Iron Shoes. Cursed so you can't take them off. If you jump on someone shoes-first, you can have them take up to 10d6 of fall damage you would normally take- if you hit. If you miss, you take damage as normal. Attacks beyond 20 ft have disadvantage if they know you're there, 40 ft if they're not paying attention. The shoes are super heavy, but you can run in them normally, etc. Disadvantage on swimming and stealth, though.
24: Feather Token. 1- Cloud of Butterflies (as fog cloud for 1d6 turns); 2- Beautiful Pipes (music enthralls); 3- Raven Messenger (like animal messanger, obvs); 4- Icy Shores (Freezes the surface of a body of water, thick enough to walk on, 1d6x100 ft radius, lasts 1d6 minutes); 6- Jaguar (turns you into a jaguar for 1d10 hours).
25: Dream Pipe. Magical pipe and special tobacco/drugs mixture. Enough in pouch for 1d6 uses, an alchemist could make more (with proper magic ingredients). Smoking for a minute puts you into a trance, you can appear in other people's dreams. Gives 1d4 points of 'drunk' for the next 1d4+1 hours.
26: Red Goop. Made of extremely potent healing herbs. Almost too potent. Heals 4d8+4 damage, will knit (but not set) bones. Give advantage on Str saves and checks for an hour or so, +20 ft to speed. Addictive, but successive applications can give a mutation point (con save avoids, DC 10+2 for each dose you've had today). Gives 1 point of drunk.
27: Black Lotus Extract. Smoked, gives magic users spell slots back depending on how high they get. One spell level worth for every 'drunk' point. You can split these up however, so three drunk points could be three 1st level slots, or one 2nd, one 1st. You also hallucinate vividly for about a minute, which is fine if you just sit there and chill, but if you try'n do anything, act as confused every turn unless you make a Intelligence save. Technically gives non-magic users spell slots too, but they can't usually do anything with them. When found as a magic item, has 1d10 doses. Highly addictive.
28: Magic Barrel. You can hop inside it and roll around, without getting TOO dizzy. About as fast as a horse. Only works when you're drunk (at least 3 points). Has trouble going up steep hills and stairs. 1d6 damage when you smash into people, can trample.
29: Ugly Stick. The stick itself is very ugly. Counts as magic against beautiful creatures. 1d8 damage, as a club, but can strike for 0 damage if so choose. Anyone hit must make a Charisma save (DC 16) or become very ugly- they loose 1d6 Charisma each time they're hit. Characters with Charisma 6 or less, or who are already quite ugly, may be immune.
30: Breathing Goggles. Let you breath underwater, in a vacuum, etc. 50% chance of screening out poison gas, advantage on saves vs. gas if it doesn't.
31: Drinking Goggles. Ignore the first 5 points of Drunk. If you take the goggles off, all the drunkeness comes back.
32: Belt of Immovability. When activated, the wearer cannot be moved by any means. The wearer can still move their arms, etc, but they can't move from their position unless they deactivate the belt. Supernatural forces may be able to shift the wearer on a successful DC 20 Str check. Charge and ram type attacks still deal damage, but they deal half that amount of damage to the attacker as well.
33: Postage Stamp of Sending- send a letter by magic! Give the players a piece of paper to write the letter. You need an address, but it doesn't have to be a street address ('Awesome John Smith, the Gnarled Hollow Tree Stump, South End of the Svalich Woods, Barovia') If the person is at 'home' it appears close by them in an obvious location, otherwise it appears somewhere near the door (ideally in a mailbox, obvs)
34: Net of Ghost-Catching. Can entangle ghosts, will-o'wisps, etc. While entangled they can't shift their shape or use possession-type powers. DC 15 to evade, 20 to escape.
35: Magic String. Spool appears to have perhaps 50 ft, but actually up to a kilometer. Not unbreakable, but magically good at not being cut or tripped over by accident. Golden gleam in dim light makes it easy to spot. Easily rolls back onto the spool as you retrace your steps, easily untangled/unknotted if the owner wants it to be. Pieces cut off can be added back into the spool and repaired.
36: Immovable Nail. Immovable rod, but in nail form. Doesn't have a button to release, but if you have a magic hammer or crowbar you can pry it out (75% chance it's undamaged enough to use again)
37: Magic Crowbar +1. It's a crowbar that's magic! Deals 1d4 damage if used as an improvised weapon, +1 to hit and damage. +5 to any Strength checks to pry open objects, etc, using the crowbar. Almost unbreakable.
38: Immovable Shield. Button toggles immovable - ness. When locked in place, protects against attacks from a specific direction, and frees up your hands to do other things. Savvy enemies may also use the shield as cover if they're right next to it
39: Spoon of Deliciousness. Makes anything it stirs taste great. It still tastes like whatever it is tho, which could lead to some weird sensations. Could be used to mask bitter-tasting poisons.
40: Needle of Reality. If you stab an illusion with this needle, it dispels it, popping it like a balloon. Also stops real things from becoming illusions, if stabbed through them. Can such a thing happen?

Starting Gear - first four

In the 5e game I run, replacement characters etc start at 5th level. The median party level is probably around 8 or 10, so that's a significant bump down, but it's also at the point where the Backgrounds in the Player's Handbook don't always cut it. Plus, and this is the real headache, character creation takes way too long. Stuff like this 'retroactive backstory' table speed things along, but not enough.

I'm almost tempted to make people start at level one, but I know I'd have a  mutiny on my hands (perfectly justifiable at this point in the campaign)

So instead, I want to make 'Level 5' as much like 'Level 1' as possible. This will include beefed up backgrounds, semi-randomized starting gear and magic items, and set spell lists for wizards and their ilk- so you're a 5th level wizard, well I can just hand you a spell list, I guess that was on the curriculum. And you can tweak it from there

Not all of this is binding of course, customization is encouraged, but this way you don't have to hem and haw over stuff you don't care about (you can keep your valuable hemming and hawing to stuff you really do care about!), and anyway, 5th-level characters need some place in the world, otherwise how did they get to 5th level? That's the added advantage, it gives a chance to embed context and world building into the character creation process


Here are the first four- I'm aiming for at least eight or twelve, and Backgrounds to go with them, but I'm writing kinda slow at the moment so I figure I better just get these out there for starters


Legionnaire's Pack
depending on your standing with the army, you might have kinda sorta 'stolen' these items when you were discharged. Or maybe you were gifted them in honor of your excellent service! Probably stolen, tho.

• Armour of the Legion- slightly mechanized armour, AC 16, grants advantage on Athletics checks (also disadvantage on swimming, because of the encumbrance)
• Legionaire's Helm, provides reverse-telepathy (others can send messages to you, you can block them out if you choose)
• Magetouched sword - minor enchantment, counts as magic but that's about it. Immune to most damage, especially acid and fire. Appears to be made of a strange grey ceramic material. Has a rune near the crossgaurd that you can command to glow, as a candle. 
• Jump Boots- 4 charges, return in an hour. Spend 1 charge to cast jump.

Tower Mage 
used by the official, kinda stuffy charter mages

• Beautiful robes that denote your school and rank. Warded to give you a +1 to AC and to all saving throws.
• A brass-tipped staff, which functions as a spell focus, and lets you know fireball and can cast it once per day without using a spell slot.
• A belt with several raven and owl feathers and strings of beads hung from it, used as impromptu foci for spells. 
• A pouch filled with little bundles of rocks, when thrown creates a cloud of incense smoke, most wizards use this to obscure escape. 1d4 depletion die.
• The Charter of the Arcane, a book of fussy magical rules that you're supposed to memorize.

Adept of Zulin

priests and particularly religious people

• Small blue pet snake. Likes to live in your sleeves or sit on top of your head, which you probably keep shaved for this purpose.
•  Incense of dream-binding: can bind any spirit into a dream, provided the dreamer stays asleep. A dreamer must be properly trained to a degree appropriate for the power of the spirit, and several properly trained dreamers can share responsibilities.
• Staff of Holding- Enchanted to count as magic and cold iron. Can switch between +2 attack and +2 defence as a bonus action. Weilder knows hold person and can cast it 1/day without using a spell slot. Also works like a bag of holding, but can only hold light or negligible items (items appear and disappear from weilder's hand, when they're holding the staff)
• Prayer Beads (roll three times, can have duplicates): 1-Purify Food and Drink; 2- Calm Emotions; 3- Detect Evil and Good; 4- Gentle Repose; 5- Zone of Truth; 6- Sanctuary. Spells can be cast from the beads as a bonus action, once cast they can't be used again until the adept prays over them at the next dawn.

Azure Pirate

There are many scoundrels in the world, but you are one of the most feared

• Gold earring- worth 2 gp, but you won't sell it because it's supposed to pay for your funeral or disability retirement.
• Eyepatch with an eye design embroidered into it-prevents you from being blinded by light effects, and lets you see in dim light as if it were brightly lit
• Cutlass of sky-blue metal, can be commanded mentally to float in water, slightly corrosive so kept in a ceramic sheath, has 4 charges and can expend a charge on a hit to 'tag' a target with acid, dealing 2d4 damage every turn for a minute, or until washed off by alcohol or seawater.
• Feather Token (roll 3 times, keeping duplicates): 1- Control Weather (Fog); 2- Call Wind; 3- Shark; 4- Wings; 5- Phoenix Down; 6- Rogue Wave; 7- Feather Fall; 8- Sympathy

Rumour table for Gog-Magog

On the Isle of Dread, a community of rebels squatting inside a giant skull. They call the settlement Gog-Magog. Mostly Shalk (human and half-elf) escaped from the treacherous Prince Henri of Fort Akor, they have been joined by survivors of Skinwalker raids (tabaxi, lizardfolk, Olman humans), and miscellaneous drifters from around the region. In the space of a few months, the place has attracted a bit of a reputation.

The following rumour table is intended for Gog-Magog, but could be used for areas within the Seven Villages region, with some on-the-fly adaptation, in case I don't end up writing a proper rumour table for those :'(

Roll and use the whole line as-is, or do a couple rolls to mix-and-match

Players: no peeking!

	How you meet ‘em	Description	Qoute	Name
1	A ragged stranger squatting in an alley	Abati hunchback, blue crystal growths poking painfully out of their skin. Beckons you closer, because voice is raspy and spittle-flecked.	‘I fled the Doom that came [Burowao/Dawa] We thought we’d defeated the People of the Red Caves...’	Iffingil
2	A new drinking buddy	Tattered royal uniform, well-oiled Eldritch Rifle (as eldritch blast, plus stun (hold person ray) 1/short rest, hip flask filled with bruskum, zippo lighter & pipe that never goes out by accident (insert cool rain scene!)	‘yeah, when the prince went rotten, I sided with the Shalks. Mom always said I had some Shalk blood in me, and I can mostly understand their language now so I guess it’s true!’	Poppinjay McGee
3	You crashed at their place	An exeptionally large tortle, motherly attitude, stokes the fire, constantly making soup out of the weirdest things, will trade herbal potions for more soup materials.	‘the Black Eagle? Aye, he passed through here a few days back. Word has it that his son survived the attack, but suffers under some sort of curse! Asked to borrow some of our doctors, but we couldn’t spare ‘em.’	Beaux
4	A concerned stranger approaches you	Shalk warrior, bow made of bone and sinew, necklace of various unique coins (hexagons, green ones, unusual designs on ‘em, etc)	‘those treasures you’ve brought back, they’ve attacted a few eyes. I’d find a place to stash them, if you want to keep your organs on the inside of your body.’	‘I’ve forsworn my name. You may call me the Fifth Warrior.
5	Maybe you were drunk, maybe you were distracted by another conversation	You can’t even remember what they looked like, except they had a medium-sized mole on one of their cheeks. It might’ve been the left cheek? Anyway, you remember them telling you...	‘Lucian’s not the only authority figure around here. That is, if his mother’s still alive...’	????
6	Gathering food or peeling vegetables (eats quite a few of the peelings)	Bulky, bloodshot eyes, pig snout & little tusks (skinwalker!), long arms, wearing several vests	Prince Lucian sent our best hunters out every day last week, but they kept coming back with nothing. Now they’re not going out in one big group anymore, but at least they’ve started to come back with SOME food	Gristle ap Grostle
7	Tinkering away at fixing an eldritch rifle (shoots acid arrow, 1-in-6 chance of it going off accidentally if distracted suddenly, jostled, or startled	2½ feet high, way to large coat, hat. Mouselike hands, tail visible if hurrying away or distracted by some juicy deal or conversation (starts whisking around)	Wants to sell you - copper pots with well-mended holes - resin-soaked fish (for eating or burning) - a golden teaspoon that can mix any liquid just by tapping the outside of the vessel that holds it - a ming vase of holding (fragile!) Doesn’t want to sell the rifle, it’s for a client	Has the same name as you! But pronounced with a lisp.
8	Offers to smoke you up some kalamanthis.	Tabaxi dressed in fancy coat stolen from royal officer.	‘The skinwalkers hit my village, slaughtered everyone. They hit the lizardfolk too, the phanatons, all the Olman tribes north of the wall… if Lucian wants to be allies with them, I say we slit his throat while he sleeps. You in?’	Grievous Scarab, Eyes-of-the-Damned
9	Appears out of the shadows behind you, when you’re mostly alone.	Black goatee & moustache, travelers cloak, seems to have bits of cold mist clinging to him.	‘so, did the cards teach you of any great wisdom?’	Arrigal
10	An overheard conversation (the primaries are waiting by a blacksmiths or tattooist)	Several ragged individuals, trying to strike off the last of their chains, and rubbing their chaffed wrists	‘a frontal assault on the fort would be suicide. The open ground would be a killing field. Why, I heard a dragon tried to breach those walls, and the soldiers with their rifles drove it off!’	Penseive, Occifer, Gwyn, Willodrake.

Dungeon: the Fulgurite Pillars

My first posted dungeon! It shall not be the last.

Player o'mine: obviously, shove off. This one ain't FOR you!

I designed this as a hexcrawl feature for my players exploring the isle of dread. They came across a crater, and were wondering what made it. I had a vague idea, so I fleshed this out quickly before the next week's session. I originally ran it with just the drawing, no text. The notes are supposed to be short & usable at the table. I may do up an appendix later detailing more about the Glass Star and the crater, but...

I didn't include rules for radiation, but I'd use the one where exposure basically gives you -1 natural healing, permanently, plus Skeples supernatural mutation table if things get real bad. I can't remember where I got the -1 rule, someone let me know so I can link to it :)

Because some of the areas are kinda hard to describe, I found it useful to just show the map, with the as-yet unexplored areas covered. So here's a text-free version of the above image:

And here's another reference photo of fulgurite: what it looks like inside the dungeon. I imagine those walls are pretty difficult to climb.

Character Sheets

I made this character sheet for my game, partly cuz I wanted to be able to set the aesthetic, and partly cuz I needed to design it to incorporate things like Ten Foot Polemic's Death Dice and Goblin Punch's inventory system. And I was getting it ready to print yesterday, so naturally I had to tweak about a dozen things, and afterwards I figured I'd better post the results.

and the back

The 'food' 'water' etc in the top right corner is intended to track supplies in a 'hazard die' or 'ammo die' type of situation.