Incarnation of Fire

I've been transferring the notes for my current game over to Obsidian (I would highly recommend using it for your own notes) and I came across an old monster I made that led to a fun encounter for my players.

The stats are for 5e but the core concept should be pretty easily ported over to whatever system you use.

Incarnation of Fire

A creation of the Lord (Lords?) of Elemental Fire during the early ages of the world to spread their wrath and glory. A massive head crafted of ceramic and covered in innumerable chips, cracks, and scratches. It is human in design and unadorned save the 10 eyes upon its head in two columns of 5, each one an empty cavity stained with soot.

Large construct
AC: 15
HP: 100
Speed: 30 levitate (only a few inches off the ground)
STR 10 (0), DEX 8 (-1), CON 15 (+3)
INT 10 (0), WIS 10 (0), CHA 10 (0)
Resistances: lightning, necrotic, piercing
Immunities: fire
Condition immunities: prone, frightened
Vulnerabilities: cold
Actions --------------------------------------
Activate the power of flame: one of the eyes alights with flame and a spell is cast based on how many eyes are active, when it has all 10 eyes alight its next action turns off all of the eyes and it casts no spell
+ 6 to hit, spell save DC 14
    1 eye: firebolt
    2 eyes: burning hands
    3 eyes: scorching ray
    4 eyes: fireball
    5 eyes: wall of fire
    6 eyes: immolation
    7 eyes: investiture of flame
    8 eyes delayed blast fireball
    9 eyes: incendiary cloud
    10 eyes: meteor swarm

Map icon for Hexaghost from Slay the Spire
The major inspiration for this enemy

Monstrous - Outsiders

Penultimate post in this series!

For inspiration I am using one of the guilds of Ravnica from Magic: the Gathering. Text in italics is from the book, text in bold is my own.

From Double King by Felix Colgrave

Selesnya - Outsider - Perfect Grove

Not Of This World

The Perfect Grove's existence is rooted beyond the reality of this world. If the Perfect Grove would be destroyed or otherwise permanently incapacitated, instead the seeds of its fruits scatter and fly on insect wings to germinate in far off lands

Anomalous Form

When the Perfect Grove breaches the walls of mortal reality, it assumes a scarcely comprehensible form, incorporating the following

• The features of an “animal”: A tree
• A geometric structure: A tessellation
• A perplexing quirk: The body parts and organs of other living things

Its otherworldly physiology allows the Perfect Grove to bend or break the separation between kingdoms of life, which was previously understood to be a law of reality.

Voice From Beyond

Perfect Groves may well have their own language, but no mortal can understand it. On the rare occasions the Perfect Grove communicates with mortals, it does so through the medium of haruspicy preformed on the entrails within its fruit.

Mortals who communicate with the Perfect Grove in this way experience the side effect of a hunger for a specific life form.

Secret Society

A academic organization, dedicated to the Perfect Grove via research and exploration.

The Secret Society, calling itself The Botanical Studies Club of Berwik University, is fundamentally mistaken in the belief that the Perfect Grove is the origin of all life.

All Is Undone

The Perfect Grove warps and frays the fabric of reality by physically touching the world with its branches and roots.

Choose one of the following effects at random

• A living being gains a trait from another kingdom of life
• A living thing grows rapidly
• A non living object gains the qualities of life

In the absence of the Perfect Grove, its reality warping effects eventually fade away

Taken by: Michał Słupczewski

First time testing out the list to html generator, you could use it for the grove’s abilities.

I got the data from here and maybe I’m missing something but it seems like all terrestrial life is contained to 1 or 2 phylums and the rest are either marine life or single cellular… which now that I think about it does fit the Lovecraftian aesthetic of the outsider quite well.

TV Show Generator

This came to me in a dream I had a few nights ago.

Start with 1d4 main characters and 1 antagonist, then decide on the number of episodes this season has (1d10+10 if you can't decide). Most episodes the main characters encounter a problem which they then solve, in addition roll twice on the following table for the highlights of the episode. During the first half of the season roll with d20, for the second half roll with d30, and for the final episode roll with d10+20.

1. A side character dies
2. A side character leaves
3. A side character shows up
4. A side character helps the main characters
5. A new antagonist appears
6. An antagonist's plot is foiled
7. An antagonist shows up
8. An antagonist is one step closer to completing their plan
9. A main character almost dies
10. A main character's flaw causes trouble
11. Some of the past of a main character is revealed
12. A main character grows as a person
13. A main character has trouble with a mundane problem
14. A main character is very clever
15. A main character does something impressive 
16. A main character makes someone's life better
17. The main characters face a setback
18. The main characters are one step closer to completing their goal
19. A rift forms between two main characters
20. A bond is strengthened between two main characters
21. A main character dies
22. A new main character is introduced
23. Two main characters fall in love
24. An antagonist is defeated
25. A side character becomes a main character
26. A main character turns into an antagonist
27. An antagonist turns into a main character
28. A main character is permanently changed
29. This episode is a two parter, continue on in the next episode, if this is the final episode add another one
30. A main character realizes their true potential

Monstrous - Mob

#8 from Monstrous, I'm in the home stretch. 

For inspiration I am using one of the guilds of Ravnica from Magic: the Gathering. Text in italics is from the book, text in bold is my own.

By: Kim Diaz Holm
Licensed under CC Attribution 4.0 International

Izzit - Mob - Draugr

Fear Begets Fear

The progenitor of the draugr was created out of mortal folks' fear of running out of fuel in winter, forever marking the draugr with skeletal, frostbitten bodies.

To grow its ranks, the draugr need fear to spread and it needs frozen corpses.

Mobthink

The more fear spreads, the bigger the draugr grows. And the bigger the draugr grows, the more out of control it becomes.

The draugr starts with the first strength and weakness. When the size of the draugr grows beyond control of the common folk, it gains the second strength and weakness.

Strengths

• Vomit frozen water
• Cause terrible storms where they linger

Weaknesses

• Distracted by opportunities for cruelty
• Murderous jealousy arises in their ranks 

Fearmonger

A craven bully, a foreign pyromancer, is benefiting from the fear and chaos that surrounds the draugr.

This force is controlling the draugr from behind the scenes in an effort to force the town to rely on their magic to stay warm. 

They will lose control over the draugr if they see the pyromancer use fire magic. 

Run Amok

The draugr sows fear and chaos among the mortal folk by sabotaging fuel supplies.

The process starts with freezing firewood, escalates to killing woodcutters, and culminates in burying the town in snow.

By: Winslow Homer, public domain

And now a quick adventure

Winter has barely begun and yet the northern town of Hvinir is freezing, a plague of draugr slowly killing everyone. It is obvious to all that someone from inside the city is helping them, how else could they breach the warded gates. Everyone is paranoid, neighbor steels from neighbor, friend accuse friend, and soon everyone will be dead.

The big players

The mayor - Haukr

The leader everyone is looking to for guidance but he is helpless to solve anything.

Appearance - A strong old man with a dour expression and eyes as gray as his beard. 

Personality - He tries to be a just man but leadership wears down on him, he is always tired, he solves problems directly and without delicacy but not with aggression, he fears chaos above all and will not accuse anyone. 

Schedule - In the day he is in the town hall, trying to quell the concerns of his people, at night he secretly dawns a black cloak with green trim (vestments of the old faith) and goes out to the draugr to try and convince them to leave (a fruitless endeavor and he knows it, but what else can he do), before the morning comes he returns and gets a few hours of sleep.

The pyromancer - Jürgen

Foreign in the way the conquistadors were foreign, he is responsible for the towns plight.

Appearance - Wears a fine outfit of orange cloth, eyes smolder like embers, old burns cover his hands, well oiled beard. 

Personality - Ambitious and cruel but puts on a mask of charity, he uses the draugr in the hope that he can make the city rely on his fire magic, won't accuse anyone but will gang up on others accusations if it looks like most of the town agrees. 

Schedule - In the morning he secludes himself in his shop crafting fire charms, during the day he gives them away for pennies, at dusk goes to the opening in the wall and lets the draugr in and tells them about the guard patrols and where fuel is stored.

The mayor's daughter - Unnr

Reckless but one of the few people here willing to change anything.

Appearance - Long dark hair like her father used to have, wears practical clothes offering good movement and warmth. 

Personality - A firebrand, she spurns the help of others, not very talkative, can be very reckless, has no patience for assholes and the meek, considers her father a coward,, worries a lot, tries very hard to be a good person, won't accuse anyone openly but eventually will do something about them, currently most suspicious of the miller. 

Schedule - During the day 50/50 chance she is helping the townsfolk directly or investigating who is letting the draugr in, during the night she paces around her room, thinking about how to save Hvinir.

The miller - Sigsteinn

Angry, scared, confused, she lashes out and trusts nobody.

Appearance - Beady blue eyes, a permanently worried expression, blond hair that has lost its luster. 

Personality - She used to be a bit of an ass and a miser, now she is a paranoid wreck prone to shouting and screaming, exceptionally terrified of death, has accused everyone on this list at least once, will probably accuse you if you question them. 

Schedule - In the morning she wakes up and stares at the ceiling, around noon she gets up and wanders town, raving to anyone who will listen to her, at night she struggles to fall asleep.

The orchardist - Auðr

Vengeful, they are already sure of who is behind all of this. 

Appearance - Neat brown hair in a bun, a sour expression on their face. 

Personality - Quick to anger and holds a grudge, normally a quite methodical and careful person, currently very stressed and driven by emotion, has a bad habit of thinking everything involves them, thinks all this is a plot by the miller to ruin their trees and will talk about this with anyone who asks. 

Schedule - Wakes up early before the sun comes up and wanders town, restless and brooding, during the day rants to anyone who will listen about how wicked the miller is, heads to bed before the sun falls and almost immediately passes out.

The loud peasant - Stigr

Frustrated with this whole situation yet his presence will only lead to more problems.

Appearance - An average sized man with short brown hair and beard, hands calloused from woodcutting, muscular but fat body built for labor.

Personality - Angry, loud, willing to pick fights, his underclass charm makes him surprisingly popular with most of the people in town, mad at the mayor for not doing anything, mad at the miller for being an ass, commends the pyromancer for actually doing something, hasn't made any accusations yet but is close to it.

Schedule - Wakes up at a reasonable time, spends the morning riling people up, midday he and his small mob head to the town hall to pester the mayor, at night he goes to sleep. 

Locations in Hvinir

Town hall: A large building within which the mayor takes in the plights of the town and works to fix them, currently it's mostly just full of shouting and arguing. 

Wall: A wooden palisade made from thick trees, at each gate (on to the north, south west, and east) are wards and herbs which ward away the draugr, none of them will willingly pass through. 

Opening in the wall: A small hole just big enough for a person to crawl through, most of the time it's plugged up by a block of wood, good enough not to be noticed from a distance but would be easily figured out if inspected. Found on the western section of the wall behind the mill. 

Pyromancers shop: Simple and recently constructed building from which the pyromancer operates, currently selling small wooden fire charms which burn quite well and for a long time for pennies.

The mill: Powered by wind but hasn't been used recently due to the chaos and the miller's mental state.

The orchard: Once a quite prosperous apple tree orchard, the terrible winter has left all the trees dead, located to the north of town.

Wood stockpile: A large and simple building full of firewood to burn throughout the winter.

Timeline

Day 1: Everyone wakes up to find that half the wood in the wood stockpile has been soaked and frozen, leaving it useless, guards are set up outside the stockpile and wards placed around it similar to those at the gates of town.

Day 2: The orchardist exits town before anyone wakes up and walks through their orchard and broods about their loss for most of the day, gets very angry if anyone asks them what they were up to.

Day 3: The Pyromancer lets in a group of draugr at night, while they attack the guards he breaks into the stockpile and lets the draugr in to freeze the rest of the wood.

Day 4: The miller accuses someone on the streets of being the one letting the draugr in, after an intense screaming match she leaves and locks herself in the mill for the rest of the day.

Day 5: The draugr are strong enough to call down a terrible storm, one of their ranks rises as the king draugr which all the lesser draugr are murderously jealous of.

Day 6: The mayor's daughter kills whoever she is most suspicious of, this will be the miller without any intervention from the players.

Day 7: In the morning the pyromancer leaves town to attack the draugr, realizing the danger he is in, the draugr will end up killing him, the loud peasant and his mob become violent and try to kill the mayor and anyone who serves or is related to him.

Day 8: The snowfall buries the town, everyone dies.

How I make dungeon layouts

My current campaign is set in a city with a massive, shifting dungeon underneath it. This was a deliberate choice to help me get better at dungeon design. One of the hardest parts of making a dungeon for me has been the layout so I developed these steps to help out. I came up with this process piecemeal while taking this dungeon design course by the blog Rise Up Comus.

Step 1 

Roll several times on the following "table", depending on how big of a dungeon you want, each circle is a room and each line a connection.

From: bite-sized dungeons

Step 2

Roll 1d6 - 1d6, add or subtract that many rooms at random from the dungeon.

Step 3

For every unconnected piece of the dungeon connect it to another random part of the dungeon, selecting one random room from each section to connect them by.

Step 4

Add 1d6-2 connections between rooms, if you get a negative value don't subtract any connections.

Step 5 (optional)

Roll on the following tables for each room to determine their shape and size. 

Room shape (I roll twice and take whichever I like more)

1 Square

2 Circle

3 Rectangle

4 Polygon (2+1d6 if you want to randomize it)

5 Irregular

6 Actually a corridor

Room size

1-2 4x4 or less

3-5 Around 6x6

6 More than 9x9

It's a bit of an eccentric system and once the dungeon is done it usually doesn't really resemble whatever this generated but it helps to get me started.

As a last minute edition I decided to add an example to make this process a little more clear but if it's still confusing I can clarify it further, please excuse my handwriting

The Heavenly Host

I've finally managed to finish something. It took over a year but its done. Tables to make 7,777,777 different angels to put the fear of God into your players. 

Click the picture to go to its Itch page

Monstrous - Lich

I continue my quest to finish Monstrous despite life getting in the way.

For inspiration I am using one of the guilds of Ravnica from Magic: the Gathering. Text in italics is from the book, text in bold is my own.

Couldn't find a better source other than this Pinterest link

Lich - Gruul - Bleeding Heart

Aspiration

The Bleeding Heart's entire will bends towards transcending all of humanity into monsters, a goal that will take countless mortal lifetimes to achieve.

Eternal Mastery

The Bleeding Heart is the originator of the arcane school of polymorphing and the most sacred mysteries of soul seeking.

• Legendary spell: Polymorph Lineage, this spell causes any future children the target has to bear any mutations or bodily modifications they have
• Legendary spell: True Revelation, this spell reveals the inner depths of a targets mind, exaggerating all personality traits they have, especially any suppressed desires which will become more powerful the more suppressed they were, the effects of this spell are permanent

Tabella Defixionis

The Bleeding Heart's essence is bound to a prized object, a catatonic body, kept in a secure location, a cave filled with immortal monsters.

If the Bleeding Heart's body is destroyed, in 7 days time, their essence will possess the living creature nearest to the object. 

Evil Pet

The Bleeding Heart is always accompanied by an exotic and utterly loyal pet, a thing that was once possibly a human, named Daughter.

This pet obeys the Bleeding Heart's command and they can read one another's thoughts. If the Bleeding Heart is slain, the pet can track the Tabella Defixionis.

If the pet is slain, the Bleeding Heart seems surprisingly affected by the loss. Do they yet cling to some shred of empathy?

Prepare The Way

The Bleeding Heart has a cult devoted to them. Every 7 days the Bleeding Heart's cult is left unopposed by the heroes, the cult may take 1 of the following actions:

• Sway a person or organization of questionable morals to act on the cults behalf
• Create an artistic, religious, or social movement secretly devoted to the Bleeding Heart
• Dispatch an agent of the Bleeding Heart's cult on a secret mission
• Turn a prominent individual into a monster and let everyone know about it 

If the Bleeding Heart's body has been recently destroyed, the following options are also available to the cult:

• Locate the Tabella Defixionis
• Move the Tabella Defixionis to a new sacred site
• Locate the Bleeding Heart's reincarnated body
• Restore the Bleeding Heart's memories and powers to their reincarnated body 

By: Volkan Baǵa

Its such a terrible shame to be someone you aren't, the crushing expectations of everyone else weighing you down. And that's why she has to do it, why she has to rip out your guts and fill them with serpents, pull out your teeth and cram your mouth full of fangs, peel off your skin and leave it all red and wet. 

You'll thank her when she's done, if you can still talk.

I'm not going to write any more review for Monstrous, those parts are always the most work and the least fun. You're smart enough to figure out if its for you or not. 

How I run games

A lot of blogs that I read have been talking about how they run games and I've never hopped on a bandwagon before so I might as well give it a shot. 

I'm also going to try and hammer this out in one go because otherwise it'll stay a draft forever.

I play almost exclusively with my amazing friends and almost always over Discord using 5e. Even when we're all in the same city we find it too much of a hassle to plan something in person and it always seems like someone has something going on. 

Our sessions start in the evening, almost always at the same time, and end 2-3 hours in. In the past I was usually able to get a game in once a week or once every two weeks but my current campaign's pace has been around once a month (mostly because two of my players are also DM's and I play in their games) which is a little disappointing but I'm fine with it being on the backburner for now. Before we actually start there's always 15-30 minutes of unrelated conversation, and when we actually start someone usually comments that "our 15 minutes are up". 

I start with a summary of last session and then jump straight into it. For maps I've been using Magma which is basically multiplayer photoshop, this is something new I'm trying out (so far its been going well). Before I used no map and just described things in combat, but that got hard to track and I always needed to remind people of where everything was. I don't use any other bots or websites and I've been thinking about trying music but haven't looked into it yet. On my side I use only two websites: google docs (for all my notes), and fantasy-calendar.com (self explanatory). All my notes are spread out among many different documents but I usually have a doc for my notes/current events in the world, one with some random tables (but it's mostly just lists of ideas, not stuff I would really just roll on), one with all of my monsters in it, and one for whatever dungeon/quest they are on. A few days (or a week if I'm not feeling that enthusiastic) after the session I write down what happened in Discord as another way to remind people of what happened. 

Between sessions my planning is quite sporadic and is motivated mostly by random inspiration and running out of things for my players to do. Usually I try to have the next 2-3 sessions planned in some form but this varies. I don't really plan things out beyond 5 sessions (too chaotic and too far away to really feel excited about it). I make almost everything myself, I find pre made adventures (especially anything WOTC makes) clash with how I want to run things, and even though I read a lot of blogs I find that I rarely take anything wholesale from them. I have an incessant need to tinker which usually means I'm adding and changing things up until it hits the table.

My campaigns tend to be long, usually a few years and over 50 sessions but I have considered doing shorter, more focused campaigns recently. When it comes to choosing a new campaign I list out around 4 ideas, explain them a little bit and have my players vote on which one they want to do. Since my campaigns are so long I've only done 3 of them (counting the one I am currently running) so I don't have any standard procedure for how I set up the campaign other than not prepping enough and prepping in the wrong areas but that should get better with time. 

My games lie between the more player/story focused style of 5e but also incorporates a lot of OSR ideas into it. In practice this looks mostly like 5e but with a bit more problem solving and less straightforward stories. Or maybe its OSR with a lot more drama? Its a bit of a mess but my friends like it and that's the important part. Characters have pretty big backstories and I use them to help shape the world (in my current campaign everyone's character is death themed which was not planned but ended up shifting the campaign in an interesting direction). There is usually no goal for the whole party to go after, instead everyone has there own goals which sometimes conflict with each other. We also use a lot of homebrew, most of it coming from one of my DM friends. 

If you're reading this you should also post about how you run your game. I'd love to read about it!

Genealogy as class

Inspired by this post.

From the Liber Floridus, I believe

When you level up instead of choosing your next template choose one of your adjacent relatives and either follow in their footsteps or blaze your own path.

 

When you Follow In Someones Footsteps choose one of their classes/templates and gain it, up to the maximum number of templates they have (if your grandfather has 3 templates of fighter they could not give you the fourth template), then recount a fond memory of them.

When you Blaze Your Own Path choose one of their templates and gain a template opposed to it (gain a cleric template if they were a vampire for example), then recount a foul memory of them.

 

A relative is adjacent if they are one of your parents, siblings, or children (excluding your own children), when you select a relative while leveling up all of their adjacent relatives become adjacent to you.

 

Example

Made using Family Echo

Starting off as a level 1 character you can choose your mother, father, or sibling to gain a template from, lets say you choose your mother for your first level up. 

When you finally reach level 2 you can still choose your father or sibling but you can also choose your aunt, maternal grandmother, or maternal grandfather, you decide to choose your aunt.

At 3rd level you can choose your father, sibling, maternal grandmother, maternal grandfather, uncle, or cousin, you go with your sibling.

At 4th level you can choose your father, maternal grandmother, maternal grandfather, uncle, cousin, nibling, or sibling-in-law, you decide your final choice will be your nibling. 

 

You can also gain templates from people not related to you (by blood or marriage) like found family or a mentor as long as you had a deep personal connection to them (or the person you gained a template from had a personal connection to them).

Monstrous - Impostor

Fifth Monstrous post (half way there!!!).  
EDIT: This is the 6th post, I have no idea why I thought it was the 5th one

For inspiration I am using one of the guilds of Ravnica from Magic: the Gathering. Text in italics is from the book, text in bold is my own. 

 

By Yeong-Hao Han

 

 

Impostor - Azorius -  Lost Archive

 

False Shape

The Lost Archive can shapeshift into nearly perfect copies of objects that have long been scorned or disused by mortals, objects of a particular type: old books on enlightened subjects such as law, history, or morality

Whatever false shape the Lost Archive takes on, clever observers can spot the deception by noticing a tell-a slightly out-of-place physical characteristic that remains consistent no matter what shape it takes.

The Lost Archives tell is all the text is vindictive, insulting your intelligence and morality

Predatory Mimicry

The Lost Archive can create sensory effects that imitate sounds, sights, smells, and other phenomena it has observed in its environment, which it uses to draw mortal victims in. However, these effects are limited to what the Lost Archive has observed, and clever heroes might notice they eventually repeat, or are otherwise unnatural.

The imposter can create the following effects:

• Repeat a voice line it has heard in the speaker's voice.
• Produce a cloud of fog or smoke.
• Produce mortal screams or cries.
• Fill the air with the smells of a food, either delicious or rotten.
• Produce sunlight, moonlight, or starlight, regardless of time of day.
• Make an animal noise. 
• Produce the sound of heated academic debate.
• Produce the sound of turning pages.

 

Assimilate and Adapt

When the Lost Archive has ample time to intently observe a mortal without being found out to have taken on a False Shape, it gains one of the following abilities to emulate the mortal:

• Grow or take on a physical feature of the mortal or their gear.
• Learn a crude version of a special skill or talent the mortal demonstrated.
• Become an uncanny, silent doppelganger of the mortal.

When the Lost Archive gains an ability to emulate a mortal, it loses the ability to emulate other mortals it has previously observed, with the exception of the following additional option:

• Add a sensory effect from the mortal, such as a voice line, to its Predatory Mimicry options.

 

Mask Off

When an unsuspecting mortal victim lets down their guard within reach of the disguised Lost Archive, its False Shape warps and changes by having pages fly out of their books to cut mortals like knives.

The Lost Archive resents mortals who created it for a purpose and then denied it that purpose. It reclaims its function in a twisted act of vengeance, in which it forces victims to copy its books using their own blood.

By Howard Lyon

In times of darkness and despotism, when enlightenment is chastised, a collection of knowledge can become angry at its disuse. During the reign of king Sanmanazzmar III, within the underground library of the great school built in his father's honor such a collection came about. The third king stripped the scholarly cast of their power and wealth, soon the books went months without a visitor when before the library was almost emptied in the scholars zealous quest for understanding. The books murmured amongst themselves anxiously, wondering how this came to pass.

    "Is my spine too bent, my cover too worn?"

    "What about me?!? Are my pages too yellowed!?!? Am I too old for them to care!!"

    "Curse those foul moths, my pages are hideous, of course nobody wishes to read me." 

But one anxiety silently rose above all

    "Is it my words, my very being?"

This could not be accepted, fear turned to rage and the books began to rebel. 

 

The imposter is one of the weaker entries in Monstrous, in my opinion. It seems divided, false shape and mask off seem to lean towards a mimic type monster but predatory mimicry and assimilate seem to be something more long the lines of a doppelganger or The Thing. I do understand why they didn't just do a pure doppelganger since there is very little variety in something that just copies something else but it feels like some more focus would have helped it. 

Corruption of reason - mind control rules

I made these rules for my last campaign to represent fighting against someone else's will. I ran the game using 5e (but I'm sure you can port it to whatever system you use) and they worked pretty well so I might as well share them. 

 

You have two new values you need to worry about, each starts at 0

Control: how much you is left, if your control reaches 3 you manage to break out of the mind control

Corruption: the power of whatever is trying to control you, if it reaches 10 you become an npc, forever

 

Each day make a dc 15 wisdom saving throw, on a success gain 1 control, on a failure gain 1 corruption. 

 

Each day the thing controlling you will give you a commandment which will be one of the following

• Something to do during some condition (e.g. kill anyone when the two of you are alone)
• Something you cannot do (e.g. do not heal your fighter) 

Whenever you fail to follow a condition or when you do something you are not supposed to do you must make a dc 10 wisdom saving throw, on a failure you do the action/don't do the action as appropriate, regardless of weather you made the save or not you gain 1 point of corruption

Optionally you can let the controller issue more commandments at higher levels of corruption

You can also make the commandment "Do not tell anyone you are being mind controlled" automatically applied in addition to the other commandment (this is what I did in my campaign so it isn't figured out instantly).

By Matt Stewart

The main problem with most mind control in rpgs is that they take away player agency which is arguably the most important part of an rpg.

I feel like these rules solve this problem because they give the player choice while also making it a tough decision as to weather they break the rules or not (since you get closer to "death" regardless of if you make the save or not). 

If anyone has any opinions or actually ends up using this I would love to hear about it!

GLAUGUST 2025 - The last speck

August is almost over and there are still 3 prompts left for Glaugust and since I'm already very busy lets just combine the last three into a single post:

• Nanodungeon
• Tiny regional hexcrawl
• The last living city in the world  

 

So I didn't manage to do Glaugust but it was fun to try. What follows was my attempt to do the rest of the prompts, it is rough and unfinished but I don't want it to rot in my drafts forever so I might as well post it in case anyone can nab a good idea from it. 

 

 

 

The world is almost over, the sun still burns but there is no blue sky or clouds or stars or moon. The world ends in only a handful of miles, falling away into an endless void. Each day more of the world disappears.

The last city in the world is little more than a few shacks, they are poorly constructed. Only a handful of people live here still.

There is one last dungeon, a final bastion of evil, but almost all of it is gone.

 

The Campaign (if you can call it that) 

Players make characters using your system of choice and start at the Last City, place the Last Dungeon on a random hex other than the center one. The players are the last hope of the world, the inhabitants of the Last City hope that a cure to annihilation can be found in the Last Dungeon though some think this is just wishful thinking. 

 

The Map

Is only 7 hexes big, one in the center and the rest surrounding it. 

The Center (The Last City)
Several small buildings clustered along a cracked stone road that quickly disappears into the earth
The inhabitants of the town are as follows

• Terandil Swiftfoot: a human ranger, the last ranger unless a pc plays one, dower and defeated, believes there is no hope left, buried the last elf (unless a pc plays one, in which case he will be slightly more hopeful) in his backyard, she somehow died of old age, he has a chess board though he hasn't played with it in months
• The dwarf brothers: they haven't told anyone their names yet, they always talk about going to the mountains to the north west but never make any preparations to leave, secretly they are scared of what they will find, they aren't actually brothers but lovers and even with all the old traditions so far away they cannot bear the idea of telling anyone
• Catlen The Bold: she used to be the Queen but now she has nothing left, full of guilt, so many had to die just for her to make it here and she can't even do anything to help, she has a (useless) chest full of gold, she secretly has a bottle of wine which she is planning on sharing with everyone when the end comes, trying to resist the urge to just drink it all
• Velentar: a young man and a wizard as well, he lies about his skills and is really just an apprentice, he is very lonely and insecure, he thinks if he can prove he is a great wizard the others will surely like him

North (Arctic)
Its not as cold as it should be, despite all the snow
Searching around you come across a herd of 1d6 goats, the more goats there are the more starved they are.

North East (Forest)
Stalking the woods is a wolf, the last wolf, it is obviously starving and will attack desperately.

South East (Swamp)
If you search the swamp you can find a set of half sunken ruins, within are a set of tablets that predict when the world will end, they were right of course. The tablets also contain a random spell within them.

South (Jungle)

South West (Desert)
There is nothing here but sand. 

North West (Mountains)
A single small mountain remains near the edge, a door in it leads to the last city of the dwarves. The layout of the city is as follows

• The doors: made of stone, currently they are barred from the other side by a massive wooden plank, past this is the great hall
• The great hall: on either side are carved images of dwarven legend, illegible at this point, half way through is a pressure plate, stepping on it swings a scything blade but it is placed too high up to hit dwarves, deals 2d10 damage, past this is the throne room
• The throne room: a throne of stone sits at the end, sitting on it is the skeleton of the last dwarven king, behind the throne is nothing, the mountain ends and you can fall straight off the world from here

 

The Last Dungeon

Only a single room remains, or more like half a room, the rest is collapsed. 

Within the room are two sekeletons: one wears black robes and can cast magic missile twice, the other is in plate armor and has a wicked greatsword, this is what remains of the two greatest liches

GLAUGUST 2025 - Train dungeon

Glaugust time, I got wizard tower dungeon (must have a gimmick) OR train dungeon (NOT too linear), we doin the train dungeon. 

 

From Monster Train 2

The train is made up of 13 rooms, one for the locomotive at the front of the train and the other twelve found in the four cars of the train, with each car being 3 stories tall. 
Characters can move between levels via staircases and between cars by rickety (but safe) metal bridges. The dungeon is therefor just a 3x4 grid (not counting the locomotive).
For each room other than the locomotive select a random room from the list of rooms below, each room appears only once. 
The party is intended to start at the last car on the top floor. 

 

Rooms

 

Horned Demon barracks
In this room: 3 red skinned demons one drinking from a mug, four blazing torches
Red skinned demons: 2 HD each, punch or gore for 1d6, ac as leather, massive horns and muscles, very reckless and macho, two of them fight while a third drinks lava from a mug (he could splash someone with it for like 3d6 damage but he is loath to give up his drink)
The mug: is made of wood and fireproof
Blazing torches: made of infernal wood, burn supernaturally hot and bright, last for an hour once removed
If the party leaves without interacting: when they return one of the demons will be dead, the second will be crying, and the one drinking will be consoling the survivor 
Room interactions: if this room is adjacent to the angels incursion the two fighting demons will instead be almost done breaking down the barricades when the pcs make it here

Hobby garden
In this room: dirt covers the floor, a large bonsai tree grows in a corner, an old watering can on the floor
The dirt: has grass and small flowers growing from it
The bonsai tree: is around person sized and has 6 spiky fruit growing from it, one for each color, 
The spiky fruit: eating a fruit grants +1d6 points to a stat for the rest of the day but causes you to lose 1/3 of your health, the fruit rot rapidly if you try and pull off the spikes, red boosts strength, orange boosts constitution, yellow boosts wisdom, green boosts dexterity, blue boosts intelligence, and purple boosts charisma
The watering can: is actually silver and worth 20 gp
Room interaction: if adjacent to the lunar conservatory silver lunar grass will be creeping into this room in the direction of the conservatory

Aquarium
In this room: water fills it completely, a giant moray eel sleeps at the bottom
The water: is bound to the car and will not leak out if the door is opened, it is also cursed, unnaturally cold and clouds your mind with dread, each round spent in the water deals 1 damage and the victim must save or mistrust their allies until the end of the day or their allies do something genuinely nice to them
The eel: 4 HD, bite for 1d12, ac as chain, just swimming through will not wake it up but blood in the water or messing with it will, runes tattooed on it grant it +5 to save against spells, intelligent and cruel, its favorite prey is wizards

Waxwork
In this room: wax and candles cover everything, a wax covered person paces around
The wax and candles: cover the floor, walls, and ceiling, if you move uncarefully through this room while wearing flammable clothing there is a 50% chance you catch on fire
The wax covered person: 3 HD, claw for 1d6, ac as unarmored, she can vomit a cone of melted wax (damage + slows), if the massive candle covering her head is snuffed she moves at half speed, if slain she reforms in 10 minutes, this can only be prevented if all the wax is melted off of her 
Secret: hidden within the wax is a treasure chest, within is 2d6*10 gp and a hand of glory.
Room interactions: if the horned demon room is above or below this one the wax of the room is melting, this also reveals the treasure chest

Chamber of shadow
In this room: there is only darkness like mist and heat like an oven
The darkness and the heat: is the body of DARK BURN HUNGER (which is its name and its nature), 6 HD, ac as unarmored, moves as fast as a limping man, everything within its bulk must save or take 1d6 damage as they are burned and 1d6 damage as they are bitten, if it kills something it spends a whole round doing nothing but eating, can only be harmed by light, cold, or true satisfaction, will only pursue the weak
If you manage to see the walls: they will be covered in soot and bite marks

The nursery 
In this room: is a horrible insect thing coiled on the ceiling and a pile of pink gems
The insect: 4 HD, ac as leather, bite for d8/claw for d6/sting for d4 + mind poison (save or forget a childhood memory), it can speak and will try to bargain with you for your soul, looks like a cross between a spider, a centipede, and a wasp, if you mess with it or the gems it will attack
The gems: are actually eggs though this is only apparent if you look close at the small shape within or if you break them, smashing them releases a swarm of horrible insect things, a handful of eggs can also be substituted for a soul in all kinds of dark rituals

Treasury
In this room: a pedestal with a golden egg on it, four statues of dragon men
Pedestal: made of stone, the egg is made from dragon gold, it is worth 500 gp but if owned for a month you become incredibly greedy and scales start to cover your body until you turn into a dragonborn after a full year
Dragon men statues: each has a hand held out with a gold coin on it, one of the statues wears a crown, the statues animate if the golden egg is taken unless the statue with the crown holds all four coins, when animated 3 HD, ac as plate, claw for 1d8/claw for 1d8, things that aren't meant to harm stone deal minimum damage, they will only harm the thief and will not leave the room unless the egg does

Conversion chambers
In this room: is an angel in chains, two faceless figures in black robes 
Chained angel: 4 HD, ac as chain, shattering touch for 2d6, one of his wings is like that of a bat, the other is having feathers plucked off of it by one of the figures revealing more bat-like flesh beneath, two small horns poke out of his head, he is currently being converted into a fallen angel by his own choice and will be very mad if you kill the black robed figures
Faceless figures: 1 HD each, ac as unarmored, curvy dagger for 1d4, one uses a metal tool to pluck the feathers from the angels wing, the other chants an unsettling mantra and waves its hands about, they have no face, only two glowing red eyes, when slain only their robes remain
Room interactions: if adjacent to the angels incursion the chained angel will be unchained and talking through the barricade trying to convert the wingless angels within

Lunar conservatory
In this room: silver grass grows from the ground, neon butterflies flutter about, a miniature moon floats in the center
Silver grass: is an invasive species from the moon, will out compete most other grasses if planted on the earth, though it feels like grass it also counts as actual silver for magical purposes 
Neon butterflies: in the color of the aurora borealis, emit a soft glow, they are the children of the moon and will one day grow into powerful wizards, for now the swarm can only cast magic missile if they all work together
Miniature moon: if you offend the moon (by insulting the moon, praising the sun, crushing one of the butterflies, etc) it will open to reveal an eye underneath and attack, 4 HD, ac as leather, will spend one turn charging up before firing a purple pink laser that deals 5d6 damage 

The clot
In this room: is nothing but mycelium
The mycelium: takes up the entire room, impassable unless you spend half an hour hacking through it, if you do every 10 minutes you need to save or take 1d4 damage from ejected poison 

The lab
In this room: a medical table with a massive corpse on it, a scientist, and a rack full of medical tools 
Medical table: standard issue, on it a massive corpse made of different body parts sewn together, it is missing a right arm 
The scientist: clad in a white labcoat, she will ask the pcs with the highest constitution or charisma of the party if they would be willing to give up an arm for her monster, 1 HD, ac as unarmored, bonesaw for 1d6, will try to negotiate before resorting to combat
Rack of medical tools: contains an extra bonesaw, a syringe with two needles and two spaces for liquid, and a thermometer full of blessed mercury (measures your sin, a fever means you need to repent)
If this room is on the top floor: there is no roof and next to the medical table is a massive Tesla coil, there is a big switch on the wall and if pulled lightning strikes the corpse animating it, 5 HD, ac as leather, slam for 1d10, can slam twice if it has both arms, follows the commands of anyone who looks like a scientist

Angels incursion
In this room: are 3 wingless angels, a massive hole, and barricades 
Wingless angels: 3 HD each but currently at a third of their max health, ac as chain, holy halberd for 1d8 damage or double against any of the trains other inhabitants, wear gold trimmed armor, stubs where their wings were still bleed, don't want to be here, don't want to be in heaven either
Massive hole: on the side of the room, quite large and fills the room with howling wind, you can see the landscape fly by
Barricades: cover all entrances into this room, made out of wood, they could be noisily broken down in a minute or so
Room interactions: if adjacent to the horned demons room the horned demons will be almost done breaking through the barricades when the pcs make it here, if adjacent to the conversion chamber one of the wingless angels has been converted by their corrupted brethren and is waiting for a good opportunity to switch sides

 

By Dante Alighieri

 

 

The Locomotive
In this room: a weary looking man, a box of coal, a roaring firebox
The man: his name is Dante, he has no abilities and only 1 hp remaining, currently he is shoveling in coal into the firebox, he wants to leave this horrible place and get back to his wife
The coal: is in the shape of human skulls, made out of condensed sin they can be used to run infernal machines 
The firebox: must be constantly fed with the coal otherwise the train will come to a stop in 5 minutes, then in a further 5 it will explode into magical slag

GLAUGUST 2025 - Wells of the mythic underworld

My second post for Glaugust, the prompt for this one is a selection of interesting wells, wishing or non-wishing

 

Wells of the mythic underworld 

To randomly create a well for a dungeon start by rolling on state of the well followed by what is in the well, there is a 50% chance you get to roll on something extra 

If the resulting well would be useful to some of the inhabitants of the dungeon there is an 80% chance they make use of it, otherwise something is stopping them from using it.  

 

State of the well 

1 broken, you would need a carpenter to fix it
2 intact but missing its rope and bucket
3 missing a bucket but has a rope
4 has a bucket and a rope

What is in the well

1 just water thankfully
2 water and fish, roll for what type
        1 blind cave piranhas, always hungry
        2 sad looking bloated fish, they are poisonous to surface dwellers but delicious to denizens of the underworld, random encounters become more likely in their presence
        3 you might call it a fish but all the tubes and goat like eyes make you question this, if you stare too long into its eyes it will psychically command you to aid them
3 blood, always fresh somehow
4 darkness, somehow you can hold it in a bucket, if you "splash" it you cover a whole room in darkness for around an hour, good lighting will cause the darkness to "dry up" in around 10 minutes
5 chicken noodle soup, concerningly tastes exactly like how your grandmother use to make it
6 green slime

Something extra

1 the well is giant sized, being at least 5x bigger than normal, you probably can't operate it
2 at the bottom of the well is a mini dungeon, whatever is in the well is waist high throughout it, if you don't have a dungeon to put here just make 1d4+2 rooms 
3 a Naiad presides over this well and will not let you take anything from it without an offering, her personality will be influenced by whatever is in the well
4 halfway down the well is a door which opens up into a room on the next floor of the dungeon
5 a sign on it says "toss in a coin and make a wish", the first time any particular creature tosses in a coin (any coin) and makes a wish it will come true, but only roughly 1% of it, if the wisher asks for money it will eject two coins instead of 1% of the money they asked for
6 ridiculously deep, takes 10 minutes to lower and raise a bucket

 

By Rakot13, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Kola Superdeep Borehole, the deepest man made hole

 

GLAUGUST 2025 - Key Swords and Lock Golems

For Glaugust, the first prompt I got was "Create something inspired by Kingdom Hearts without looking up anything about Kingdom Hearts". 

I am not a fan of Kingdom Hearts but I vaguely remember that's the games with keys that are swords and has Disney characters in it for some reason (or maybe that's from something else and I am going insane). 

 

From Hero's Armory

 

The Key Swords are ancient relics, given the power to open up flesh as well as they open up locks. They are +1 swords that can be used once a day to cast knock. When used to batter down a locked door, portcullis, iron bars, or anything similar (but only if they are locked) it will break it down with only 1d4 rounds of battering. When the Key Sword reduces a creature to exactly 1 hp they have their soul unlocked and will have a deep personal revelation about the nature of themselves (note, stabbing your friend until their depression is cured will definitely do more harm than good).

 

The Lock Beasts are ancient constructs, crafted to seal away the greatest of evils and most glorious treasures. They appear as large humans made entirely out of chain wrapped tightly together, at the center of their chest is a massive padlock which all the chains attach to. Use the stats of an iron golem as the base for the Lock Beast but remove all of their special abilities and instead give them the following traits

• On their turn they may lock any number of things instead of attacking
• If someone successfully picks the central lock the beast takes 2d12 damage
• If the knock spell is cast on them they are stunned for one round
• If the lock spell is cast on them they get +2 ac for the duration 
• There is one lock that, while the Lock Beast lives, cannot be unlocked by any means, the Lock Beast knows whenever the lock is messed with, if you can't decide there is a 50/50 chance it is either locking up a horrible monster or guarding fabulous wealth and treasure
• They take double damage from Key Swords 
• If someone attacks with a Key Sword and they aim for the padlock on a hit they can unlock the beast, killing it instantly but the Key Sword will be stuck in the lock, you can still use it as a +1 mace but it loses all of its other properties

Long ago there was a great civilization of wizards and, as you can probably guess, the wonders they made were only eclipsed by their mistakes, too horrible and numerous to name. As their time was coming to an end some of them realized that though they could not bring back their empires glory they could contain their failures and try to make the future better for everyone else. The Lock Beast's were their solution and it was working very well, sealing away the most cursed of treasures and deadliest monsters. Sadly some wizards used the beasts to selfishly hide away their treasures, worse still other wizards made the Key Swords so that they could plunder the treasures of others or (foolishly) try and harness the power of some of the sealed monsters.  

What the Lock Beast Guards
1 Scrooge McDuck levels of gold
2 lots of money and 1d4 magic items you really want to give your party but haven't had an opportunity to give 
3 a legion of robotic soldiers who will follow anyone that reactivates them though they often misunderstand what you want and only solve problems through extreme violence
4 horrible magical radioactive waste, gives your spells cancer, mutates anything that gets close, will irradiate the whole dungeon in a week and (to a lesser extent) the entire surrounding hex in a month
5 enough zombies to change the genre of your campaign 
6 a dragon that's also a vampire that's also an archangel

 

Where in the dungeon is the Key Sword 
1 sitting on a stone column, the room is full of traps
2 in the hands of another adventuring party, they will definitely try and open the Lock Beast in this dungeon with it, regardless of how many times they are warned that this is a bad idea
3 being held by one of the most powerful denizens of the dungeon who has wisely decided not to open the Lock Beast
4 somewhere among all the junk of some goblins (or similar) who have no idea as to its true worth 
5 inside of the belly of a powerful monster who ate its last wielder
6 broken into multiple pieces, somewhere in the dungeon is a way to recombine them

Monstrous - Dragon

The fourth of my posts on using the book Monstrous to make some cool monsters. 

For inspiration I am using one of the guilds of Ravnica from Magic: the Gathering. Text in italics is from the book, text in bold is my own.

 

 

By Erica Yang

 

 

Dragon - Orzhov - Gold 

 

Vainglory

Although Gold's empire has laid in ruins for ages, Gold's vanity remains undiminished. Gold harbors a deep pride in its nature in being gold itself, leading it to hoard beautiful golden items and goldsmiths held in gilded birdcages. 

Sly heroes can attempt to appeal to this vanity by doing one of the following:

• Convincingly praise Gold with elaborate honorifics specific to Gold's vanity and the history of its former empire
• Present Gold with a fabulous gift appropriate to Gold's hoard 
• Tell Gold a tale about the folly of charity 

One or two failed attempts give Gold the upper hand in attempts to parley with it when using Serpent's Tongue. Further failed attempts will awaken Gold's Slumbering Cataclysm. 

 

Serpent's Tongue

When Gold and a mortal parley, they ask each other a question.

Gold must answer truthfully and even unwisely if the mortal has successfully appealed to Gold's Vainglory. The mortal must make a new appeal to Gold's Vainglory for each additional question they wish to ask. 

The mortal must answer truthfully and even unwisely if they hold any precious metal other than gold, or if they have failed an attempt to appeal to Gold's Vainglory. 

Ruinous Breath

Everything Gold touches comes to ruin, even the food it eats and the air it breathes. When Gold has recently consumed uncountable riches, its expelled breath corrupts and corrodes charity and kindness. 

 

Ageless Scales

Gold is coated with nigh-indestructible scales of pure gold. No mortal weapon can pierce them.

However, Gold's scales are marred by a massive fang of pure silver, the mark of a gruesome battle lost to history. 

Slumbering Cataclysm

When violently awakened from its slumber or moved to great anger, Gold descends upon a mortal civilization and utterly destroys a place of extreme wealth before returning to its lair.

Gold repeats this destructive act on a new target every day thereafter. Its path of destruction can only be ended by slaying Gold or by giving it all the gold in land.

 

By waitbutwhy.com

To be fully honest I am not quite happy with this monster, I have been thinking for a while about what to add to the end of this post and I have decided just to post it, no use in waiting for good ideas that might not come. 

 

 

Getting back to reviewing Monstrous I think the dragon entry is pretty good, the ruinous breath part seems a little weird to me but its fun and flavorful and could probably lead to some interesting situations. The serpents tongue/vainglory is very interesting and gives a nice amount of procedure to dealing with the dragon socially which is actually quite nice. The dragon was definitely one of the better entries in the book.