dungeon-aged-dragons

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

how to build a holiday in D&D

modern holidays can pretty much break down into a couple different kinds of celebrations: religious, time-of-year, and ‘moral holidays.’ historically, a holiday might actually be several of these—modern Halloween is a moral holiday, a break from normal standards of behavior, but in its origins it was also a date of religious significance.

In D&D, we tend to put a lot more effort into non-denominational “time-of-year” holidays—popular tropes include harvest festivals, midsummer and midwinter celebrations, and the new year. Sometimes there are gods involved (like a goddess of agriculture being celebrated at the harvest) and sometimes not.

In my own campaign, a religious festival of Cyric, god of lies, would also be considered a ‘moral holiday’ where chaos and revelry is the rule and daily social norms go out the window. For Ilmater, god of martyrs and suffering, there are no moral holidays, but there are several ‘feast days’ of Ilmater’s Anointed where the day is spent in reverence for their sacrifices. Full moons are ‘time of year’ celebrations of Selûne, while a more non-denominational celebration might be the end of rockslide season in the Jaws of the Sphinx mountain range or the beginning of the autumn floods in the Marsh of the Petrified.

When you’re building a customized holiday for your own campaign, I encourage you to think outside the boxes we created for modern holidays, without forgetting why people celebrate. In the categories above, we celebrate to mark the passage of time, to honor our religions and be close to family, and to escape the drudgery of everyday life and let loose! Consider what is appropriate for your campaign world.

Furthermore, I recommend thinking about what changes from culture to culture. Maybe the lizardfolk have a holiday after the first frost because it signals their seasonal migration to a warmer climate. Perhaps humans from one part of the world celebrate the end of Dragonstide with reenactments of an epic battle, while in another region they bake elaborate pastries shaped like towers guarded by a scaled foe. (I don’t know what Dragonstide is, but I want to go now.)  

More detailed suggestions below the cut:

Keep reading

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Hesper, wizard-rogue (or rogue-wizard). Cursed with an affliction that will eventually kill them, they’re trying to find and finance a cure for themself.

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

UMBRAL SLICE 1st-level Evocation

Casting Time: 1 Action Range: 120 ft.  Components: V, S, M (A shard of obsidian) Duration: Instantaneous

You hurl a sharp sickle of darkness at a creature of your choice within range. Make a ranged spell attack against the target. If the attack hits, the creature takes 2d6 necrotic damage and 2d6 slashing damage.

At higher levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher the damage increases by 1d6 necrotic damage and 1d6 slashing damage for each slot level above 1st.

Suggested Classes: Sorcerer, Wizard, & Warlock

Commission for @thenuinn. Commission information here.

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Hey, is that…can it be? Am I back? Allegedly, but don’t let the fools lie to you cause I’m only, like, 35% here at best. Things have been…rough, at best, irl and I hope that trying to put some focus back here where things are simpler does a bit to put my head back on straight, because I know that avoiding it has certainly been a wholly avoidable source of stress. This is nothing big, but I’m easing my way back into it, ok? lol

In other news, it has been way more than a week since I posted about this month’s collab and @laugh-of-all-laughs , you are the chosen one. Get back to me once you have an idea of what you’d like to make and we can get started on your project right away.

As always, questions and comments are welcome (even though this is just a single, easy to understand low-level spell lol), and I’d love to hear your thoughts!

(Patreon) (Commissions)

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Dungeon Meshi - Human Races

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Adventure: The Grimlord’s Gala

Everybody’s dying to get in

Setup:  In his nearly nine centuries of undeath, the grimlord Polveiris has seen the rise and fall of empires, brought doom upon kingdoms, and survived or taken part in atleast five supposed apocalypses. Now as his eight-hundred and eighty eighth “death-day” approaches, the withered old wretch has opened the doors of his subterranean lair manor to a who’s who of the realm’s malefactors and malign spirits for a grand celebration that’s sure to wake the dead from their graves. 

Far too desiccated and doddering to do any actual villainy himself, the great concern is what Polveiris’s guests will do on his behalf: Seen as a kingmaker among evildoers across the continent, every would-be dark lord or mistress of malice has suddenly fallen into stiff competition to impress their host. While the Grimlord is content to totter about his tomb receiving pleasantries and blasphemous  presents, a mounting number of wellwishers have spilled out into the surrounding caverns as they jostle for space and Polveiris’s attention. Since evil is little known for playing nice with its fellows, it’s only a matter of time before something sparks this powerkeg of villainy and the different factions start carving up the nearby landscape in a turfwar. 

Adventure Hooks: 

The party is likely to encounter the Grimlord’s guests long before they ever hear of him, as the old villain has kept his head down in recent centuries specifically to avoid the intrusions by meddlesome do-gooders. such guests are likely looking to collect objects of fel power or collections of profane knowledge to win their senior’s favor.  

While many wicked souls spend their entire time at the gala competing who can get their sinister senpai to notice them, plenty of other wicked souls see the event as an excuse to network, ranging from morally unscrupulous nobles to shadowy entities hungry for power to mad mages wanting to show off their new toys.  Should the party end up serving one of these heels, they can expect to attend the gala as part of their patron’s entourage, tasked with both defending them for rivals and looking for advantages. 

The gala may provide the perfect cover for a heist, provided the party can earn themselves an invitation and sneak past a whole crowd of tyrants, undead, and madmen watching every corner for ambush. 

One could suspect the grimlord of being a lich given his necrotic trappings and seeming immortality, but they’d be missing the fact that Polveiris has in truth no magical power whatsoever. Polveiris is part of a far more wicked and damned class of beings: the ultra-wealthy, as even in life his fortunes were enough to buy his way out of the moral coil and fund a ritual to transform him into a “necropolitan”. Though the techniques for this blaspemous practice have mostly been lost to history, Polveiris is known to have kept the blackiron nails that was their focus as the centerpiece of his collection. With the gala ongoing, one might be able to slip inside and heist out these nails, or any of the other fabulous or cursed treasures the plutarch has stockpiled over the millennia. 

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

I wanna talk a little about something I've been noodling with in Stampede Wasteland. Rules that are impossible, or only exist as a sort of absence of something else?

Let's take a look at a part of generating Settlements:

The first step is figuring out how big the Settlement is by rolling 1d6. You'll probably notice that there's a result for if you roll a seven or higher. Now, unless you have a very special d6, you're not gonna get that result.

So what's the point of putting that result there in the first place? Well, how I'd interpret it at the table is that these City-States exist, but you're not going to be encountering them randomly while exploring the Wastes. Maybe there's another way to travel to these fabled City-States? Maybe that turns into the foundation for an adventure. Maybe the table actually decides that City-States don't exist anymore; something wiped them off the map. Maybe the table has come up with a way to get a bonus to that d6 roll based on the rulings they've been establishing. It could mean any number of things!

I think this works in this sort of game, partially because the rules are relatively minimal. And in a more minimal ruleset, sometimes you have to slow down and read between the lines and try and come to your own conclusions on how things work. This is, to me, very different from something being incomplete, but it could be a fine line.

If this were something like a Forged in the Dark game, this sort of absence might feel more like an oversight, but in the sorta-OSR sphere, expectations are a little different. It's interesting to think about.

The other example of this sort of idea crops up in the travel rules. There's three options for traveling the Wastes; by foot, by steam-crawler, and by airship.

Here are the rules for airship travel:

That's it. You know from reading that line that airships exist and people can use them to travel. But for whatever reason, getting passage on them is so far out of reach of the PCs that it may as well be impossible. It reveals something about the game's world, and how it operates.

Just like the City-State rule, airship travel could also spark adventures at the table. What would it take to get a ticket for an airship? What kind of people travel by airship?

I dunno! I think it's an interesting space to play around in. Exploring the space where rules and mechanics meet the world of the game, and the space that that opens up for the table to interpret those rules. Or something like that.

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Seer's Skull

“Let this old seer’s bones allow his children to see what his unblinking eyes no longer can” 

This item is part of our upcoming Adventure Zine Scions of the Fabled Kingdom, soon to be launched on Kickstarter!

If you like our work, you can support our project on Patreon, you will also get a ton of exclusive rewards, such as Handout Cards, Compendium and Adventure PDFs, Encounter Maps, Tokens and more.

Painted with Watercolors and Acrylics

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Picrews I use for online RPG

 Got into online roleplaying? Your DM needs a character token and you want something else than google-searching random people’s art that may fit your character’s description? Or are you a DM looking for quick NPC tokens and portraits? Try these picrews!

(This is a completely personal post, my intention is to keep these as in-setting as possible so I’m omiting the overly simplistic styles and anime styles, especially that naime ones rarely have decent dark skin tones. I’m pretty sure there are tons of different amazing makers but I tried to cover those with fantasy options)

Special mention:

HEROFORGE - Free 3D miniature model creator for humanoids and anthros Humanoid characters:

Baydews avatar maker V. 2.0 - Supports characters in fantasy settings. Supports heterochromia.

Tiefling maker - Great for characters in fantasy settings, not only for Tieflings!

Djarn’s character maker - No clothing choices for fantasy settings, but it’s a very detailed realistic portrait maker.

Bright’s picrew hell - A bit more cartoonish but has a lot of options for humans and fantasy creatures. Supports heterochromia.

Cute D&D character creator - Something more lighthearted if you want to see your OCs as cute chibis.

Murmur Character Creator - Not many fantasy options but it’s good for creating a nice character portrait.

Dragon Age elf/human maker - For fairly realistic fem elves and humans

The Dragon Prince Elf creator - The Dragon Prince style, elves/elvish characters, has horn options too. No clothings.

Hadingley Hill maker - medieval/renaissance portrait maker

Fantasy Icon Maker - For fantasy characters. Supports heterochromia.

Fantasy icon maker - another nice maker with many options

Fantasy girl - elvish/human fem characters

Fantasy Hero Creator - Simple maker bu has some nicely detailed elements

Female human&elf / Male human&elf - a detailed fantasy maker

Muscular female / Muscular male -  a detailed fantasy maker for buff characters

Fairytale duet M/M | F/F | F/M - Humans/elves, realistic skin tones only.

Mystical elf maker - Cute elf fem portrait maker

Elvish character creator - Elf fem. Limited for realistic skintones but nice clothing and background choices

AATAVEITH CHARACTER CREATOR - Human/elf fem. Natural human colors only but many clothing options.

Mermaid Maker - Fem mermaid or humanoid

Witch Doctor - Fem only

Victorian Steampunk Dressup - A detailed steampunk character maker

Elven Fashion - Fem elf only. Realistic skintones and some nice clothing.

Enchanter Maker - Fema elf/human

Deity maker - Lots of creative options for inhuman characters. Base/lineart only

Makowka character maker II - Not many fantasy option but ir’s a cool maker anyway

Nellseto’s maker - cute portrait maker

Black Centered Picrew - Very nice maker with huge variety of black haistyles

Wervty’s Chime Picrew - portrait

Wervty’s Gasp Chara Creator - waist up character

TTRPG Isometric Token - Full fantasy character token.Base/lineart only

TTRPG Portrait Token - Same as above but for character portraits. Base/lineart only

Sci-Fi fantasy portrait maker - Detailed fantasy and scifi/Star wars themed character portraits

portrait maker - masc postrait, very clean and nice artstyle but doesn’t have option for natural dark skintones

sci fi oc - Star Trek focused character maker

KorinMalin’s icon maker - humanoid portrait maker, natural skintones only

BunnyMoss’s OC Maker - Fantasy character maker

heads n shoulders - Fantasy-oriented, supports heterochromia and colored scleras.

fiammazzurra’s avatar maker - Supports heterochromia and colored scleras.

Nonhuman Creator - Fullbody chibi focused on non-human humanoids.

Cybebully Character Maker - Supports fantasy characters and colored scleras

Boy Time - Masc fantasy characters

A basic demon creator - Horned demonic character creator

Create A Cambion - another creator horned demonic species

Kaiju’s Character Maker - A simple fantasy-oriented maker

over the shoulder - portrait maker with tons of options

RPG Husband Generator - Fantasy-oriented muscular masc portrait

cute chubby maker - not many fantasy options but a good choice for fat characters

NuclearVessel’s OC Maker -  Humans/elves, lots of colorful skin tones.

Windswept Maker - Portrait creator with some fantasy options

Fantasy Character Maker 3000 - Detailed fantasy-oriented maker, but requires some manual adjustments.

KZ’s dolls - nice portrait maker with some fantasy options

Plant’s OC Creator - Nice variety of natural skintones and a few fantasy skintones. More modern clothing.

Androgynous picrew! - Fantasy characters with animal friends.

PotatoLord’s Persona Creator - Nice veriaty of options but no eye color customization.

Kavren Character Creator - Another cool picrew, but there aren’t many fantasy clothing options.

Pixel Fantasy Character - fantasy-oriented picrew for pixelart character portraits.

Mega Fantasy Creator - Extremely detailed fantasy-oriented maker with tons of options.

Forest Fairy - Fem fullbody with a nice choice of fantasy clothing

caramael’s character creator - colored scleras and fantasy-oriented clothing choices

longevity’s icon maker - double hair color options

Mad’s Character Creator 2.0 - Many fantasy options

Casual character creator - Includes unnatural skin colors and a nice variety of black hairstyles

character maker - nice character creator but there are no fantasy outfit options

Ultimate friend’s face maker - No elven ears option but lots of option for skin patterns and bicolor hair

Oldmaker Androgynous Picrew 2 - Newer version of androgynous picrew with more customization.

Fantasy OC Maker 4000 - Fantasy-oriented picrew with lots of customization

RPG Character Maker - Fantasy-oriented picrew

Non-humanoid characters:

Dracthyr Maker - For all your dragons and dragonkin

Dragon PNGtuber Base Generator - Dragon base/lineart only

DnD Frog Maker - Frog people

Catfolk Maker - Cat people

Dragonborn - dragon people

Wolf / werewolf designer - Wolf face portrait with many nice options

Werewolf - fantasy werewolf

Anthro character creator - Various animal people

Dragon -  Dragon base/lineart only

Dragon - Dragon portrait

Ruse’s NightWing Creator - fullbody dragon, dark colors only.

Animals:

Wolf&dog - Fluffy friend custimizable with apparel

felidaze’s cool cat creator - Cats with lots of options

Wolf Maker - simple wolf creator

My Froggie - Fantasy frogs

Mouse Warrior - For all you Mouseguard/Mausritter players!

RATS!! - Realistic rat portrait maker

gay rat maker - realistic fullbody rat with apparel

Mouse Guard Maker - Creator for Mouse Guard characters

Dream Horse Maker - Horses

Cat Maker - Cats

Avian Creator - Birds

Fantasy Bird Creator - birds

Realistic Goat maker - realistic goat with lots of options

serval creator - Serval portrait

kittycat maker (wip) - fullbody cat

horse - realistic horse portrait

Pigeon - Fullbody pigeon maker

Rat maker! - fullbody rat

Rats - Fullbody rat

Gecko maker - fullbody gecko

Doberman Maker - fullbody doberman dog

Fighting Cats - two fullbody realistic cats

Horsesona maker - fullbody horse/pony

natural cat maker - fullbody cat

Horsemaker - realistic fullbody horse

cat maker - fullbody cat

Cat - Fullbody cat with gear

Hoof & Antler - Fullbody deer

Kaylink’s Wolf Maker - old good fullbody wolf maker

Kaylink’s Fox Maker -  good old fullbody fox maker

Create a rat - fullbody rat

Create a cat - cat fullbody, portrait and pelt creator all in one

This is a resource for private online gaming between you and your friends, no commercial/advertisement usage!

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

  A 15th Century-Old House Carved From Stone By A Romanian Monk

📷  Mihai Troana

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Sugar Bee Tea and Spellcaster’s Dream, now available on Etsy!

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Jaimie as a Rogue/Hexblade Warlock 🔥✨

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

My preferred mode of transportation~ on a giant steampunk koi blimp

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Wilderness: The Secret of Grist Ridge

Taking its name from the its centuries old owner, the rolling highlands known as the Domain of Daldivain still bears the scars from when it was vast salve farm that fed the armies and granaries of the old empire. Since the empire's fall the people of the domain have maintained small settlements and scattered villages, herding over the the valleys and rises their debt-bound ancestors once toiled to cultivate.

All is not as peaceful as the picturesque vistas of the domain would suggest; cloud drakes, once a rarity and folkish sign of good fortune have become invasive in the region, beginning to prey on livestock and even lone travellers as their numbers swell.

After having several of their homesteads savaged by the beasts, one of the villages has sent for the party: The majority of its residents including the majority of its elders want the party to hunt the beasts back to their lair, but their wisewoman claims to have had a vision that points them to Grist Ridge, the old ruins that lay at the heart of the old autarch's domain. Most have no idea what the mushroom addled crone is talking about, but there is some rumour of treasure in the old mill that may make it worth checking out.

Adventure Hooks:

Early in their journey our heroes encounter a band of warriors led by Haltri Drakesbane, a woman who sees herself as the protector and future leader of the domain's people. Already having proven herself by slaying the beasts that preyed upon her kinsmen's land and several other villages, she's more than happy to ally with the party and split the glory if it means driving the drakes out for good. Her offer is not without caveat: Haltri hopes to leverage strength of arms into a unifying authority over the scattered peoples of the domain, and her detractors (including the village elders who sought the party out) fear what her ambitions may lead to if she goes unchallenged.

Feeling an inexplicable desire to wander, the journymage Enilo (along with his fluffy familiar, Cloudchaser) has sought out the ruins at Grist Ridge, spending days exploring and journaling about his experience. Enilo doesn't know it yet, but he's been called by the goddess of sky and enlightenment to receive a revelation that may change the future of the domain, provided the party's willing to have him tag along during their exploration and later defend him when Haltri shows up sometime midway through the delve to take the ruins for herself.

Though a number of the usual dungeon denizens have made their home in Grist Ridge, there is something malevolent skulking around its deepest reaches, filling the tunnels between the old windmills with the echo of scraping chains and a distant grinding sound that unsettles to the bone. It leaves handfulls of corroded coins from the old autarchy in places where others may find them. The locals know not to touch these, as it seems accepting the gifts of the lurking horror means inviting it to follow you home.

Background: One of many such sites left over after the fall of the old Autarchy, the ruins today known as Grist Ridge once surveyed a vast domain of slave farms owned by one of the old empire's richest men, Lord Daldivian, who's mark on the region endures even centuries after his death.

The old lord bought up the debts of hundreds and dragged them off to work in his fields, grinding them down much in the same way his mills ground down the grain they cultivated. Because he didn't need to pay his workers he was able to sell grain for less, bankrupting score upon score of the region's old farming families and creating people desperate enough to sell either their ancestral land (expanding Daldivain's domain) or themselves into bond slavery for fear of starvation, swelling his workforce from hundreds to thousands.

Daldivane was of course using lives as grist for his ambition long before the first mill was built: The region that came to be his was originally open wilderness along the Autarchy's border inhabited by worshipers of the goddess Yithini, who the old empire considered heathen and thus worthy of extermination. Lord Daldivane used his in with the imperial military to raze their homes and shrines, sowing his first fields with meal ground from their bones. He also used this military connection to hunt the endemic species of drake near to extinction, both because the beasts were sacred to Yithini and because they threatened to impede his expansion.

Further Adventures:

Enilo's observations of the region and the ruins (built on the space of Yithini's demolished temple) will eventually lead him to a series of revelations: The drakes aren't invasive, they are merely returning to their natural population levels after being culled. The environment is healing because of the return of its natural predator. There were people who lived in the domain before who's existence and subsequent elimination Daldivane concealed, who lived in harmony with the drakes through their worship of the now forgotten sky goddess. Unexpectedly finding himself a prophet, Enilo will return to the people of the domain and begin expounding on this secret history, reawakening the worship of Yithini in what was once her sacred land and sparing the people from further clashes with their draconic neighbours.

Haltri does indeed have ambition, taking the exactly wrong lessons from the stories of Daldivane she imagines herself as a new, kinder, autarch, seeking to reclaim the mills of Grist Ridge and rebuild the economic engine that made the old lord one of the richest men in the known world. This will of course require the denizens to be put to work in the fields once again, but in her opinion its the least they can do to repay her for driving the drakes away and keeping them safe. Its up to the party to uncover these ambitions, or perhaps look aside for the sake of their new, increasingly powerful ally.

The thing stalking the foundations of Grist Ridge is a demon born of Daldivane's pittiless greed and the sorrow of those he enslaved. Stalking around the lowest reaches of the ruins and emerging only at night, it resembles a man dressed in tattered finery of the old autarchy with his legs fettered together and his arms bound to a yoke. Where its face should be there is only a cracked millstone, grinding forever and ever over its bleeding and lipless lower jaw. Most disturbingly of all It hungers for bones: placing severed limbs or whatever stray mice it can catch in its mouth and grinding them to powder, sometime after its meal coughing up bloody autarchy coins the way an owl might a pellet. Though it does not speak or perhaps even really THINK the demon of Grist Ridge believes in fair commerce, as any who feed it are due a compensatory amount of treasure just as anyone who takes from its offerings owes it in some way.

Art

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

piggy for @/ram_bytes on twitter

[dungeon-aged-dragons]

Ally: Gulm the Gorger

The usual dust and mildew scents of the dungeon give way to the wafting odor of woodsmoke, vinnager, and frying onions.  As they enter the chamber, they find a hulking orc brooding over a bubbling cauldron. He looks to regard them, and while he is distracted something limp and tendrilled flops out of the boiling water. He swears, and beats the whatever-it-is into submission before using a heavy iron ladle to drown it in the broth.

At some prompting (and his insistance they taste test the soup) the orc introduces himself. Gulm has been the quartermaster for a number of barbarian camps and raiding parties and he’s seen it all. Two decades or so their war leader decided that the party would raid a dungeon, and while all the youngbloods were getting themselves killed in the lower levels, Gulm was getting a taste for dungeon cuisine. The tastes and textures of monstrous cooking are a treat for a gourmand like Gulm, who spends his twilight years travelling to different delves, killing and cooking all the strange new creatures he can find.

Gulm has likely eaten everything “common” at his particular level, but if the party kills something big and interesting and brings it back to him, he’ll gladly cook it for them, granting them extra healing on a rest. He has no taboo against eating sentient creatures, but finds the flesh of humanoids to be plain and unappetizing. He likewise has no qualms about eating undead, and has worked out a few tricks to make it palatable.

The gorger is crude and standoffish, refusing the offer to travel with the party if it is made. That said, they will likely find him inexplicably in their next dungeon delve, and the one after that,  and the one after that. If the party impresses him with a truly rare carcass, Gulm WILL tersely attach himself to the party and begin to act as their quartermaster, ensuring their camp is well cared for, their meals are made to his standard, and their wounds are tended to the best of his middling ability.

Eventually Gulm will die, He has no illusions otherwise. He’s too old an orc to believe his savage fortitude will sustain him forever. He is still an orc though, and plans to go out fighting. If the party has not earned his trust, he will die offscreen, having just set up camp in the final dungeon but seemingly nowhere to be found. If they have earned his trust, he will die for the party, ensuring they live to enjoy at least one more meal. Upon searching his kit, the players will find His prized possession: a cookbook written in orcish, in which he records all his greatest discoveries and experiments. The exact effects of this cookbook are up to you as a DM, but I suggest a once a week “ritual” to cast hero’s feast.

Art