The verdigris plaque is barely a hand’s width wide, set into the door frame. Its raised letters have an antique flourish, an artful design from the days when the Trade Tongue alphabet resembled Dwarvish script. For a spot in the Cartways, such an embellishment is unheard of. It’s a wonder that someone hasn’t pried it loose and exchanged it for its worth in brass. It can still be read: Profahnter Water Station.

Ducking beneath the low-hanging threshold, the stone steps descend, the corridor turning right at each of three landings. The air is heavy and dank; rough-hewn walls seep.

Stairs make a final right turn, ending at a door. It is steel, set into the rock and reinforced with iron bands riveted into place. Black, lead-infused paint was applied to reduce corrosion. Even so, rust fans out from the lower left of the door in red and orange flakes. Blocky letters stamped into the door read: “W.S. PUMP 2.”

Location: Cartways, beneath the eastern section of Zobeck, adjacent to the River Argent.

Situation: Adventurers seeking to fix the source of the Cartways flooding find themselves interrupting an exchange between a kidnapper and a double-dealing cultist at the water station.

Lure: Sections of the Cartways are starting to flood, so said the rumor-mongering tavern clurichaun (see Tome of Beasts). More than one undercity denizen confirmed it. A few concerned “leading citizens,” those who find the Cartways useful, are pressing coins into the hands of adventurers willing to investigate. Black Market merchants slyly hint that the old pump station might be the place to look: “Keep your wits down there. The place is used for more than sideways trades. ‘They’ don’t like interlopers.”

Lore: House Profahnter was lower-ranked but influential among the ruling class of old Zobeck. It was tied by fealty to House Stross when the Cartways were being expanded and enhanced for all sorts of clandestine and enterprising purposes.

Lady Audra, the Profahnter matriarch, identified the potential for disaster after a single rainy season. As the River Argent swelled, the water spilled over its banks and flooded the surrounding pastures and many of the city’s low streets. All this water had to go somewhere, and the digging and tunneling had created, essentially, an uncontrolled storm sewer. Moreover, some of the excavating was getting nearer to the banks of the river. The entire underground complex could be flooded if the river ever punched through.

Though Lady Audra was mostly concerned with securing her own family’s holdings in the Cartways, she could not finance the remedy on her own. Her petition was eagerly received, and Stross gold financed what they often referred to as their “civic improvements project.” In the Cartways, Lady Audra ordered the construction of two water stations. They were connected by a brick-layered channel that would funnel storm water from the Stross section to the pump and drain at the Profahnter section. During the rainy season, the stations would act as a sump, taking the diverted water from the channel and pumping it back into the Argent.

Construction of the facilities took the better part of two years to complete. Lady Audra’s requirement that the work be done secretly and with exacting measure by dwarf engineers of the Ironcrags accounted for many delays.

Let’s make a deal: Saldie Luitgard is a city watch captain (see Tome of Beasts) who’s gone into business for herself. She’s tired of subsisting on a paltry guard’s wage, all the while knowing that “lowlifes” and “scoundrels” not half as smart as herself are getting rich in the Cartways.

Luitgard kidnapped a female mage, Tabea Wain, who had just created a floating pink gemstone — a still-bound emerald eye (see Tome of Beasts). Underworld contacts assured Luitgard that the Redcloaks gang would prove eager buyers, provided she could deliver the shackled mage and the eye to the pump station. Specific directions put her arrival in the southernmost portion of the station via a ladder from the level above. Luitgard handled Tabea roughly to make her compliant for the trip. Luitgard hired a pair of ratfolk rogues (see Tome of Beasts) as backup.

The dealbreaker: Siphoklexes, a kobold alchemist (see Tome of Beasts), maintains a laboratory in the pool room. He relies on the pool’s source of fresh water from the River Argent for his experiments. He is responsible for sabotaging the pump’s large wheel mechanism, commanding a swarm of clockwork beetles (see Tome of Beasts) to disrupt its normal operation. (Only by eliminating the clockwork beetles and adjusting the auxiliary controls can the pump’s normal operations resume.) His mechanical meddling allowed the channel to back up, making sure he had an ample supply of water for crafting chemical wonders for his masters in the Redcloaks gang. He made an alchemy jug adorned in kobold fetishes, his initial offering in the pending trade deal with Luitgard.

Siphoklexes also possesses a staff of the python, but he is reluctant to give it up. He might sweeten the pot by tossing in his ruby-adorned clasp, which is in the form of a red feather. The red feather is the symbol of the Redcloak’s fiendish patron Mammon. If Luitgard wears it, it’ll be the perfect tag should the kobold wish to send assassins after her later.

In any event, Siphoklexes hasn’t any gold coins, except for the handful that his pet crimson drake (see Tome of Beasts) Sizzle sleeps upon. Siphoklexes thinks of Sizzle as his pet; the drake does not, behaving with the same bored reluctance as a house cat.

If Luitgard insists on specie, she’s out of luck. If pressed to the point of irritation, Siphoklexes orders his handful of kobold minions to attack. They are hiding in a secret room, armed with slings and daggers and waiting the signal to surge forward. The kobolds are like-minded Redcloak gang members who have boobytrapped the main pump and the auxiliary control with setback traps.

Creatures: A hungry eel hound (see Tome of Beasts) has slipped into the flooded channel. An ambusher by nature, it likes to snag unsuspecting creatures that come to the water’s edge.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Author’s Note. Parts of this article are taken from the Nine Chthonic Papyri of Heknusret the Temerarious, former member of the Honorable Society of Portal Wizards, a secretive order of Nurian mages based in the city of Per-Anu who seek to control the mysterious Red Portals.

Heknusret travelled through dozens of Red Portals to many different times, places, and worlds often with little regard for his own safety, meticulously recording his discoveries in a collection of scrolls known as the Chthonic Papyri which he kept inside a leather scroll case embossed with the symbols of Anu-Akma, Lord of the Underworld—a golden ankh and a golden scythe.

Heknusret was expelled from the society for his failure to safeguard the secrets of the portal wizards when his scroll case was stolen during a visit to the River King’s Court in the Arbonesse. Copies of the Chthonic Papyri have since appeared for sale in the markets of cities such as Bemmea and Mhalmet and always fetch astronomical prices. But owning these scrolls is dangerous—the portal wizards actively hunt down and eliminate anyone in possession of their lore who is not a member of the society.

A Visit to the Bazaar

A number of Red Portals lead to the fabled City of Brass, but I have always found the most reliable to be the one located in Kel Azjer, the hidden city of the Tamasheq. Head east from the Plaza of the Aeromancer along the Street of Amphorae until you come to a small temple with a cobalt dome. There is a brass plate on its wooden door depicting an armored knight mounted on a war camel. Rub the nail set in the rider’s navel twelve times to open the portal.

Step through the glowing red doorway, and you will find yourself on the bustling streets of one of the greatest cities in the multiverse—the City of Brass, home to the efreeti and their powerful grand sultan. The city is rightly famed across the planes for its markets, bazaars, and souks. Here, a visitor can find many wondrous things available for sale. The trick is knowing where to look.

One promising spot where I have made a number of worthwhile purchases over the years is the Bazaar of Ineffable Wonders, a splendid covered market on the banks of the Incandescent Canal, not far from the Blazing Mosque. The bazaar is built from basalt in the shape of a giant cross—each section is over 300 yards long and can be entered through one of four impressive gates.

The bazaar’s roof is topped with a series of copper domes adorned with gold filigree, and rectangular windows high in the walls bath the interior in the eerie, red light of the Plane of Elemental Fire. At the central point, where the four arms of the cross meet, is a much larger dome; the inside of this impressive cupola is decorated with a spectacular mosaic of gold and glass tesserae of dazzling colors, depicting the Grand Sultan Ixingaltrix holding court in his throne room as the other genie lords prostrate themselves before him.

The Bazaar of Ineffable Wonders holds over 500 shops, selling all manner of marvelous things, many of which I have only ever seen for sale here. As they are in the Southlands, shops selling similar goods are often clustered together, making it hard to find the particular establishment you seek. As you wander through the bazaar, the heady smells of incense, tobacco, and roasting meats merge with the pungent aromas of exotic spices, herbs, and oils. There are magical items to buy here, of course, but there are mechanical wonders too, and a visitor in search of a beautiful carpet, a finely wrought weapon, or a rare tome will not leave disappointed.

Mubarak’s Emporium of Mechanical Marvels

Whenever I visit the bazaar, I make a point of stopping at Mubarak’s Emporium to see his newest clockwork inventions. Like most shops in the bazaar, Mubarak’s is packed with merchandise, its contents spilling out into the walkway. Larger mechanicals, including a clockwork steed and a bronze scorpion, stand outside while the shelves and display cases inside are filled with all manner of smaller, more intricate items.

Mubarak al-Hariq, an irascible azer clockwork mage, runs the emporium and crafts everything for sale here himself. He makes his bigger pieces in a workshop elsewhere in the city but builds the smaller clockworks right in the shop, and I usually find him tinkering with some kind of mechanism or other on his workbench whenever I visit. Abdul, a mechanical monkey, acts as his assistant, fetching tools, gears, and screws from a cabinet with many small drawers. Occasionally he produces the wrong item, prompting a frustrated Mubarak to swear colorfully at him in Ignan.

Mubarak greets new customers with suspicion and a scowl but is the most talented clockworker I have ever met, and he talks animatedly with those who know and appreciate clockwork magic and automata. If you are looking for a mechanical helper or clockwork gadget, this is the place to come.

MUBARAK AL-HARIQ

(Azer Clockwork Mage)
Medium elemental, neutral evil
Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 91 (14d8 + 28)
Speed 30 ft.

Saving Throws Con +6, Int +9, Wis +5
Skills Arcana +9, Religion +9
Damage Immunities fire, poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses passive Perception 15
Languages Ignan
Challenge 10 (5,900 XP)

Clockworker’s Charm. Whenever Mubarak casts animate construct, the duration of the spell is increased by 4 minutes.

Golem Form. Mubarak can transform himself into a golem or clockwork creature of CR 10 or less for up to 10 minutes. He retains his Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma and the ability to speak and cast spells. Otherwise, this ability functions as the druid’s Wild Shape ability.

Heated Body. A creature that touches Mubarak or hits him with a melee attack while within 5 feet of him takes 5 (1d10) fire damage.

Heated Weapons. When Mubarak hits with a metal melee weapon, he deals an extra 3 (1d6) fire damage (included in the attack).

Illumination: Mubarak sheds bright light in a 10-foot radius and dim light for an additional 10 feet.

Spellcasting. Mubarak is a 14th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 17, +9 to hit with spell attacks). He has the following wizard spells prepared:

• Cantrips (at will): fist of iron*, light, mage hand, mending, tick stop*
• 1st level (4 slots): animate construct*, burning hands, gear shield* machine speech*
• 2nd level (3 slots): gear barrage*, shatter, winding key*
• 3rd level (3 slots): dispel magic, overclock*, thousand darts*
• 4th level (3 slots): absolute command*, dimension door, grinding gears*, steam blast*
• 5th level (2 slots): animate objects, mechanical union*
• 6th level (1 slot): catapult*, chain lightning
• 7th level (1 slot): reverse gravity

*Clockwork spell (see Midgard Heroes Handbook)

ACTIONS

Command Construct. One construct that Mubarak can see within 60 feet must succeed on a DC 17 Intelligence saving throw or become friendly to the mage and obey his commands. This effect lasts for 1 hour, until the mage uses this ability again, or until the construct takes damage from Mubarak or his allies. If the saving throw is failed by 5 or more, the duration is extended to 6 hours or until one of the other conditions is fulfilled. When the effect ends, the construct is aware it was controlled by Mubarak.

Hammer. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage, or 8 (1d10 + 3) bludgeoning damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack, plus 3 (1d6) fire damage.

Mubarak al-Hariq has lived in the City of Brass for over a century. Like most azer, he dislikes the efreeti who make up the majority of his customers, but he doesn’t much care for humans either, preferring the company of his clockwork “friends.”

Already a master of his craft, Mubarak spends his time constantly inventing new clockwork devices and automata. Some of these constructs and gizmos are dangerous or unpredictable, but this doesn’t concern Mubarak. The azer can call upon several clockwork creatures, including clockwork hounds and myrmidons (see Tome of Beasts), to defend his shop from robbers or other troublemakers.

Adventure Hooks

There’s always a lot happening in the bazaar:

• Mubarak sold an ornithopter for a huge price to Mushir Faruq Mutakabbir, an influential efreeti noble, but regrettably he has not yet received payment. The azer plans to visit the great duke to raise the matter and is looking to hire a group of impressive bodyguards to accompany him.
• Irfan al-Zarqa, wealthy sybarite and friend of the Sultan of Siwal, solved an ancient, bronze puzzle box said to open a portal to a “realm of ultimate sensation.” Irfan is now trapped in this other dimension and the sultan would like his friend back. Can Mubarak reopen the puzzle box, so the PCs can mount a rescue mission?
• An elderly fire jinnborn named Saffiyah al-Razzaq purchased a clockwork device from Mubarak designed to slow the aging process. When she took the spider-shaped contraption home, it attached itself to her arm, piercing her skin with its needle-like legs. She immediately felt healthier and stronger, and the wrinkles on her face faded away. The drawback is that she must drain the vitality of the young every night to power the device. Now she is stalking innocent victims throughout the city, leaving shriveled husks in her wake. Can the PCs put an end to the killings and confront Mubarak who has several more of these devices for sale?

Other Notable Shops

In my visits to the bazaar over the years, a lot of establishments have come and gone, but these have stood the test of time, becoming beloved institutions with a loyal clientele.

Char and Scorch are a pair of dim-witted magma mephits that run the Big Grill, a place selling a wide variety of smoked and barbecued meats—everything from auroch and giant elk to roasted gorgon and purple worm steaks. The meat is generally served very well done and is coated with a nearly inedible spicy glaze made with very hot infernal chilies (DC 18 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for one minute, save ends).

Hook—A regular efreeti customer has demanded a unicorn steak pita for tomorrow’s lunch and the two mephits have no idea where to source the meat from. Are the PCs willing to help?

Bel’shun’s Smoker’s Paradise is a shop selling all manner of sweet-smelling tobaccos and exotic incense, many of which have magical properties, as well as beautifully made water pipes sized for humans, efreeti, and fire giants. Bel’shun is a fire jinnborn whose powerful jinn patron lives in an opulent mansion in the smartest part of the city. Bel’shun has brick red skin, golden hair, and a long aquiline nose; he dresses in a djellaba of crimson silk adorned with gold coins and other trinkets. His deep black eyes flicker with a blue flame when he is nervous.

Hook—One of Bel’shun’s customers experienced a strange vision in which the PCs appeared, battling an angry genie whom they had inadvertently freed from a copper urn.

The Shackle Shop specializes in unbreakable chains, iron slave collars, bronze manacles, and branding irons marked with the sigils of efreeti noble houses—everything a cruel overseer needs to keep their slaves in line. Lysandrix, a salamander and former efreeti slave, was given his freedom by his master after three decades of loyal service. He set up this shop in the bazaar and made money off the misery of his kin and wretched humanoids. Lysandrix’s forge work is of superior quality: the DC to break one of his chains or pick the lock of his manacles is 10 higher than normal.

Hook—Lysandrix’s sister is still a slave, and the salamander’s former master has ignored his pleas to grant her freedom. Lysandrix offers the PCs a set of magical dimensional shackles as a reward for sneaking into the efreeti’s estate and unlocking his sister’s manacles with the key he provides.

Pyramids of Spice is an aptly named shop near the Brimstone Gate, one of the bazaar’s four entrances. Dozens of brightly colored mounds of different spices, herbs, and teas sit in wooden trays on the tables filling this shop. The owner is a red-scaled, fire-breathing dragonkin named Ansa Khetek, a spice merchant originally from the Southlands of Midgard who came to the City of Brass twelve years ago to trade in exotic chili peppers, saw an opportunity, and never left. Ansa sells her wares to some of the city’s finest restaurants and wealthiest efreeti nobles, including the grand sultan himself. She has an incredible sense of smell and ironclad (but also very refined) taste buds.

Hook—The last batch of infernal chilies Ansa purchased from her supplier was not hot enough, and her customers are complaining. She needs a fresh batch urgently and is willing to pay the PCs a hefty fee if they will fetch her some from the Eleven Hells.

___

Read more on the jann and the City of Brass—and read other great articles—in Warlock, only on Patreon!

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Heroes Handbook…]

SORCEROUS BLOODLINE: MAZEBORN

Your magic comes from a blood connection to a minotaur in your ancestral past. Most sorcerers with this origin are taller and bulkier than other representatives of their race because of the tinge of the maze in their blood. While those that embrace their blood start manifesting the bestial aspects of a minotaur, eventually the madness of the maze bleeds through them into the world. Except as noted below, mazeborn function as sorcerers and use the sorcerer spell list.

BLOOD OF THE LABYRINTH

When you choose this origin at 1st level, the blood of your minotaur ancestor makes itself known. You can retrace any path you’ve previously taken without a skill or ability check. You can speak, read, and write Abyssal. Additionally, whenever you make a Charisma check when interacting with minotaurs, your proficiency bonus is doubled if it applies to the check.

SORCEROUS CHARGE

Starting at 1st level, when you use a Dash action, you can use a bonus action to cast a spell that requires a melee spell attack (e.g., shocking grasp).

BESTIAL APOTHEOSIS

Upon reaching 6th level, your bestial blood further manifests, twisting your feet into hooves and causing you to sprout a pair of horns. You can use your horns to make a melee weapon attack that does (1d6 + your Strength modifier) piercing damage. You are proficient with your horns.

In addition, you can cast an enlarge spell on yourself by spending 1 sorcery point.

MADNESS OF THE MAZE

At 14th level, you can infuse your damaging spells with the power of the labyrinth. Spells cast by you that do psychic damage do additional damage equal to your Charisma modifier.

In addition, when you cast a spell that does psychic damage, you can select one creature damaged by that spell and, by spending 2 sorcery points, also target that creature with a confusion spell.

AURA OF THE MAZE

Beginning at 18th level, you surround yourself with the distortion of the shifting maze. As an action, you can spend 3 sorcery points. For the next minute or until you lose concentration, all attacks against you are made with disadvantage. In addition, any creature standing within 5 feet of you at the end of your turn must make a successful Wisdom saving throw or loss the ability to use reactions until the end of your next turn.

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

My uncle Reginald, a cosmopolitan fellow with a flair for the dramatic, regaled me throughout my youth with marvelous tales about his adventures in the Southlands. His stories of sleek sandships skating on the dunes, vast cities of the dead, and temperamental genies led me to dream of one day seeing these wonders firsthand. With visions of the sprawling sands dancing in my head, my burgeoning wanderlust finally grabbed me by the wrist and dragged me to the distant Crescent Desert. There I signed onto a caravan traveling on the Tamasheq Trail to the city of Saph-Saph.

Entry Two — Fire and Sand

Of course, Reginald wisely omitted telling me about the oppressive heat and the sun’s merciless rays. By sunset on the first day, I rued my decision to live out my uncle’s dreams, but Mahdi, the caravan’s grizzled leader, took pity on the inexperienced rube in his midst. In his thick Nurian accent, he taught me my first lesson.

“Men may forgive errors,” he said, “but the sands punish every mistake.”

I took his words to heart, though I never grasped their true meaning until our fateful encounter with a band of unfortunate souls who learned the first lesson of the desert—always pack twice as much water as you need—the hard way. At first, the sight seemed like a mirage. Twenty men wearing only the tattered clothes on their parched, weathered backs could not possibly be real. However, the seasoned guards among us recognized the shambling horde for what it truly was.

“Gray thirsters! Gray thirsters!”

Skin resembling taut, waterlogged papyrus stretched over their lithe, skeletal frames, their desiccated lips momentarily parted to emit guttural moaning. With a rousing cry, the guards drew their blades in unison and rushed out to meet their foes, only to fall prey to the invisible terror beneath their feet. While charging across the sands, shrieks of pain instantly replaced their inspirational call to arms. The breeze carried the unmistakable stench of burning leather and flesh aloft as men and women inexplicably sunk knee deep into the searing sand.

A lone voice on the wind screamed, “Firesand!” (See my footnote at the end of this journal page for details about firesand.) Our advance abruptly halted, though the gray thirsters marched onward, unabated by the pliable, hot earth beneath their feet. The lifeless monstrosities and burning sand claimed twelve men and four camels on that terrible afternoon. When Mahdi explained the fate that caused these men to transform into undead abominations, I finally understood his adage about the desert. Not content to rest on his laurels, my mentor imparted an additional piece of his homespun wisdom.

“These were not ordinary gray thirsters,” the seasoned veteran relayed. “Never drink the same liquid twice.”

Once again, the cryptic message’s true meaning eluded me until I later learned more about stigmatized gray thirsters. (See my footnote at the end of this journal page for details about these variant monsters.)

FIRESAND

In a final act of spite, a dying efreet may curse the ground he occupied, turning the very earth into superheated rock, gravel, and fine particles. Over many years, the desert’s shifting sands cover the blighted area, concealing any visible trace of the fiery conflagration beneath it. Nonetheless, the heat radiates through the sand up to the surface. In a hot and dry desert, like the Crescent Desert, the temperature difference between the air above the firesand and the surrounding area is very subtle. Therefore, it takes a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check to detect the anomaly. (In cooler environments, the creature has advantage on the preceding check.) When a creature moving on foot enters an area containing firesand for the first time or ends its turn there, the creature takes 2d6 fire damage and must make a DC 10 Strength saving throw. On a failed save, the creature sinks into the sand and is restrained, though it can use an action to end the restrained condition on itself by pulling itself free of the fiery grains. Firesand lacks the stability of ordinary sand and easily yields under pressure. Each foot that a creature moves through the firesand costs 3 feet of movement. Objects placed atop firesand, including buildings, ultimately sink beneath the sand.

STIGMATIZED GRAY THIRSTER (VARIANT)

Stigmatized. Before succumbing to the ravages of dehydration, some desert travelers resort to drinking their excreted bodily waste to stave off thirst. Unfortunately, imbibing these fluids hastens their demise rather than prolonging their life. Desert travelers who choose this extreme measure transform into a variant form of gray thirster when they die. Known as a stigmatized gray thirster, these undead monstrosities further burden their accursed souls with shame and humiliation.

STIGMATIZED GRAY THIRSTER

Medium undead, neutral evil
Armor Class 13
Hit Points 39 (6d8+12)
Speed 30 ft.

Skills Stealth +5
Damage Resistances bludgeoning, necrotic
Damage Vulnerabilities psychic
Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, poisoned
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11
Languages understands all languages it knew in life but can’t speak
Challenge 2 (450 XP) 

Thirst. The gray thirster projects a 30-foot aura of desiccating thirst. The first time a creature enters the aura on its turn, or when it starts its turn in the aura, it must make a successful DC 12 Constitution saving throw or gain one level of exhaustion. If the saving throw is successful, the creature is immune to the gray thirster’s Thirst for the next 24 hours.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The stigmatized gray thirster makes two claw attacks and one Putrid Bite attack.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (1d6+3) slashing damage.

Putrid Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit 7 (1d8+3) piercing damage. If the target is a humanoid, it must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or it becomes queasy. The creature has disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks. At the end of each of its turns, it can make another Constitution saving throw. If it succeeds, the effect ends. A target that successfully saves is immune to this stigmatized gray thirster’s putrid bite for the next 24 hours.

Stigma (1/Day). The stigmatized gray thirster shares its humiliation and desperation in a 20-foot radius area centered on itself. Each creature must make a DC 11 Wisdom saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 9 (2d8) psychic damage and is filled with self-loathing. The creature doesn’t move or take actions on its turn. A creature who succeeds takes half as much damage and can move and act normally. Undead, constructs, and creatures with an Intelligence score of 4 or less are not affected. At the end of each of its turns, the creature can make another Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the effect ends, and the creature can move and act normally.             

<<PREVIOUSLY

Tyrash’s arms ached, and a sharp pain in his spine reminded him of his recent scrape with a group of thugs. A clawing fear slithered down his spine, causing the sharp pain to flare up again—he was getting old. Standing at the base of a winding mountainous path, Tyrash watched his companions nimbly climb the steep slope. With a heavy breath, he hefted the barrel of black powder he was carrying and trudged after his friends.

Welcome to the table! The week before, the session ended and one of the players approached me, wondering if they might be able to change characters for the next session. For almost a year, they’ve played Tyrash, and now they wanted to try something new. So I started plotting how Tyrash could be removed from the game and how to introduce this new character. Today, let’s talk about when new characters are brought into the game and when old characters leave.

How should a GM introduce new characters and remove old characters? How do things change between campaigns and shorter adventurers? What are examples for how characters leave the game?

Cresting the top of the mountain, Tyrash gently lowered the barrel of black powder, leaning on it to catch his breath. Before them, perched on a snow-capped peak, was a formidable looking fortress, large towers of ice looked out across the frozen tundra of the northlands.

Anytime that a GM needs to introduce a new character or remove an old character, they have to navigate how they want to manage continuity and narrative in their game. Most often, I hear lines like this: “Tyrash vanishes into mist” or “Val keels over dead.” These are quick and simple ways to remove a character. Yet they are also unfulfilling, offering little to the narrative and nothing to honor the influences that a character had on the game. Creating a space in the game for characters to explain their motivations for leaving, or working with a player to define their character’s future, helps create continuity throughout your game and offers great opportunities for roleplaying.

Val, Strass, and Azreal watched as Tyrash trailed behind them. Quietly they muttered to each other about their aging friend, and Azreal wondered whether he should offer to carry the large barrel. Making their way through a broken doorway at the base of the fortress, Azreal paused to take the barrel from the panting Tyrash. With a reserved sigh, Tyrash passed his charge to the younger man, commenting, “Thanks, I appreciate the help.”

After speaking to the player the session before, we planned for Tyrash to heroically sacrifice himself if the need arose. Additionally, the player and I spoke about how to help roleplay Tyrash’s last sessions, presenting a character that was worn and beaten down by a life as an adventurer. When creating these moments, I like to utilize what I’ve seen on my favorite TV series or in dramatic movies and plays. In these mediums, characters are given a space for their final thoughts. Usually the characters have a chance to muse on the future and offer any final pieces of advice before their inevitable departure.

In creating these moments, the narrative of the game is enhanced as all characters have a chance to interact with the departing character. If you design a process where the character survives, they become a great tool for you to use later in the narrative. If it is a campaign, the character may return as an ally, a villain, or simply a helpful NPC. If the game is a one-shot or a short series of sessions, you’ve helped create a space within the game for the players to roleplay and say their farewells.

Tyrash knew that they would be spotted at some point, and as the steady toll of bells announced the mob of cultists heading toward the adventurers, Tyrash steeled himself for what he needed to do. Grabbing the black powder barrel, Tyrash shouted for his companions to enter the large tower and finish their task, telling them that he would hold the door. Shoving them inside, Tyrash slammed the door shut behind them and locked it. Tyrash stood with his back pressed against the door and hefted his familiar blade.

When a player wants to change characters, I recommend involving them in the process of removing the old character. Work together to build a scene, create a reason or brainstorm possible futures for the departing character. Make the players work with you in creating the story. Doing so will both help create a stronger narrative at the table, and it will also help players develop a better understanding of their characters. Players that think about what their characters might do after they finish adventuring will have a better understanding of what their next character’s motivations and desires might be. I find that involving players in character departures during any game, whether a campaign or one-shot, helps me grow as a storyteller and also helps create a collaborative storytelling experience.

Having a character die is an effective way for them to leave the story, but there are many other ways. Here are a few of my favorites that I’ve seen over the years:

• Wast the ranger was in his prime before putting on a gauntlet that added 70 years to his life. He was forced to retire, devoting his time to learning magic in the hopes of either fixing his curse or becoming a wizard.
• After discovering a struggling group of bandits, the former princess Alouette chose to live the life of a bandit queen, than take up her throne.
• Experimenting with a boiling cauldron in a hag’s lair, Clement left alive but transformed into a frog, disappearing to the woods before his friends could find him.
• This one is a great one from Mines of Madness—“You touch the doorknob and are turned into a pile of gold pieces.”
• Having written a trilogy of adventure novels, Meredith Harringway retired to live a comfortable life as a local storyteller, telling stories for room and board at a fine inn.

Strass hurried up the stairs, his mind racing as the sounds the battle echoed below. Why did Tyrash lock the door? Was he going to be ok? Would they make it back in time? Emerging at the top of the tower, the adventures came face to face with a woman dressed in long red robes. In her hand, an ornate staff that thrummed with arcane power flared bright. Suddenly, an explosion rocked the base of the tower, and the tower began to collapse around them.

Let’s sum up:

• Whether running a short or long game, taking a moment to think about when and why a character is leaving the game helps strengthen your narrative and increase player immersion.
• Involving your players can create great moments at and away from the table. Don’t do the work alone, make the players help.
• There are hundreds of ways to have your characters leave the game, sometimes being sad or hilarious or wonderfully normal.

See you at the table!

<<PREVIOUSLY

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Worldbook]

Serene Isle of Kyprion

Since the fall of Kadralhu and Roshgazi to dragon’s fire 300 years ago, the Serene Isle of Kyprion has served as the homeland of the minotaurs. In addition to its strategic position, this volcanic island has rich fields of wheat and barley, and vast orchards of olives, apples, pears, and nuts.

In exchange for defense, Kyprion owes fealty and     allegiance to the Maritime Republic of Triolo, but recent events threaten to unravel this strategic and important alliance. As retaliation for the destruction of their fleet, flights of fire dragons razed the city of Gramvar to charred timbers and ash, and while the minotaurs scrambled to aid their stricken fellow citizens, a large draconic force seized Chamiras, City of Rope. Instead of advancing, however, the dragonkin dug defensive trenches and began fortifying the city using the inhabitants as slave labor. Furious minotaurs hurriedly established their own lines of defense with a no-man’s-land in between. While Queen Kitane pleads for aid from her Septime allies and struggles to hold back her furious subjects lest they perish in suicidal attacks, the Serene Isle is anything but serene.

Government: The Queen Of Kyprion

The title of “queen” on Kyprion is largely hollow, though saying so is a sure way to provoke nearby minotaurs to a duel, or worse. As vassals to Triolo, the minotaurs are subjects without a real nation of their own, a fact which rankles most on the island. Outwardly, Queen Kitane tries to maintain her image as a gentle priestess, kind and merciful to her people, who honors and values the alliance with Triolo. She finds great solace in the military alliance forming between Triolo, Kammae, and Kyprion, especially since they have some signs of support from Nuria Natal. Kitane sees this alliance as her people’s best hope. Privately, however, she seethes over Triolo’s refusal to send military aid and her anger has driven a wedge between herself and her consort, Pinaruti, who has sworn fealty to Triolo. It is clear to everyone the foothold in Kyprion is nothing more than a ploy to draw forces away from Triolo. Should the First Duke-Admiral send his troops, the Dragon Empire will surely descend upon Triolo in force. This realization does little to alleviate the suffering of the people of Chamiras. Deep down, Kitane acknowledges and even agrees with First Duke Cadua’s decision, but she cannot help but feel betrayed and abandoned.

It is all Kitane can do to keep her people from descending into the storm of anger and fury and reverting to the old ways of blood-fueled dunamiphagy (the consuming of an enemy’s heart to gain spiritual power). The queen knows she must keep her people from throwing off Triolo’s gentle yoke for doing so would leave Kyprion wide open to the Dragon Empire’s wrath.

Vespras, City of Song

A truly great city, the capital boasts wide avenues and wellpaved streets, lush foliage, and fragrant groves outside its walls. Wells near the top of the city’s main hill send magically raised water cascading down through a series of fountains and channels to the markets and rich houses on the waterfront. Humans and gearforged are welcome, especially those who share a faith with the minotaurs.

Palace of the Bull

Queen Kitane and her consort Pinaruti rule from the palace at the top of the city’s hill, an enormous structure of colossal stones and heavy pillars in the style of Nuria Natal. The palace stands within the Great Labyrinth and boasts sweeping sea vistas, large inner courtyards, and beautiful music by day.

At night, guests hear screams, thrashing, and the sounds of the queen’s enemies dying in agony. Rumors say she invites her friends and enemies to sleep in her halls, but only her friends survive the visit. The palace guards—all enormous minotaurs, skilled in magic and combat and fanatically loyal—lend credibility to the whispers.

The Great Labyrinth

Surrounding and containing the Palace of the Bull, the Great Labyrinth stands as both protection and religion to the minotaurs. Even as far back as Kadralhu and Roshgazi, the minotaurs have always honored the power of the maze. Much of their arcane and divine magic contains a hint of the labyrinth about them.

The Great Labyrinth has two natures, reflecting the duality of sun and moon. During the daylight, to walk the halls of the maze is to commune with Hecate and the minotaur ancestors of old. At night, however, the labyrinth becomes a maze of death when the traps littering the labyrinth become active and beasts prowl and hunt. Several times a year, the Resheig is held—a special hunt through the labyrinth featuring convicted criminals as prey. The spiritual power of the Great Labyrinth should not be underestimated. Utilizing minotaur magic, clerics of the moon and sea can open portals from hidden locations throughout the Great Labyrinth to nearly any distant locations possessing twisting halls or mazelike qualities. This drains the Great Labyrinth, however, so the queen uses this power infrequently.

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Since the rise of the “young” races, the boundaries of Faerie have waned and receded farther into the shadows. Once great powers and influences have been diminished or forbidden or forgotten. As the ancient traditions faded and the Old World separated from the New, some were compelled to depart along with it, by necessity or by choice or by force. Whether exiled wanderers or founders of new kingdoms beyond the veil, the fairest of Otherworld came to be called the sidhe and are wardens of the secret places, the forgotten ways, and the faerie roads. You’ll often find them near barrows and sacred oaks, near moonlit monoliths and other remnants of the old ways.

Here, however, we deal only with the fragmented aristocracy of the lords and ladies of the Seelie Court.

Seelie Champion

Still glittering with dawn-lit dew, a splendid spectacle emerges: in gleaming gallantry, Faerie parades an equestrian exhibition-of-arms before the garlanded pavilions of the Seelie queen, king, and their courts.

These are the shining of the sidhe, traveled from kingdoms and worlds far and away, gathered now to compete in the grand tourneys of Beltane or the other spring carnivals, contests, and quests of the blessed courts. Here before an acknowledged aristocracy, these and other champions of Faerie take to the field of arms seeking status, rank, and reward for themselves and their respective lands and lineages. From among them, only one will emerge as Seelie champion, bestowed with the favors and blessings of the May Queen, the ear and the trust of the Summer King, and the deference and respect of the Seelie Court. The title must be relinquished or successfully defended each Beltane and Midsummer, though “qualified” challenges are rarely refused.

Sir Morgryth Ebongleam

Born to considerably less than noble parentage, Sir Morgryth Ebongleam is, nonetheless, the current Seelie champion—making him grand knight marshal of the blessed court, captain of the May Queen’s honor guard, and personal sword martial (enforcer) to the Summer King. For four years, Morgryth has, with dignity, skill and grace, defeated all challengers fair and foul. While not of highborn blood, Morgryth is also the heir apparent to the Earldom of Rivenwood, currently ruled by his aunt and patron, the Grande Dame Lady Morvaen. The same Morvaen who slew the black wyrm Obsydiax, an Unseelie serpent who’s final raging death throes tore open the Great Scar and rent the Mistwood forest (now the Rivenwood) nearly in two. Granted a nobles title and royal stewardship of the forestlands she liberated, Countess Morvaen’s “house” has quietly ruled the Rivenwood for centuries since.

Sir Morgryth Ebongleam

Medium fey (sidhe), chaotic good
Armor Class 17 (21 with breastplate and shield)
Hit Points 144 (22d8 +42)
Speed 40 ft.

Saving Throws Str +8, Dex +11, Con +6 Cha +9
Skills Acrobatics +6, Animal Handling +6, Arcana +7, Athletics +8, History +7, Insight +6, Perception +6
Senses darkvision 90 ft., passive Perception 18
Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
Challenge 12 (8,400)

Benison of the Blessed Court. Morgryth has advantage against spells and magical effects. He may cast the following spells 1/day, each requiring no components: counterspell, dispel magic, magic circle, true seeing.

Crusader’s Spurs. These prize mithral spurs double the proficiency bonus for any Acrobatics, Animal Handling, and Athletics checks made while mounted. The spurs also enable the casting of phantom steed up to 3/day between sunrise and sunset.

Fey Grace. Sidhe add their Charisma modifier to armor class, initiative checks, and Dexterity saving throws.

Spirit of the Summer Lands. Morgryth is immune to charm, paralysis, and magical sleep and has resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from weapons that aren’t magical, silver, or made of iron.

The May Queen’s Favor. A shimmering scarf of cobweb and thistledown infused with spring’s vitality and the distilled luck of the fair folk, while exposed to light from the stars, moon, or sun, this prize converts all critical hits on the wearer to normal hits and grants immunity to exhaustion and poisoned effects.

ACTIONS

Flicker and Fade (30 Feet/Day). As a standard action, a sidhe may “leap” between spaces as if by dimension door. This magical “flicker” must begin and end within 30 feet of some discernible light source. A sidhe can “jump” a total of 30 feet per day in 10-foot increments (that is, 3 x 10-foot leaps or 1 x 30-foot leap per day). Using this ability with a faerie mount brings the mount along as part of the movement.

Pride and Prejudice. While mounted, Sir Morgryth has advantage on all attack rolls and doubles his lance proficiency against mounted targets.

Bramblethorn Lance (+1). Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit (+13 vs. mounted,) reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (1d12 +5) piercing. Targets must succeed at a DC 16 skill check Wisdom (Animal Handling) if mounted, or Dexterity (Acrobatics) if afoot, to avoid being unhorsed and, or knocked prone. Prone targets contacting natural soil instantly suffer effects of the entangle spell. Up to 3 medium or smaller targets may be affected simultaneously. This ability will not function after sunset.

Ebony Heirlooms. Etched in bright copper and gleaming like black glass, Morgryth’s antique helm, cuirass, and shield afford him and his mount (when applicable) regeneration, regaining 10 hit points each at the beginning of their turn. If Morgryth or his mount take acid, fire, or radiant damage, this trait ceases to function until the next dawn.

Gleamsteel (Longsword +2). Melee Weapon Attack: +9 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d6 +5) slashing and succeed at a DC 16 Intelligence save or be affected by blinding smite.

Multiattack. Morgryth makes 3 gleamsteel attacks.

<<PREVIOUSLY

“Ah, Emilia, or should I call you Sister Ingratia today? Come in. I’ve been expecting you…”

Crooked Characters are detailed NPCs to slip into your adventures however you wish. Free from class and statistics, they can be used in any fantasy gaming system, each comes with a detailed description and character motivation for you to use in your campaign—perhaps as a mere passer-by, rumor, confidante or maybe the motivation behind a whole adventure.

Emilia Bittersweet is strong-willed and strongly motivated—she has friends among the lower classes who would put themselves in harm’s way to protect or hide her, she has a dark and potentially dangerous secret in her ghoul daughter, and she has many enemies. Emilia is deliberately slightly ambiguous so that you can tweak her to suit your needs—daredevil Robin Hood, obsessive keeper of dark secrets, or vague friend or enemy at the root of a seek and destroy adventure.

Here are a few ideas, together with two slightly more detailed outlines, for you to consider. We hope they are useful to you.

Using Emilia in Your Adventures

Emilia comes with a variety of options because of her very ambiguity. She might, for example, choose to befriend the PCs for a whole host of opportunities—robbery, partnership, a mutual loathing of ghouls, maybe even get them to help her find a cure for her beloved child Rebekka. The PCs might be hired to capture her but learn her secret and discover how loved she is by the poor in the slums and ghettos, maybe turning the tables on the very people who hired them to bring this menace into their clutches. Perhaps this very option has already been switched and the PCs are asked by the commoners of the city to release her from some hellish jail or the clutches of some powerful cabal.

Bringing the PCs into close contact with Emilia as a potential enemy offers you a chance to tell more of her story if you can bring about an adventure or encounter where she seems bad but her truth is somehow outed—perhaps even after the PCs are tricked or maneuvered into combat with her. She will add a dimension to other NPCs they encounter in the future as they will suspect a deeper story within each.

Two Adventure Seeds

• Emilia learns that the Loping Man had an undead sister who has slithered up the sewers and into the city alleyways. Obsessed with protecting her daughter, she hires the PCs to hunt out the ghoul, but their enemy claims Emilia has stolen her own ghoul child to put in a freak show and demands it back.
• Emilia, posing as a Sister of the Immaculate Angel, is delivering justice to a group of clergy who are not all they seem and who are siphoning off their wards to cruel taskmasters across the city as little more than slaves. Now after a third clergyman has been found horribly murdered, a group of knight clerics hire the PCs to infiltrate the holy order as staff and find out who has been killing their beloved brethren.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Heroes Handbook…]

WARLOCK PACT: THE GENIE LORD

You have made a pact with a powerful ruler of geniekind on one of the Elemental Planes. The Genie Lord’s aims swing wildly from inscrutable to the mortal mind, to startlingly simple and straightforward. Genie lords struggle endlessly to one-up each other, and rivalries between these elemental rulers can engulf entire nations. They aren’t above bribing a rival’s mortal agents to switch sides if they think it will gain them an advantage.

Genie lords include Astallah, djinni Calipha of the Bright Wind from the Plane of Air; Ghorek, dao Khan of the Onyx Depths on the Plane of Earth; Ixingaltrix, efreeti Emir and Keeper of the Molten Tower on the Plane of Fire; and Saliandla, marid Pasha of the Pearl Fane from the Plane of Water.

EXPANDED SPELL LIST

Your Genie Lord lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. You can choose an elemental magic spell when you learn a new spell. Additionally, the following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

GENIE LORD’S FAVOR

At 1st level you can speak, read, and write Primordial. You can understand and be understood by any creature that speaks Auran, Ignan, Terran, or Aquan. Additionally, your patron grants you a token that can absorb elemental power. You gain a magical gemstone with the following properties:

• You can use the gem as an arcane focus.
• The gem can capture and store elemental power. When you take acid, cold, fire, lighting, or thunder damage, you can choose to transfer some of the damage into the gem instead of taking the damage yourself. The gem’s maximum capacity for damage equals twice your warlock level plus your Charisma modifier. The gem drains of energy and becomes empty again when you complete a long rest.
• While the gem stores any amount of elemental power, you can use an action to cause it to shed bright light out to 20 feet and dim light for an additional 20 feet, to shed dim light out to 5 feet, or to douse the light.

If you lose your token, you can perform a 1-hour ceremony to receive a replacement from your patron. This ceremony can be performed during a short or long rest, and it destroys the previous token. The token shatters to slivers when you die.

TRANSFER ELEMENTS

Starting at 6th level, you can use the elemental energy stored in your gem token against foes. When you damage a target with a spell or attack, you can spend stored points to deal additional damage of a type stored in the gem equal to your Charisma bonus. If you deal damage to multiple targets with a single source, choose which one takes the extra elemental damage.

Additionally, you can extend the protection of your gem to other creatures. When an ally within 30 feet that you can see takes damage as described above, you can use your reaction to transfer some of the damage into your gem. MINOR WISH

Starting at 10th level, you can call upon your Genie Lord to twist fate in your favor. Immediately after you make an attack roll, saving throw, ability check, or damage roll, you can choose to reroll and take the better result.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

HERALD’S ASPECT

Starting at 14th level, you can channel the power of your patron into your flesh to magically transform into a herald of your Genie Lord. Your legs fade away into a swirl of elemental energy, and your skin and features take on a cast that resembles that of your patron. You can transform as a bonus action and the transformation lasts for 1 minute, during which you gain the following benefits:

• You gain a flying speed of 60 feet.
• You have advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
• Choose one of the following damage types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder. You gain immunity to that damage type.
• Once on your turn when you hit with an attack or spell, you can deal an extra 3d6 damage of one of the following types: acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Encounters have consequences. Every slain bandit has friends who will want revenge, and every devil banished back to the Eleven Hells reports its failure to its dark lord. What happens when the PCs’ daring deeds come back to bite them?

The Children of Granny Evô

The following encounter chains are more than just random encounters. Each conflict flows organically into the next, sometimes without even giving the PCs a chance to catch their collective breath. Each subsequent link in the chain ups the stakes, giving the PCs the sense of falling out of the frying pan… and into the fire.

Encounter 1: A Ring of Trees

Recommended party level: 5

When tragedy befell the village of Kiter, deep within the rolling grasslands of the Magdar Kingdom, few noticed. A self-sustaining commune of deserters and outcasts, Kiter was far from a priority for anyone. The disappearance of the village children, then, went without attention by the larger world, and when the children returned, almost identical but slightly off, no news or concern spread to the cities. The PCs now find themselves traveling though the Crossroads, not far from the point where the trade roads between Runkelstad, Sveretsla, and Revskaya meet.

The day is hot, as are most in the plains, and the monotonous waves of grass almost hypnotic. As such, the copse of trees is easy to miss and dismiss as it breaks the line of the horizon. Stranger still are the moving forms you see around it; they look like human children, all of them less than three feet tall!

The children do not speak but begin to walk purposefully in the direction the 30-foot-diameter stand of trees, which forms a ring around a clearing. If attacked, the children do not retaliate; they simply look sadly at whomever assaulted them. The target of such a look must succeed on a DC 13 Wisdom saving throw or immediately cease all hostilities against the child. A creature who succeeds on this saving throw is immune to the effect of that child’s gaze from that point forward.

The center of the clearing is a pool of quicksand; the children seem to walk right over it, but PCs may fall in. The children proceed through the other side of the copse.

Development: If the PCs kill any of the children, they face the wrath of the villagers in Encounter 2. If they kill all of the children, proceed to Encounter 3.

Encounter 2: The Homely Village

The children are following an extremely subtle path, which can be located by characters who succeed on a DC 25 Wisdom (Perception) or DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation) check. The path leads about a mile away to a small uncharted village, tucked into a depression among the hills and invisible from the trade roads. The village residents all seem to be despondent and are all elderly. If asked, they refer to the children as their own, but this statement seems to only make them sadder. If any of the PCs try to harm any of the children, the villagers rise up and attack (individually commoners, as a group they’re a mob). One of the villagers describes how all of the village’s children grew sick and died mysteriously years ago, but a kindly physician who lives nearby offered to restore them all. So what if they are listless and withdrawn after such a traumatic sickness? The children were returned and restored.

In truth, the “children” are constructs—use the statistics of a homunculus—but act similarly to cursed magic items. The villagers cannot get rid of them and in fact see the constructs as being their own lost progeny. Breaking the enchantment, should a character devise a way to do so, earns the anger of the villagers who blame the PCs for the loss of their children.

Development: News of even a single “child” injured or killed by a PC enrages everyone in the village if they learn of it. PCs who ask about the physician are directed to a cave some five miles away, which is the home of Granny Evô. Proceed to Encounter 3.

Encounter 3: The Physician

The individual who claimed to be “medic” is in reality a mirror hag, named Granny Evô, and follower of Heretical Aten. Granny Evô is using the children to both sow and harvest sorrow and sadness from the villagers—she poisoned the children, which became ill and died, and then offered to “return” them once they all passed away. And while the villagers believe that they are comforted by the presence of the children, the constructs actually continue to cause overwhelming feelings of loss and regret in their “parents.”

Evô has used her creations to collect the villagers’ misery in a crystal vessel shaped like an egg, which grows as more sadness is added to it. Currently the egg is about three feet long. If defeated, Evô “confesses” to her crimes and states that the villagers will be happy again if the egg is broken. If the players break the vessel, however, it is revealed as a crystalline devil. The hag tries to teleport away at any point when the party’s attention is elsewhere, and unleashing the devil is a perfect opportunity.

Development: Casting remove curse onto a construct breaks its enchantment and destroys it. This procedure also clears the parents’ minds and allows them to see the truth of their situation. The children’s bodies are destroyed, however, and no magic short of true resurrection or wish can return them to life.

<<PREVIOUSLY

(click image for larger map)

For 9th-level characters

Dragon Lord Ibbalan the Illustrious—eldest and greediest of wind dragons, the gold-cloaked khan of Mezar—ascends to Irkaly Palace’s highest minaret. The dragon seethes as he sets his gaze westward upon the bright blue waters of the Middle Sea.

Out there, resting on the ocean floor, is a treasure. Compared with the great wealth adorning his own form, it is probably a trifle. That is not the point. By right of conquest, it should be his. In the days of the founding of the Dragon Empire, Ibbalan captured the trading hub of Hammra. Before its destruction, all the commerce of Mezar passed through Hammra, a city carved from a gorge accessible through twisting, narrow caverns. The city was located in the highlands north of Prezhan, adjacent to and about halfway along the trade road to Efisis.

Hammra’s merchants had become as rich as princes on this trade. They were a people of nomadic stock—themselves only a few generations removed from the stone carvers and dowsers who migrated from the Sarklan Desert. At least a portion of their wealth should have been in the vault, their temple treasury.

In Kalpostan, the dragons caught whispers on the wind that Hammra’s merchant princes had a daring plan to hide their riches, praying for a day when dragon rule ended. Ibbalan’s forces moved to intercede. But they arrived too late. The merchants had spirited it away. Bound for the executioner, they boasted of their deed. A dozen or so ships left the great harbor at Prezhan, each with a bundle to be thrown overboard at a spot the captains marked on their charts. But only one ship carried the true treasure. Enraged and thinking it a preposterous lie, the dragon compelled each merchant to speak true, employing magic and torture. “You will never find the sunken treasure of Hammra” was the dying taunt of each.

Over the years, Ibbalan found ten of the captains and interrogated them. Under duress, each led him to their spot. Ibbalan dived, but he recovered naught but worthless bundles of ballast.

The decades passed. So did centuries. From his perch in Irkaly, the dragon stews, too proud to admit mere humans outsmarted him, that in fact the first whispers were themselves a deception started only after the treasure was secure.

Ibbalan ignores the rumors, folklore, diaries, and searfarers’ logbooks that have emerged in the intervening time. To Ibbalan, these recent artifacts containing hints and tantalizing clues are feints and falsehoods, mere inventions of the imagination, hardly worth his time to investigate. He was thoroughly convinced by the merchants’ dying confessions and the singular phrase they used: “the sunken treasure.” So his gaze stays fixed on western waters.

None of these fabled sources, most coming from the descendants of Hammra’s merchant princes, has the whole story. But pieced together, theirs is a collective telling with one inescapable conclusion: the treasure never was on any ship. Sunken, yes, but not beneath waves. The treasure lies in the cleverly engineered cistern that Hammra’s founders built beneath their city, “sunken” in waters drawn from the rock itself.

The treasure vault: The horde is mostly bars and coins of silver—the specie of commerce—valued at 200,000 sp. It also has 30 gems (worth 1,000 gp each), a dozen works of art (worth 1,000 gp each) and a censure of controlling air elementals. The merchants collapsed the main entrance to the vault, ensuring that the cistern was the only means of access. The vault’s guardian is a hoard golem (see Tome of Beasts) comprised of 50,000 of the vault’s silver coins.

Creatures: The complex has several other guardians and inhabitants:

Any who lingers in the courtyard outside the main entrance is tormented by the edimmu (see Tome of Beasts), an undead wind. In this case, the edimmu is the restless soul of a merchant prince, executed for trying to betray the city by revealing the plan to the dragon lords. The merchant was shamed when his treachery was discovered.

Ruya, an al-aeshma genie (see Tome of Beasts) was condemned by the Lords of the Air for refusing a cleverly worded order from her master, one of the merchant princes. This merchant’s gambit included a bargain with the Lords of the Air, convincing them that Ruya’s punishment should involve being bound to the complex for a thousand years and compelled to be its guardian. Ruya roams throughout the complex, though she never enters the cistern proper. She prefers to confront intruders in the Great Hall, whose high ceiling and long expanse gives her room to maneuver. She ignores the complex’s squatters; her only concern is stopping those who are after the treasure.

Najwah, a drowned maiden (see Tome of Beasts), occupies the cistern. She was once a member of Ibbalan’s household in Irkaly, put out after her profession of love to a vizier was rejected. Sorrowful and heartbroken, she joined a caravan headed to the Southlands. During a layover in Hammra, she met with the merchant princes as they formulated their plan. To exact her revenge, she was willing to be turned into a drowned maiden and guard the underwater secret door. To those she presumes are the sons and daughters of the city, she will point out the secret door to the inner chamber. Agents of Ibbalan, however, are directed into the false treasure room, which will lock and fill with water to drown them.

Parting gift: When the secret door to the vault is released, the water drains the from the cistern and flows into a reservoir below that activates another mechanism. This device controls the delayed release of six volleys of 10 ballista javelins from the courtyard’s surrounding walls. They target the center of the courtyard, timed to release about two hours after it is triggered. The merchants’ hoped that should the dragon lord’s agents reach the treasury, Ibbalan might by then be waiting for his treasure hunters in the outer courtyard.

Samar is a bouda (see Tome of Beasts) warband captain leading nine gnoll raiders. They occupy the three western chambers near a break in the outer wall, a secret way into the cistern complex. Their interest in the cistern is only as a hideout and as a source of water obtained from a nearby junction well. The ravenous band has no need of treasure, they are child-snatchers that terrorize local villages.

Roaming monsters: a swarm of manabane scarabs, a gray thirster, a millitaur, a j’ba fofi spider, and a temple dog (see Tome of Beasts) are found throughout the complex.

___

<<PREVIOUSLY

Troy E. Taylor writes about dungeon mastering for GnomeStew and his blog The Dungeon Delver. He lives in central Illinois with his wife, a motorcycle-riding librarian, and their three children.

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Worldbook]

The Wasted West

Perhaps no region inspires more tales of terror across the face of Midgard than its ruined western reaches, a once-verdant land permanently ravaged by the Great Mage Wars. A puckered, ragged scar of desiccated land that tears along the edge of the Green Duchy of Verrayne and down the coast of the giant-haunted Carnessian Peninsula marks its southern border. The desolation extends north to the elven courts of the Arbonesse, where it gives way to lush forests. In the east, the proud, towering Ironcrags crumble into the foothills of the Goblin Wastes. As one moves west toward the Leukos River, the terrible devastation slowly lessens before finally halting at the vast expanse of the Western Ocean.

For centuries, tyrannical arcanists dueled over the ley lines of Midgard’s western lands. Tremendously powerful mages built and abandoned principalities as the fickle ley lines shifted, and the constant magical strife among the rival magocracies slowly drained the life from the land. Only the bones of these cities remain today, their tumbled stones and spires covering a landscape pockmarked by acrid lakes and stunted trees. This is not the whole of the magocracies’ legacy, however.

Worst of the surviving relics are the colossal, unimaginable alien creatures summoned during the war’s desperate final years. The Dread Walkers slowly sleepwalk across the horizon, held outside of time by powerful spells woven by the combined might of the surviving wizards. Violent rag-wrapped dust goblins, their minds obsessed with the artifacts of past days, haunt the ruins and salvage lost items of power. Weary pilgrims plod over the Bone Road to the Seat of Mavros while trying to avoid hostile druids, river goblins, and the horrors of the Wastes. Undead wizards work in crumbling towers to awaken slumbering monstrosities. Oasis-like forests beckon in the wasteland, only to prove more dangerous than the dunes. To the south, dead-eyed giants haunted by their ghostly ancestors wander the land, and sentient plants creep over a great wall to transform the desert into lush, fecund jungle.

But civilization does continue. Midgard’s most acclaimed magic users thrive in Allain. White Knights from Bourgund offer protection from the badlands. Far Barsella supports an entire economy devoted to explorations of the Western Seas. From across Midgard come those who would pluck fame, wealth, and fortune from the shriveled corpse of these dead lands, and those who would remake the world with magic best left undisturbed.

History

Some 3,000 years ago, the island nation of Ankeshel sank and buried the history of humanity’s first great civilization under the Western Ocean’s waves, along with its vril magic and orichalcum temples. Dark centuries of barbarism followed and lifted only with the elves’ arrival in the West. The remnants of humanity fell under the dominion of the elven kingdoms, until over time humans again mastered magic and formed nations of their own. Caelmarath, most mighty of these kingdoms, bordered the Arbonesse to the south. The most gifted humans succumbed to the whispers of the arch-devils Mammon and his servant Totivillus, however, and spawned diabolic half-breeds and devilish abominations. These corrupted individuals plotted to control the powerful ley lines that crisscrossed their region.

Eight hundred years ago, thirsty for knowledge the elves refused to grant, the citizens of Caelmarath and the devil-blooded tieflings rose in rebellion. Though freed from elven domination, Caelmarath did not survive the Black Sorceress’s Revolt (see chapter 1). The war-torn land splintered into nine magocracies that competed to usurp the elf-controlled ley lines. Some histories claim that this long struggle corrupted the lines. The damage was great, and the magical roads were steered into dark territory. Doors opened to shadowy realms forbidden by the fey and stranger realms that beckoned from the dark between the stars. Void speakers and heralds of darkness arrived, offering the wondrous elixirs made from bitter sacrifice and blood magic.

When the elves abandoned their kingdoms and cities to walk other worlds, they left the magocracies with no common enemy. The wizards turned upon each other almost immediately.

The Great Mage Wars

With the elves gone, the nine magocracies vied for control of the ley lines. They sought to warp the lines so that their power might serve whatever diabolical interest the victorious mages served. Just as one magocracy asserted its full authority over the strongest lines, another rival would interfere. The contests rapidly became less subtle and more acrimonious. Any attempt at secrecy vanished over 400 years ago with the summoning of the Isonade, the creature responsible for the sinking of Ankeshel, by the deranged archmage Tycho Luz. It attacked the coastline of Allain and threatened to sink the western Arbonesse as well as Bemmea. Only the combined might of Bemmea’s mages halted the devastation and restored the beast to slumber.

Summoning the Isonade sparked open war. No longer were the giant slaves of Balinor the most powerful battlefield terrors. Acid rains that stripped flesh from bone and dissolved stone were called down on the city of Cuculla by Dar Ramek of Vael Turog. Gokram Mod’hul and Sethus Krykk, tiefling sorcerers from withered Caelmarath, infiltrated Cassilon and summoned powerful fiends in the streets. Herkest Galbrion, Archmage of Molovosch, created the Fellmire when she conjured a lakesized vampiric fog that sucked the life from all in its path.

The constant arcane turmoil stressed the region’s ley lines to the breaking point. The mages of Allain manipulated their holdings to seize ultimate control of this resource by bending the lines in warped, unnatural curves toward power sinks they created to permanently anchor the lines. But this seizure of power had unintended consequences. Enkada Pishtuhk, a treacherous member of the Fulgurate Society—a group of arcanists from every magocracy who had joined together to make peace—took advantage of the twisted ley lines. Pishtuhk tore a hole in the fabric of reality and summoned forth the Dread Walker Pah’draguusthlai to destroy the bitterly hated rival Magocracy of Uxloon. Competing mages used the stretched and twisted nature of the ley lines to summon another horror to stop the Dread Walker, but it was too late for Uxloon and the magocracy was annihilated.

The eldritch conflicts escalated, with increasingly alien monstrosities laying city after city to waste and withering all around them with each step. Only the combined might of the surviving archmages saved the world from consumption by the Dread Walkers. Unable to dismiss the creatures, the wizards instead halted time around them. Known as the Great Slumber, this effort condemned the creatures to a somnambulistic gait along twisting paths upon the parched lands of the destroyed magocracies. By the time the last Walker was slowed to a few steps each year, a desolate waste covered the lands west of the Ironcrags, and they stand little changed from that time of great ruin.

Lost Magocracies

Nine magocracies formed from the ashes of the empire of Caelmarath when it fell apart following the Black Sorceress’s Revolt and the departure of the elves. Of the nine, only the Magocracy of Allain still exists today. The city of Barsella, while it has survived the last few centuries, is no longer a magocracy; instead it is ruled by a council of seafaring merchants and pirates, with help from a few geomancers. The remaining seven “lost” magocracies are described here…

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

An ancient immortal creature stalks the Margreve Forest, and an entire village of cannibal cultists worship it as their god. They will gladly use any trespassers as ritual sacrifice to keep it placated.

Cult Activity gives you a cult-driven set piece: location, background, hooks, everything you need to build your own adventures in Midgard.

Background

Somewhere within the thick of the Margreve Forest lies a small village inhabited by a dozen or so human cultists that are hundreds of years old, though most don’t look it. Their unnaturally long life has been granted to them by an immortal creature as ancient as the world itself. They leave it offerings of trinkets carved from bone and wood and make sacrifices to it regularly. They call this creature Djävulälg and treat it as their god, stopping at nothing to keep in its good graces. Sacrifices made to it are typically animals, but whenever interlopers are discovered, the cultists attempt to trap or capture them to use as fodder for these sacrifices. Human sacrifice seems to please the beast more than any other form of tribute. In times of desperation, the cultists have sacrificed their own. If tribute has been paid aplenty and the forest’s bounty has proved meager recently, sometimes trespassers are cannibalized as sustenance.

The djävulälg is near indescribable, an amalgamation of human and beast with flourishes of exposed bone. It walks atop six crooked legs with cloven hooves, and stands as tall as some of the smaller trees. It moves silently, even through the underbrush of the forest, and bears the distinct smell of ash and rot. It is predatory and hunts most anything that carries warm blood in its veins, save for its devoted “children” of the village.

Adventure Hooks

There are several ways characters might find themselves traversing this secluded section of the Margreve Forest:

• An eccentric artificer has contracted the characters to extract some magically infused lumber from the black oak trees at the heart of the forest.
• A noble from the nearby city of Zobeck, has offered a reward for the return of their missing daughter believed to be lost in the forest.
• The characters were part of a caravan traveling the Black Road that was waylaid by undead and have retreated deep into the forest and become lost.
• While traveling overland, the forest was a viable shortcut.

Exploring the Forest

Use the hex map to help track characters as they navigate the forest. Traversing a hex takes 20 minutes, and 10 if it has a path on it. If you need to determine a hex randomly for any reason, roll 2d6 to determine the column and row. To randomly determine the direction traveling from one hex to another, roll a d6 and consult the diagram on the map.

This region of Margreve Forest is permeated by the djävulälg’s ancient magic that befuddles the mind and confuses the senses. Each hour, characters must make another moderate test to navigate because of it. Outside of the borders of the map, characters find themselves turned around and are placed back onto the forest border randomly. This effect persists until either the djävulälg or all the cultists are slain. For every other hex, characters roll a d6 on the Forest Findings table to add some flavor and hint toward the forest not being as vacant as it seems.

After any failed navigation test, roll on the random encounter table. If an encounter doesn’t fit or feel right, ignore the results and let the story unfold naturally. You may also determine that cultists have overheard or seen the characters and come searching for them at any time. The cultists attempt to catch them off guard and sneak up whenever possible, ganging up on a single character who strays behind or looks the weakest, pulling a sack over their head and dragging them off to their church for sacrifice to the djävulälg at midnight.

Speckled throughout are a few cottages tucked away in the woods, used by hunters, tanners, and fishermen as worksites and temporary outposts or as places to sleep for the evening if the trek back to the village would be too dangerous.

The Tanner’s Shack (A)

This simple wooden shack is littered with crude bottles of strong smelling liquids and many hides stretched over tanning racks. An easy investigation test should allow characters to discover that one of the hides is the over-tattooed skin of a dwarf. Simple tools and weapons can be found here.

The Hunter’s Cottage (B)

A large cabin flanked by two other very small sheds houses a collection of weapons used for hunting, trapping, and killing. If your setting has firearms, there should be several cached here, very little ammo is available and all the weapons are in some state of disrepair – obviously taken from others who have been lost to the forest. A single cultist lives here and makes treks into the village as needed, he can be found sleeping if characters are quiet, otherwise upon hearing their approach, makes a run for the village center to warn the others.

The Fisherman’s Hut (C)

Several rows small fish are strung up outside of this small thatched hut, and the air here is thick with their odor. Just downhill from here bobs a simple rowboat tied off to a ramshackle dock. Crude fishing poles and twine can be found here. The floor of the hut contains a trap door (moderate perception test) that contains extra sets of clothes, a well-kept fillet knife, and several odd masks made of bone and bark.

The Village (D)

The village is small, amid a circular clearing of black oak trees, and is organized around a single large wooden building with a thatched roof that acts as a church. Within is a chamber dedicated to prayers and offerings to djävulälg, another for forging trinkets for it, and two others with manacles bolted to the walls to keep prisoners until it’s time for a sacrifice.

There are 5 or 6 other smaller wooden huts used as dwellings. At the center of the village is a large pyre, used for cooking, gatherings, and seasonal rituals. Speckled throughout the village are work benches, primitive tools and animal traps,

Rarely do the villagers speak, and when they do it is not in any tongue decipherable by outsiders. The village is mostly comprised of “adult” men and women who appear middle aged, but each are well over 175 years old. There are a few children who are genuinely as old as they appear, as the djävulälg’s magic doesn’t take effect until later in life. The village elder is a very tiny old woman with a hunchback and cloven feet, she is a low to mid-level spellcaster versed in witchcraft types of magic.

If any of the characters are captured, they will be hoisted up on a cross for sacrifice that same evening at midnight, if for some reason the characters are not drawn to the village any by other events, they can hear the screams and cries of a woman (Zobeck noble’s daughter) near midnight and see the pyre ablaze through the forest, acting as a guiding beacon, at which point navigation tests no longer need to be made to navigate toward the village.

The Djävulälg

Feel free to use whatever demon, monster, or beast you see fit for the ancient creature that stalks the woods. Keep in mind that it is immortal and has been part of Midgard for aeons, a discarded and bastardized offspring of the gods. It should prove very difficult for an average sized party of characters to do it much real harm without luck or a clever plan. Should you wish to create your own, the creature is moderately strong, very dexterous, and very wise and has some mild psychic or preternatural senses as well as the ability to traverse the forest silently and with ease.

These spells are suitable for a campaign that visits the City of Brass or that takes place in a setting where fire, heat, and the desert loom large, such as the Southlands. They’re geared toward wizards, but there’s no reason why sorcerers and warlocks—or even clerics and druids—can’t have access to them if you decide it’s appropriate in your campaign.

1st Level

Avert Evil Eye

1st-level abjuration
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S, M (a blue bead)
Duration: 1 hour

The evil eye takes many forms. Any incident of bad luck can be blamed on it, especially if a character recently displayed arrogance or selfishness. When avert evil eye is cast, the recipient has a small degree of protection against the evil eye for up to 1 hour. While the spell lasts, the target of the spell has advantage on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, cursed, and frightened. During the spell’s duration, the target can also cancel disadvantage on one d20 roll the target is about to make, but doing so ends the spell’s effect.

Candle’s Insight

1st-level divination
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 10 feet
Components: V, S, M (a blessed candle)
Duration: 10 minutes

Candle’s insight is cast on its target as the component candle is lit. The candle burns for up to 10 minutes unless it’s extinguished normally or by the spell’s effect. While the candle burns, the caster can question the spell’s target, and the candle reveals whether the target speaks truthfully. An intentionally misleading or partial answer causes the flame to flicker and dim. An outright lie causes the flame to flare and then go out, ending the spell. The candle judges honesty, not absolute truth; the flame burns steadily through even an outrageously false statement, if the target believes it’s true.

Candle’s insight is used across society: by merchants while negotiating deals, by inquisitors investigating heresy, and by monarchs as they interview foreign diplomats. In some societies, casting candle’s insight without the consent of the spell’s target is considered a serious breach of hospitality.

2nd Level

Daggerhawk

2nd-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a dagger)
Duration: 1 minute

When daggerhawk is cast on a mundane dagger, a ghostly hawk appears around the weapon. The hawk and dagger fly into the air and make a melee attack against one creature you select within 60 feet, using your spell attack modifier and doing 1d4 + (your spellcasting ability modifier) piercing damage on a successful hit. On your following turns, you can use a bonus action to cause the daggerhawk to attack the same target. Once a target is selected for the daggerhawk, it can’t switch to any other. The daggerhawk has AC 14 and, although it’s invulnerable to all damage, a successful attack against it that does bludgeoning, force, or slashing damage sends the daggerhawk tumbling, so it can’t attack again until after your next turn.

Feather Travel

2nd-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, M (a feather)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

The target of feather travel transforms into a feather (along with their clothing and other gear) and drifts on the wind. The drifting creature has a limited ability to control their travel. They can move only in the direction the wind is blowing and at the speed of the wind. They can, however, shift up, down, or sideways 5 feet per round as if caught by a gust, allowing them to aim for an open window or doorway, to avoid a flame, or to steer around an animal or another creature. When the spell ends, the feather settles gently to the ground and transforms back into the original creature.

At Higher Levels. When you cast feather travel using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, two additional creatures can be transformed per slot level above 2nd.

Fire Darts

2nd-level evocation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 20 feet
Components: V, S, M (a fire the size of a small campfire or larger)
Duration: Instantaneous

When this spell is cast on any fire that’s at least as large as a small campfire or cooking fire, three darts of flame shoot out from the fire toward targets within 30 feet of the fire. Darts can be directed against the same or separate targets as the caster chooses. Each dart does 4d6 fire damage or half damage with a successful Dexterity saving throw.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage increases by 1d6 for each slot level above 2nd.

3rd Level

Breeze Compass

3rd-level divination
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Components: V, S, M (a magnetized needle)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 hour

When you cast breeze compass, you must clearly imagine or mentally describe a location. It doesn’t need to be a location you’ve been to as long as you know it exists on the Material Plane. Within moments, a gentle breeze arises and blows along the most efficient path toward that destination. Only you can sense this breeze, and whenever it brings you to a decision point (a fork in a tunnel, for example), you must make a successful DC 8 Intelligence (Arcana) check to deduce which way the breeze indicates you should go. The spell ends if the Intelligence check fails. The breeze guides you around cliffs, lava pools, and other natural obstacles, but it doesn’t avoid enemies or hostile creatures.

Tongue of Sand

3rd-level illusion (ritual)
Casting Time: 1 minute
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S
Duration: Until dispelled

Tongue of sand is similar in many ways to magic mouth. When you cast it, you implant a message in a quantity of sand. The sand must fill a space no smaller than 4 square feet and at least 2 inches deep. The message can be up to 25 words. You also decide the conditions that trigger the speaking of the message. When the message is triggered, a mouth forms in the sand and delivers the message in a raspy, whispered voice that can be heard by creatures within 10 feet of the sand.

Additionally, tongue of sand has the ability to interact in a simple, brief manner with creatures who hear its message. For up to 10 minutes after the message is triggered, questions addressed to the sand will be answered as you would answer them. Each answer can be no more than 10 words long, and the spell ends after a second question is answered.

4th Level

Searing Sun

4th-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 200 feet
Components: V, S, M (a magnifying lens)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

This spell intensifies the light and heat of the sun, so it burns exposed flesh. You must be able to see the sun when you cast the spell. The searing sunlight affects a cylindrical area 50 feet in radius and 200 feet high, centered on the target point. Every creature that starts its turn in that area takes 5d8 fire damage or half damage with a successful Constitution saving throw. A creature that’s shaded by a solid object such as an awning, a building, or an overhanging boulder has advantage on the saving throw. On your turn, you can use an action to move the target point up to 20 feet in any direction along the ground.

___

Read more of these spells and the City of Brass—and read other great articles—in Warlock, only on Patreon!

Until the Great Mage Wars, goblins mostly lived in the dark places of the world. Midgard’s populations dwelt below the Pytonne Mountains and the contested western range of the Ironcrags. The darkness and ruin brought by that great conflict gave the goblins some respite from the light of day. Fleeing the dwarves’ relentless westward push, the goblins finally emerged onto the face of the world. They have adapted well to their new lives in the Wastes, and innumerable goblin tribes call the badlands their home.

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Worldbook]

Dust Goblins

The most religious goblins worship the Dread Walkers and set up semi-permanent tent-and-wagon cities in their shadows. Tribal witches and prophet-oracles see signs in every twitch, shudder, and step of the abominations. These auguries and superstitions rule every aspect of these goblins’ lives. Aged family matriarchs dictate all the daily actions of even the lowliest dust goblin, from diet and mating decisions to feuds and war.

Huge drums thrum from deep within these goblin settlements, as the creatures attempt to communicate with their gods or influence their movements. From their tunnel-towns burrowed into the tail-mark trenches and footprints of the Walkers, or the mobile rope-pulled shanty-town fortresses lashed to the slowly lumbering abominations, these superstitious dust goblins preach their madness to everyone. They take slaves to “enlighten” them in the presence of alien gods. Most go mad.

Other tribes live as transient scavengers and salvagers that dig deep into the ruins to recover relics of a lost age. They inhabit burrows in the ruined cities and settlements, and many relic-rich territories see prolonged inter-tribal warfare. Adventurers take such fighting as a sure sign that treasures lie within. The zealous Walker-worshipping goblins and their more secular cousins wage bloody war for control of the old arcane academies and their artifacts. Other settled ruins—including those thought long plundered—are populated by goblins that encourage trade with outsiders. Signs of weakness can set entire gangs of goblins on arrogant or incautious visitors, however.

Interactions with goblin tribes can be touch-and-go affairs, but if approached respectfully, goblins can serve as knowledgeable and dependable guides to Wastes and ruins alike. Dust goblins have stoic personalities and carry themselves with a severe, upright bearing not found in their mountain-dwelling cousins. Quick to retaliate for any slight, these goblins can nevertheless become invaluable companions if other creatures earn their trust.

Dealing with tribal chieftains can be difficult, since the strongest keep caches of powerful weapons. Dust goblins have a knack for activating lost technology and powerful relics that remain inert even in the hands of gifted spellcasters, and they use strange incantations to awaken even greater magic in items that fail in human hands. Adventurers who underestimate the tribes end up as powder or petrified statues after an icy glare and a flick of the insulted goblin’s wrist. Their natural talent for repairing lost technology makes dust goblins valuable, and the more ambitious among them can even find lucrative work in the coastal city of Cassadega.

Beloved Leader of All Goblins

The dust goblins haven’t had a single leader since the death of their last king, Dizzerax, but that may be about to change. A new warlord has appeared in the Goblin Wastes with ambitions of reuniting the tribes under her red and black banner (see “Rise of the Beloved Leader” on page 235).

Braagezz, a cunning warrior of the Dust Diggers, became the chieftain of her tribe after her predecessor and half of his bodyguards died in an unfortunate accident involving a cache of newly discovered vril weaponry. Indiscreet members of the Dust Diggers talk in hushed whispers of Braagezz finding this cache a few hours earlier in the rubble of Molovosch, sabotaging it, and then burying it again where it would be easily discovered by the chief. Others point to the fact that Braagezz lost part of her face and right arm in the explosion as evidence of her innocence. Either way, Braagezz’s rise to power has changed things in the Goblin Wastes.

After taking control of the Dust Diggers, Braagezz led her tribe against the Bloody Tusk, then the Sand Bird’s Disciples, and finally the Bonewraiths. Proclaiming herself the “Beloved Leader of All Goblins,” she offered the dust goblin tribes she had defeated the choice of joining with her to conquer the Wastes, or suffering a slow, painful death. Most chose the former.

Braagezz is formidable in appearance. Missing most of her nose and her right ear, her face is covered in hideous burn scars, while her right arm has been replaced with a vril weapon graft capable of blasting anyone and anything with a 15-foot cone of magical fire (treat as an enhanced burning hands that deals 8d6 hp fire damage). She wears an ancient bronze powered Ankeshelian breastplate that gives off an electrical charge to enemies who gets too close (treat as shocking grasp that deals 2d8 lightning damage to creatures within 5 ft. when activated) and brandishes a magic orichalcum battleaxe (a prize taken in battle from Cragmaw of the Bloody Tusk) in her left hand. From a distance, Braagezz seems to be half-goblin, half-machine. Her weapon arm and breastplate are powered by vril batteries (see page 258).

Ruthless, cunning, and determined to usher in a new “golden era” for the dust goblins, the Beloved Leader plots from the dungeons beneath the ruined Mercurial Tower in the southwestern hills of the Goblin Wastes. She still needs to bring the Ghost Head Goblins under her control before she can lay claim to the entirety of the Goblin Wastes, but once they are out of the way, she plans to turn her attentions westward to the remaining major tribes—the Scarlet Rovers, the Maimed Ones, and the River Rats— and those misguided dust goblins who still pay homage to the Dread Walkers. Braagezz also keeps a nervous eye to the southeast, wary of drawing too much attention from the Green Duchy of Verrayne. She has employed a dozen qwyllions as mercenaries to guard her stronghold.

Known Tribes

Dust goblin tribes concentrate in the eastern half of the Wastes, so much so that the area is known as the Goblin Wastes. The tribal names were bestowed by human explorers. Though the goblins find these names insulting, they reluctantly use them with outsiders. Goblins refrain from revealing the names they use among themselves for fear of the power that may give visitors.

Bloody Tusk: The Bloody Tusk village hovers on a huge black slab of slate nearly 100 feet above the desert floor. These goblins raise dire boars for meat, draft animals, and war mounts. They occasionally move their home by lashing it to their dire boars. Their new chieftain is Fengrak, a brutish, squat goblin with glowing golden eyes who has reluctantly sworn allegiance to the Beloved Leader of All Goblins.

Bonewraiths: The cannibalistic Bonewraiths craft all their weapons and armor from the bones of great ancestors or enemies to harness the power of the fallen. Their previous leader was the mummified legendary goblin king Dizzerax, who was plotting to lead a huge army against Bourgund and claim the corpse of the Fallen One so he could animate it as an unstoppable siege engine. When Dizzerax was slain by Braagezz, the Bonewraiths swore fealty to her. A wiry Bonewraith spirit caller (shaman) with over-dilated pupils and a nervous twitch called Crackfang now leads the tribe in the mummy’s stead.

Dust Diggers: The Beloved Leader’s tribe owns more vril artifacts and technologies than any other, and Braagezz has a good understanding of how to use the strange weapons and armor. This edge in ancient weapons has helped her subjugate the other tribes. The Dust Diggers’ fortified encampments in the Goblin Wastes contain more war machines than they could possibly operate, some in perfect working order and the rest in various states of disrepair. More are being built in the tunnels beneath the Mercurial Tower for the upcoming conquest of the Western Wilderness.

Ghost Head Goblins: This infamous tribe contains as many undead goblins as living ones. They are led by Kamelk Twice-Killed, an unstoppable force who has been slain both as a living goblin and as a ghost, securing his legend when he returned each time. Many of his followers have undergone rituals to become undead “horrors”— treat these ghost goblins as zombies with the ability to affect a single creature with fear as the spell unless it makes a successful DC 12 Wisdom or Will saving throw. The goblin horrors can use this power once per day. Travelers should give these fanatics a wide berth, since their will is strong enough to defy death.

Maimed Ones: No one truly understands the fanatical Maimed Ones. Why would anyone willingly sacrifice a limb to join a tribe of maimed outcasts? Only their leaders— called the Bearers—know, since they offer the amputated limbs to various Dread Walkers. Each time they receive a secret revelation shared only with the still-bleeding goblin. Worse yet, these goblins collect the limbs of other creatures to offer up as well, for with each sacrifice, the Dread Walkers reveal more secrets of the universe.

River Rats: The pilgrims who try to reach the Seat of Mavros by water encounter at least one of the decrepit “warships” of the River Rats, some rickety platforms barely worthy of the name raft. The Rats see themselves as pirates. Most others view them as a nuisance. However, the pests are numerous, tenacious, and not to be underestimated, especially when they summon their allies from beneath the river’s waters.

Sand Bird’s Disciples: Living in a series of connected underground nests, these strange goblins once tried to emulate the Walkers in every aspect of their lives. The croaking voice of Ornis Ammos’s shamans was law, and their brainwashed followers blindly obeyed. When Braagezz and the Dust Diggers subjugated the tribe, the shamans were all killed and worship of the Dread Walkers quickly ended, but many of the Sand Bird’s Disciples still live beneath the creature out of habit. Like the plumage of the Sand Bird, their nests are shared with all kind of parasites, and they have domesticated stirges for use as guards and food. The Sand Bird’s plumes are used to build primitive gliders, so the goblins can swoop down to surprise trespassers.

Scarlet Rovers: When explorers see goblins wearing the red capes of Mavros, they face the Scarlet Rovers, one of the most dangerous tribes of the badlands. These disciplined goblins can vanquish experienced soldiers. Though their numbers are few and their intentions mysterious, their talent as guides and bodyguards is well known and sought after, though their reputation as assassins who can quickly double-cross their employers is not unfounded.

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

I have always felt an affinity for the sea. Watching the blue tapestry stretch out to the horizon while cutting through the waves inspires me to dream of distant lands and perilous journeys. It would stand to reason that water holds a special allure for me then, but a frightful encounter in the wetlands paled my enthusiasm for watery excursions.

Entry Three—Earth and Water

Indeed, trekking into Maillon’s swamp is a much different experience than standing on the deck of a seafaring vessel. Navigating through the labyrinth of trees, shrubs, and vegetation without running aground or colliding into an impediment proves as challenging as weathering a ferocious cauldron of churning water and rough winds on the open seas. For this reason, we hired a trio of local guides to lead us along safe paths through the waterlogged earth. Our uneventful opening leg lulled us into a false sense of complacency. Brimming with confidence, we foolishly blundered into the devious handiwork of the resident fey creatures inhabiting the soggy, malodorous land.

The first terror we faced were wicked barbed, punji sticks imbedded upright into the mud. Each step in the goo carried the risk of stepping on or brushing against the perpendicular hazard concealed beneath the water’s surface. If the pain weren’t bad enough, the stagnant liquid incubated another lethal hazard: the pathogen Mezatoa sanguiosis. The indigenous people refer to the deadly unicellular organism by a simpler name—bleeding fever. The parasite can only enter the body through an open wound. Trap makers frequently coat poison onto the punji sticks’ sharp tip, but in this case, the crafters let nature do its dirty work for it. The insidious amalgamation of manmade and biological weaponry took a heavy toll on our expedition, felling four seasoned explorers dead in their tracks. (See my footnotes at the end of this journal page for more details regarding punji sticks and mezatoa.)

We ultimately survived the preceding perils, though not without losing two of our company to illness and lameness. Still, the miremals, the wicked race of devious fey who lured us into the traps, remained invisible and anonymous. Despite the effects of their debilitating tricks, we pressed deeper into the swamp. To our dismay, the miremals were not done with us yet. Our cunning foes are masters of deception. They used their natural coloration to hide among the shrubs and trees. Immediately after passing our concealed opponents, the miremals ambushed us, opening the foray by lobbing swamp balls made from dry mud and liquified swamp gas. (See my footnotes at the end of this journal page for more details regarding swamp balls.) Flashes of light burst through the darkness, and a terrible stench filled the air. Nonetheless, we persevered. We beat back the hideous monsters and completed this harrowing leg of our journey. Our experience taught us the gravest dangers are often unseen.

Mezatoa Sanguiosis (Disease)

This insidious microscopic organism can only survive in warm, stagnant water. The invader enters the body through an open wound or by swallowing water containing the pathogen. The parasite only targets animals and humanoids. When an injured animal or humanoid at least partially immerses itself in water contaminated by mezatoa or intentionally or accidentally ingests water infested by the pathogen, it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become infected.

The organism feeds on its host, targeting nerve endings, which impairs the creature’s motor skills. Symptoms manifest in 1d4 hours after exposure as its numbers rapidly multiply and spread throughout the body. An infected creature suffers disadvantage on attack rolls, Strength checks, Strength saving throws, Dexterity checks, and Dexterity saving throws. In addition, whenever the creature moves under its own locomotion, there is a 50% chance it falls prone instead. (Flying creatures who would fall prone fail to maintain lift and plummet to the ground, while swimming creatures make no forward progress and sink.) A creature using an action to use an object or make an attack with a weapon has a 50% chance of dropping the handheld item or weapon, thus forfeiting its action with the object. At the end of each long rest after the symptoms appear, the chances of falling prone or dropping an object worsen by 10%. When it reaches 100%, the target is paralyzed until its nerve functions are restored by magic, such as lesser restoration or heal.

Punji Sticks

These sharp needles, typically whittled out of bamboo or another water-resistant wood, are designed to maim any creature who steps on them. While usually placed at the bottom of a concealed pit, the miremals use the swamp’s murky water to hide the painful spikes. To maximize their damage, the devious fey place the punji sticks in contaminated water rather than poisoning the tip. An area containing punji sticks is difficult terrain. When a creature moves into or within the area, it takes 1d6 piercing damage for every 5 feet it travels. A creature who can see the area containing punji sticks recognizes the area as hazardous with a successful DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check. If the punji sticks are not readily visible, such as buried in mud or submerged beneath murky water, the creature has disadvantage on the preceding Wisdom (Perception) check. Taking damage from punji sticks reduces the creature’s walking speed by 10 feet until the creature regains hit points equal to or greater than the damage dealt by the punji sticks.

Swamp Ball

You can use an action to throw this spherical ball of dried mud packed with flammable organic material up to 20 feet. Make a ranged attack against a creature or object, treating the swamp ball as an improvised weapon. On a hit, the swamp ball explodes dealing 1d6 fire damage to the target. The flames quickly dissipate, but the stench remains, giving creatures advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks made to locate the target for the next 1d4 hours. The target can use an action to remove the malodorous material from his person.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Dear Osvaud,

This is Osvaud. We are fond of saying that on a long-enough timeline the seemingly impossible becomes merely implausible. This means we occasionally get gloriously blindsided with something we are woefully unprepared for. However, there are also circumstances making those moments seem simple by comparison.

Today, we are going to briefly touch on outside-context problems. These are the less-rare-than-they-should-be situations when the entire cosmos shifts entirely off an axis, leaving us questioning the very nature of everything.

And I’m not talking about Edition changes.

It is fair to say we have a weird relationship with the universe. I think it’s because we took time to understand How Things Work, and I suspect destiny pays special attention to anyone figuring out it is making crap up as it goes along. Maybe we simply earned Fate’s full attention as fair payment for our genre savviness. Truthfully, I suspect destiny has a crush on us, and plot devices are how it flirts.

Things were great for a long while. We ascended to supreme heights of magical potency, conquered a few dark dimensions, and partied with eldritch abominations beyond the ordinary bounds of sanity. I mean, I won’t crassly name-drop, but there’s a certain non-Euclidean Great Old One whose still nursing a hangover.

I think the outside-context problems started in earnest when we began pointing out how predictable normal stuff all was if people paid attention.

An outside-context problem is one which is impossible to define except in hindsight. It is something so crazy and unexpected you can’t even imagine it until it happens. It is like a typical feudal society getting invaded by time-traveling robots or the paradox-ignoring automatons finding themselves turned into puddles of goo by microscopic gremlins from an alternate reality.

Reality, as it turns out, can be painfully creative. However, it only goes to the effort when you call it out. Usually, I imagine, with a goofy smile, peeking out from behind a giant screen.

I think it was sometime between the radiation-spewing behemoths and the wormhole full of cybernetic celestials looking for love when I had an epiphany. The universe was doing to me what I did to everyone else.

Here I was, some arrogant jackass, belittling Fate’s laziness and announcing its deepest secrets. No wonder it stepped up the game, and I can’t blame it for wanting to take me down a notch.

This all-important insight left me with two options. The first was challenging something bigger and stranger than any god to hit me with exponentially weirder crap. Maybe it would give up, run out of ideas, or through sheer painful experience, I’d begin seeing waves of sentient, scrimshaw-carving berserker drones coming from a mile away.

The other route, and the one I went for, was to shut the hell up about statistics and narrative expectations. I figured if I stopped ruining reality’s fun, we could call a ceasefire.

Now, I like to think we’ve settled down into an equitable, long-term relationship based on mutual respect and understanding. When destiny asks me out, I smile sweetly and go along without complaint. Pointing out we went to the exact same restaurant last month doesn’t do anybody any favors.

<<PREVIOUSLY

While other barbarians lose themselves to their fury, the Path of the Ancestors channels the power of the ancient spirits of a tribe through rage. When the rage takes you, the spirits of the ancients flow through your body, granting you their strength and wisdom. Barbarians on the Path of the Ancestors are often leaders, or respected advisors, with the strength to bring greater tempers to heel.

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Heroes Handbook…]

WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS

Starting when you choose this path at 3rd level, when you rage, the spirits of your ancestors inhabit your body and lend you their might. You have advantage on Wisdom saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

SPIRITUAL LEADER

Beginning at 6th level, you can cast calm emotions once. You regain the ability to do so when you finish a short or long rest. The save DC for this spell is equal to 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Wisdom modifier.

WRATH OF THE ANCIENTS

Beginning at 10th level, while raging, your melee weapon attacks deal additional psychic damage equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1).

UNFETTERED SOUL

Starting at 14th level, while raging you are under the effect of a freedom of movement spell. You don’t need to concentrate to maintain this effect.

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Among the various circles of treasure hunters, rumors speak of a dungeon built beneath mazes of streets and aqueducts, of a trove right under the noses of everyday citizens. According to legend, it was built by the former adventurer Zeres who elected to turn the tables on future generations of thrill-seekers and plunderers with his own tomb. None have returned from the dungeon alive (or successful enough to warrant a story), but as always, that only adds to the mystery and allure.

Finding the Dungeon

A party eager to brave the Vault of the Mad Mage must first know where to look, as well as how to gain access to the vault once found. The library of the local college has a special wing dedicated by Zeres, and the search begins among its shelves.

The directions to the vault are split into fragments, written in the margins of two of Zeres’ favorite books and obscured by magic. The hints are found in his copies of Beginner’s Dracobiology and Proper Manors: The Enchanter’s Abode on pages corresponding to the month, day, and year the library wing was opened, and they can only be revealed by casting the identify spell on the book. Beginner’s Dracobiology is often in use by the students, and acquiring the book from them may take either a DC 13 Persuasion check, a DC 11 Intimidation check, or a bribe of about ten gold. Proper Manors: The Enchanter’s Abode is ignored and untouched by the students.

The hints in Beginner’s Dracobiology include six letters in Draconic, and those in Proper Manors: The Enchanter’s Abode are accompanied by sketches of a brass sphere surrounded by three concentric rings, a door with an indent for it, and a detail of draconic script written on one of the rings. (For those who can read Draconic, it merely says “something.”) The symbols and sketches correspond to a key kept by the head librarian who will only loan it out to those who can tell him the directions in full.

Once characters have the key in hand and have found the stone door to the vault, the next challenge is unlocking the door. Each pair of Draconic letters corresponds to a pair of letters on each ring, engraved exactly across from each other. When each ring is aligned vertically within the door’s indentation, the key teleports back to the library in a flash of light and the door opens. (For those who can read Draconic, the word the letters spell out is very rude.)

Trial One: Four Switches

Across the first chamber is yet another stone door, this one adorned with four glass orbs set around the door’s archway. The main chamber splits off into two paths: one down a corridor and the other across a chain over a bottomless pit. In addition, there is a four-foot-wide channel cut vertically into the left wall, leading up into a hole in the ceiling. To open the door, characters must simultaneously have their hands on four glowing glass spheres set throughout the chambers.

The Lodestone Corridor

The 30-foot-long corridor path to the right of the entrance audibly hums, and anyone carrying or wearing metal objects feels them tug toward it. The whole hallway is filled with a magnetic field that pulls metal toward the walls, and the skeleton of a dwarf in rusted, crushed plate armor stuck to the wall serves as a warning. The switch is visible just on the other side.

Any character wearing armor made of iron or steel that attempts to cross the corridor is thrown against the wall by the magnetic force, and can only move 5 feet in either direction with a DC 15 Strength check. Characters carrying objects of iron or steel (such as sheathed or drawn weapons) must also make the check or have the item pulled to the wall as well.

Once all four switches are activated and the door opened, the hallway demagnetizes for one hour, allowing stuck objects (and party members) to be retrieved.

The Perilous Pit

This part of the challenge is relatively straightforward: cross a 20-foot-long chain to get to the switch on the other side of the pit. Crossing the chain requires a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check, made with advantage if the character is holding a quarterstaff or similar object. On a failure, the character falls into the pit, a portal that ejects them through the front door, and back into the room.

The Climb

The channel on the left can be scaled by a character with a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check, and leads up to a ledge holding a switch above the main chamber.

The Hidden Alcove

The final switch is behind an illusory wall on the right side of the chamber, across from the channel. Discovering the illusion requires a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check, made with advantage if the character is proficient with mason’s tools or has the Stonecunning racial feature (this check can be made passively).

Trial Two: The Labyrinth

Once through the first trial, characters face another, much larger challenge: a sprawling labyrinth patrolled by ghostly minotaurs. The ceiling of this cavern is 60 feet high, and the walls of the labyrinth are 8 feet tall. At the center is a tower that runs up all the way into the ceiling and to the final chamber of the vault. A soft, blue light illuminates the labyrinth, providing dim light.

Crossing the labyrinth requires a total of 5 successful DC 15 Intelligence or Wisdom (Survival) checks. These checks can be made with advantage if characters use some means of marking their path through the labyrinth or made by climbing on top of the wall. Two consecutive failures leads characters to a dead end.

The minotaurs patrol either alone or in groups of two or three. They are alerted to the presence of characters that reach dead ends and can spot characters standing on the walls of the labyrinth. Slaying one of the patrols summons a wisp of light that flies off, showing the way forward and counting as a successful check for crossing the labyrinth (if characters follow it).

End of the Vault: The Reward

The final chamber of the Vault is the tomb of the Mad Mage himself, Zeres. The ghost of Zeres greets adventurers who make it to the end, and for completing all the trials, it offers knowledge, magic items, or cold hard coin as a reward, on the condition that none present reveal the secrets of the dungeon. Once a proper reward has been given, Zeres teleports the successful party to a destination of their choosing.

<<PREVIOUSLY

“Ah, slug, I want you to go into the upper east cellar and fetch Nadger for me.”
“Upper east cellar, master. I’ve never been there before, but I happily perform any task you wish however dangerous or menial. Might it be impertinent to ask—since I’ve yet to meet the gent—who Nadger is?”
“It is impertinent, but I’ll answer anyway. Nadger is my kobold ferret keeper. He often performs little tasks for me in the Undercity.”

We love kobolds. Everyone should have one, but admittedly, they are a little expendable. One blow, and they fall—usually. When the mighty dwarf hero Tallparts the Magenta wades knee deep in kobold flesh, how do you distinguish one foe from another? Who might be Nax the great kobold dwarf slayer of legend, who is clearly higher ranked by her tail ornamentation and who is the pipsqueak of the litter? How to tell them all apart…

Why by consulting our handy random kobold generator of course! Here are 100 of the little fellows and ladies spread over these two editions of YWH. Use them to add note to your kobold mages, to thrust the personality of these little fellows at your PCs during an exchange of views, or simply to add a few variations to that evening of slaughtering without dialogue.

1. Wears a bright green model sailing ship tri-cord hat
2. Has a ceremonial kilt sewn into which are colorful fortune sticks, auspicious twigs and lucky pieces of dried fruit
3. Has a pet earwig in a little glass jar
4. Has painted his head purple in honor of the little-observed kobold festival of purple-heads day
5. Has painted her teeth green
6. A glove puppet gnome is attached to the end of her tail
7. Has decorated her head with sea shells and dolls’ heads with nails poked through them
8. Wears a bright pink wig
9. Has painted her tail with alternate blue and orange stripes
10. Has a snout-ring in the shape of a divine tortoise
11. Wears a skirt made from bagpipes
12. Eats raw wriggling fish
13. Has a necklace made of harpsicord keys
14. Wears a top hat that is far too big for it
15. Shouts “doom” constantly
16. Carries a megaphone and issues implausible threats about forcing his foe to eat live mice
17. Has a mousetrap attached to his tail
18. Has a knitted tail coat woven into which are pictures of crocodiles
19. Dresses in subtle shades of yellow
20. Has fashioned itself fake dragon wings that flap using a pulley
21. Has a live mole hanging on a cord from its tail
22. Mimes swimming constantly
23. Has tied a fake egg between her legs
24. Has her head stuck in a bucket but has cut eye holes out to see
25. Wears clogs
26. Is dressed as a human clown
27. Wears a heifer mask
28. Has mummified udders hanging from her chin
29. Has a sheep-skull hat and wool cloak
30. Has two tails
31. Has attached a rattle to her tail
32. Attached a sail with skull and crossbones to her tail
33. Has a leather tail coat
34. A dead eel hangs about her shoulders
35. Is disguised in mossy twigs
36. Has a mouthful of whelks
37. Consults her divine saw constantly
38. Roars like a dragon and shouts “grr, grr, grr” through a horn
39. Has a target painted on the back of his head
40. Someone has knotted her tail
41. Is fat
42. A horseshoe is thrust through her snout
43. Bears a white flag
44. Is oiling her scales with goose-fat
45. Has no scales on his head
46. Wears a dead cat
47. Wears a dead kitten
48. Wears a dead puppy
49. Has on a pantomime red dragon costume
50. Wears a large turtle shell carved from wood

<<PREVIOUSLY