3/17/24 – Happy St. Patrick’s Day to those that observe and we hope the rest of you are enjoying your weekend.
No major news this week, we’re still rolling along in the background with one of our larger projects and we’ve also got two new videos highlighting Arcane Lock (aka Wizard’s Lock).
Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to these deep dives, but they’ve been fun so we’ll keep on trucking.
We’ve got some great resources to share and a few NPCs and Encounters outlined below.
DnD Resources
- The Village of Bray [Kickstarter] – A highly strange cryptid adventure for 5E and OSE
- Sundered Isles [Kickstarter] – Not DnD-specific, but as a DM that loves pirate TTRPGs I’ve waited a long time for Sundered Isles to come out. Better believe I backed it as soon as I saw.
- Rascal News – The latest news on alternative, independent, and roguelike TTRPGs. Probably one of the better collections we’ve come across.
- What spell is low-level in game but would actually be insanely powerful in reality? – A fun Reddit thread that begs the important question. How about you? Which low-level spell would you want IRL?
- The coldest one liners to use in DnD – Things like “Not all chemical reactions are violent, but this one is.” or “If I die, I’ll be a martyr. If you die, you’ll be irrelevant.” This Reddit thread has a great grouping of one-liners to use in combat.
- Bardificer Build – When we were thinking of Tim Tulleman (NPC below), we realized he would be a great Bardificer. Thankfully Skullsplitter Dice had a great build for Bardificers that you can check out.
- Tarrasque.io – We’ve been looking for a lightweight option for running online games and Tarrasque.io seems to fit the bill. Let us know if you’ve got other suggestions!
Have other creators/resources we should feature? Let us know
Free NPCs
Tim Tulleman – The Tailor – Meet Tim Tulleman, owner of one of the oddest tailor shops in town. He and his sidekick Sal have been making “armored” suits for many years now, but their methods are questionable.
See, Tim Tulleman the Tailor makes all of his clothing out of Tulle, a thin fabric typically used for veils and tutus. Needless to say, the clothing is a little more see-through than the townsfolk are used to and it’s causing a bit of a stir.
Townsfolk are upset, but Tim’s clients are ecstatic because of the armor abilities. The fabric is imbued with powdered dragon scales, giving +2 AC to the wearer, more effective than expected. If the party approaches Tim about halting production, he’ll give them a [confused grunt noise] and ask them to explain further.
For increasing production he could send the party on quests to procure more materials. What else might Tim Tulleman the tailor ask of the party?
Random NPC Names:
- Gerald Atric (aka Jerry)
- Timothy Bread
- Gwladus ap Twedwr
- Merfyn Frych
Dohwar The Explohrar – A famed Dohwar adventurer who, with her trusty map, spends her days locating rare and exotic treasures from around the realm. Accompanying her on these adventures is her loyal gauntlet-wearing great ape companion: Mitts.
This dohwar is an odd bird though, sometimes even uncomfortably breaking the 4th wall to ask questions directly to the players sitting around the DnD table.
Of course, she snaps out of these reveries fairly quickly, apologizing and returning to the game world with only vague recollections of these conversations. Recently, her backpack of holding, which is also charmed to speak its contents in a sing-songy way, was stolen. A clan of thieves called the Swiping Syndicate is to blame. If players help Dohwar and Mitts track down these bandits, they will uncover the thieves’ plan of swiping all bags of holding in order to corner the market on this most necessary piece of adventuring equipment.
Would your party help Dohwar the Explohrar reclaim her backpack and take down the Swiping Syndicate? How would you alter this character? Let us know!
This Week’s Encounter
Orc & Beans – A cozy coffee shop called “Orc & Beans” has attracted quite a bit of attention. The owner, an orc by the name of Scar Bux, brews some of the best coffee around, using beans acquired during his many years exploring the realm.
Recently, he has wanted to try a new magical brew and ordered a shipment of Bags of Beans, a DnD item known for its quirky and chaotic effects. Unfortunately, the shipment was attacked by thieves, and now Scar needs the party’s help to reclaim his stolen goods. The thieves won’t go down easily though, planting and using some of the magic beans to fend off the party. If players can reclaim the shipment, then Scar will offer them free samples of his new magic-infused coffee blend.
When they drink the concoction, players will still roll a d100 and use the Bag of Beans table, but the effects will be slightly altered. For example, instead of creating a blue campfire, that player could learn a blue fire breath attack that they can use for the next 24 hours. What special abilities or effects would you add to this table?
St. Ratrick’s Day – St. Ratrick is a fabled sewer-dwelling rodent who collects coins that have fallen into the sewers or have been thrown into wishing wells and fountains. The townsfolk say if you see St. Ratrick, you can pursue him back to his treasure hoard and take it for yourself.
Finding the rat should be easy enough due to the green top hat he wears, but the party arrives on a day where townsfolk are out crowding the street, drinking, eating, and celebrating. If the party manages to see St. Ratrick as he’s collecting coins and follow him to the sewer, they’ll need to roll Wisdom saving checks or become affected by hallucinations of rainbows and other bright colors.
Partially from a strange magic, and partially from some of the fumes from above.
Rounding a corner, the party finds St. Ratrick, surrounded by swarms of rats wearing green-hooded cloaks, placing the treasures at the feet of a rat god statue, grotesquely gnawed out of wood.
If the party attempts to take the treasures, the rats will attack, but if they leave the rats be, they may allow the summoning of an ancient deity.
What would your party do? And what’s under St. Ratrick’s hat? Let us know in the comments.
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