Micro-Adventure - #114 RATS!

 Dungeon tropes are a thing to embrace, not to dismiss. It's simple to handwave the storm the orc infested tower to save the princess, evil wizard in a tower, a cult has kidnapped a child, and the one I am addressing is the rats in the cellar trope. This is actually the third micro-adventure using the trope. None of them are alike. I like taking expectations and twisting them. That's what I do with RATS!

This is part of my Micro-Adventure series that I write for my Patreon. Please take a look at patreon.com/gothridge and check it out. All my offerings are free.


https://youtu.be/1F5jAAd8TUc

Indexing Adventures

June 11th, 2014 I started my Patreon. 1While I haven't been active during the past half year or so I've accumulated 110 micro-adventures, 37 micro-locations, 43 NPC cards  and 2 collections of Shadowdark magic items. Through those years I've written for different systems starting with Swords & Wizardry Complete, Swords & Wizardry Continual Light, Old School Essentials and most recently, Shadowdark.

Nearly all have a place within my home campaign of the Komor Forest. Joe the Lawyer has been on my ass about combining them all. 

While I am no place to do a setting compilation I am cataloging everything I have created on Patreon and my other products over the years. What I am creating an index. I go through each one and detail the place type of the adventure (i.e. crypt, forest ruins ect...) enemies, any new thing I introduce such as gods, items and magic items, relics, spell reagents, disease, groups and places of note. 

It's been interesting returning to the old adventures. I've forgotten a lot. It'll be good to have them organized so I can finally have a definitive guide to the Komor Forest. This will allow me to generate more content that will relate to other pieces I've written and allow me to funnel down into my world mythology.

If your interested in checking out my work, my world please join me at https://www.patreon.com/gothridge. I'm going to tell you secret. To get access to my content. All of it, you don't even have to join. Don't tell anyone. All my PDFs are free to grab, but if you'd like physical copies check out the pledge levels. 

Hope you'll join and partake in some fun nonsense. 

Who Wants an Adventure? A Cool Location? How about an NPC Card?

 

July I created three 'things' for my Patreon. You can see Viviana above. She is my 34th NPC Card. An elven mage with some anger issues. She is statted for OSE rules. And the artwork is by Quico Vicens-Picatto of Misfit Studios. 

Next is The Maggot King. An adventure that'll take the players back a few hundred years to face an undead abomination, but the truth is, he was more of an abomination alive. This is a quick adventure for a single session. Artwork is by Yuri Perkowski Domingos. 

And lastly is Crystal Hunters. A location with interlacing situations going on for the party to get entangled. How could they not want to help out a party of poor miners against the giant Mining Guild. Dean Spencer and William McAusland helped bring this location to life.

Those who'd like to sample of collect my offerings, head on over to my Micro-Adventure Patreon and the PDFs are free. And if you'd like to get these in the mail please consider joining in on the fun. 

Revisiting Old Micro-Adventures: The Pig and the Ogre

 

I've been doing my Patreon since June of 2014. Yep, a way long time. The Pig and the Ogre was my 3rd micro-adventure. It was done on a 4" x 6" notecard that I laminated. My mapping style was basic with a flair of colored pencils. I was using a program called Xara to add the numbers and adventure title. What you see on the map is about the extent of what I could do. 

I used silhouettes to depict the monsters, and the pig in this case. I can't draw worth a shit and I didn't have a lot of money to buy stock art so I made due. And the system I used was Swords & Wizardry.

I present a simple situation where the crops are being damage by an ogre and villagers are afraid that they won't have enough food for the winter. I love my fake sleeping ogre and the fact he created a makeshift catapult escape plan. What could go wrong? 

I present you the adventure with warts and all. If you're interested in the PDF of The Pig and the Ogre you can grab it off my Patreon for free. 

Introduction

An ogre was spotted in the forest outside the village. The northern crops were heavily damaged. If more fields are harmed the villagers will not have enough food for the winter.

1. North Field

The three north fields look like a giant pig routed around ground leaving large holes. Nothing to do with the ogre. Only a few plants managed to survive the onslaught. Also apparent is the large foot prints next to giant hooved prints. They are easily tracked into the dark forested area.

2. Forest

The forest is thick with large trees and heavy undergrowth. The ogre has left an easy trail to follow. Within the forest the party will need a light source. Fire light sources may cause a bit of extra excitement (a 1 in 6 chance of catching debris or dead branches on fire).

3. Pit Traps

The ogre has dug a series of crude, but effective pit traps. He’s trying to catch the boar. The pits are hidden by a few branches (4 in 6 chance of spotting it). Each pit is about 12’ deep with spikes at the bottom. Falling damage is 1d4 due to the soft earth, but if the player get impaled by a spike (2 in 6 chance) it causes 2d6 damage.

4. Giant Boar

Off the path the party hears loud snorting and huffing. A squeal erupts, and the under branches shatter as a giant boar smashes through and charges the party.

Giant Boar: HD 6+1; HP 30; AC 4 [15]; Atk gore (3d6); Move 15; Save 11; AL N; CL/XP 1/15; CL/XP 7/600; Special: Continues to fight for 2 rounds after it is ‘killed’.

The boar weights over 500lbs and if the meat is processed correctly, it can be sold for 2sp/pound. The pair of large tusks can be sold as a novelty/trophy item for 50sp.

5. Sleeping Ogre

The party comes to a ridge and they hear the loud snoring. Beneath a rocky outcropping is a sleeping ogre. The ogre is faking. He’s hoping to lure the party into another trap. He holds a rope that triggers six logs to tumble onto the trail. The logs attack as a 5HD creature and do 2d6 damage. The ogre will attack as soon as he releases his trap.

Ogre: HD 4+1; HP 20; AC 4[15]; Atk scimitar (1d10+1); Move 9; Save 13; AL C; CL/XP 4/120; Special: None. 

The ogre is armed with a crude scimitar and made a shield from the side of a horse cart. If he feels he may lose the battle, he will run for a tree he has tied down. He will lay on the tree, cut the rope and catapult himself on top of the ridge to escape (target roll of 12 (using a d20), if he misses he hits the side of the ridge taking 2d4 damage). There is one large sack made from a deer hide. Inside the party will find 23sp and 17cp loose, a small metal coffer (locked) with 100sp inside, two silver rings (10sp) and a silver ring with a ruby (50sp), a longsword, two wood axes and a battered helm.

Free Adventures for the Plague

I've seen several folks offering up free adventures due to the current plague-ridden world we currently live in. I just wanted to remind folks that over on my Patreon of Micro-Adventures, PDFs have always been free. Right now there are 86 Micro-Adventures, 29 Micro-Locations, and 25 NPC Cards. Along with a handful of other available items. 

That's 140+ items free for the taking. You could easily grab a few of those adventures and cobble together a micro-campaign. 

Please stop by and grab some PDFs. I include GM and player maps for virtual tabletop play. 

Game on motherfuckaaas! 

Forgotten Crypt of Sir Reginald

Click to grab the PDF

I've been grinding away this month working on a hex crawl adventure that I plan on adding to Zine Quest 2 on Kickstarter. Last year was the first time Kickstarter took the month of February and featured old-school zines. I missed it. I'm not going to let that happen again. 

But I needed a break. So what do I do to take a break from writing an adventure. I write a different adventure. 

The Forgotten Crypt of Sir Reginald is my 86th micro-adventure and my 140th offering created for my Patreon. Everyone of them I've released for free on PDF. And those who wish to get a physical copy push a pledge button. Or if you just like what I do, there is the option to throw a tip into the jar. 

This adventure has been laying around for a while. Sir Reginald's Crypt is actually one of the many entrances into a mega-dungeon I work on occasionally. I believe there are over 350 keyed areas and I've written about 50 of them. I haven't had a party plunder those depths yet. Maybe someday soon.

Sir Reginald is a regional hero in my campaign. For a small group of people he's the shit. He's the one that helped them when no one else would. This adventure is an introduction to the end of his story. I may have a couple more adventures coming out that feature different deeds through out his life. 

I should mention I used a piece of artwork from Rick Hersey of Fat Goblin Games. And I am using another piece of his art (I'm hearing Janis Joplin in my head) for this month's NPC card, coming soon. 

I created a new undead using this piece as the inspiration, skull collector. He's a weird skeleton-like undead who can grab the skulls off of corpses and adhere them on its shoulders. Then use them as missile weapons that do d4 damage. I liked the idea of it. Kinda creepy. It's good to throw an unknown at the players every now and then. 

I also added an element of where nature interacts with magic. I love weaving those elements into my campaign. In this case moonstones are used by necromancers to enhance their raised undead. Effectively they get their max hit points while wearing a moonstone. 

And lastly, poor Reginald suffered one of the worse fates he could have ever imagined. He became one of the undead he hunted all his life. A victim of a wight's drain. Sometimes fate has a cruel sense of humor. 

Alright folks, thanks for stopping by. Again, please stop by Micro-Adventures Patreon and grab some PDFs and consider pledging. But only pledge if you like getting cool gaming stuff in the mail. If you hate that kind of thing...why?!?

Take care!

Patreon: Year's End of Micro-Adventures

I'm not sure if I've done a year end report for my Patreon to check on the growth (or decline) of my Micro-Adventures. This year I thought it would be good to take a look at the past three years just to get some perspective.

Why don't I start off with my production through these years.

Stats for 2016

• 16 Micro-Adventures
•   7 Micro Locations

Patrons
Start: 68
End: 63
Highest: 73
Lowest: 63

Pledges
Start: 165.75
End: 158.75
Highest: 176.25 (Aug)
Lowest: 149.75 (Feb)

• Loss of 5 patrons
• Loss of $7 of pledges
• My production was 1.92 releases a month. 
• I had six months of growth and six months of decline.
• The largest losses were $16 in pledges in February and $10.50 in October. 
• The largest gains were $10.50 in May and $8.50 in October. 

Notes

Since this was a couple years back my memory about what happened is fuzzy. I do remember struggling with the lack of progress with my Patreon. It seemed to have 'topped out'. I decided to try a few things to increase patrons such as being better with sharing my content. I was lax on spreading the word about what I was doing. If I wanted to get my Micro-Adventures in the right direction I needed to try new things. Even if they were out of my comfort zone. 

Some of My Favorites from 2016

The Hoblin Goblin Run

First off, I love the title. My wife, The Happy Whisk, is the one who came up with it after mishearing me say hobgoblin. It is also the first micro-adventure with a isometric map. Not the best in the world, but suited the adventure. I also created a Potion of Treasure Finding that was specific toward one item and with a horrible side effect that would kill the imbiber if the item was not found in time.

The Charcoaler's Ransom

I did a lot of research for this adventure. I love grabbing a piece of minutiae and digging in to find an adventure. Taking a simple charcoaler out of the economy can cripple the area.  And to top it off, those that kidnapped the charcoaler, treat him like a king. While the kidnappers wanted to extort money from the nobles, they had no intention of harming the charcoaler. Providing another small twist.

The Weeping Witch

I've run this adventure a few times. It's a ton of fun. It has a lot of elements squeezed into a situation. A boy goes missing. There are some questions about his caretaker. The identity of the Weeping Witch. And why are all of them connected? It is a cool little mystery that can have very different endings. I feel good about all the elements and possibilities I managed to get in this one. It is my go to adventure for cons right now. 

Stats for 2017

• 15 Micro-Adventures
•   4 Micro-Locations
•   4 NPC Cards
•   1 The Manor #9

Patrons

Start: 68
End: 74
Highest: 84 (April & June)
Lowest: 68 (Jan)

Pledges
Start: $147.25
End: $227.75
Highest: $227.75 (Dec)
Lowest: $147.25 (Jan)

• A gain of 6 patrons
• A gain of $80.50 of pledges
• My production was 2.0 releases per month.
• I did not have a release in November.
• I had seven months of growth and five months of decline.
• The largest losses were $11.50 in January and $7.50 in May and July.
• The largest gains were $32.50 in March, $20.50 in December*, $18.50 in June and $13.50 in April.

Notes

It was in December of 2017 that Patreon announced they were no longer going to charge creators fees, but rather transfer the cost to the patrons. I was pissed because it asked more from people who were already being generous. This caused an exodus of patrons, but the strange thing is while I lost eight patrons that month, my existing patrons actually increased their pledges! Amazing. Patreon did reverse their decision before the month was out. It just goes to show how fantastic my patrons are. 

My growth was fantastic in 2017. After a decline in 2016 I thought about winding the my Patreon down. That I had peaked. Or I needed to promote a little more, do some giveaways. Get some interest. I kept creating content I enjoyed, and one by one my following increased.  

Some of my Favorites from 2017

 

Mr. Cruddy's Grave

Again, I go back to simple situations that have gone wrong. When Cross-Eyed Willie gets himself in a spot, the party may have to lend a hand. This is clumsy cross-section map, but I still like it. Kinda illustrated that you don't need a grand setting to have an adventure. This one lends itself to humor, with the incompetency of Cross-Eyed Willie coupled with the still angry in death Mr. Cruddy. Plus, I like what's in the chest. 

Brax

My NPC cards started hitting their stride and became a favorite of my patrons. Brax is an NPC I've used a lot. He cracks me up. He seems to crack up the players. While I had some very cool, earlier NPC cards, I think Brax hits that balance of being interesting, simple, and humorous. Those anti-spider ties would sell on QVC like hotcakes. Or Potions of Healing to stay in game.

The Manor #9

It had been a couple years since I released an issue of The Manor. Because I geared my Patreon to populate my campaign using the Swords & Wizardry Continual Light system, this issue became easy to write. It's funny how daunting it can becoming to release an issue even with several under my belt. I was glad to get this one released. And I thought the content was useful.

Stats for 2018

• 8 Micro-Adventures
• 4 Micro-Locations
• 6 NPC Cards
• Adventure Time Cards

Patrons

Start: 76
End: 86
Highest: 89 (Oct)
Lowest: 76 (Jan)

Pledges
Start: $229.75
End: $254.75
Highest: $256.25 (Oct)
Lowest: $224.75 (Feb)

• A gain of 10 patrons
• A gain of $25 of pledges
• My production was 1.4 releases per month.
• I did not have a release in May.
• I had nine months of growth and three months of decline.
• The largest losses were $5 in February and $3 November.
• The largest gains were $9.50 in April, $6.50 in May, and $6 in October.

Notes

It was an interesting year. My lowest output compared to the previous two years, but I still managed to gain traction. There were no real big swings in loss or gain from month to month. I enjoyed a steady growth for the most part. I was hoping to crack a 100 patrons in 2018, but couldn't quite do it. So guess what my goal for 2019 is? 100 patrons! 

Some of My Favorites from 2018

The Broken Girl

I love the vibrate colors and simplicity of the map. The mysterious giant dock tells of an age long past. But the true meat to this adventure is the weird little creature that murdered the little girl. The creature goes from a raging murder without thought of its consequences to become overcome by a flood of emotions and regret. I use children often as a factor in my adventures, for good or bad, they play an important role. 

Ansel's Secret Workshop

I absolutely love this location. A place the group can find and take it with no combat. And if nothing else how can you not like a spider named Clyde who likes long walks and playing chess. An example of how all locations or adventures don't need to end in a bloodbath. 

Thurber Village

Another piece created to fill out a section of my campaign. I've found this entry and the format for other villages very useful. I provide given the GM lots of opportunities to to breath life into Thurber Village in a small space.

Final Thoughts

I'm planning of moving my Gothrdige Manor blog to a new home, set up an honest to goodness eCommerce site. Getting help with edits. And finally getting around to compiling these adventures into a book. As of this time I have a total of 78 Micro-Adventures, 26 Micro-Locations, 11 NPC Cards, and 3 miscellaneous for a total of 118 items I've created for my Patreon since July 2014. 

As always, I can't thank my patrons enough for their support, past and present. They provide me the inspiration to create and to share. And while we hear a lot of negative things about the OSR, I think in part it is because of its success, as a group. But the foundation is built upon sharing ideas, creating content, and if nothing else, drawing a map.

Thanks for reading.

Hearth of the Hill Giants

Merry Christmas everyone!
I hope you guys got some good gaming stuff in your stocking and under the tree. I was given a nice collection of books this year. They should keep me busy for at least a couple of months. 

Having a little time off, my brain finally had a moment to focus on gaming material again. The Hearth of the Hill Giants is an adventure that I started months ago. It was born out of a random encounter. I decided the big buy needed a home. I surrounded the giants' home with worgs to the south protecting a corrupted an ancient Northmen well. To the north is a crabbers paradise. Imagine a single crab where you could harvest 40 pounds of meat. You're going to need a LOT of butter. But that's a different adventure. 

I've implied different reason why a party would journey this way, but the end reason is the privilege of the GM. I've dropped a few hooks a party could latch onto. Maybe papa hill giant chewed on a messenger with a very important message. Rumors of a long lost treasure of the Northmen, or the worg problem is getting out of hand. The source must be destroyed. 

With the year coming to a close I'm planning a year end for my Patreon. I want to share the progress, accomplishments, and challenges over the year. As much as I can remember. 

Thank you and enjoy the holidays.

Adventures! Micro and Not So Micro

The other day I decided to do a video. Why not? I got a cool video editing program, but no video to edit. So I made one. And thanks to +Shane Ward I've got some kick ass music.

I'd tell you more, but that's why I made the video.

December's NPC Cards and Micro-Adventures

It's that time again, I've printed my micro-adventures and NPC cards for the month. I've got a few extras lying and like to give them to a few folks who are interested. All you need to do is leave a comment about your favorite magic item and then email me your address so I know where to send these two laminated beauties.

Those of you who might be interested in getting adventures and NPC Cards in the mail please consider joining my Micro-Adventures Patreon so you won't miss anything. Plus, I've been adding a extras along the way. 

Now let's hear about some cool magic items. 

Adventuring in Different Planes of Existence: Undolee Cave

The Komor Forest is filled with strange and dangerous locations. The Cave of Undolee is one of those places. It is located close to Hounds Head, the locals know of it, interact with it, but when the cave 'gets to acting up' they run like hell.

The Cave of Undolee is a powerfully charged location through natural magics. Heavily borrowing from Celtic mythology where gates between worlds open during certain times of the year, phases of the moon, or whatever schedule the GM needs to drive an adventure forward. The map itself was created when I was mapping for game night. I screwed up the map so bad, I just kept it and thought I'd create my own version of it.

The image from the 1st edition Player's Handbook (pg. 121) sticks in my mind.

For me, the Planes of Existence are layered upon one another. Sometimes sharing the same space as other planes. Places where planes overlap and conditions are right, natural gates occur. The Cave of Undolee is a gateway to the Plane of Water.

These gateways provide opportunities for gameplay beyond the normal realm of existence. With preparation, probably a few trial runs, a party could adventure in the Plane of Water. This provides complications the party has rarely come across.
In this adventure, The Cave of Undolee is a glimpse of that possibility. And if the GM chooses, could be a focal point for an 'outsider' enemy group. The sahuaghin are a fantastic enemy race that provides a new threat beyond the traditional orcs and goblins. Plus, they have that otherworldly feel, especially if a GM plays up the sahuaghin's potential for mutations. And with the threat of possible invasion, it is not like the party can track the enemy to a cavern stronghold. No. The party would need to travel to a place where the environment itself could kill them at any moment.

I have a map drawn already for an adventure in the Plane of Water. I hope to have it out next month. It'll be the first adventure that will include sharks. So I'm excited about that. It'll take place as soon as the party moves through the gate.
As always, my thanks to my patrons. Their continued support is incredible. I love creating these adventures, printing them and having them in hand. Here's to a productive December.

Anyone interested in grabbing a PDF copy of The Cave of Undolee only need to follow the link to my Patreon. If you would like a physical copy, please consider pledging and get used to getting cool stuff in the mail.

Iron Crawlers Ready to Mail and Yep, I'm Giving Away a Few Copies

Iron Crawlers is a Swords & Wizardry Continual Light Adventure. You can click the link and grab the PDF for free. Or...if you want a print copy comment below and then send me your address through email (elder(underscore)sensa(at)yahoo(dot)com) or Google+ (Gothridge Manor) cause without your addy I can't send you a damn thing.

It's a starting adventure that puts the party against a not so clever, not so tough gang. If the Iron Crawlers can take advantage of the party. they will. But if the party plays out the situation in the right way, they could gain themselves a group ally. Possibly. I wrote a long post about this last month, if your interested in reading about me stealing office supplies from my mother's work place you can read it here.

Last month Tenkar and crew released a print version of Swords & Wizardry Continual Light. If you click the image it will magically whisk you away to Amazon where you can purchase a copy for only $7. I bought 4 copies, went to Con on the Cob, gave them away and now I have 0. So I gotta reorder! This link is an affiliate link, so I may get a giant kickback if you order from my page.

Seriously, the book is great. Simple, quick, learn the system within 30 minutes depending on how fast you read.

Hey! Have a good gaming week. Roll some dice for me. Don't forget to make an offering of Unosum, the God of 1's, A slice a pizza or beer usually does it,  or you'll become a 'cursed 1' like myself. It is no way to live.

Adventure Writing for a 12 Year-Old Kid in 1980

I was feeling a bit nostalgic. That's what happens a lot when you get old. With the Stranger Things 2 coming out, nailing that 80s vibe and Thor embracing the total cheesiness of the 80s (I so hope somewhere in the film he is driving a conversion van with an image of himself painted on the side) had me thinking of when I first started making my own adventures back in the early 80s.

My mom was a secretary at a tool & die shop and she had a office supply closet, my god that thing was magical. That's where I learned graph paper was a real thing. Before that, I thought Gary and friends were really good with a ruler. I wanted to write my own adventures, so I grabbed the graph paper, manila folders, and a stapler. I drew a map, used a manual typewriter to construct my adventure, used a crappy Xerox (yes an actual Xerox machine) to make 10 copies. Then I stapled the map on the inside of the folder, took a 3" x 5" notecard for the wandering monster table, stapled that to the other side of the folder, took a thick permanent marker and wrote the title of the adventure on the outside. No artwork. I sucked at arting. Still do.

I would then take my adventure to school, I would play it with friends, then after a few sessions I would sell my 10 copies of the adventure for 50 cents each. Sold out every time. That money was used for proper things, pinball, video games, Cokes and Goobers, or more gaming stuff if I could get that far down the street.

Because of these thoughts, I formatted Iron Crawlers to reflect that ascetic back in the day. I use a type font on a single sheet of graph paper background (front and back) and the map, while a bit more embellished than I did back in the day, is simple graph line drawing. Compared to today's clean look, it is rough on the eye so I also included the booklet version with a Garamond font. Easier to read and more likely the version I'll ship out. Probably both though just for the heck of it.

Oh and one more thing, I thought I would take a few of you on a ride for this adventure. So everyone in this adventure is named after a patron.

GM Advice

Iron Crawlers is a group of men who have joined together to get by. They are not a bad ass street gang ready to kill everyone who confronts them. Most a no-level guys who try to hustle a few coins from drunks, grab an unattended pie and sometimes they make deals with persons of questionable nature.

I like these kind of groups. I think they are more approachable. The party doesn't have to go into default murder hobo rage (should there be another setting for your party). It is a group of people that could provide a lot of opportunities to role-play situations. Being this is the first encounter with the Iron Crawlers, there may be bloodshed, but it doesn't have to be a massacre. A few of the members won't put up a fight. The party will more than likely be overpowering even at first level.

I can see this group becoming a source of information for the party. A source of possible henchmen. Or if played out, a possible group ally that supports the party in their adventures. It won't take much, these guys are poor and hungry. At this time, just getting a regular meal is a step up for them.

I hope you enjoy and find a use for the adventure. And as always, thanks for the support. You can click on the links that take you to my patreon page for a free copy of the PDF. And if you would like a print version, consider joining.

Trickster in the Stone: Micro-Adventure

Just so you know, I had this post finished yesterday and it went away. Like vanished. Gone. I swore a little. But only a little. And now I'm here to try again.First off I want to give a shout out to a couple of new patrons that joined since we last met. James Halmayr and Filthy Monkey have joined the ranks of the brilliant people who have joined the fun. I like new patrons and I cannot lie.
Back to the adventure. Trickster in the Stone was inspired by a fellow patron, Si. A while back I asked for places you would like to see drawn and I believe he mentioned wanting a mountain pass. I kinda did that, except underground. One of those underground mountain passes. 
The mythology of the Komor continues to grow as a new 'thing' is introduced in this adventure. Norag is a trickster stone spirit. A force of nature with intelligence and intent. As of the writing of this adventure, Norag enjoys torturing Zikla with stone spiders that tear small wounds into the earth elemental. To add insult to injury, when Norag takes on a form, it appears as Zilka did before the gods cursed him. It won't confront a party of adventurers directly, retreating into the stone.
Zilka is a tragic character, a dwarven cleric who called upon the gods to help him defend his village from the forces of evil. They answered. Zilka suffered for three days as his body transformed into an earth elemental. While he retains some of his intelligence, it has dulled over the years of isolation. Norag has taken years torturing him. Often bring Zilka to the edge of death only to drag his spirit back.
The situation is set GMs. Go forth and GM the crap out of this.
GM Advice is forth coming...Norag is a thing I would introduce to the party. Use his abilities of manipulation to the best of their abilities. Once he betrays the party, put him in your proverbial GM toolbox for later use. Reintroduce him as another NPC, taking on the guise of another person. Lure the party into a sense of security. Norag is in it for the long con. It finds it more satisfying. A nasty creature to mess with the party when they least expect it. Maybe have a stone spider show up on their cot while they sleep. That should do it.
Zilka, tragic, angry ready to die. He sees everyone as an enemy. Discarded by his people, forsaken by his gods left, betrayed by everything and everyone he believed in. Despite this, Zilka still has a shred of hope inside. If the party can convince Zilka they are friendly and treat him with kindness, they will find they have an ally in Zilka. While he won't travel into civilized territory, he maybe convinced to help with an expedition. GMs should make sure its a good one. An adventure where the party needs a heavy hitter. 
Trickster in the Stone can be found on my Patreon page. Download the PDF and maps for free fucking gratis. Sorry, slipped into my Deadwood character. 

GIVEAWAY! Time to Mail Some Freebies ALL GONE!

This month's Micro-Adventures are ready to ship to patrons.

First off is, Something Terrible Happened to Amos. The party searches for a traveling merchant named Amos. The Hamlet of Hounds Head is awfully fond of Amos and his gifts. They want the party to find Amos, help him if it's not too late, but they know all too well how brutal and unforgiving the Komor Forest is.

Second, is a location, a ruin fortification of the Northmen called, War Frogs. These creatures were bred be the ancient warriors to help defend their home in the marshlands. A new breed of creature that could, with time, become a benefit for the party.

Lastly, is an NPC card of Brax. Brax is a worker at the Angry Priest Inn who makes himself available to adventuring parties as an extra hand. He's not all that likable and you'll need to keep an eye on him or the party treasury will come up short. But hey, he's got one hell of a mustache.

Anyone can grab a free PDF copy of these by clicking the links and visiting my Patreon page.

I always make a few extras for folks who might be interested in getting copies. So if you are interested in getting some freebies, comment below and send you address to elder_sensa@yahoo.com. No obligation. I ship anywhere. If you like what you get, consider joining the fun.

This offer remains open until I run out!

A Terrible Thing Happened to Amos

Man, the Komor Forest has claimed another life. This place is dangerous. Poor Amos.

I'm heading right into the GM Advice section because this kind of adventure is something I put on the top shelf of my GMing techniques. Develop a peripheral NPC, one the party interacts with minimally or maybe strikes up a friendship. Have the NPC come and go a couple of times. Build a pattern. Then drop this adventure on them. 

While you can use this adventure as a straight shot, it is more effective and meaningful to play the 'long con' on the players. Get them at least minimally motivated. You'll know when you have them if after you tell the party that Amos hasn't shown for his usual drop off times, maybe Amos was bringing one of the players a gift, and they go hunting for him without asking how much or what's in it for them. A friend is in trouble. So they act.

Developing NPC relationship is something of a skill, especially in longer campaigns. And when I wrote this adventure I was thinking of it as an adventure in an on-going campaign, not so much a one-shot. There is something satisfying about getting a party of adventurers to act unselfishly. To come to the aid of a friend or a village or family without wondering how it will increase their power. An act that develops their character, to maintain that relationship that is important to them. If you can do that, you are a hell of a GM.

I took a different point of view with the map and used muted colors. I wanted to portray a 'spookier' atmosphere. I imagine the the area around the cavern, quiet. Maybe a mysterious noise of some unseen creature in the distance. The worn markers look like gravestones, but are nothing more than ancient road markers. A dark cavern with glistening wet walls. The water drops falling from the overhanging stalactites, occasionally one of the freezing drops catches a character on the neck. 

Then the fall, as piercers silently drop. One after the other. A rain of deadly stone. Quiet except for the whimpering and cries of those who remain alive. The water continues to drip and the cavern's silence, indifferent.

I do hope you enjoy the adventure and find a place for it in your game. Please let me know what you think if you have the time. Good or bad. I've got thick skin so if you have a complaint or suggestion please let me know. Feedback is welcome here. Always will be.

Thank you to my great patrons. I say this a lot, but you guys and gals make this fun. 

Ghoul Nest

I offer you my 66th micro-adventure and my 88th over all, Ghoul Nest. Getting close to that 100 mark. We'll have to talk about that. I'd like to do something cool. 

Back to the adventure. Ghoul Nest. "What?", you ask as you tilt your head to the side. "Why would a ghoul nest?" Good question. "They live in graveyards and eat the almost living." Good point. 

What if I told you there were ghouls with wings. Not the women's sanitation napkin kinda wings. No. Scary membrane, batish wings. They are small, undead humanoids with wings that have a paralyzing touch and they love nothing more than a warm skull full of brains. Nom nom nom. 

These vicious little bastards. They are minions of one of my nine death gods, Torox. Rivals to the Crow. You can find a sampling of them in MA#57 Judgement of the Crow. 

This adventure dangles an artifact in front of the party's drooling gobs, Ver-Kalapac or Blood Hammer. How simple it would be to step into the twisting spires of the Crow temple and take the artifact. No vast dungeon delving. No year long trek through fourteen different types of extreme weather. Just walk in and take it. Except...someone had already did that a couple centuries earlier. Still, kill the ghouls and there is some useful loot to be found.

GM ADVICE

Playing the Flying Ghouls: Use their flying ability to their advantage. When the party steps into the spires I'd give them a chance to look around for a round, maybe two. If they don't look up the flying ghouls would get a surprise attack. They are small and quick. They swoop down to attack and then fly back into the rafters. Out of reach of melee weapons. The flying ghouls won't land until they believe all their prey is paralyzed. 

Their paralyzing touch lasts one-third of their bipedal brethren, so these little guys move fast when they eat. To add some gruesome details, when a hit scores maximum damage, the character may lose an eye, or a finger is bitten off or part of the nose is torn off. 

Crow's Reward:  The forest, while forgiving of its denizens, loathes these creatures. If any character has shown interest in the history of the Crow or bears any symbology,  the flying ghouls will target that character. If they should cleanse the temple of the creatures and perform some sort of smudging or cleansing ceremony, that character may find a crow as a henchmen. The GM can fiddle with the details. When I do this I general have the character and the creature bond over a simple task it does. In this case, maybe the crow finds a pouch of silver the party missed or an silver ring lost in the debris. And as the game goes on, the crow will be helpful in more ways. A developing, non-magical, familiar. 

Artifact Carrot: If the party thought they were going to waltz in and find a artifact just sitting there after centuries...shame on them. However, if you have a hammer lov'n man (or woman) that would like to get their paws on Ver-Kalapac, then this can lead to following a trail of rumors and evidence. Who knows, maybe a future micro-adventure. Ver-Kalapac is not assigned any powers at t his time, but the name, Blood Hammer, would suggest it likes to fight. Something like this would not go unnoticed.

Well shit. That's all I got for now. Micro-adventures is at its highest patronage it has even been. So thank you. While I haven't struck the original art goal just yet, I'm still going to inquire about getting more original art for our adventures. Cause getting art specifically created for your adventures is just so cool. Grab the PDF for free and if you like what you see, join in on the fun.

Roll some dice, make your saves and check for traps...twice!

Oubliette, Rot Grubs and Minor Magic Items

Sorry for being quiet this month. Work has been kicking my ass. Big time. This coming week, at the end, I start vacation. And usually when I don't have work clogging my head I seem to become a creation beast. I want to take the time and start organizing what I've written. Then I can organize a schedule. Yes, you can stop laughing now. I know, me and schedule don't ever jive. But I can try.

One of the element I want to include in the sandbox is random set of ruins to populate the sandbox. Not sure how many I'll include or what format that's going to take (another reason why I need to organize my material this vacation).

Oubliette is a forest discovery. One of those many things found in the Komor Forest. While the premise is simple and short, this can be extremely dangerous. Rot grubs are a serious threat to a character's life span. 

And while I have dipped below the GM Advice goal you still can shut me up. I'ma gonna giv'ya my ardvice anaway. 

Atmosphere
The pit is dark, and quiet. If a torch is dropped down, just for a moment the party might catch a glimpse of the shackled skeletons before it hits the water and extinguishes. If your party is anything like the groups I run, their imaginations are going to go through a Rolodex of horrible things waiting for them in the dark. And even when they get to the bottom and see the skeletons they are going to freak out that the skeletons will animate. The atmosphere and the possibilities are the distraction from the real horror.

Rot Grubs
These wormy bastards strike terror in the hearts (literally) of adventurers young and old. And in a system where hit points are so few and precious, burning the rot grubs out could be as lethal as allowing them to squirm their way into your big, heroic heart. If the player heat up blades and try to do a controlled kill of the grubs I'd allow them to do only 1d3 damage. And for a character that has a half dozen or more on them, short of a Cure Disease spell, that player should be reaching for a fist full of dice for their next character.

Non-Heroic Deaths
Dying by a rot grub sucks. There is nothing heroic about it and that's something as a GM you'll have to decide. I prefer my games gritty and death by a dozen rot grubs is a perfect reward for those adventurers who don't take precautions. But I am not an unmerciful GM. Say the character has five rot grubs drop on their arm, I would allow someone to dismember that arm to save the  adventurer. The character gets to live, earns a background story and a nickname.

Awarding Minor Magic Items
One thing I love to see is players making use of minor magic items in unusual ways. To solve or create problems. Within the Oubliette, the party has a chance to discover a leaky Water Flask of Endless Water. A hand utility item, but I am sure the party could find uses for it that I haven't imagined. 

That's all for now. I have a batch of these short found places, micro-locations written. You'll see a couple more this month. And of course I am working on my next NPC card. 

Thanks patrons for the support and the fact you guys are a blast to game with and talk to on G+.

Enjoy!

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day Meets the Temple of Putrescence

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day is one of my favorite events in the gaming community. The sheer output of creativity is incredible. This is the kinda thing that makes our hobby so fantastic, how many create, expand and make our gaming experience extraordinary by allowing us to glimpse at what each of us do at our gaming table.

If you think about it, Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day is like getting to peek behind 100s of GM screens in one day. How many times as a player were you tempted to take a peek behind the screen when the GM had to go to the can? Come on, admit it.

Today the screens are folded and put to the side. We’re invited in to take a look around. To look at the maps and find those secret rooms. To read what special ability that monster had when it killed your favorite character. To check out that random table that always inspires incredible encounters. It’s all there for us today. All of it.

And that’s pretty damn cool.

Here is my offering for the day, Temple of Putrescence. It marks my #64 Micro-Adventure. This one is a wicked, end game kind of adventure/setting. While I am writing this for Swords & Wizardry Light, it'll require a good group of 7th level people to survive it...maybe. 

There is an old Gothridge Manor proverb, "When you piss off a death god, don't bother wasting your time by putting your head between your legs to kiss your ass good-bye, because the death god owns that too."

Enjoy the day folks! If you get a chance, stop over and grab a copy of Temple of Putrescence. It's like a torturer getting a new set of thumb screws.