Gateway To Adventure

The Pool of the Beregyna Since the Battle of the Opicum the Rovers of the Barrens have retreated to their most secure fields and distant hunting grounds. Some places are long disused and have not seen a Rover in generations. It was with some surprise that they rediscovered the Beregyna inhabiting the streams and pools of their old abandoned lands. The Beregyna, water spirits always in the form of beautiful women, are more wild and dangerous than Rover legends speak of. No longer do the simple ceremonies and symbolic sacrifices taught from shaman to shaman down the years appease the Beregyna; they demand lives not reeds shaped as men and women. Their pools and homes along riverbanks have become deadly places where Rovers are lured to their deaths in a watery embrace. The Vodianoi, the male appearing water spirits are rarely seen and never at the river's edge, but they too take the lives of any who come near to their lairs found only in deep waters of pools and lakes. Of old the Rover shamans used to worship Beregyna and Vodianoi, but the ancient rites are forgotten and the Rovers now hate and fear these ancient spirits, so much so that they would welcome and reward any who could rid the waters of them. Originally published on the Hall of the Mountain King blog.

  At One Stride Comes the Dark There are terrible things beneath the streets of Old Blackmoor. A world exists deeper than the catacombs where the dead reside. The bowels of the earth do not hold this realm though it can be reached all too easily. The great ruined towers of Blackmoor where past generations built upon the foundations of races and beings older than humanity reach down into these dark realms. Tunnels, stairs, pits beslimed with horrific use, descend past the corridors of burial chambers and tombs, down and down till the stone gives way to textures that are smooth and warm with the fires of the oerth and not of this oerth; some passages constrict the body first into a crouch, then a crawl, then to a twisting and wriggling as if a great wyrm had shaped the passage to no bigger than its flesh could fit. Deeper still, whether narrowing tunnel or broad stairs with steps wide and steeper than the breadth a man could lift foot to tread, the passage twists; it twists the souls of men, twists their bodies inside out, twists their minds until each step is a scream, a nightmare that eats at them, gnaws their bones, crawls among their fears, deeper, deeper into the dark. And when no more can be born to those who have not turned away or lost themselves, body, mind and soul along this narrow twisting way, those who have survived, they step into the darkness, a wall, a pool, a great suffocating cloud deep in the earth and out onto a plain of silver grass and starlight. The land of Evening beyond ... read more!

The Sorceress of the Hool Marsh There is a monstrous evil at the heart of Hool Marsh that warps the bodies and minds of those who abide in the secluded fishing village Midland Wold. Something is terribly wrong and the residents are shunned and abhorred by their neighbors. That there is some power hidden among the misty fens and the deep mires within the marsh cannot be doubted.  It is said that the villagers of Midland Wold venture forth on moonless nights or send forth their less repugnant fellows to buy or steal women, for their own have often degenerated past the ability to birth any but abominations. The sorceress of the Hool is the daughter of one such captive and her beauty is said to be more powerful than her enchantments. She has brought a new force and vitality to the people of the Wold and the fen mists rise and spread, encroaching on cleaner lands of the Keoland coast as far north as Saltmarsh and even Seaton, polluting the waters, warping the plants, crops and trees, corrupting the people. The Council of Saltmarsh is gathering their folk for a raid but it will take time. Now they call for those who would adventure into the subverted village and find out what Shadow lurks over Saltmarsh, and what can be done to defeat it or drive it forth. Great danger is promised but so is great reward and the gratitude of the people of Saltmarsh and the surrounding lands. Originally published on the Hall of the Mountain King blog.

I've recently started delving into Frog God Games Tome of Adventure Design and I'm experimenting with the location generator. The Tome is a fantastic resource either as a series of random generators or a detailed list of plot types, adventure ideas, potential monsters, items or simply a list of useful descriptions. The location generator gives me a bit of a Small World flashback so the creation of adventure seeds from the Tome seems a bit tongue in cheek and if I had any skill at humor I'd use it here. Adventure (Seed) - The Dream Barracks of the Brain Assassins The Mind Flayer culture is dark and mysterious. Their language is strange and unoerthly, their society seems fragmented as they are found frequently in enclaves or individually among other societies but with no cities or nation of their own. One legend says that they came down from Luna ages ago and their true home is there. Other speak of other planes or the Outer Void where terrible creatures of evil and madness dwell and that Mind Flayers are some combination of these beings with humanity. Whatever the truth is Mind Flayers are a power within the Flanaess  and the Brain Assassins are a power among the Mind Flayers. Their leader, C'Reln, is said to be incredibly old and if his body dies he is reborn from a hidden chamber within a fortress called the "Dream barracks" whose location is known only to the leaders of the Brain Assassins. The Brain Assassins operate mainly among other Mind Flayer's and Drow whose society is most openly populated by the creatures. There is a guildhouse of sorts in ... read more!