Month: May 2024

Lore Drop – Luma

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

The salt spray was a familiar friend as Luma stood at the prow of the longship. The winds were in their favour so this was merely the challenge of the sea as they forged their path home. To the North and South were dark cliffs, but ahead to the East, well that was home. This end of the Principalities held both smaller islands and deeper seas. The Lhazaar Principalities were harsh and unforgiving, but it made the welcome of home ports even warmer.

Treacherous currents and everchanging winds made this a hard place to flourish. One thing that at least was easier now, was the breaking of the Kraken’s Coils. The malignant deep-dweller was no more, brought down by rare cooperation between local Sea Princes. Now Luma returned home. He and his crew had broken more than one splinter group of the Kraken’s surviving followers. A relative calm had now settled as the islands’ rulers relaxed. No doubt the jockeying for position and recognition would begin again soon. For now, there was peace.

Luma had vowed to finish what his parents had started before they were taken ill so recently. They had led the charge for the Easterlies with magic flames and flourished steel. They had been among the strongest voices arguing for cooperation in the face of raiders beneath the seas and the harrowing of isolated communities. What had begun as apparently senseless raiding had been revealed to be the machinations of an ancient and terrible power from the depths of the oceans.

Right on the cusp of victory, Luma’s parents had been struck down and lost all their magic. Luma had barely been able to rescue them from the front line and to safety. When the battle was done, he had taken them home to recover. Then he returned to sea.

Luma’s vows to the Blood of Vol and the Emerald Claw had sustained him and his crew through the thickest fighting and the trickiest hunts that followed. His bone-decorated armour and his skeletal crew marked him as favoured by Lady Illmarrow, and struck fear even into the corrupted sea spawn. The priest who accompanied him helped keep his vows. His crew had been able to go where the living couldn’t in pursuit of the sahuagin and kraken priests.

Luma looked back across the deck of his ship. His crew made no noise as they worked tirelessly. The dozen figures in ornate armour moved with precision and focus. The polished ivory of their skulls was lit by pale blue lights in their eye sockets. They would bring Luma home. He had willed it. The Kraken was gone, its forces scattered.

Luma could have continued the hunt, but he had received a very special message. His long-lost demon-cursed sibling – horns and all – had finally tracked his parents down. They would be at Einnaer’s Rest soon. They had a new name – Hope.

Fiction Fragment – Waiting For A Good Dog

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

A kaleidoscopic fan of light was washing lazily across the wet road and glum buildings, cast by advertising hoardings. From the look of it someone had got into the display memories and overwritten them with a looping graphic. A brief burst of static at the end of each cycle was either corrupted data, or some form of subliminal. Harris, after a couple of loops, had decided the former was more likely as he hadn’t developed a sudden urge to buy anything or claw at his own eyes.

Harris was sat in the drivers seat of the car he’d stolen an hour ago. The engine was idling, partly for a quick getaway, and partly because he wasn’t sure if he’d be able to get it going again if he switched it off. It wasn’t a particularly advanced model of its type – his concern was more to do with the condition of the batteries than with any advanced security features. His window was wound down, bringing a measure of moving air from across the parking lot.

Occasionally there was other traffic on the road – lonely delivery vans and late night travellers. Harris watched each vehicle with an appearance of casual interest. None returned once they had passed. The phone he had plugged in to charge chimed gently three times, a signal he’d been waiting for. He opened his door and swivelled out so he could open the back passenger door, and waited.

He saw the light across the darkened lot, bobbing slightly as it approached. The laden dog-bot trotted steadily from the warehouses with its panniers full and stopped an arm’s length from the vehicle. The phone chimed again from inside the car and Harris moved quickly and efficiently to unload the panniers into the back seat. It was all basics – tins, dry goods, basic first aid supplies – everything someone wanting to be off the grid a while should need. When he’d finished, the empty panniers registered that they were empty and there was another chime.

The robot backed away, turned, and hurried away at a faster pace back the way it had come. Harris closed the back door, climbed back in, and drove away. The robot had scanned the vehicle, not the person, there would be no trace he’d ever been there. In the rear window, he saw the kaleidoscope colours fading into the rain and dark.

Map – Winter Lakeside

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

This is the map I hurried together when I realised I’d set up the wrong map for Sunday’s game. Originally I planned to use the Beach House map from earlier in the week before realising I’d set the wrong biome. My first move was to go back into Dungeon Alchemist and change the underlying setting to winter snows and refresh it before getting to work.

About the only thing that stayed the same was the building in the bottom left. The entire coastline changed and froze over – so I decided to update with more buildings to give more of a sense of a small community. There are several cabins, a farmstead, a forge, and a small bar. This would have given me more chance to flesh it out as a location with NPCs as well as some different tactical options for the fight. I then ended up using a completely different map on the day, so I’ll keep this on the back burner for now.

I’ve shared the original DAM file at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3254844108 if anyone wants to grab a copy – and the map is 42×42 including the 1 square black border (so a 40×40 playable grid – but as its an ungridded map, size it as you want)

DDC – And Now For Something…

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

We returned to the DDC after a couple of weeks of downtime. This allowed them to heal up and get to know the local area. Thorin spent much of it carousing and stopping bar brawls from getting out of hand – so the local guards started dropping him home when he had too much to drink. Kerne, meanwhile, used clues from her sister’s update to research and locate the mausoleum containing Talisen DiLyrandar’s tomb in the Eldeen Reaches. Despite their victory, Hope still had one last thing they wanted to do however.

After rededicating themselves to their priesthood role, Hope wanted to track down their parents and let them know the nightmare was past. To that end they spent a lot of time researching old archives of passenger manifests and spreading bribes around to come up with the name of a small island port in the Lhazaar Principalities. These are a remote and fiercely independent archipelago of islands ruled by Sea Princes and Reavers. Hope’s parents had gone there to lay low and start new lives.

A gnomish airship was hastily contracted to take the DDC there – an experience that introduced possibly the most caffeine-laced crew of gnomish artificers in Khorvaire, and their amazing craft. The complex and jury-rigged ship somehow cruised just ahead of the catastrophe curve with its mix of air screws, balloons, articulated vanes and gas-powered rocket thrusters all at once. Valenia had some of the crew’s hyper distilled coffee-like brew of choice, heard the colour red, and was quickly cured by Arwan who used a lesser restoration to flush her system quickly. No one else dared after that.

Am uneventful couple of weeks, mostly below decks, saw them arrive at Einnaer’s Rest. Late spring was easing into early summer as they crested the rise up from the port to a small group of houses on the other side of the promontory – and I used the Einnaer’s Ruins map previously posted here as an illustration. The DDC followed the instructions of villagers towards a longhouse on the edge of the shore

There was an emotional reunion – and the revelation came that Dawn and Stefan had been leading the defence of local islands against a malevolent kraken. The united fleets had defeated the creature and were hunting down the scattered remnants of cultists and servants – indeed, Hope’s brother was on a ship at the moment, doing just that. Hope’s parents were only here because they had been struck down mysteriously and lost the warlock powers they had gained from their original pact with Derroghast.

Which was the point at which the scattered remnants of the kraken’s followers rose from the sea seeking revenge on the pair. Arwan and Hope spotted the attackers before anyone else – and created a wall of fire on the shoreline. The sea was full of sea spawn, sahuagin, and giant crabs, led by a sea hag and a kraken priest and a deep scion whose ear-splitting shriek stunned the pair. As the wave of attackers reached the shore, the kraken priest gestured, and the sea level rose twenty foot in a massive tsunami. It extinguished the wall of fire, flooded the battlefield, and swept everyone off their feet.

The next few seconds were spent getting onto the roofs of houses, rescuing Dawn and Donna and starting the fight back while the sahuagin and the sea hag tried to drag Arwan and Hope to watery graves.

And that is this week’s cliff-hanger!

DDC Story Arc Epilogue?

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

All other things being equal we’ll be closing out Hope’s Arc this evening. The only problem is I’ve been making random maps and just realised I’ve been making them fir the wrong biome. What I thought was a more Caribbean analogue is in fact more like Norway in latitude on the Eberron continental map so when I’m back home I’ll be straight into my map making software to put something more appropriate together.

The tribulations of a DM who’s making it up as he goes along…

NPC – Joruun and Jaroin

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

It’s been a busy old week so to get myself back into the swing of not being in work mode, here’s a couple of sailors ready for trouble. Call them independent contractors, call them men at arms, just don’t call them pirates – even if they’re raiding your ship. These brothers have been working a wide range of jobs among the islands of the Lhazaar Principalities, but definitely prefer life on the open seas.

That’s about as detailed as I’ve planned these individuals out – enjoy!

Map – Desert Island Beach Shack

Tim Maidment1 Comment

Another beach-themed map, partly because its a setting I haven’t developed things for before now. In this one a simple shack has been built on a beach with a palisade and a makeshift pier. A stream runs into the water, there’s a clay hearth outside the shack, an extinguished beacon down the beach and general signs of salvage and long forgotten ruins

The original map is 40×40 squares with a 1 square border – or the original DAM file can be downloaded from Steam at https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3251545142

Lore Drop – A Letter From Faye

Tim Maidment1 Comment

Dearest sister – I have only just noticed that you took your copy of the journal with you, and so I hope that this message finds you well. In truth, I hope that this method of getting a message to you still works as the enchantment was originally one crafted through my alliance with the Winter’s Court. That compact was severed when I turned from the Knight but perhaps this is an enchantment that still endures.

I do not know where you and your fellow travellers have gone, or I would use a more reliable method of reaching out. House Sivis have sent messages for you to your home city, so if there is someone there who can relay them then all to the good. Knowing how you and your companions tend to strike out into the unknown at the drop of a hat however, I fear that this may be our only means, once more, of talking.

Where to begin? Karkanna sends her love, and wonders if she needs to have words with her brother over your extended absence. That in truth is the simplest of matters to relay. So that is done.

I have been working with the fire mage, Katya, as you asked – it seems that your theory that our blood holds a spark of magic is correct as my connection to deeper pools of sorcery is growing to fill the chasm left when my warlock pact was revoked. Perhaps it is her influence, or a reaction to the cold peaks here but fire seems to call to me in the way that venom seems to well within your magics. I am, regardless, learning control of this new source though I still feel clumsy in its use. Together we have been trying to solve the riddle of Rakken.

I say trying, but I should cut to the chase. He is no more. We traced his origins to a set of ruins near the former troll territories, and a concealed House Cannith facility. The artificers there had been working on cataloguing and identifying grades of dragonshards found in the area, and had been contracted by House Lyrandar to accompany one of their scions to assess a new significant set of deposits that had recently been uncovered.

So far, so ordinary – except the scion named was Talisen DiLyrandar, one of the missing people you and I identified as possibly being the Winter’s Knight. We took Rakken with us to see if any of his fractured memories could help unpick more clues and found a fragment that had apparently been carved off from something called the Eye of Khyber. It was a sliver, charged with some form of binding. We’d worked out from a kind of demented game of charades that Rakken had been in contact with the original crystal at some point – it was perhaps behind his transformation – and while nothing happened when I handled it (carefully) the same couldn’t be said for the reaction to Rakken’s touch.

It wasn’t pleasant, but it was quick, and in Rakken’s place was a middle-aged human woman called Talia. It turns out that she was one of the artificers who had been to the site where the Eye had been found. After getting her back to the Hold and helping her recover from her ordeal, she has revealed a number of disturbing things that may be of use nevertheless.

Unlike the usual khyber dragonshards, the Eye had been carefully worked and was already enchanted in some way when it was discovered in a large cave. She said that when she touched it, her mind was overrun with images of runes in stone, the thoughts of dragons, and for a brief moment had a view of the entire web of possibility for the future. It was that moment that cursed and warped her into the nothic called Rakken.

She also said that as she was overwhelmed by the stone, she saw a vision of the Winter’s Knight cutting down Talisen. In her vision, Talisen had just hidden a battered crossbow beneath a stone slab. She does not know the significance of that. Perhaps it was a relic of the person who became the Winter’s Knight, or a means to hurt him?

I am rambling so will compose my thoughts.

One more thing, and I write this in all confidence, but as my sister I feel this is something you need to know. Katya and I, and now Talia, along with the half ogre Kher, have been working with and studying with the Auntie in the Fields. We sup with a very long spoon with a being who loved the previous Winter’s Knight and who was banished to these realms when the new one rose to power. She has spoken of leaving a legacy when her love is restored – and I wonder if that may be us stepping into her story. I do not know if that is a good or a bad thing – but for now it is helping the people of these lands. I suppose if nothing else, we now know where she lives.

Take care sister. I hope this finds you. Write back if you can. I think there are relics that can help defeat the Knight but you may need to find a way to speak to the dead to find them.

NPC – Warden Bessel

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

Due to illness there was no game today, so instead I’ve whipped up a new character who may turn up in the game as an incidental individual. Warden Bessel is an Aerenal Elf and cleric of the dead. In other worlds this might paint him as an evil individual, but in Eberron the elves of Aerenal inhabit a jungle landscape that has close proximities to the planes of Mabar and Irian. This makes the lines between life and death somewhat blurred. Mabar is the plane of death, while Irian is a source of positive energy that sustains the honoured undead of the Undying Court.

As a Warden, Bessel conducts funeral and healing ceremonies alike, so that no one slips across the boundaries between life, death, and unlife without purpose. Those undertaking the next part of their journey are honoured and prepared. Those for whom it is not yet time are healed and preserved. As a minor cleric of the Undying Court, Bessel longs to range out into the wider world to increase his knowledge of life and death – but as yet has not gained either a sponsor or companions with whom to travel. As a result he mostly looks forward to aiding and facilitating the efforts of adventurers and travellers who come to the shrines he supports. Occasionally he is called to aid more senior clerics who must travel within the jungles to correct spontaneous risings of mindless undead from animals and careless adventurers alike.

The Aereni civilisation is over twenty thousand years old and has seen goblin and human civilisations rise and fall. Their libraries and vaults hold many secrets lost to the rest of the world. It could well be that the pull of that knowledge may draw in the DDC in their search for ways to defeat the Winter’s Knight…

A copy of the character sheet for Bessel can be seen at https://www.dndbeyond.com/characters/124750377/xwxooB

Passing Torches

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

I’ve been continuing to declutter the flat as part of my self-care among the chaos, and very reluctantly turned my attention to three crates that I hadn’t unpacked since moving in over 14 years ago.

They’ve been quietly sitting beneath the piano, gathering dust – or at least had been until I had to make space for the guys building our new kitchen.

The crates contained old roleplay game materials – mostly second edition Dungeons and Dragons books. I couldn’t bring myself to bin them, but I did remember that there’s a local hospice support charity shop that specialises in books, games, comicbooks, vinyl records, and so on

They’ve been an absolute treasure trove, and very friendly, so I gave them first refusal. They did not refuse. And so this afternoon I dragooned Lady M into helping me carry four bags of books to the shop.

The light that appeared in various volunteers’ eyes tells me the books will be finding new homes very quickly. As these are books that saw me through school and university,  it feels entirely appropriate that a new generation of students will get their hands on these materials and make new stories with them.

Back home, I’ve separated out some White Wolf materials, and a stack of Cyberpunk 2020 books and am trying to gird myself to make another delivery. They’re amazing books, but I haven’t touched them in over a decade. I may have another read through them for old times sake