Hello everyone!
This week has been an excellent one - I recieved a Ringing endorsement from
, which made me feel very appreciated. The channel has grown toIn the dark and ever-surprising realm of real-life, things have been an absolute roller coaster - my Wife, amazing as she is, got a new job. We bought a new car to replace the old car, then we were denied the funds to buy it, then we found them elsewhere, and my motorbikes continue to splutter ever onwards, in a manner remniscent of the art piece “Can’t Help Myself”. But anyway, enough of my own life ruminations - it’s time for D&D!
To the Orb!
Some day I must make my own bit of artwork for this!
Where We’ve Been
This week saw a trio of newsletters! First was another monstrous combination, albeit a fairly simple one - the Barlgura Gladiator, which helped lay some framework for the Barlgura political structure and culture. It also got a few of you artistic folks thinking, so please do draw some of these - with as many interesting weapons as you might like to - and I can try and put them together into a community project for us!
Then was a darker subject in Worldbuilding Wednesday, where I discussed discrimination in the world of Arenstar1. This got some great comments and discussion going, which was awesome to see! Finally, I rounded the week out with Folklore Friday, which featured the verse of the Swamp King!
This week was light on the ground for content about my Wargame, Red Sky, because I was overwhelmed with real life to deal with and found scant time for the blissful company of dice and spreadsheets2. Rest assured that Red Sky will continue to be chipped away at over time, and I will continue to post about it intermittently - unlike my regular newsletters, it’s more of an “as it comes” sort of scheduling!
Where We’re Going
This week’s got 2 newsletters lined up for you - the first is Training Tuesday, and features a dive into worldbuilding from an engineering standpoint, using Engineering problem-solving tools to seek out realistic cause & effect within your worldbuilding! The second is Third-Party Thursday, and I had hoped to have finally managed to playtest No Time for the Wicked - a brilliant oneshot module set in Ravenloft - but there were complications from the grim world of real life, including sourcing a new car to replace ours, which died, and working extra days to hand over jobs. The combination of being isolated at home without capacious3 transport, and having less free time, means that I am having to delay it (again - my sincere regrets) and instead post about something else. This week, I am going to talk about my Gritty Guide to Realistic Resting and my Guide to Gritty, Consequential, and Realistic dying, which help make the world feel a little less like one good nights sleep will fix everything - either works fine, but both makes for some very good wearing-down mechanics for those long adventures!
But now, it’s time for the Cheese Chase.
The Cheese Chase part 8
Last time, the Cheese Chasers had fought their way into the lair of the dragon Kerlenthraz, beneath the lake of the Hylemoor, and stood before the slowly opening door of stone before them.
They all readied themselves for what they assumed would be a fight with a dragon - hefting weapons, assuming cool stances, and preparing their last words.
The circular door rolled aside, revealing a small hill of glittering coins and treasures - and, on first glance, no dragon. They cautiously stepped forward, and looked around. The cavern was4 large and oval, with a single door in and out, which they were using. The treasures were numerous and powerful - they found a Hammer of Thunderbolts, which Charles picked up; a Sunblade, which Miradan picked up; a huge greatsword named the Kobold Splitter, which Grizz picked up; a heavy trenchcoat which rattled when shaken, and a set of black armour which seemed to blend into the shadows, which Marva claimed; several small cases, containing some strange contraption and a small, polished stone. Marva was also drawn to a small, wooden idol - carved of a fine-grained hardwood, it appeared to be a viking-esque carving. Black tendrils of shadow, a signal from the Raven Queen to her Warlock, drew it to her attention, and she heard in her head a message - “Keep it Secret”. They also claimed a heap of gold coins each; a Driftglobe; and, after their initial loot-fuelled mania subsided, they began looking for the reason they were here - the Cursebreaker, the legendary longsword wielded by Arra the Klutz. Locate Object had told them it was in here, and they quickly found it - the skeleton of Arra lay in the groove of the door, his legs ground to powder, still wielding the sword and wearing his cape. Charles claimed the Cape, and reasoned that he would be best to wield the sword.
Now with the Sword in hand, the party snuck back toward the exit. The rumbling sounds persisted, and they felt confident that Kerlenthraz slept on. They reached their cart of giant coins, and they began pushing it toward the underground pool which led out to the lake. There, they worked out a method for moving their new-found loot to the surface5 and they emerged into the driving rain of the Hylemoor, wealthier than ever before and soaking wet.
The party reunited with their mounts, and began to carefully pick their way back across the barren Hylemoor, laden with treasure. They kept an eye on the sky, and opted to keep moving through the night, to put as much distance as they could between themselves and the dragon they had just robbed. Taking a point of exhaustion for pushing through the night, the party then encountered a rope, hanging from the sky and moving erratically. Thinking of it as their good fortune, the party pulled the rope, thinking they could get their hook back6, and the Pressure Weird appeared again. Zav, the Cleric, decided that he might be able to scare it away using a spell, which he tried to cast subtly so that the Weird would simply run away. He rolled poorly, and the storm around the pressure weird turned black and dense as it locked eyes with him. The others began making a lot of noise and moving around to distract it - something which had worked before - and it just kept staring down Zav, who made a simple statement:
“oh no.”
The fight was brief - the pressure weird attempted to smother Zav, who found all of his spells had Verbal components, and were useless in the silent vacuum which surrounded the strange beast, and everyone piled in to try and save him. Eventually, Miradan finished the weird off with non-lethal strikes, and they left it unconscious as they moved on.
As they approached where they left the Dunker, they noticed something was off - there was movement. They got closer, and they saw a group of humanoids moving about on the landship - bandits, looking like they can’t believe their luck at finding something as awesome as this.
The party were initially hostile, but then Charles elected to try and frighten the bandits away - he blasted lightning into the air from his lightning launchers, and roared a battle-cry. The others joined in - each describing their intimdating presence - Grizz turning into a bear and roaring, Marva summoning shadows about her person to menace them, Zav beaming holy light, and Miradan igniting his new Sunblade and showing off his prowess with it.
The bandits fled - they did not want to mess with a group as powerful as this, with naught but arrows and swords. The party reclaimed the Dunker, and they began investigating their haul.
Marva discovered that the armour she had found gave her the ability to blend in with the shadows, boosting her stealth in the dark. Charles already knew he had a Hammer of Thunderbolts, and a cape of billowing, and the Cursebreaker to boot - a Longsword which could end any spell or curse on an object or creature it strikes7. Miradan had only claimed the Sunblade, which I allowed as a Monk weapon because the Rule of Cool prevailed. Grizz had the Kobold Splitter (homebrew), a greatsword which, when attuned to by a barbarian, deals additional damage when raging, and can cleave through multiple foes, if they’re squishy enough! He also had a stone called the Steed Stone (also homebrew), which when activated will create a steed from the most abundant material nearby. On top of this, he found a box containing two stones, which they discovered were called the Leapstones (more homebrew!) which would teleport anyone who was holding one of them to the other, when it comes to rest on the ground. Zav got a Driftglobe, and a portable peephole (yet more homebrew) which had the ability to render up to 3ft. of material invisible in a line straight from it, allowing you to peek through doors and walls.
They used the Steedstone outside, which tore up the ground to make a rhino out of stone, which they then hitched up to the Dunker and began a long rest (with Marva and Miradan, as the elves, taking shifts driving).
And that’s where I’ll leave it this week!
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Until next time, happy Slaying!
Sadly, it is such a powerful tool for building conflicts in fiction that it has to be present - unless you’re writing a utopia!
Don’t judge me!
This may be the best word in this article. Post contenders in the comments!
I stress again; I described this many moons ago, and do not remember the details in exactitude!
I don’t remember exactly how they managed it, but it either involved a bag of holding, or the Artificer using their strength armour to swim whilst carrying the heavier stuff. I think it was the latter, or the former would have been filled with coins!
Those following sequentially will know, but this was a fishing hook looted from a giant who was fishing for astral-sea sharks from a landship, obviously.
When I became aware of how unbelievably powerful this was, I amended it to casting a Dispel spell at 5th level. Still good, but now within the bounds of the rules!