Lady Arna Kenrahel is a noble, a cannibal, and a damned soul. There is no depth of depravity she has not plumbed, and no measure she will not take to ensure her own survival. She is, however, a lady, and will brook no disrespect.
Her journey into darkness began early, with forbidden rites learned in secret, and a hunger for fresh meat to cure her debilitating illness. Her hunger grew, and then she bit a servant. In an instant, her health was restored, and she knew what she had to do in order to stay healthy. The servant was never seen again, and it was assumed that she had just fled into the night after dropping a valuable jug and shattering it. Statistics: Lady Kenrahel is a Ghoul, and an 8th-level Rogue. She is an experienced dissembler, a skilled diplomat, and a lethal foe who does not permit her opponents an opportunity to rest. She has no compunctions seeking them out in the middle of the night, fleeing from opponents, and placing a bounty on attackers' heads for harming a member of the nobility. How you can use Lady Kenrahel in your game: - Your Player Characters might hear about a bounty being offered for a party of rude adventurers who attacked a noblewoman. A valuable price has been placed on their heads for spreading sedition and falsehoods, and Lady Kenrahel is willing to pay dearly to silence them. - As honoured guests of a noble, your PCs might have access to other nobles, and prestigious jobs. However, once they start noticing the quick temper of their young patroness, the fast turnover of staff may start to make sense. As to why they all seem to disappear so quickly, who can say? - Once they discover the dread secrets in the dungeons beneath Kenrahel Keep, the PCs become wanted foes of Lady Arna, and a bounty for their heads will quickly be offered. They will have to think quickly to avoid rival adventurers, innocent guards trying to bring them in, and the vengeful ghoul, and trying to find evidence of her hideous crimes to bring her to account. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 11 October 2019. It can be quite fun to make your world fantastical, as well as the creatures that live in it. Doing so can make the world more thematic, more lived-in, and can lay groundwork for future plot hooks.
Making the players question why things are this way gets them interested in the setting, and means they might go exploring or looking into something on their own. You can use this to start an adventure hook. Maybe the tumbling spheres of the Rolling Mountains all fall one morning, or maybe they're falling, one by one. Maybe the Howling Vortex of the dark ocean stops draining, or starts flowing in reverse, regurgitating ancient shipwrecks. A player who is interested in studying the lore might want to know how they were created, and that gives you an opportunity to make some stuff up, or tell a story you've already decided about the world. How you can use fantastic geography in your game: - A waterfall in the Crimson Hills flows straight down into a hole in the ground, into a vast, echoing cavern. No-one has explored them past the first two bends, but teenagers have reported hearing strange noises from below. - The plants of Stranglethorn Vale have always been carnivorous and dangerous, but no-one quite knows the reason that they form spiral patterns, or why they lay out the bodies of their victim in such precise, orderly formations. - There are particular crystal formations that dot the Prismatic Desert. However, chipping them from their base causes them to resonate to anyone with arcane powers, causing disruption in their spellcasting. The crystals are highly valued for their appearance, but can be useful when placed into jewelry. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 10 October 2019. The winery at Lark Hill has been successful for three generations, and has a well-known name. Its red is particularly well-regarded, and it is featured in taverns and drinking-halls for hundreds of miles. But one specific vintage has a sinister secret...
The 3012 vintage, following on the popular vintage of the previous year, features aromas of red fruit, crushed raspberries and jam, as well as notes of orange-spiced tea. It features well in mouth-feel and palate, and the price is quite reasonable, accessible to the common man (and priced up for the rich, of course!). However, anywhere it is drunk, strange and inexplicable bursts of violence seem to break out, and some people report that those involved have blazing green light in their eyes. How you can use Lark Hill Winery in your game: - Perhaps some sort of curse has been laid on the winery, and the owners of the winery could hire your Player Characters to find out what is causing it. - Alternately, the owners of the winery are distributing a tainted product. The demon blood which has been added to this year's vintage is a deliberate way to seed discord and chaos into the the nation. Tracking down the cultists is an imperative- but why are three dozen barrels missing from storage, and could they be linked to the purchase order from the Palace? - The wine itself has nothing to do with what's going on- instead, the violence is being staged to undermine the winery and its good name. The mercenary enchanter who works for their rivals is taking an unholy glee in wreaking havoc with no qualms. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 9 October 2019. This spell, a favourite and original of Firdaus 'the Burnmage', has now passed into public distribution, and is a popular battle spell among mages who like a combination of attack and defense with one spell.
Firdaus' Firefling Conjuration (Fire) Level: Sorcerer/Wizard 3 Components: V, S, M Casting Time: 1 minute Range: Personal Target: You Duration: 1 minute/level Casting this spell, you conjure up a swirling gout of flame which orbits your body and follows the movement of your limbs. The caster is surrounded in flames, which do not harm the caster or their equipment. The flames grant a deflection bonus to Armour Class equal to +2 + 1 per 2 caster levels (maximum +5), and provide light. In addition to providing light, the flames can be hurled or used to touch enemies. You can strike an opponent with a melee touch attack, dealing fire damage equal to 1d6 + 1 per caster level (maximum +10). Alternatively, you can hurl the flames up to 120 feet as a standard action. When doing so, you attack with a ranged touch attack (with no range penalty) and deal the same damage as with a melee touch attack. Each attack you make reduces the remaining duration by 1 minute, and if an attack reduces the remaining duration to 0 or fewer minutes, the spell ends immediately after resolving the attack. This spell does not function underwater. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 5 October 2019. There is a lion, stories tell, that sometimes... isn't.
It hunts the hinterlands outside of the city, and many hunters have seen it. But when the spear is about to strike true, or occasionally when its jaws are about to snap shut on a victim, it vanishes. The Sometimes Lion is a cursed being, doomed to a twilight existence constantly flickering in and out of reality. The curse somehow sustains its life, but it always seems hungry when it appears. How you can use the Sometimes Lion in your game: - The Sometimes Lion might be a cursed person, both transformed into an animal and thrown out of phase with the world. What terrible deed must they have committed to have been cursed with such a punishment? - The Sometimes Lion may be just a regular animal, but might be able to lead wily hunters to the source of its curse- a crashed artifact from another reality, or some kind of magical ruin where a dreadful catastrophe has occurred, perhaps. - The Sometimes Lion may be just a figment of some planar collision, a phantom with no real ill-will, just reliving the last days of its life. Perhaps compassionate hunters could locate the cursed blade that took its life, as it took the owner's, and allow the poor beast to rest in peace. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 4 October 2019. Part of good storytelling is knowing when to really tug at the heartstrings, and sometimes, the best way to do that is to give people just enough length to do that, and giving them a difficult choice to make.
The Dragon Age RPG recommends this as part of its dark fantasy- choosing whether to take the antidote back to the town that's paying to heal its people, or pass it on to the lord who begs them for help; whether to take the easy way and slay the barbarians, or try to cure them of their madness, and so on. Especially if you give your players one-use items, like an Elixir of Life or a ring that grants total immunity to magic, they then face a choice of whether to keep and use the items themselves, or use them to assist others. The opportunity for you then is to give your players an opportunity to use them for good- or for themselves. That's not to say you should always do this, but it can make for a really interesting moral challenge. One recommendation I'd make to avoid it just being the party arguing about what to do for the whole session is to put them on the spot, and be forced to choose quickly. Perhaps someone threatens them with violence if they don't give up the item, perhaps someone will die if they don't assist. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 3 October 2019. This spell allows a paladin of the Knights Incandescent to soar upon wings of brilliant multicoloured light for a brief period.
Incandescent Wings Conjuration Level: Paladin 1 Components: V Casting Time: 1 free action Range: Personal Target: Self Duration: 1 round/level You surround yourself briefly with a shimmering corona of light which coalesces into a pair of wings, allowing you to take flight for a brief moment. You can fly at a speed of 40 feet per round (or 30 feet in medium or heavy armour, or if you carry a medium or heavy load). You can ascend at half speed and descend at double speed, and your maneuverability is good. Using this spell requires only as much concentration as walking, so you can attack or cast spells normally. You can charge but not run, and you cannot carry aloft more weight than your maximum load, plus any armour you wear. Should the spell duration expire while you are still aloft, the magic fails slowly. You float downward 60 feet per round for 1d6 rounds. If you reach the ground in that amount of time, you land safely. If not, you fall the rest of the distance, taking 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet of fall. Since dispelling a spell effectively ends it, you also descend in this way if the fly spell is dispelled, but not if it is negated by an antimagic field. Also posted on Game Masters Stash on 2 October 2019. |
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