Come on in, the spores are fine!

Matt released his "Lair of the Mushroom Baron" out into the wild.

Wild mushroom hunting... hmm.

So there are rumors or discoveries of oddly-synthesized or rare potions associated with a local forest. Who is this mysterious alchemist that is cooking up these oddball concoctions contained in gourd containers?

Maybe we'd better take a look, and see if they are the amicable type... click below...

Welcome to the Lair

(statted out generally using Swords & Wizardry and/or a few things ganked from 1e).

Beware the Goblin Peehole!

Well, Bryce reviewed/savaged a few of my released adventures... Within his usual snark was some serviceable criticism - I do need to tighten up my writing on some aspects of descriptions and such, and make sure the important details are up front for the GM. (I do appreciate feedback, after all - pro or con).

One criticism was redundancy and superfluous room description, using a statted 'guardpost' room as an egregious example... yeah - I over-wrote it.  But then there's the detail of the peephole in the post's door, where intruders may be spotted - per Bryce:

"The guardroom has a peerhole and a couple of monsters poking around in the rubble, with a small chance of them using the peehole. " (italics mine)

My own snark here, but if you're reviewing and criticizing someone's work and quality, proofread your own blog. Typos set me off. I may not be the best writer, but I proofread/spellcheck my stuff.

But peehole...  And the associated goblin guards... 

"There is a 2-in-6 chance that one of the goblins will hear someone outside the door, leap onto the door, and urinate through the peephole.  Any PC attempting to spy through the peephole will be drenched..."

Save vs disease or contract a virulent goblin malady:

1. Screaming Buboes  - The buboes scream, not the patient. No chance of silent movement. No one gets any sleep.
2. Crawling Pox - Oh gawd where am I gonna itch today?
3. Spitting Sores - Any uncovered sore spatters ichor up to six feet. Anyone struck with the fluid must save vs disease or become infected in turn.
4. Glowing Rash - Infected glows as per candlelight - possibly useful, probably a liability.
5. Honking Cough - Infected sounds like a flock of arguing geese. Don't even think of trying to sneak up on anything.
6. Walking Lockjaw - Seizes up a different random joint each day.
7. Steaming Boils - Infected is surrounded by a vaporous mist. Some boils may intermittently whistle. The boils put off a putrid miasma (troglodyte equivalent).
8. Hopping Tremors - The infected is consumed by involuntary hopping and jittering. No sleep-based recovery allowed.

The effects typically last 1d6 days, although there is a 20% chance that the PC has acquired a particularly virulent strain, lasting 1d6 weeks, and a 10% chance that the affliction is chronic... Cure disease should do the trick. Maybe... Hopefully...

Beware of GTDs - Goblin Transmitted Diseases

www.deviantart.com/abelphee

A quick visit to The Weary Wench

That Jackson fellow drafted up a cozy tavern while on vacation.

“This is a little place in Scaldwater called The Weary Wench. Skavos, a large burly lumberjack, serves awesome clam chowder (just like I had yesterday at The Warren Tavern!) and can tell you a tale or two. So pull up a stool, drop a couple silver on the bar, and enjoy a good bowl or two.”

So - a one-hour (more or less) writing exercise to fill it with backstory and local color.  Here ya go:

Skavos bought the place after losing three fingers of his right hand in a felling accident. Not much use for a 'jack who could no longer swing an axe. But one thing he still had was his maw-maw's recipe for chowder. So he slicked his hair back, put on an apron, and fired up the stove.

The establishment is unassuming, but cozy. Rough-hewn tables and bar are slowly getting smoothed and polished from the constant rubbing of elbows, thumping of tankards, and spilling of food. Skavos trundles between the bar and kitchen like an affable bear, shouting greetings and winked admonishments to both guest and employee in equal turn. In addition to his prized chowder, guests may partake of bread, roast root vegetables, and boiled eggs. Behind the bar are a few casks of passable ale, although Skavos keeps a keg of decent perry under the bar for those who know to ask.

Exploring "The Abandoned Mine of Delko"

Hi all -

Thanks to MeWe, I discovered a new mapper this week, Daniel F. Walthall. Daniel crafts up generally compact maps of 10 encounter areas or less, suitable for a one-shots, side-quests, or destination adventures, as well as small hamlets, and other locations. A nice feature is that the map layouts include numbered spaces to outline the room contents, as well as a table with suggested challenges at varying party levels, random treasures, NPC names, or adventure seeds.

So go peruse his tumblr of released maps, and support his Patreon if you are so inclined.

I grabbed his "Abandoned Mine of Delko" (one thing I like is that his mines look like mines...) and ripped the map into my own format.

(Original map)

A crew of contract miners has failed to report in from their mountain prospecting, and their employer is eager to discover their fate, and even more eager to recover the ore they were sent to mine.

So grab some mooks, and go check out the goings-on in Delko...

Statted up using Swords & Wizardry critters, and perhaps a Richard J. Leblanc, Jr. spider...

Mini Review: Ocean at the End of the Lane (and a critter)

"I was not happy as a child, although from time to time I was content. I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else."

https://www.amazon.com/Ocean-End-Lane-Novel-ebook/dp/B009NFHF0Q

How to describe this without a hugely number of spoilers...

A young boy meets an odd girl, her mother, and grandmother down the lane. The boy and girl have a few misadventures, and send a naughty housekeeper away.  The boy grows up.

That's pretty much what I can spoil. I think.

A short novel or long novella (about 180 pages), the book is a reasonably quick first read.  Some people mentioned reading it in a sitting, I took two short evenings for a re-read, after not reading the book since we purchased it when new. The book draws you along, with short, evocative chapters.  That said, this is Gaiman, and there is a density of subtle detail, easy to gloss over, and worth a reread.

How old are you really?" I asked.

Eleven."

I thought for a bit. Then I asked, "How long have you been eleven for?" 

She smiled at me.

Gaiman, as often, weaves together a a world of intersecting reality and unreality - I wouldn't call the forces and players in the book 'magic' because they are appear to be much older and more subtle than such a simplistic label...

"We don't do spells," she said. She sounded a little disappointed to admit it. "We'll do recipes sometimes. But no spells or cantrips. Gran doesn't hold with none of that. She says it common." 

In the course of the book, the narrator and his mysterious friend interact with forces out of of time, including a manipulative, malign intelligence that manifests itself and ingratiates its way into the narrator's family.

Powerless, the narrator makes a desperate flee to the mysterious womens' home for their assistance in dispelling the being.  After consultation and failed negotiation with the being, the girl calls ethereal predators to their aid in dispatching the being.

"High in the sky they were, and black, jet-black, so black it seemed as if they were specks on my eyes, not real things at all.  The had wings, but were not birds. They were older than birds,and they flew in circles and in loops and whorls, dozens of them, hundreds perhaps, and each flapping unbird ever so slowly, descended."

And then things go sideways....

No more spoilers, and you'll need to read to find out why an ocean is as large as it needs to be....

***

And - inspired by the quote above - a bunch of angry birds: