Happy Birthday America!

 

Blacktusk Mammoth for Old School Essentials

 

Blacktusk Mammoth

A rare northern breed of mammoth distinguished by its snow-white coat and massive obsidian tusks. Blacktusks are prized by the Ice Amazons as sacred beasts and are sometimes trained as war mounts for queens and champions. Wild Blacktusks are uncommon, dwelling upon the frozen tundra, glaciers, and high mountain valleys of the far north.

AC 4 [15]
HD 17 (76 hp)
Att 1 × trunk slam (2d6), 2 × tusks (3d6) or trample (5d8)
THAC0 8 [+11]
MV 120 (40)
SV D2 W3 P4 B3 S6 (17)
ML 11
AL Neutral
XP 1,600
NA 0 (1d4)
TT Obsidian Tusks

Special

• Charge: In the first round of combat, when not already in melee and with a clear run of at least 20 yards, the Blacktusk may charge. Its tusk attacks inflict double damage.
• Trample: 3-in-4 chance of trampling each round. Gains +4 to hit creatures of human size or smaller.
• Cold Adapted: Blacktusks ignore movement penalties caused by snow, ice, and frozen ground.
• Obsidian Tusks: The beast's glossy black tusks are prized by kings, nobles, master artisans, and sorcerers. Each intact tusk is worth 3d6 × 100 gp.
• Harvesting Tusks: Removing a tusk without damaging it requires 1 hour of careful work using appropriate cutting tools. If the referee deems the attempt rushed or careless, the tusk may be cracked or chipped, reducing its value by half or rendering it unsuitable for the finest craftsmanship.

Pass of the Thorn Crowned

      An ancient path from a forgotten age, the old stone path leads through a rocky pass. Barely intact, fallen old structures are scattered throughout the pass. Strange whispers float along the wind. Even when there is no wind.  Those that use the pass, do so quickly and never at night, bad things happen at night. Here and there dark openings lead into the unknown...

     Mid-way through the pass, an ancient statue, covered in vines, a female with one arm manacled and chained, thorny vines have grown around her head creating a natural crown of thorns. Travelers bow their heads when passing the statue, and leave offerings at the statue base. It is said to not leave an offering will bring upon a curse.  Indeed if anyone fails to leave an offering, all of their food (rations, etc) will become infested with maggots! If an entire group (caravan, band of heroes etc.) all fail to each leave an offering, dark clouds will form overhead and a rain of maggots will fall for several minutes. This will terrify mounts, steeds, pack animals etc. and is really gross! 

More campaign brainstorming

 I had fun yesterday with Knave 2e creating so as a exercise to decompress from work today, I dug out my dice and tried some more creativity exercises.

Since my last post made references to a noble, I figured I needed to work up some details on that. I have a PDF called Noble House Creator that I picked up some time ago. Just a few simple random tables, but still good for brainstorming.

House Greymorn

House Crest: grey background, dark green perimeter, narrow green eye in center

House Logo: "Gilded Eyes Will Always Rule"

Family Trade: Armorers

Famed Family Member: Valerian the Bold, the Brave, the Beautiful; a skilled hunter said to have slain a dragon!

Family Deeds: Castle, Vineyard (run down, in disarray, mismanaged) control village of Seep and surrounding farms. 

Who Supports the family: Currently hold the Queen's favor (currently...)

Payment they accept: Gold, silver, coins!

Family militia/Specialists: Mounted Knights

Family Secret: Their funds are running dry...desperate for influx of cash to pay debts! 

Lord Archibald Greymorn of House Greymorn

Margot Vineyard- yes it is that bad

So there you have it, this didn't take long at all, I used Knave to fill in some gaps, and now I have a fun little addition to my growing region.

Have a great evening!

B.B. 

Knave 2E for Campaign Inspiration

 Hope everyone is doing well. I haven't posted in a bit.  Had a little time this morning while family slept in to do some gaming brainstorming. I grabbed my copy of Knave 2e. Rolled up a random NPC. Knave 2E is fantastic for helping a GM brainstorm ideas. In just a few minutes I had rolled up Bartholamew Brandybold, a down on his luck former jester/oracle. 

Maybe he once was the jester of the local noble and was kicked out on the street when he fell out of favor. Does he know secrets about the noble or the noble's family? Is there a secret way inside the noble's mansion that he knows about? Does he hold a grudge for his mistreatment?

Bartholamew Brandybold 

    Former Jester, former Oracle, now a  down on his luck "wretch".

Next, I wanted a location. Where would the players encounter this, down on his luck, fellow. Back to the wonderful tables in Knave 2E and I quickly had a unique and equally suitable (disturbing) location. The poor, unquiet village of Seep. A truly destitute place, where a black oily substance oozes up out of the ground and is slowing covering everything in a slick, oily coating. Many of the villagers are sickly and weak from the exposure but are too poor (or not allowed by the local noble?) to leave. What is the oil? Is it a curse? Well, that's where the players come in...

    

Village of Seep

And what makes a region even more interesting is a strange wizard's tower nearby. Once again, some random rolls and I have Xedu's Tower. A tall creepy stone tower on the far outskirts of the region. Stone vents are known to spew out a poisonous gas at irregular intervals. The gas has killed all vegetation in the immediate area around the tower. All sane folk give the place a wide berth. What is the gas? rumors say the wizard has a captured Green Dragon held below the tower and the poisonous gas is the dragon's breath weapon, but no one knows for certain...

Xedu's Tower

So next time your players go in an unexpected direction, grab Knave 2E make a few rolls on the great random tables and you will quickly have a memorable NPC/Encounter/Locale! The system your playing doesn't matter (although personally I'm an OSR guy). 

This encounter could easily be inserted into most any fantasy campaign regardless of the system you are using! Let me know how it goes!

-Good Gaming! B.B. 

I know some don't care for AI generated art, but the visuals help me come up with ideas. 

Happy Easter

 

Gaming Inspiration

 Being pretty much homebound recently due to the crazy winter weather, I had some time to sort through my ever-growing pile of "to be read books". I blame social media, but of late I find I struggle to sit down and read actual books for extended periods. I made an effort to fix that this week and found it to be helpful, relaxing and therapeutic. Here are a few tomes I grabbed to look through for gaming inspiration. I wanted to focus on books that were not specifically designed for RPG's but could be beneficial to jumpstart my creative muse. Even just thumbing through them, I've gotten lots of gaming inspiration! Locations, NPCs' and more!  

What non-gaming books do you use to inspire your gaming muse?