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NPCs – Goblin Raiders

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

So here’s a new batch of NPCs/antagonists that a group might encounter – inspired by the uniform approach for guards and zombies recently, I spent an evening making a bunch of goblins with a similar look who could be raiders or part of a larger force.

I’ve made up here a sniper, a spellcaster, a spearcarrier, a skirmisher, and a general sneaker – all with a unified colour scheme and set of armour. It’s been fun to play around with the facial expressions and poses and I think that’s a big part of the draw.

There’s something about this set of facial features that makes me smile – its similar to some recurring sketch designs that I doodle on and off. In the meantime the unified designs of groups like this are also sparking scenario ideas, so that’s an added bonus given the number of times I wing encounters in my games.

As ever, feel free to download and use anything here – have fun!

Map – Snowy Mountain Pass

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This is the map I used for Sunday’s game where the DDC encountered both a group of Ice Trolls and then a far more dangerous Dire Troll that had been buried in the stone circle. Rather than being a ravine environment, the intention was more to have a raised ridgeway or track through mountainous terrain that sloped away either side.

I set the adventurers at the top of the map, emerging from between trees into the more open area, and the trolls initially in and around the rough circle of stones. The map is designed as a 25×30 portrait area, and was exported from Dungeon Alchemy. The zipfile is mountainpass.zip and you’re welcome to make use of it and the lighting information as you need – or you can just copy and download the map below without any other information.

DDC – Ice Trolls

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Sunday’s game saw the group deciding on what to do about the revelation that trolls were moving in concert to disrupt life in the Hold’s territories. A week of scouting and research culminated in loud rumbling noises in the night, off in the distance and echoing across the valleys. With no visible source of that noise, the group decided to investigate reports of activity at an old mill site to the north west. Various lures of slaughtered animals were bringing predators down from the mountains to more civilised areas – and the mill was near the main pass towards the mines.

Before they did though, Kerne asked that they all go to Flower Town, taking Karkanna and Loris with them for a party and celebration. Kerne also had a surprise that they wanted to share. It took some persuasion to get Karkanna to acquiesce to the idea. She had spent a lot of the week fussing over Kerne while they recovered from their earlier injuries. A deputation was needed in the end to back Kerne up, like children asking if their friend could come out to play.

The group made their towards the pass to the north east leading to Flower Town. In the early stages of the approach, however, the DDC encountered four ice trolls near a rough stone circle. The two sides rushed at each other, with Caeluma being badly hurt in the initial rush. A desperate struggle raged within the snowy pass and despite the trolls’ regenerative health, the group was able to whittle down the threat in reasonably short order. However, before they could draw breath, the mound at the centre of the stone circle began to shift and collapse as something large dug its way out.

Weary, hurt, and after a rapid expenditure of energy, the DDC was shocked to see the misshapen form of a dire troll digging its way out of its grave, disturbed by all the activity. Caeluma fell beneath its claws twice, being hastily revived in the heat of battle, while Thorin went toe to toe with the creature. Blow after blow were traded, and time to heal up was bought with a frantically-cast banishment spell.

The creature’s tenacity was such that the group thought they had killed it several times, only to have it rear back up and strike again and again. In the end they were able to bring a massive flame to bear that overwhelmed it, and this time the remains caught and were consumed.

A search of the fallen trolls revealed another set of bone and iron brooches, symbol of the Circle of Rot as previous research had revealed. Within the now tumbled mass of the stone circle, a battered satchel contained gold coins, and a beautiful gold and silver brooch with the Amberhammer crest, were found. This was later identified as an old Amberhammer treasure that had been used to identify an agent of the Hold. A painting of a a previous clan queen showing her wearing it was found in the library.

The main pass itself was found to be impossible to use – the loud noise in the night had been an avalanche. Fragments of burned stone still bore the imprint of glyphs of warding that had been deliberately placed and triggered to cause it.

Returning to the Hold, and when all were relaxing and wounds tended, Karkanna asked what the surprise was going to be – which was when Kerne produced rings that they had commissioned, and asked Karkanna to marry them. We left the session there with a grand celebration and very few dry eyes in the house.

NPCs – Zombie Guards

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I had a bit of a quick play round in Heroforge to make some guards that were zombies for a scenario knocking around in my head – I’ve saved the models but did quickly make some virtual tokens that I could scatter around a map to scare some players. I mostly just played around with head positions and changed a couple of minor details, but wanted to keep enough of the same basic equipment and colours to suggest a uniform.

gaunt zombie face with a broad-brimmed metal helmet looking to the viewer's right
decayed and bloodied noseless female zombie guard with a broad brimmed metal hat staring out at the viewer
grey skinned decaying guard with no helmet, head lolling back and left to look in the air

Not bad for a quick ten minutes clicking away on the laptop – I’m thinking of scenarios ranging from adventurers happening across an overrun checkpoint, an invasion by necromancy-using forces, an unearthly portal to a dark dimension, or a buried eldritch machine that has been reactivated and that is draining the life force from the area and needs to be quickly found and destroyed.

Feel free to grab copies for yourself, and as ever if you use them, let me know – I’m always on the lookout for scenario ideas.

NPCs – Outcasts

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There’s an aspect of fantasy world storytelling that appeals that focuses on characters caught between two worlds or cultures – the idea of the halfbreed who may or may not be accepted by either of their species or cultures. Sometimes this leads them to dark places, sometimes to brighter places. They can be an allegory or not, depending on the whim of the author or the player (who may have picked their character traits for some trait that fitted their concept)

So with that in mind, here are two new NPCs I’ve modelled in HeroForge and toyed around with in DNDBeyond: Rufen Hagspawn and Arianna Hytheknot.

Rufen is a custom lineage involving trolls and hags as the concept – very much inspired by the current DDC adventures. He is a barbarian with distinctive broken ram’s horns sprouting from his brow, who appears brutish but is unexpectedly charismatic. He may not be schooled in the ways of civilisation, but he has an uncommon amount of common sense (or wisdom). Even so, that wisdom is largely concerned with where and when to swing the great axe he carries. He is largely shunned wherever he goes, but he has managed to bargain for a trinket that once per day allows him to disguise himself as a human or similarly sized individual. This allows him to access shops and taverns without automatically being chased out of town as a monstrous abomination.

Arianna is a tiefling druid who lives by the docks of a town, preserving the wildlife and plantlife at the interface between civilisation and the natural world. The rats and vermin act as her eye and ears as she sells charms to sailors and potions to housewives. On occasion she’ll be asked to patch up someone caught by footpads, or on the run from the watch – and she turns any coin from that towards making her corner of the world a little calmer and safer for the youngsters. The horns on her head may make for an arresting sight but she finds it a good way to test people by not mentioning it, and pretending to be completely unaware of them when questioned.

Both are good examples of border characters that live on the edges of society and who may well be living in shades of moral greyness. How they react to player characters may well depend on how they in turn are treated on first contact or in how the actions of the characters are reported to others.

Rufen is more of a lone wolf individual who might eke out a living as a hunter, or who might be a mercenary encountered with a bunch of bandits who use his hardiness and regenerative powers to break defences. Arianna is much more of a socialised individual who works within or on the fringes of a society – the docks which inspire her second name. A hythe is an an old english word for a dock, usually on a river – so a hytheknot may be what secures a rope from a boat as it rests in its mooring – or maybe there’s a more sinister aspect related to punishment for pirates.

As ever, feel free to download these PNG format graphics and use them for your own VTTs – and if you do, drop me a note and let me know what they get up to – or how else you’ve used them.

Map – Alchemy House

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This is an early map I made when I first got Dungeon Alchemy after the KickStarter – so wasn’t made with thought of any particular type of encounter or other use. It was mostly an exercise in trying to visualise a layout on three floors and would probably not be a great place to actually live. If nothing else, it is lop-sided and overhangs on the top floor while leaving either a large flat roof or a very oddly sloped set of shingles. Trying to visualise it do give me a headache – but then perhaps this is a magical place and not necessarily all on our plane of existence.

Image for illustration, described in the main text

Looking at the layout – the top set of rooms is the ground level floor, with an entrance hall or porch in its top right corner. There’s a large sitting room to the south and a smaller hallway or reception to the west. This leads to a long thin corridor, off which the dining room, kitchen, toilet, and servants’ quarters are set. At the bottom of that corridor there are steps leading down into the cellar, and stairs going up to the master bedroom.

The master bedroom is the room on its own to the right of the map and isn’t anything particularly exciting.

The cellar has steps coming down near the well, along its north wall – and that main cellar area is mostly used for storage and drawing water. Each of the chambers off from that are full of work tables and supplies in crates. Its a rambling open area that could hold experiments or McGuffins that a group could be searching for.

So, I’ve included the exported file, jpeg, and text file as usual as usual as alchemyhouse.zip but am treating this as an example of the early learning curve while playing with a new toy. Enjoy!

NPCs – Shifter Gang

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In the world of Eberron, one of the species that can be played, or that can be encountered are the Shifters. It is said that they are descended from lycanthropes in the distant past, inheriting the ability to manifest animalistic traits that can boost their reflexes or strength or other senses. Often mistrusted by others – in part due to horror stories of their savage ancestors – a shifter is often welcomed into the world of gangs and other criminal factions.

Having started to make some default guards for my games, I thought I should also look at some tokens for their counterparts and created three individuals who may be encountered together, on their own, or as part of a wider and more diverse group. As with the other entries in this series, they have been made using the HeroForge website, and I’ve shared them on there for others to use the models as they may please.

A wolf-faced man in green and grey with taloned hands advancing on the viewer
A pale skinned but dark haired man with long hair and a beard, claws for hands, and wolf-like legs, wearing a duster and other dark medieval style clothing. He holds a machete in his right hand
A dark skinned woman with pointed ears and sharp wolf-like teeth. She is dressed in reds and greys, and holds a butcher's cleaver in each hand. It looks like she's waiting for you to make your move

I’ve not gone for any kind of colour scheme or common theme, but have tried to show different ways that the shifter abilities might manifest. The first has the face of a wolf and claws on their fingertips and is advancing to attack. The second wields a machete and is dressed in a more swashbuckling style that contrasts with his clawed fingers, animal like teeth, and wolf-like legs. The third is more subtle – pointed ears and teeth, and claws even while clutching cleavers and having a more passive stance.

close up circular token of the wolf-faced man's face
close up circular token of the bearded man's face, clothing, and machete
close up circular token of the dark skinned woman revealing a malevolent grin full of sharp teeth

I’m thinking of using these in the Wednesday group sessions which are set in, on, and above the streets of Sharn – a magitech city of impossible towers, suspended walkways, flying transports, and hidden secrets. I think these would be a good match for the tone and power level of that group as a general threat to be stumbled over. Perhaps they might be sent to rough the group up if they annoy the wrong person, or they might be in a dark alley, lying in wait.

overhead figure of the wolf-faced man
overhead view of the machete-wielding man in a swirling duster
overhead view of the woman with the cleavers, showing the cloak flowing behind her

This is how I’ve set the tokens to appear on the virtual maps, but the circular tokens above could work just as well, depending on your tastes. Feel free to download and use these PNG images if you like – and if you do, consider letting me know how you challenged people with them – or if they became character tokens instead.

DDC – Troll Fight

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We picked up the story from last time with the group making their way across a frozen lake towards a burning trading post. Battle was joined with a group of four trolls, and at the end of the last session, Kerne had slain one of them with a deluge of acid.

This week, the remaining trolls ran for cover, running around or into the trading post, forcing the DDC to pursue them. This was the moment they found that the trolls had left concealed bear traps in their paths – a level of preparation and use of tactics not typical of troll encounters. They lost sight of two of the trolls, but the third could be seen through the trading post’s windows. Valenia and Caeluma therefore focused their efforts on shooting into the burning building with varying degrees of success.

Arwan made his way inside in pursuit and was charged by the troll he found in there – and despite weathering powerful blows stood his ground. Valenia finished the troll off with acid-infused magical arrows and just for a moment all was quiet. Arwan extinguished the largest fire in the building by summoning water – and then the other two trolls reappeared.

They had climbed onto the roof undetected and crawled over the top to try and flank the group when the damaged roof collapsed. One leapt clear and landed next to Kerne – the other fell through and landed next to Arwan. In the blink of an eye Kerne was on the ground and bleeding out, with the troll preparing to eat them. Caeluma and Arwan fought the other troll with magics that severed limbs and dropped it quickly.

Overhead map view of a burning wooden building in a snowy forest landscape on the edge of a frozen lake. Its the setting for the encounter described in this blog entry.

Valenia risked the irate troll’s claws to heal Kerne, saving their life but getting her back sliced open in the process. Inside the trading post, the fallen troll’s separated body parts began to fight on independently. For a few moments, as fast as the DDC knocked the trolls down, they or their body parts got back up and continued fighting. Then Arwan called on the gods to summon a flame strike from the heavens. The column of fire punched down through the broken roof. It incinerated the troll remains in moments. Outside, Valenia and Thorin finished off the remaining attacker with acid.

In the aftermath, the group took a short rest and investigated the wreckage. There was nothing of any worth remaining in the ruins, but each of the trolls wore two tokens. The first was a bone and iron brooch in the shape of a humanoid skull. The second was a crude silver fist wrought in silver on a silver chain.

Valenia’s investigations also found deliberately dumped animal and human remains. Blood and gore were placed to form a lure to the area, and based on the blood on the troll remains, they had been the ones placing the lures. They mirrored the gore piles found earlier in the forest trails. The DDC decided to return to the Hold to plan and research their next move.

I’ve included the map here, as well as the zipped file of the Dungeon Alchemy base file, jpeg, and text file with dynamic lighting, door, and window location details: tradingpost attack.zip

Map – Dragon Skull Pass

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I started showing boy s the basics of Dungeon Alchemy while we were away so that he could design the shrine that his character Caeluma is founding at Amberhammer Hold. He’s got a basic layout sorted out, and will now need to do the tweaks and nudges to the decor and props to finish it all off.

This has brought me back to making some random maps to toy with some more of the new features in the recent update, which has led to this mixture of landscape and hidden crypt dominated by the wedged skull of a long-dead dragon:

overhead map view of a snow-covered winter pass through mountains with a dragon's skull wedged at the bottom and a room and corridor carved out in one side of the valley.

Entry to this snowbound pass through the mountains is under the skull wedged above the southern end of the pass. A small crypt or shrine has been tunnelled out of the mountain rock, with its entrance at the top of a rocky slope covered in ice and snow. Danger might come from within that structure, or from bandits on the clifftop or even on top of the skull. Perhaps a yeti has taken up residence in the pass, or a troll preys on the unwary.

As usual I’ve put together a zipfile of the original .dam file, the exported jpeg and the text file containing lighting information – and that is included in this blog: dragonskullpass.zip

If you use this for anything, please let me know – I’d love to hear how you used it.

Grump and Tech

Tim MaidmentLeave a comment

We had a somewhat shortened D&D session this afternoon, victim of both a series of tech issues on my side and various people feeling unwell. It left me feeling quite down and upset with myself. I was even, dare it be said, a bit grumpy, and it was the type of grumpy where no matter how helpful the incoming suggestions were, they were not received well.

One very reluctantly undertaken rebuild of my laptop installation later, the system seems to be cooperating and running a little smoother, but damned if I can see what difference there is. Maybe there was some corrupt driver or configuration that refused to be overwritten in app reinstalls or something. Whatever it was, the near-nuclear option seems to have helped for now – and we’ll see what difference it makes.

Alternatively it could just be that my bad mood and frustration was freaking out the local electronics, because that seems as good an explanation as any.

At least writing this is a good way to close out the day and test connections and migrated login details and all the minor aggravations that accompany such things. I can go and try to get some rest shortly, and maybe even wake in the morning with some degree of refreshed approach to the universe. Hopefully it can be a quiet day where I can get on with paperwork and wrap up loose ends before the next round of fun and chaos.

As an added bonus, here’s a random snowy and abandoned temple I made up to test that Dungeon Alchemy had reinstalled properly. I’m putting it under the general label of “miscellaneous battle maps” as I have no immediate plans for use. Looking at it, I can immediately see a couple of settings changes I need to make around the bordering blank space around it, but that’s just my preference.

Overhead view of a semi-3d perspective map of a rectangular set of ruins in the snow. Trees and bushes surround it, and there looks to be a tent set up in the middle of the ruins next to a couple of torches

The map is designed for a Roll20 VTT, so the usual zip file of original map, exported jpg and text file with dynamic lighting details is included – snowtemple.zip – have fun, and as usual if you make use of it, drop me a note and let me know what encounters you’ve used it for