Kara’s chest flared painfully with each breath. Next to her, Strass’s left arm hung uselessly at his side. Thick, muscular tentacles lay around them, writhing as if still controlled by their monstrous master. A few dozen feet before them, the kraken lay defeated, its great yellow eyes unmoving. Nearby, Azreal tended to the large gash running across Val’s chest. A whirlpool surged suddenly at the center of the strange ship graveyard, sucking everything into it. In an instant, the heroes were drawn into a black abyss.

Welcome to the table! This session marked the end of a campaign arc. The players had entered a new region, matched wits with a villainous uncle, and fought with horrific creatures of the abyss. Amid all of the adventures, one moment stood out during the final fight: the players were deeply unsettled because the monstrous aboleth was trying to be killed. Today, let’s talk about manipulating expectations.

Cliché & Expectation

In fantasy and science fiction, there are things that always seem to come up—Dragons, spaceships, a world-ending artifact, and villains hellbent on destruction make a short list of the clichés often found in these genres. In RPGs, players expect magical or unique items, fantastic worlds, and powerful foes. It is this last expectation that a GM can manipulate to really make players worry. When players come to expect horrifying, dangerous monsters, introducing monsters that are the opposite causes a break in that expectation and forces the players to question whether something else is happening.

“You’ve fought well… but all things come to an end. Give yourself over to Ruin.” The voice painfully filled Kara’s mind. Snapping her eyes open, Kara saw her friends close by, holding their heads and looking dazedly around. Turning her attention to the thing floating in front of her, Kara took in the hideous form of the aboleth. Tentacles twisted in on themselves, concealing a slime-covered body. Three blood-red eyes stared at her through the wriggling mass. Roaring in fear and anger, Kara raised her staff, hearing her allies do the same, and she struck the aboleth. “Yes! Come! Do your worst…” the voice called to her.

A Strong Final Foe

In our session, the characters had been working up to a final foe, an aboleth named Ruin. Over the course of the arc, the characters fought against hordes of aberrations and deadly beasts, nearly dying a number of times. When the final fight finally came, the characters were anxious to see what would happen and prepared for a wild battle. I tried not to disappoint, and after fighting both a kraken and the aboleth in a ship graveyard, the players managed to drive Ruin back into its lair—its former prison.

Often players assume that a final fight needs to be hard, dynamic, and full of epic moments. While these traits are important, when they are manipulated or when you provide the opposite, you force players to start looking for what is wrong. When the characters started fighting Ruin, they found the fight to be eerily easy. Ruin did little to stop the characters, and every time that the characters attacked, I emphasized that Ruin “leaned into the hit.” During Ruin’s turns, it would only attack once, never focusing on one target. In this moment, I watched the faces of the players grow worried. The focus of the fight started to shift, the players realizing, without me explicitly telling them, that there was something more happening at the table. One of the players even raised the question of whether Ruin wanted to die for some evil ritual. To make matters worse, at the start of the round, the players needed to successfully avoid a life-draining effect that would lower player’s hp by half, thus ensuring that the players would fail if the encounter was drawn out.

Azreal watched as the aboleth leaned into his attack, his sword cutting deep into the creature’s flesh. Years of fighting told him that something was wrong, that this should be harder. All the while, the voice in his head grew more excited, “Cut, slash, and hack. Yes… soon there will be nothing left of me here.” Lowering his blade, Azreal looked around the room, taking in a large viscous pool and massive rune-covered hooks that hung from chains secured to the pool’s edge.

Giving Hints

Manipulating expectations can have mixed results. Over the years, I’ve watched players grow excited, confused, even angry when things don’t go the way they thought it should. When I was designing this encounter, I was careful to leave clues—shown in the environment, the monster’s actions, and my narration—to clue the players into other options available to them. As the players attacked Ruin, they grew more and more worried that they were doing something wrong. I intentionally started drawing the player’s attention to the hooks and chains that hung in the room, hoping that they would pick them up and use them to attack Ruin.

Cluing the players into available options should be a common practice for GMs, but it is particularly important when challenging players’ expectations. By indicating to the players that the hooks in the room were “old, tangled with portions of dried flesh, and covered in arcane runes”, the players could intuit that these could and would be helpful in fighting the aboleth. Eventually, Azreal decided to use one of the hooks as a weapon and discovered that they were both magical and built to harm Ruin.

 Azreal took one of the hooks in his hands. It was impossibly light for its size. The runes that covered the hooks flared to life. Visions of a divine being, mighty and beautiful, filled Azreal’s mind. He knew this god—Pelor, lord of the sun—his patron and protector. The visions showed Pelor swinging the hook, piercing the aboleth’s flesh. As soon as the visions started, they stopped, and Azreal smiled, raising the hook above his head.

Patterns, Patterns, Patterns

Patterns, stereotypes, and clichés provide both familiarity and predictability to the game. Players come to rely on certain patterns because they are effective. Breaking those patterns with careful planning can result in players growing uncomfortable, which in turn can lead to amazing moments of inspiration at the table. During this session, the players were vocally and physically uncomfortable when the final villain was doing nothing to stop them. When the players finally picked up the hooks and the villain flinched with fear, the looks of excitement and accomplishment that radiated from the players was worth the work.

The first hook sank easily into the aboleth, and the voice inside Azreal’s head took on a panicked tone. The lethargic aboleth suddenly swelled with power, lunging out at everything around it. Azreal shouted to his friends to grab the other hooks and prayed, hoping that his god would bless the other hooks as he had done to the first one.

Let’s Sum Up

• Noting the patterns your players fall into and the expectations they have can pay off in the long run. Keep a few notes about these patterns to remind you where you could change the game when needed.
• Breaking expectations can yield amazing moments at the table but should be done carefully. Without support and proper clues, the players may flounder and grow angry or frustrated.
• Not every final villain needs to be powerful, but the encounters they are in should be dynamic and fun. You can accomplish this by weaving social and environmental encounters into a combat situation.

See you at the table!

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These aggressive, blue-black freshwater crabs inhabit rivers and streams, scuttling along the muddy terrain in search of prey.

Strangling Claws. Garroter crabs are named for their abnormal right claws, which have evolved over time to strangle prey like a barbed whip.

Clacking Hordes. Their long whip-claw is lined with powerful muscles and joints at the beginning, middle, and end that give it great flexibility. During mating season, thousands of garroter crabs congregate in remote riverbanks and marshes, and the males whip their shells with a clacking sound to attract a mate.

Small Prey. Garroter crabs prey on rodents, cats, and other small animals caught by the riverbank.

GARROTER CRAB

Tiny beast, unaligned
Armor Class 13 (natural armor)
Hit Points 18 (4d4 + 8)
Speed 30 ft., swim 20 ft.

Damage Immunities psychic
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Languages —
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Amphibious. The crab can breathe air and water.

ACTIONS

Whip-claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 8). While grappled, the target cannot speak or cast spells with verbal components.

GARROTTER CRABS IN MIDGARD

Common to the Argental upriver from the Free City of Zobeck, garroter crabs are used by the Kariv gypsies and crab diviners in their divinations. The Kariv greatly respect the garroter crabs for their divine abilities and treat them as sacred creatures, and never eat them. However, local Zobeckers hold no such notions and find them quite delectable, especially the males.

Much larger garroter crabs exist, and the Kariv believe that these incredibly rare crabs can shape the future, as well as divine it.

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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. (OGL)

This creature comes from the Tome of Beasts. You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook, Midgard Heroes Handbook, Creature Codex, and Creature Codex Pawns!

The news from the Ironcrag Cantons is always of interest to lowland humans, given how often the followers of Mavros hire dwarves to serve as mercenaries in the Seven Cities or to help the Magdar Kingdom hold the line against the Mharoti in the east. In recent years though, many small dwarven companies are forming up to go west to the Wastes or north to the Wolfmark and the free city at Johzt. Some of this is driven by piety and some of it by greed; we’ll address each in turn here.

The Word of the Forge

Many young dwarven warriors are convinced that the opportunities to find ancient vaults in the Wastes are better now than in prior times, largely because of the Forge Prophecy proclaimed by Toveli Rogest, priest of Volund and master of the Templeforge halls. His oracular pronouncement claims that cantonal dwarves are poised to seize new lands, rather than defending human kingdoms, if only they can accomplish two things: 1) find the Horn of Verrante from the treasure vaults of the west and 2) drive back the vampires and ghouls and establish the righteous rule of the living in Morgau, Doresh, and Krakovar. It is, frankly, a call to religious action both by followers of Thor-Perun and by all dwarves of good heart. As part of this prophecy, a new battle chant has spread among the faithful, giving strength to their arms and axes and victory against dust goblins and ghouls alike. Older, more traditional spells such as hedgehog dozen, march of death, and storm of axes have also found new favor.

News from the Dwarfmoot

The Dwarfmoot has been lively and not just because of Toveli’s prophecy and the restlessness of a young generation of reavers. Other interests have been proclaimed loudly, in particular the wish of Jaro Whitebeard, Commander of the Black Fortress and leader of the Grisal Canton, to form a standing body of troops to push hard against Morgau and the ghouls of Krakovar. All dwarves at the moot are in favor of this in principle, though the matter is more fraught when the question of pay arises. Grisal is not a wealthy canton, and the folk of Bundeshausen and Gunnacks are happy to fund some of this Great Cantonal Levy and claim much of the glory. However, they both insist that one of their generals leads it. The discussion continues whether Grisal troops will fight for a “soft canton” leader, and meanwhile, Toveli Rogest strives to gather axe-dwarves and others to the new “Great Canton” banner with promises of plunder from Krakovar.

The dwarves of Grisal did not wait for the decision; some are going to attend Queen Dorytta’s Queensmeet to ask for her promise of pay in exchange for this Great Levy and to call a few of the more experienced knights to bring their cavalry north against Morgau. Whether this will come to anything is open to debate; already other cantons accuse Grisal of “speaking for other cantons” and attempting to lead the Ironcrags into a larger engagement than already exists. The dour dwarves of Grisal point to their own losses and the dangers of the undead and insist that other cantons not rely on Grisal as “both sword and shield and strength of arms” against the undead. They feel they have carried too much of the burden for too long.

The Dwarfmoot has thus been a cauldron of varying opinions, many spilling out into sharp insults, muddy fistfights, and even a few instances of beard pulling or beard cutting (both punishable offenses: the first by a fine, the second by expulsion from the Dwarfmoot).

For a general list of events that might enliven a Dwarfmoot, consult the “Events at the Dwarfmoot” table.

Events at the Dwarfmoot

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Read more of this and other great articles in Warlock, only on Patreon!

I recently played in an Adventurer’s League game (at D&D Live 2019) where the GM accidentally gave our war machine damage reduction 20 instead of a damage threshold of 20. This is an easy mistake to make, especially for those used to older editions, but it made a big difference in the longevity of our war machine; the vehicle took much, much less damage as we were hit by lightning guns and wrecking balls and sonic blasts from other vehicles. It didn’t really affect the story or the outcome of the game—our war machine was still pretty much wrecked, and we jumped ship to an uninjured enemy vehicle—but it’s a good example of an uncommon mechanic that’s easy to get wrong.

Features that Decrease Damage

Damage reduction was extremely common in the 3rd Edition era; many monsters, including demons and devils, had damage reduction against most attacks. Mechanically, damage reduction X means that the creature or object takes X fewer points of damage than the attack would normally deal. So a longsword attack that deals 11 damage against a door with damage reduction 5/magic would instead deal 6 damage unless the longsword was magical.  However, damage reduction doesn’t exist at all in 5th Edition; it was replaced by resistances to specific damage types.

A damage threshold means that the object (it’s usually an object like a ship) has “immunity to all damage unless it takes an amount of damage equal to or greater than its damage threshold, in which case it takes damage as normal.” A sailing ship has a damage threshold of 15, so if a pirate with a crossbow hits the ship for 7 piercing damage, the ship takes no damage. The idea is that small amounts of damage to large objects (like a crossbow bolt in the side of a ship) are so insignificant as to be meaningless. However, if the pirate fires a cannon that deals 18 bludgeoning damage, the ship loses all 18 hit points.

There aren’t any monsters in 5th Edition that have a damage threshold, but many creatures have damage resistances, vulnerabilities, or immunities, especially at high challenge ratings. Note that resistances (and vulnerabilities) don’t stack, so a tiefling with a ring of fire resistance still takes half the normal amount of fire damage. Resistances and immunities effectively increase a monster’s hit points.

Vulnerabilities should be intuitive, but I personally enjoy monsters with a vulnerability as both a player and a GM since it rewards clever play. However, monsters can have other weaknesses that reward creativity; the fire elemental doesn’t have any vulnerabilities, but it does have a Water Susceptibility feature: for every 5 feet the elemental moves in water or for every gallon of water splashed on it, it takes 1 cold damage.

Since damage thresholds are traditionally only applied to objects, it’s a mechanic that hasn’t really affected most combat in 5th Edition. With new releases, however, ship-to-ship battles and war machines and the like will bring damage thresholds into more combat scenarios. Could damage thresholds also be applicable for large constructs or siege weapons? The overall design philosophy seems to be that it’s not worth complicating the stat blocks of equipment or monsters by adding damage thresholds. I generally agree with this, especially since damage thresholds can be frustrating for players who don’t deal huge bursts of damage, but—as always—you can do whatever you want at your own table.

Creating a statblock is always a balance between realism (making sense in-world) and elegance (being easy to run at the table). What kind of strengths or weaknesses for creatures and objects do you think encourage streamlined combat and creative play? Leave a comment below, and let us know what mechanics you enjoy in your games!

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The lands of the Dragoncoil Mountains have always been infested with drakes, wyrms, and wyverns—they give the mountains their name. But about 400 years ago, one especially cunning red dragon by the name of Mharot decided he was tired of working so hard to steal golden treasures from humans and dwarves, and then being forced to continually guard those treasures. He proposed a pact to neighboring dragons, and he accepted the standing offers from kobold tribes to give their whole-hearted allegiance to the dragons in exchange for protection. With the patronage of the dragon gods and the aid of its elemental sorcery, the empire has grown great indeed.

It is difficult to adequately describe the depth and exotic confusion of the Mharoti Empire. Many of its cities are more populous than entire nations in the North, and they display great ambitions and contradictions. The Dragon Empire seeks to expand, to garner tribute from subject nations, and to bring the word of its elemental gods to a wider world. It has expanded quickly in a few centuries, backed by dragon fire and claws.

The Mharoti Empire is one of the few places where humans and their kin are distinctly second-class citizens. The dragons’ vanity was such that they could never agree on a dragon ruler, so they gave the job to a clearly inferior human or dragonkin instead. Until quite recently, the Dragon Empire was ruled by a human man or woman who loosely held the reins of power. Five years ago, one of the dragonkin declared that the human ruler’s corruption led to the empire’s battlefield failures—and took the reins of power for himself and his family.

Recent History of the Empire

Seven year ago, the armies of the Dragon Empire conquered the mountains and valleys of Illyria, annexing it as the empire’s newest province, Rumela. In addition, the swift-flying Mharoti legions killed King Stephanos of the Magdar Kingdom and his eldest son at the Battle of Marroc’s Field, where the northern Knights of the Undying Sun almost cut the imperial army in two. Much glory went to the war wyverns that tore apart the battle wagons of the Magdar, though others claim kobold alchemy filled the field with choking mists (both are likely true).

With the conquest secured, the Mharoti are patiently rooting out all opposition and have brought tens of thousands of kobold settlers to turn the land to productive use. Digesting such a large swath of terrain takes time, but the dragonkin have time aplenty, and many nimble claws to work the land, pile high stones, and improve the roads over the passes. Their work is steady, honorable, and seemingly endless.

Six years ago, the Mharoti Admiral of the Western Fleet, Tolga Serkhan al-Harkeshi, lost his entire Mharoti fleet in a huge naval engagement against Triolo, Kyprion, and their allies. Worse news followed a year later, where the dragonkin lost a major engagement with Ishadia and Khandiria. During the Battle of Wheeling Angels, a powerful celestial summoner rained holy fire on several true dragons, knocking them from the sky while vast number of Khandirian oliphaunts and juggernauts overran the Mharoti gnolls, edjet, and kobold levies.

When word came in of the battle on the heels of the Battle of Seggotan’s Tears (which the Triolans call the Battle of the Golden Wave), the empire convulsed with the news of the death of tens of thousands and the annihilation of an entire dragon legion in the east. Moving quickly, three army generals staged a coup against Sultana Azrabahir. The sultana’s elite palace guards—the Order of the Wyvern— fell quickly in line, not questioning her usurpation, and the sultana barely escaped the coup. She fled on dragonback to Marea, where friends helped her bolt to exile in the Republic of Valera in the Seven Cities. There she sought shelter with young Emperor Loki, who surprisingly took her in. Her replacement as ruler was for the first time one of the dragonborn, a ruthless schemer named Ozmir Al‑Stragul—or as he prefers to style himself, the Dread Sultan. His two co-conspirators disappeared.

The new sultan is a break with the past: a dragonborn “new prince” has claimed divine sanction for his coronation, and a new Age of Scales. So far, Nuria has not taken action against the Mharoti, but it is probably not a bad time for the god-kings to consider it. Nuria is expanding its trade with Capleon, and priests of Thoth-Hermes are in the forefront of forging these new connections. At the same time, the Emerald Order (see Demon Cults & Secret Societies) is expanding its influence in the Seven Cities, sending scouts to the Magdar Kingdom, and making overtures in Zobeck.

Even the empire’s victory in Rumela is not unopposed. Triolo’s minotaur corsairs battle against the Dread Sultan’s fleets as red-sailed pirates, while the bandits of the White Mountain Marches and the ghost folk of the mysterious White Goddess raid deep into Rumela.

With long borders to defend and many enemies, the dragons may have reached the boundaries of their power— though few would bet against them. Somehow the Dragon Empire fights against the Magdar Kingdom, Ishadia, and Nuria Natal while at the same time grappling with the enormous Empire of Khandiria to the east. Having dragons among its legions is a great advantage, surely, but perhaps its claws seek to sweep too many treasures into its grasp. The Mharoti people—from its tiniest kobolds and most ragged humans to the mightiest gem-encrusted vizier and sagest dragon-prince—all believe in the legends of their greatness, and in their kinship with Veles the World-Serpent, the Maker of All Things. Surely the dragons who rule are made in his image, and they are fated to rule the world? Such confidence is infectious, and the Mharoti legions fight harder and march faster knowing that the blessings of the dragon gods shine on them and their cause.

The sultan plans to strike back hard. The good-hearted dragonkin of Capleon have been driven out or killed by a jambuka mob, and the temple and priesthood of Seggotan were torn apart or banished—and the sultan finds this an intolerable insult. He invaded the island of Kyprion and holds a single town taken from the minotaurs, but the great empire simply lacks the ships for a larger invasion and conquest. For now, the empire has a wide choice of enemies and prepares its next strike.

The Dread Sultan

The newest ruler of the Mharoti Empire, the scarred and cunning Dread Sultan Ozmir Al-Stragul, is a general of great skill and a politician of utter ruthlessness. He deposed the young human Sultana Casmara Azrabahir and ousted his partners; his ruthlessness made him sultan, and he intends to hold the title and create even greater victories for Mharot and the dragonfolk in years to come. He chafes at current setbacks, but for the moment he must raise new armies and rebuild the fleets. On a day-to-day level, the sultan administers the executive office of the Mharoti Compact: appointing judges and decreeing laws, bestowing and stripping titles from the nobility, and granting land and privileges to the morza, a term translated from the Draconic as “prince” or “dragon governor” or “great lord.” He collects the taxes, distributes bread and tribute, raises and leads the armies (or chooses the general who does), and makes everyone cooperate. His assassins threaten dragonkin and human satraps who fail to toe the line. His command of the armies gives him leverage against any individual great lord, though the morza remain independent powers to a large degree. And most of all, the sultan looks out for the empire as a whole.

If the sultan didn’t exist, the empire would not be an empire—it would more closely resemble eight draconic kingdoms at war. Dread Sultan Al-Stragul has a great deal of power, but only because the governors don’t trust any of their own number with that much authority. And yet, he seems able to plan effectively and to command the morza and the imperial legions. His rule depends on turning military failure into conquest, and he has shown the ruthlessness needed to grind Illyrian resistance into dust—while ignoring the fact that the conquest was the work of his predecessor, whom he claimed had lost the blessings of Azuran and the dragon gods…

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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. (OGL)

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook, Midgard Heroes Handbook, Creature Codex, and Creature Codex Pawns!

<<PREVIOUSLY

Though there’s been an explosion of 5th Edition compatible material for Midgard, including 173 adventures by last count, there’s a lot of Midgard goodness that came out before 5E debuted, including adventures written for 4E and for Pathfinder. And some of that is still “canon,” assumed to have happened one way or another when the Midgard Worldbook was updated, jumping the world of Midgard forward five years in time. A lot of that content is still usable for your 5E game, and moreover, most of it contains really interesting bits and pieces of lore. So “From the Archives” will comb through these older gems, recommending pieces that can be brought forward to a 5th Edition game. Some of them may be usable whole cloth. Others might need to have their details tweaked to be in line with the current history. Still others just might be good resources for GMs looking to further their knowledge of this fascinating world, whether to enhance their own campaigns or just for the love of learning.

First up is Midgard Legends, a supplement with over 44 pages of content that is highly usable today with very little tweaking. Midgard Legends debuted in 2013 and was Pathfinder compatible. It featured twenty-three “legendary heroes, villains, and monsters” from the world of Midgard.

This isn’t a codex of NPCs (though I would love one of those, kobolds!), but rather, this is a book of legends, as in people and creatures from Midgard’s past, phenomena and beings from the edges of Midgard’s reality. In other words, a lot of these legends don’t have stat blocks, but maybe their legendary weapons and spellbooks do. For the most part, these aren’t people for your players to encounter and fight (though several of them are still around) so much as these are myths and legends with which to flavor your world. These are the histories that come up in a Knowledge (History) check or maybe an Arcana check. These are the stories you uncover in a grand quest or maybe the impetus to go on the quest to begin with. And yes, a few of them are powerful entities that still roam the flat earth.

Take Achaz the Horned Khan for example. A slave from Reth-Saal, he escaped bondage to find his people upon the Rothenian Plains. Achaz eventually defeated the Khan of Khans and became ruler of all Khazzaki tribes. Driven by the goal of hunting and executing slavers, as well as plundering wealth from weaker realms, Achaz might be broadly considered a hero until the day he decided to free the gnomes of Niemheim. There it was that he fell under the control of the Horned Crown, an evil and sentient artifact that demanded sacrifices for the power it offered. Driving Achaz to feed it more and more souls, he gradually turned upon his own people. He was eventually overthrown, and his fiercest warriors, the Bloodriders, still search for the Horned Crown and a way of bringing him back from the dead. Now Achaz isn’t someone you’re likely to encounter in your campaign, but a group of Bloodriders intent on raising him from the dead are, or perhaps you meet a secret organization of do-gooders seeking to find and destroy the Horned Crown before Achaz’s faithful can get their hands on it. There are statistics for the crown that need to be adapted to 5E, but the two pages of lore is what makes this entry so valuable.

The Blackened Man is even better. There’s nothing to convert here but—oh!—is there a lot to take away. Possibly a fey creature or perhaps one of the last members of an ancient race, the Blackened Man walks the world seeking to trick the weak wills of greedy folk or trade with those in despair too distraught to refuse his bargain. To these, he offers “a life for a soul, pain for pain, or a mercy for madness.” And then he bestows his mark on those who agree. Midgard Legends offers a bevy of options for what each of these three boons could be, most of which work fine in 5E with no need for conversion. And the section “Using This Legend” suggests three story hooks to bring the Blackened Man into your campaign. (I know which one I’m going with!)

A legend I particularly like is that of Gunnwyf and the Riphean Herd. Unearthly steeds sacred to Wotan that appear at dusk and vanish in the predawn mists, a clever GM could spin a whole adventure around finding these horses—and successfully riding them with a succession of skill challenges. Those who do are revered through Midgard and are thereafter immune to fear affects. This is also a legend that could be updated in light of new Midgard lore. Gunnwyf, the great black mare that leads the herd, is said to be the mate of Sleipnir. The Creature Codex has since introduced sleipnir (plural) as a species of eight-legged horses, neutral good large monstrosities who loathe the undead. They have their own matriarch, Gullfaxi, and their own agenda, but perhaps there are sleipnir among the four-legged horses of Gunnwyf’s herd, her children with the Sleipnir. Or perhaps Gunnwyf and Gullfaxi are the same horse under different names. Or perhaps both the Riphean Herd and Gullfaxi’s herd feature in a larger, equestrian-themed campaign with pegasi and unicorns as well.

Hune the Doorlord is practically begging to be dropped into your campaign. Actually, he literally is. A dying deity reduced to his core function—the creation of portals—he has no real mind left and no agenda but to create portals indiscriminately for those he encounters. Hune appears, asking only, “Door?” and requiring a wide variety of payments for her services. But his power isn’t what it used to be, so travelers be advised. There’s a delightful table as to where, other than their intended destination, players who enter one of Hune’s portals might end up, landing them everywhere from the “GM’s decision to fifty miles away to another plane entirely.”

An actual living NPC the players might encounter is Jolinar the Cursed. He tried to pull a fast one on Baba Yaga and nearly got away with it. Grandmother granted his request to have extraordinary luck, but anyone to whom he becomes too attached is doomed. Now he’s miserable, living mostly in isolation amid his great wealth. But those who attempt to steal from him or threaten his life come to swift ends. Having Jolinar take an interest in or even join an adventuring party would add some very odd modifiers to the dice rolls and create some very amusing results!

This is but a small sampling. There are others—like Hringida, the first storm, a huge elemental creature comprised of all four elements, a swirling storm with a keep lodged at its heart. The keep is full of unfortunate NPCs and monsters who have been sucked into Hringida, and they have there developed their own factions and agendas, inside the storm. The whole thing hovers over a portal that just might lead to the underside of Midgard. Then there’s Kjord, a young priest who dared stand up to Prince Lucan. And he did for a while. When he was eventually destroyed, he evaporated into ash, and pure light spilled from his body. Now the “Spark of Kjord” wanders Morgau, possessing potential heroes and granting them powers to stand up to evil authority but never for more than eleven days.

From Abderus, First Mage-Lord of House Stross, to Yafram the Desolate, this is a book that will enhance your Midgard game in a dozen different ways. Or maybe twenty-three.

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Lou Anders is the author of Frostborn, Nightborn, and Skyborn, the three books of the Thrones & Bones series of middle grade fantasy adventures, as well as the novel Star Wars: Pirate’s Price. You can find out more about him and his works at www.louanders.com and visit him on Facebook and on Twitter @LouAnders.

Dwarves are often lauded for their impeccable engineering, but this extends far past intricate stone work and into the realm of science and artifice. They delve into the Ironcrags to glean resources needed to create mechanical inventions unlike anything else seen in Midgard. Don’t be fooled by the boisterous dwarf; these are nimble-handed folks who can construct the smallest of innerworkings of clocks and the most powerful of engines.

Dwarven Devices

Not all dwarves are drawn to the depths. It is the cantonal dwarves, residing in the Ironcrags, who are unique among other dwarven communities. The cantons are scarred with various mountain ranges that form a ring around the region. Cantonal dwarves have a saying: “The colder the peak, the stronger the ore.” As such, they’ll brave the dangers of the kobold-occupied depths to collect whatever they can. Those who are successful often find acclaim and wealth. And all those unique substances found pique further interest with many of these resource-seeking dwarves continuing their studies in laboratories and workspaces.

It’s nearly possible to separate the culture of mining from science, artifice, and construction. Many dwarves consider it part of the process—if you want to create something from scratch, you must first source your materials yourself. One can only call themself a maker if they bring something to life with their own hands.

Two notable inventions have arisen from this culture: firearms and airships. Although these developments differ greatly in their purpose, the processes of building them share many similarities. It’s inarguable that these have changed Midgard irrevocably—for better or worse.

Cult of the Gear Maiden

For dwarves of Zobeck, passion for devices and constructs is more than just a lucrative endeavor. These dwarves revere the Gear Maiden, Rava, and those who worship Rava see artifice as an extension of the natural world. They do not see nature and science as incompatible but rather as a way to cultivate and process materials sourced from the wild. It is a mutually respective relationship: Rava provides, and the dwarves reap, process, and build.

Makers Marks

Dwarves who mine, forge, and craft often include a maker’s mark on their inventions, whether it’s engraved on the back of a pocket watch or on the butt of a firearm. The mark is determined by the dwarf’s family and the metals they employ in their creations. Thus a mark is comprised of three components:

• First letter of the dwarf’s surname.
• A symbol that represents their house. Dwarves from ancient and noble houses often have a sigil, but dwarves without such lineage typically create their own based on their personality or values.
• A shape or symbol that designates their specialty. These mirror symbols that alchemists use, and there’s quite a bit of crossover between alchemists and artificers. For example, a goldsmith’s mark displays a circle with a dot in the center.

More experienced dwarves may specialize in more than one material, and this is reflected in the mark. Dwarf PCs who are artificers, crafters, miners, and forgers can create a maker’s mark using the same system. However, there is a prerequisite: they must create at least one item in the material they consider their “specialty.” Once this item has been crafted, it must be used and stress tested. If it can suitably accomplish the purpose it was intended for, the creator is permitted to design a maker’s mark. Some dwarves specialize in this design and offer this service to others…

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Read more of this and other great articles in Warlock, only on Patreon!

It’s Gen Con! So here’s a treasured set of wallpapers for your computer, your smartphone, or whatever electronic device you’ve got. Because this month…

We got the Silver ENnie for the Creature Codex!!! (Art by Craig Spearing, Silver by the Kobold Monster Squad and you for voting for us!)

We got your silver, adventurers!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Please, click on the image you want to download to expand it into a downloadable image.

Gen Con 2019 is done, and I’m on the long road back to upstate NY. This was my fifth year of seriously coordinating convention games for Kobold Press. We’ve had wonderful volunteers in years past, and this year was no different.

We hosted 50 tables, offering a dozen scenarios in three different systems. We had nearly every table full. It was one of our largest if not our largest year yet. We had two new adventures—one from veteran designer Jerry LeNeave, further exploring the Southlands and the legacy of the heretic Tiberesh, and another set near Zobeck from Michael Turbe, who founded and guides a discord community focused on organized play set in the Midgard setting. Other adventures included 5th Edition, Pathfinder, and 13th Age material from a broad range of authors, including Dan Dillon, Sersa Victory, James Haeck, Wolfgang Baur, and new voices like Kelly Pawlik. Responses from folks around the tables were great.

I also got to meet awesome Kobold editor Meagan Maricle and to attend the ENnies with her, Brian Suskind, and Anna Meyer. We enjoyed the presentations and cheered as the Creature Codex took the Silver ENnie for Best Adversary. The field was crowded with quality entries, so it’s great to see the hard work appreciated and recognized.

Sunday morning brought a bit of a tradition as I met back up with some of the GMs who were still in town. We talked games and sessions and crazy events across the last four days, hanging out for a while before some of us needed to get the dealer room one last time or make our way to final games of the show. It was wonderful to put faces to names and emails that otherwise just existed in my inbox. I always find the best experiences at Gen Con come out of those small moments around a table hanging out with a group of fellow gamers and sharing stories from the show.

It was a great convention, and one every gamer ought to try to experience at least once. I’m really proud of what we were able to do, how all of our volunteers were able to make it an even better show for the people who sat at our tables. Here’s hoping to many more years as good or even better.

And photos!

Welcome to the table! This session was the last in the campaign. I had been planning it for a while, yet ending the campaign was a real challenge. I left the table hoping that everyone felt fulfilled or at least happy with how things wrapped up. Today, let’s talk about ending campaigns and the lessons I’ve learned from finishing a number of them.

I believe that everyone throughout the land could accurately recall where they were and what they were doing when the sky was torn asunder by the pillar of magical light that seemed to reach infinitely upward. I was sailing to Lurem’s Hold and clearly remember the towering waves that came from the pillar’s epicenter, rocking our ship and crashing into the shore. In an instant, all was illuminated by that beam of light, and just as it started, it faded, seeming to leave the world devoid of something once held secret and close.

What’s in an Ending?

Campaigns end for many reasons: total party death, victory over the major villains, life outside the game. At my table, two players were moving to other states, and we had collectively decided not to continue playing online. As a result, each week leading up to the players’ departure was spent working toward an exciting and fulfilling ending for both the players and the story as a whole.

When considering how to end a campaign, I begin by defining what an end looks like. Does the party retire after their success, take a break for a year or more, start a business, or simply move on to the next adventure? Understanding both your definition and that of the players will help you better understand what a fulfilling end to a campaign might look like. Designing an ending that reveals every mystery may disappoint those players who were hoping to continue playing, possibly with new characters, later on. Alternatively, if everyone at the table plans to leave, revealing some secrets is both appropriate and a fun opportunity to showcase those things the players skipped or missed.

The four heroes returned from their venture, battered and scarred but alive. Each was hungry for a life beyond duty, the chance to choose what comes next. Azreal, after laying the shining Bulwark of Harron before the priests of Lurem’s Hold, returned to his small hamlet in the countryside. To this day, he tills and sows the fields, carving out a humble life.

Breaks vs. Endings

Throughout the campaign, I occasionally called for a break in the game, informing the players that there would be a time-jump, ranging from six months to a full year. Through these breaks, the players were able to describe their own adventures, speak of their successes and failures, and in one instance simply leave the party altogether. Breaks in the game serve to give the players more agency in the arcs of their characters and can provide opportunities for them to create new plot hooks for you to use in the game. I often introduce breaks by giving a specified amount of time that the characters would have, and I write a short blurb about how the country has changed during this time.

Upon returning, Strass disappeared into the mountains, telling few of his plans. Some say that they find the tracks of the barbarian roving through the valleys and along the high trails, but to what purpose no one is fully sure. Meanwhile, Val the Lord of Coin, now sits as the head of our capital’s thieves’ guild. It is said that his wealth rivals that of the city’s richest merchants and that his spies hear all.

For an ending, I recommend making sure there is a sense of finality. Since you don’t know what each player hopes to see their character do after the last session, inviting them to create the ending with you helps each player resolve their character’s narrative as they see fit and also provides opportunities for story threads to be continued in other sessions or campaigns. Epilogues are a great tool to use for these moments and can help create a sense of finality at the table.

Using an Epilogue

As we drew the story to an end, I called for the players to each write an epilogue. Epilogues are a highly adaptive and useful tool, bringing clear closure to the game and involving the players in the process, letting players tell how their character’s story ended (or continued). When I ask players for their epilogues, I ask them to write three to four sentences, wrapping things up or telling the rest of the table where the character is now. I also remind the players that they are the ones telling the story, meaning that they can find any item they were seeking, fight any foe, or perform any task necessary for their character’s arc. In some cases, as shown below, you may invite your players to roll for success or failure for each venture they describe, but often I do not require this since doing so limits the sense of freedom players have to create a fulfilling resolution to their character.

After each player presents their own story, I offer a larger epilogue that ties the rest of the world to the player’s contributions. I make sure to emphasize the players’ impact on the world and any particular NPCs that the players had close relationships with. Doing this helps build out the world and showcase how the characters are a part of bringing it to life. If there is an opportunity to write this epilogue from the point of view of an NPC, I recommend it. Doing so reinforces a sense of reality in the game.

After completing her bounty, Kara returned to the Northlands where she furthered her apprenticeship among the monastery that raised her. Young hopefuls now make the pilgrimage to her monastery, hoping to learn from her strict tutelage. 

In addition to epilogues, you may consider these options to help bring your campaign to an end:

• Invite players to create a magical artifact based upon the experiences and adventures of their characters. These artifacts could be found by the players during the next campaign or new players if your current game is on a long hiatus.
• Involve the players in building on unresolved stories that have occurred throughout the game. Whether describing villains who have escaped, influential guilds or organizations, or regions left unexplored, doing this gives players a chance to add something to these stories and leave a mark on the world.
• If you and the players want some randomness in the ending, invite them to create the epilogue and then have each player roll to see whether they were successful—altering their story to match the results of the die.

Let’s Sum Up

• Campaigns end for many reasons. Talking to the players about how they think of endings and agreeing on some possible options will help you create a satisfying ending for all.
• Epilogues are useful tools and can be used to varying degrees—resolving every mystery or laying the groundwork for an enticing cliffhanger.
• Establishing a clear, strong ending will help bring much needed closure to the game. Hopefully this is through success, but sometimes, sad endings are just as good as happy ones.

See you at the table!

<<PREVIOUSLY

The Expanding Codex series fleshes out monsters from the Creature Codex, giving GMs ways to modify the existing monsters to surprise well-prepared players or to introduce monsters to a campaign.

Alternate Traits and Actions

The following changes allow GMs to alter an albino death weasel without modifying its challenge rating:

Albino Camouflage. The albino death weasel is naturally camouflaged in areas with white backgrounds, such as snow-covered landscapes or against buildings painted white. While it is camouflaged in this way, it has advantage on Stealth checks and can hide from creatures that can see it clearly.

The albino death weasel loses its proficiency bonus on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.

Blood Drain. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) piercing damage. The target is also grappled (escape DC 13) if it is a Medium or smaller creature and the albino weasel isn’t already grappling a creature. Until this grapple ends, the target is restrained, the weasel can’t bite another target, and at the start of each of the weasel’s turns, the target loses 8 (2d4 + 3) hit points due to blood loss.

The albino death weasel loses its bite and claw attacks.

Blood Frenzy. The albino death weasel has advantage on melee attack rolls against any creature that doesn’t have all its hit points.

The albino death weasel only has keen smell and no longer has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing.

Swimming Death Weasel. The albino death weasel was reared in a more aquatic environment. It gains a swim speed of 30 feet.

The albino death weasel loses its burrow speed.

Weasel War Dance. The albino death weasel makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claw. If the weasel reduces its walking speed to 40 feet, it has advantage on an attack against a creature if it moves at least 5 feet before attacking it. If it splits its attacks, it must move an additional 5 feet to gain advantage on the second attack.

The albino death weasel loses its pounce trait.

New Feat

The following feat is inspired by the albino death weasel:

Weasel War Dancer

Confounding opponents with your erratic movements, you gain the following benefits:

• When you use the Dash action, all creatures that can see you have disadvantage on their attack rolls against you until the beginning of your next turn.
• By reducing your speed by 10 feet, you gain advantage on an attack made after moving at least 5 feet.

New Magic Items and Spells

The following magic item and spell are inspired by abilities possessed by an albino death weasel:

Boots of Pouncing

Wondrous item, uncommon (requires attunement)

While you wear these boots with an albino death weasel fur collar, your walking speed becomes 40 feet, unless your walking speed is higher. Your speed is still reduced if you are encumbered or wearing heavy armor.

If you move at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and hit it with a melee weapon attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, you can make a melee weapon attack against it as a bonus action.

Foul Spray

2nd-level conjuration (druid, ranger, sorcerer, wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Self (15-foot cone)
Components: V, S, M (a musk gland from an albino death weasel)
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Upon casting this spell, a spray of must emanates from your body. Each creature in a 15-foot cone must make a Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for the duration. At the end of each of its turns, a creature can make another Constitution saving throw. On a success, the spell ends for the creature.

At Higher Levels. Using a spell slot of 3rd level increases the cone’s size to 20 feet. Using a spell slot of 4th level or higher increases the cone’s size by 10 feet for each slot level above 3rd.

Albino Death Weasel Ranger’s Companion

Rangers who don’t mind the albino death weasel’s voracious appetite have raised miniature versions of the animals to use as companion creatures.

Companion Albino Death Weasel

Medium beast, unaligned
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 16 (3d8+3)
Speed 40 ft., burrow 20 ft.

Skills Perception +4, Stealth +4
Senses darkvision 60 ft.; passive Perception 14
Languages —
Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

Keen Senses. The companion albino death weasel has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Pounce. If the weasel moves at least 20 feet straight toward a creature and then hits it with a claw attack on the same turn, that target must succeed on a DC 12 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the creature can make one bite attack against it as a bonus action.

ACTIONS

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 5 (1d6+2) piercing damage.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d4+2) slashing damage.

Musk Spray (Recharges after a Short or Long Rest). The weasel unleashes a spray of foul musk in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.

Albino Death Weasel Adventure Hooks

• Local farmers blame an ahuizotl (see Creature Codex) for attacks on their livestock because they see evidence of the attacks leading to a nearby lake. They are afraid to confront the creature, so they call in the PCs. However, the creatures responsible for the deaths are a mated pair of albino death weasels, rearing a litter of five kits.
• A deranged druid is raising a half dozen albino death weasels for their fur. While he waits to kill them, he treats them well to gain their trust and releases them regularly at night to feed.

If you have any requests for monsters from the Creature Codex for future installments, please let me know in the comments, and I’ll make sure to add them to the queue.

<<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 following encounter chains are more than just random conflicts. Each event flows organically into the next, sometimes without giving PCs the chance to catch their collective breath. Each link in the chain subsequently ups the stakes and the complexities of an encounter, thereby giving characters a sense of… out of the frying pan, into the fire!

Encounter 1: We’re Sunk Before We…

Recommended Levels: 8–10

Newly employed as agents of the prominent silk merchant Abdel al-Uzzah, PCs find themselves underway aboard the hired sand sloop Duneglider. Last-minute entanglements involving his ninth daughter’s marriage to a Tamasheq sub-chieftain created professional and parental embarrassment for al-Uzzah. Negotiation hiccups with the foreign dressmakers delayed delivery of the extravagant wedding gown to the already-departed wedding party.

In reparation, the dressmakers procured a fast, discreet sand ship to serve as al-Uzzah’s emergency courier. Ever suspicious, the Saph-Saph merchant lord has assigned PCs to board the Duneglider as guards, “gown escorts” ensuring its delivery to the bride’s entourage at the Tamasheq ceremonial site.

The sun-seared vista of rolling, wind-swept sand seems endless. Dunes rise and fall, flowing south and east like waves on a sculpted sea. Despite the environment, you notice many similarities between sailing on water versus sand. The pitch and yaw of the vessel, the “swells” and “spray,” while more pleasant on water are still reminiscent of maritime travel. Even the shouting is familiar.

The voyage begins well, but on the dawn of the second day, the Duneglider’s insidious pilot makes his move. Throwing her hard to port and across the wind, he drives the Duneglider’s starboard pontoons through a nearby sandstone formation, snapping outriggers and careening her hard. As the port side pitches high and she tries to roll, the ship’s deckhand is flung screaming from the mainsail yard to disappear among billowing dust clouds. A successful DC 16 Dexterity saving throw prevents PCs being knocked prone. Characters with vehicle proficiency (water) or either the pirate or sailor background make all ship-related saves and skill checks with advantage.

The pilot (use scorpion assassin from Creature Codex) triggers a spell glyph (conjure minor elementals), conjuring four anubians (see Tome of Beasts), before abandoning the now out-of-control vessel using his spider staff (spider swarm) (see Warlock #11) to cover his retreat. The anubians ignore PCs unless engaged, concentrating their Haboob attacks on snarling the Duneglider’s rigging and accelerating her toward shipwreck. After two rounds, surviving anubians Sand Step, swirling away as wind-blown sand.

Developments. As the Duneglider slides into a capsizing turn, give PCs 2d4+3 rounds to act before tumbling into a spar-snapping, bone-breaking barrel roll. Nautically experienced characters will try stabilizing the ship, delegating emergency measures, slowing momentum, and counteracting the roll.

Brace for Impact! PCs spending their time attacking anubians or capturing the pilot or who’ve failed all damage-control checks when time expires suffer the following:

• 60 hit points: (5d10) bludgeoning, plus (3d10) each, piercing and slashing damage.
• Affected creatures (GM’s discretion) are thrown 5d10 feet overboard, knocked prone, and must succeed on a DC 16 Strength or Dexterity save to avoid being stunned. Saves failing by 5 or more indicate a 15% chance the target suffers lingering injuries.

Each successful damage-control check (excluding for rigging) reduces impending shipwreck damage (2d6) to everyone onboard. Allow one success per category. GMs are encouraged to expand, alter, and add to suggested situations, solutions, and consequences below.

Rigging: PCs must “get aloft” (ascend and navigate the rigging) before attempting any checks for the shrouds or sail. A successful DC 16 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check indicates success.

Shrouds: Once aloft, three successful melee attacks (AC 13), made with disadvantage and causing at least 9 slashing damage each, will cut free the snarled lines.

Sail: Slashing or releasing the full sail to reduce speed is impossible until the shrouds are slacked off (above). A successful DC 16 Intelligence (Arcana) or Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check followed by 15 slashing damage (AC 12) indicates success.

Helm (Counts as 2 Successes): A successful DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check bypasses the pilot’s sabotage. Successful DC 16 Wisdom (Perception or Survival) and DC 13 Strength (Athletics) checks allow PCs to maneuver the Duneglider windward, counteracting the roll and steadying her.

Encounter 2: Flotsam and Jetsam 

Whether the Duneglider rolled, slid, or crashed, she now rests, broken and leaning amid the boulder-strewn shadows of immense sandstone formations.

Dazed, you struggle upright, wiping sand from your mouth and eyes. You’re relieved to see others nearby, also thrown clear to land among the scattered sweep of debris littering the ship’s haphazard wake. Squinting through the escalating swirl of more dust clouds, you begin hailing your comrades before realizing, “There should be no more dust clouds.”

The spider drake (see Creature Codex ), Ungolithryx, swoops from her observation crag, descending on the Duneglider’s wreckage to loot and feed on the dead and damaged so conveniently delivered to her. PCs should note tactical advantages in the Duneglider’s wreckage and the party’s scattered (GM-determined) positioning. The spider drake fights until below 50 hit points before fleeing back up the rockface. PCs succeeding on DC 14 Strength (Athletics) checks can safely make the 90-foot climb. Midway through the climb, a sand spider (see Creature Codex ) lunges from its trapdoor lair (DC 16 to detect). PCs defeating the arachnid find its nest contains the silk-bound form of the Duneglider’s escaped pilot (or missing deckhand), poisoned and near death. If revived and healed, he exchanges information for life and liberty.

“Abdel al-Uzzah wages a secret war against certain regional Tamasheq leaders, his future son-in-law foremost among them—deeming the sacrifice of his ninth daughter to be tolerable. He commissioned my masters, the Lengfolk renegades X’nog and G’nox, to weave a magical murder-dress for the wedding night—no steel, suspect, or motive, only corpses. I wrecked the Duneglider here to draw out the drake, enabling the Lengfolk to enter the lair unmolested. They counted on you to slay or delay the drake long enough to accomplish their task and retrieve its eggs, their true goal.”

Developments. PCs can pursue Ungolithryx, but what of the dress? The now battered sea chest containing the costly bridal gown remains lashed to the Duneglider’s shivered mainmast. A successful DC 14 Wisdom (Perception) check notes the clockwork combination locks are compromised (DC 17). Inside rests an extravagant gown of finest craftsmanship. A DC 16 Intelligence (Arcana or Nature) check affirms it’s of blended Marean and ghostwalk spider silks.

The gown is a thread-bound construct (see Creature Codex ) of a ghostwalk spider (see Tome of Beasts). Its single-use magic is attuned to activate for 1 hour at midnight on its first day worn by an intelligent being.

Encounter 3: Of Flies and Spiders

PCs summiting the rock can enter the irregular, web-draped cavern unheard over the raging tumult of draconic frustration echoing out. Inside, husks of victims dangle amid web-strewn stalactites and stalagmites (difficult terrain), crowding the uneven floor and ceiling. Her back to the cave mouth, Ungolithryx rears up, directing impotent rage at several peculiar creatures.

An albino ink devil (see Tome of Beasts), Blotch, tears into an enormous silken egg sac while two folks of Leng (see Tome of Beasts), X’nog and G’nox, brandish silk-wrapped orbs, chittering at the drake and glancing meaningfully toward the PCs. Suddenly aware of the PCs, the wounded drake whirls to attack while two spiders of Leng (see Tome of Beasts) scurry stealthily into attack position across the web-shrouded ceiling.

Developments. Caught pilfering eggs, the Lengfolk now use them to hold off Ungolithryx and compel her attacks. Unless victory’s imminent after two rounds of combat, X’nog and G’nox attempt escape (etherealness) with spider drake eggs in hand one round after Blotch too teleports away, carrying what eggs he can and leaving Ungolithryx and the spiders of Leng to the adventurers.

Victorious PCs have much to consider afterward. What to do about the deadly dress, the Tamasheq chieftain and his bride, or the Lengfolk? What of Abdel al-Uzzah, his schemes and motivations, or the PCs’ current situation—desert castaways, wounded, lost, and unknown leagues from the nearest aid?

<<PREVIOUSLY

“Forth from craggy peaks they strode,
Their blades bright-shined and razor-honed.
Before them lay a dangerous road,
With enemies both far and near.

With sword and shield, with axe and spear,
They fought with valor and gained song-fame.
It was wisdom they sought, knowledge earned dear,
A raven’s whisper in the All Father’s ear.

Though no one knows from whence they came,
The tale is told from fane to fane,
Of Warriors who honor Wotan’s name.”

—from the Scrolls of the Raven Father

Wotan’s Warriors are a small band of dwarven reavers who came together to form a highly mobile, elite squad in the name of Wotan, the All Father. Rumors of the squad’s purpose are many and varied—some say that Wotan’s Warriors were assembled to gather information on the Mother of Madness and her worshippers while others swear that their sole purpose is to quietly dispatch enemies of Wotan with deadly force. Whatever their assignments, they are known throughout the Northlands as skilled fighters, clever strategists, and connoisseurs of fine ale.

Wotan’s Warriors report directly to Brökk Kolisen, the high priest of Wotan. However, there are whispers among Wotan’s faithful that they may have gone rogue, breaking ties with the official organization of warpriests. Brökk Kolisen is a human, though raised among dwarves and generally considered a dwarf by bond if not blood, so rumormongers speculate that the Warriors resented being commanded by a non-dwarf and refused to take orders from Brökk.

The Warriors were last seen near the Gloaming Crag, where they are reportedly hunting a mighty frost giant known as Coldmaw.

Torven the Runekeeper

Unusually for a dwarf, Torven uses no family or clan name, though he is clearly a native of the Northlands. Before the Warriors were assembled, Torven was a priest at Wotan’s shrine in Stannasgard, and he is often called the Runekeeper for his mastery of rune magic. Torven is the unofficial leader of Wotan’s Warriors, and his grey-streaked hair and watchful eyes give him the appearance of a stern but kindly father.

Torven is slow to anger and slow to forgive. Those who inspire his wrath are sure to feel the full might of Wotan’s Warriors, an experience that few have survived. He values loyalty, fairness, and justice and abhors petty tyranny, cowardice, and greed.

Relationships. Torven and Greta are the most experienced members of the group, and he follows Greta’s lead in matters of battle strategy and tactics. He privately thinks of Almaro and Bronwyn as the children he never had. Torven trusts Gunther, but it bothers him that Gunther won’t share the details of his past—if Gunther has old enemies, then the group should be prepared for whatever might come their way.

Torven the Runekeeper

Medium humanoid (dwarf), lawful neutral
Armor Class 18 (plate)
Hit Points 117 (18d8 + 36)
Speed 25 ft.

Saving Throws Wis +7, Cha +3
Skills History +3, Insight +7, Religion +3
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages Common, Dwarvish
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Dwarven Resilience. Torven has advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance to poison damage.

Runekeeper’s Blessing. Torven knows the runes dagaz, gebu, ingwaz, and mannaz (see Midgard Heroes Handbook). The blessing of Wotan allows him to trace the ingwaz rune using one action, rather than the usual 2 rounds.

Spellcasting. Torven is an 8th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). He has the following cleric spells prepared:

• Cantrips (at will): bless the dead*, guidance, mending, sacred flame
• 1st level (4 slots): cure wounds, deep breath*, guiding bolt, longstrider, shield of faith
• 2nd level (3 slots): blade of wrath*, lesser restoration, see invisibility, spiritual weapon
• 3rd level (3 slots): call lightning, fear, glyph of warding, revivify
• 4th level (2 slots): divination, faithful hound, inspiring speech*

Actions

Multiattack. Torven makes two attacks with his spear.

Divine Spear. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage and 7 (2d6) radiant damage.

Ingwaz. Torven traces the ingwaz rune upon the face of a willing creature. That creature gains the benefits of a barbarian’s Rage feature as though it were an 8th-level barbarian…

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This strong and handsome warrior has a snarling hyena’s face at the back of its head.

Dark Appetites. Kishi are two-faced male demons perpetually driven by their voracious appetites, carnal or otherwise, with a predilection for female humanoids. Kishi frequently behead, scalp, or skin their conquests and decorate their shields with their trophies.

Hats and Veils. Kishi demons typically masquerade as muscular warriors or glib storytellers, wearing elaborate headdresses or clan veils to hide the demonic hyena face on the back of their head.

Deadly Charmers. They use magical and nonmagical means of persuasion to inveigle women into their embrace, but their trysts always end in a grisly feast upon their victim’s flesh.

KISHI DEMON

Medium fiend (demon), chaotic evil
Armor Class 18 (natural armor, shield)
Hit Points 119 (14d8 + 56)
Speed 50 ft.

Saving Throws Dex +8, Con +7, Wis +3
Skills Deception +9, Perception +3, Performance +9
Damage Resistances cold, fire, lightning, poison; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical weapons
Damage Immunities poison
Condition Immunities poisoned
Senses darkvision 120 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Celestial, Common, Draconic, Infernal, telepathy 120 ft.
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Two Heads. The demon has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks and on saving throws against being blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, stunned, and knocked unconscious.

Innate Spellcasting. The demon’s spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 17). The demon can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

• At will: detect evil and good, detect magic, suggestion
• 3/day: glibness
• 1/day: dominate person

Magic Resistance. The demon has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Trophy Shield. If the kishi demon killed an opponent this turn, as a bonus action, it takes part of the slain creature’s essence along with a grisly trophy and mounts it upon its shield. For 24 hours, the Armor Class of the kishi demon becomes 20, and creatures of the same race as the slain creature have disadvantage on attack rolls against the kishi demon.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The demon makes one bite attack and three spear attacks.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 12 (2d6 + 5) piercing damage.

Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage, or 8 (1d8 + 4) piercing damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack.

VARIANT: DEMON SUMMONING

Some kishi demons have an action option that allows them to summon other demons.

Summon Demon (1/Day): The kishi demon has a 35 percent chance of summoning one kishi demon.

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

There are few in Midgard who worship Loki and fewer still who openly admit to doing so. Whether called Loki, Hermes, Kvasir, or any of his countless aliases, the trickster god gives few demands of his followers, and said followers are happy to simply wreak mayhem as suits their own designs.

A small sect of Loki’s worshippers saw an opportunity, however. Led by a trickster-priest claiming to be directed by the god himself, the group hires itself out to thieves’ guilds, small-time crooks, crime lords, and anyone else who can afford their rates. This so-called “Fading Legion” commits theft, defacement, arson, and even kidnappings and murder for the right price, using a magical lotion that allows them to change their appearance. Less costly (and less obvious) than invisibility magic, this oil of alteration provides the perfect cover—and alibi—for those who wish to exploit it.

Only the uppermost echelons of the organization know who makes the oil of alteration. Most members believe the leader alone has the ability. Each dose comes individually packaged in a leather bottle. Because the creation of the oil is a mystery, no one is quite sure who possesses the formula for creating it. Attempts to reverse-engineer the process have met with failure, and attempts to sell the packets have resulted in terrible curses.

Of course, not many could say for sure whether the sect’s leader truly receives directions from Loki. In fact, no one can credibly claim to have ever met the elusive leader in person, though in fairness, it would be difficult to say if they had. Followers of Loki are by necessity a canny lot, and claiming to have the attention of the god is a near-unbelievable claim. Naturally, such a setup also sounds just like the kind of trick the Lord of Deception would pull . . .

The Fading Legion consists mostly of commoners and cultists guided by superiors known as trickster votaries, with each individual sect led by a high priest/administrator known as an ármann.

Trickster Votary

Use the statistics for a cult fanatic but replace the Spellcasting trait with the following:

Spellcasting. The trickster votary is a 4th-level spellcaster. Their spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 11, +3 to hit with spell attacks). The trickster votary has the following cleric spells prepared:

• Cantrips (at will): dancing lights, spare they dying, thaumaturgy
• 1st level (4 slots): charm person, disguise self, inflict wounds
• 2nd level (3 slots): pass without trace, spiritual weapon

Trickster Ármann

Medium humanoid (any race), any non-lawful alignment
Armor Class 15 (chain shirt)
Hit Points 78 (12d8 + 24)
Speed 30 ft.

Skills Deception +4, Perception +5, Persuasion +4
Senses passive Perception 15
Languages any two languages
Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Innate Spellcasting. The ármann’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma. They can innately cast the following spells (spell save DC 12), requiring no material components:

• At will: disguise self

Spellcasting. The ármann is an 8th-level spellcaster. Their spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 13, +5 to hit with spell attacks). The ármann has the following cleric spells prepared:

• Cantrips (at will): dancing lights, spare they dying, thaumaturgy
• 1st level (4 slots): charm person, disguise self, protection from evil and good
• 2nd level (3 slots): misty step, spiritual weapon
• 3rd level (3 slots): blink, dispel magic, hypnotic pattern
• 4th level (2 slots): phantasmal killer

Actions

Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) poison damage.

Light Crossbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 80/320 ft., one target.

Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 4 (1d8) poison damage.

Blessing of Loki. The ármann touches a willing creature other than itself to give it advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. This blessing lasts for 1 hour or until the ármann uses this feature again.

Cloak of Shadows. The ármann becomes invisible until the end of their next turn. It becomes visible if it attacks or casts a spell.

New Magic Item

The Fading Legion issues oil of alteration to its operatives for use in “fading” into the crowd after a heist or other operation. Generally, the operatives apply the oil in advance and use it to shift between appearances as needed as they work.

In order to identify themselves as they shift amongst forms, most teams agree upon an insignia such as a red flower pinned to the lapel, a red sash worn across the shoulders, or a similar visual device. Using this technique, the team members can keep track of who is on their side no matter what form they change into using the oil.

An observer can identify the presence of this insignia by succeeding on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check or a DC 13 Intelligence (Investigation) check.

Oil of Alteration

Potion, uncommon

Beads of multicolored oil form on the outside of its container and seem to be constantly shifting. The oil can cover a Medium or smaller creature, along with the equipment it’s wearing and carrying (one additional vial is required for each size category above Medium). Applying the oil takes 10 minutes. The affected creature then gains the change appearance effect of the alter self spell for 1 hour.

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Bonus actions are easily one of the most confusing parts of a combat turn in 5th Edition. In fact, designer Mike Mearls dislikes bonus actions and has declared that they are “fairly hacky” and that he prefers to run games without them. So why do bonus actions exist, and how can we understand them? To answer the first question, let’s take a look at the genealogy of bonus actions.

In the 3rd Edition era, the concept of swift actions was not part of the core books but was introduced in the Miniatures Handbook shortly after the release of the core game. The SRD (System Reference Document) for 3.5 states:

A swift action consumes a very small amount of time, but represents a larger expenditure of effort and energy than a free action. You can perform one swift action per turn without affecting your ability to perform other actions. […] You can perform only a single swift action per turn, regardless of what other actions you take. [However, many characters] never have an opportunity to take a swift action.

Basically, a swift action is a once-per-turn chance to do something that is (usually) less powerful than a standard action. It also offers the opportunity for same-turn combos: a Shadow Hand swordsage could use Cloak of Deception (a swift action) to become invisible for the turn and then attack with a bonus as a standard action. However, note that a character without any swift action abilities can’t use a swift action.

In 4th Edition, minor actions were part of the core rules. Minor actions were similar to swift actions in that they were a once-per-turn option for a smaller power, such as sustaining an effect (keeping a power active) or casting certain spells. They could be prepared using the ready an action option or gained by spending an action point. Minor actions were a key part of the 4th Edition ruleset, but they also contributed to the infamously long and complicated nature of fourth edition combat.

That brings us to 5th Edition, which includes bonus actions in the core rules:

Various class features, spells, and other abilities let you take an additional action on your turn called a bonus action. The Cunning Action feature, for example, allows a rogue to take a bonus action. You can take a bonus action only when a special ability, spell, or other feature of the game states that you can do something as a bonus action. You otherwise don’t have a bonus action to take.
      You can take only one bonus action on your turn, so you must choose which bonus action to use when you have more than one available.
      You choose when to take a bonus action during your turn, unless the bonus action’s timing is specified, and anything that deprives you of your ability to take actions also prevents you from taking a bonus action.

In 5th Edition, bonus actions continue to be a once-a-turn option to do something in addition to using your action to attack, cast a spell, disengage, etc. A key point to note is that you don’t necessarily have a bonus action on your turn unless you have a specific ability, spell, or feature to use as a bonus action. So by the rules as written, you can’t make an ability check, draw a second weapon, or kick an enemy as a bonus action, though your GM may decide to rule otherwise.

That doesn’t seem too difficult, but the confusion often arises when considering two-weapon fighting. The rules for two-weapon fighting are worth reading (and rereading and rereading to internalize the exact wording):

When you take the Attack action and attack with a light melee weapon that you’re holding in one hand, you can use a bonus action to attack with a different light melee weapon that you’re holding in the other hand. You don’t add your ability modifier to the damage of the bonus attack, unless that modifier is negative.

So you can attack with two light melee weapons using the Attack action and a bonus action. Note that an unarmed strike is not a weapon (it doesn’t appear in the Weapons table of the updated Player’s Handbook), but you can make a melee weapon attack with an unarmed strike. Thus, by the strict interpretation of the rules as written, you can’t use two-weapon fighting with unarmed strikes. Of course, this doesn’t really make sense—if you can attack with two daggers, why not with two fists?—so most games I’ve seen interpret this more generously. But now we start to see why bonus actions can get a little messy when combined with two-weapon fighting.

For GMs (and designers), it’s worth noting that most monsters don’t have bonus actions, which makes running them much simpler. Even monsters based off of humanoid characters, such as the bandit captain, typically have any bonus action attacks rolled into a Multiattack feature.

Let’s also cover some common questions for players surrounding bonus actions:

• If a fighter with Action Surge wielding two shortswords takes the Attack action and a bonus action to attack and uses Action Surge to attack again, they get three attacks total (Attack action + bonus action + Attack action). If they have the Extra Attack feature, they can make five attacks total (Attack action for two attacks + bonus action + Attack action for two attacks).
• Similarly, if a monk takes the Attack action and then uses Flurry of Blows, they also get three attacks total (Attack action + bonus action to make two unarmed strikes). If they have the Extra Attack feature, they can make four attacks total (Attack action for two attacks + bonus action to make two unarmed strikes).

If you’re still confused, don’t worry—you’re not alone. What’s important is that everyone at your table has fun playing the game. And if you’re bothered by someone else using a different interpretation of the rules, talk to the GM outside of a game session to address it, rather than stopping in the middle of combat to discuss rules.

Leave a comment below if you have questions or want to suggest future topics for the Mastering the Mechanics series!

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Greetings, travelers! And welcome to Beyond the Audience where we shall discuss a topic many in our community have on their minds: how do I build games that appeal to both my players and an overarching audience.

We find ourselves in an era where everyone either has an actual-play podcast, stars in a livestreamed game, is publishing adventures, or is dreaming of doing any number of the above. We occupy a space where our content isn’t built to delight solely our own tables anymore, so we aim to appeal to a wider audience. This series offers guidance to addressing that goal, honing in on a different topic each month.

But let’s dive in, shall we?

To start this off with a bang, I want to propose something that will sound general, but stick with me, for I promise it is full of specific applications. My first offering is simply this: leave blank space in your world. This phrase can be taken literally with your world maps or figuratively with your stories, though I recommend a hearty mixture of both. Players at a game table want to feel like the world of the story belongs to them, and this desire scales with the addition of a listening, viewing, or reading audience. Your players and your audience will inevitably decide which locations, which player characters, which “ships,” and which non-player characters are their favorites. Listening to their feedback and steering your game to embrace these favorites builds a huge rapport with your audience.

A great example of this can be found in the wildly popular actual-play podcast The Adventure Zone where a non-player character jokingly named Barry Bluejeans was so well-loved by the listeners that he eventually evolved into an integral part of the entire show.

All this isn’t to say that your audience should choose the entire course of your story. On the contrary, your audience wants to trust the majesty of the plot to the GM, for it is in exploring the mundane where most humor and joy can be found for your consumers. Calling on your audience to name the local tavern, to decide what the shopkeeper looks like, or to suggest the trinkets found by the players are some easy ways to invite your audience into the world of your game. There are a lot of shows out there using this method successfully: two I would recommend checking out are the podcasts You Meet in A Tavern and Fate and the Fablemaidens.

If the idea of incorporating audience suggestions makes you sweat, you can still adhere to the principle that is at the heart of this topic: actively listen to your audience. If you are creating something for the public, you absolutely must engage publicly.

Every GM I have cherished has one thing in common: an ability to successfully communicate. Frequent check-ins with players about their moods during games, their level of enjoyment, what they would like to see for their characters, are a sure-fire way to elevate a tabletop experience from good to outstanding. It should come as a surprise to no one that these principles extend to your audience at large. To find out what people love, you must listen to people. Today, an active social media presence is non-negotiable when building and maintaining a community.

When I began to build Venture Maidens four years ago, I had no idea how Twitter worked. Services like Discord and Twitch were a complete mystery to us as a team. As we began to scrape together an understanding of these platforms, the night-to-day shift of results was incredible. Suddenly, we had a way to hear what it was people liked about our show. We were able to absorb this feedback and steer our show in a direction that people truly valued. These days, we aren’t hustling for every follower, but you can bet your chips that I take the time to read every single Discord “spoiler thread” and note every piece of fan art. For what purpose? To tell me what should go in the blank space of our world. The characters that your audience love should fill the blank space; the plot threads people gasp over should be the ones that continue in your blank space; the hated villains, the loved relationships, and so on.

The best and truest advice I can ever offer is to not walk into your podcast, stream, or publication with every single detail filled in. The breathing space is what allows all those moments of humor and magic to arise around a table. And let’s face it, we all play to taste that little bit of magic, right?

Well, that’s all from me this week. So go out there and find out what your audience wants to see in those blank spaces! Until then, happy gaming.

Welcome back to From the Archives where we look at older Kobold Press offerings, most written for other systems or previous editions, that contain jewels of great lore for your 5th Edition games. For our second outing, we’re going to examine an early tome that positively drips with exciting ideas.

I’m talking about Sunken Empires by Brandon Hodge, one of the earliest of Midgard documents. As Head Kobold Wolfgang Baur explains, “This was the third in the Gazetteers line (the first was Zobeck for 3.5E and then Ironcrag Dwarves for 3.5E as well). These are effectively the origin products for Midgard, though I was just calling it Midgard at the time and no Midgard logo yet existed.” There you have it. This is almost pre-Midgard Midgard, which is more than apropos since our focus today is going to be on ancient civilizations and lost cities. In short, we’re taking a deep dive into the past of the world, both in Midgard chronology and Kobold Press history!

Sunken Empires features 77 pages of content written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. It opens with an introduction by David “Zeb” Cook, reminiscing on his creation of the aboleth (which first appeared in a TSR adventure called Dwellers in the Forbidden City), and then it leaps into an overview of sunken cities from myth and legend. Here Hodge provides some very informative summations of where the mythos of Atlantis, Mu, and Lemuria originated. He details what was known about them at the start and takes us through the major players—the psychics, charlatans, and cultists—who added to their lore over the years. I learned a lot myself from this section, particularly about the way that Mu and Lemuria built upon Atlantean myth for their own pseudo-histories.

This is followed by a discussion of new underwater races and characters for the game, spells and magic, new creatures, adventure hooks, aquatic equipment, lost technology, spells and magic items, and suggestions for playing in “the sunken environment.” But what’s the most exciting for me, as a 5E GM and a Midgard fanatic, is the last bit of chapter one, in which Hodge shows how a GM can take inspiration from Atlantis and other “real world” sunken cities and create their own lost kingdom. By way of example, he creates the Lost City of Ankeshel and the modern settlement of the Twin Cities of Cassadega that grew up alongshore of its ruins.

Now, Ankeshel and Cassadega are both names that are scattered throughout the Midgard Worldbook. The opening “Overview and History” has three paragraphs on the Rise and Fall of Ankeshel and the “The Wasted West” chapter has a writeup on the city of Cassadega under the section on the Magocracy of Allain. There, we learn that Ankesh was an island in the western ocean blessed with copper, iron, and orichalcum ore. The humans there mastered a primitive form of science-magic called vril, but eventually their civilization was destroyed. Several theories as to the cause are presented, including that it was destroyed by aboleths, krakespawn, the children of Caelmarath, the servants of Nethus, the sahuagin, or the leviathan monster known as the Isonade. However it fell, the civilization ceased 3,000 years ago, but some 90 years from the present date, the ruins of Old Ankeshel were found just off the northern coast of Allain by patrols from Tintager. Scholars flocked to the area, but when the tomb of priest-king Thalassos IV was found beneath the waves, along with a working Vril battery, the treasure seekers and magic hunters came as well, and a full-on city grew up. Now, people search for functioning vril weapons, orichalcum ore, magical glyphs, and a way to decipher the impenetrable Ankeshelian language.

That’s all wonderful material. Great lore with some baked in hooks. But if you want to drill deeper beneath the waves then you’re going to need Sunken Empires. It’s there that we learn that the city wasn’t an island but a coastal town along a rich river delta. We discern the role that the aboleths played in the actual founding of the city, the way they bequeathed magical power and even immortality upon the city’s elite. We hear of the people’s growing discontent and mounting resistance to their puppet rulers and the subsequent rebellion, the war against the aboleths, and how the aboleths eventually brought down the city. We also learn that Cassadega isn’t one city, it’s the Twin Cities of Cassadega, because a city of merfolk now exists just off the shore, trading with its sister city above the waves. And then there’s the Brink, a deep underwater trench that even the merfolk fear to explore but from which guttural calls echo and out of which strange monuments sometimes rise. Sunken Empires also describes the forgotten origins of merfolk and details the way in which the secret of the Ankeshelian language might be cracked at last. What’s more, there’s a gorgeous map of the Twin Cities of Cassadega drawn by none other than cartographer Jonathan Roberts (who would go on to be the cartographer for George R. R. Martin’s Westeros setting). The map and the added lore are intriguing and really flesh out the details a GM would need for an adventure in Cassadega.

Part of that lore is that the aboleths transformed unfortunate beings sacrificed to them, and when the city rebelled against their rule, they sent those same beings out of the water as ulat-kini, “emerging from the waves and leaping over the orichalcum walls of the city.” Of course, the ulat-kini are a Pathfinder race. For your 5E game, you could substitute sahuagin easily, or if you want, you could use this very handy conversion that Rich Howard did for Tribality in his article “50 Aquatic Enemies for 6th–10th Level Characters.”

Going a step further, you can also build on the Ankeshel/Cassadega lore with a more recent offering from Kobold Press. The vril technology that Hodge describes (some of which appears again in the Midgard Worldbook) has been expanded in Warlock #10: The Magocracies. The final chapter, “Amidst the Dust: Hardy Survivors and Lost Relics” by Dan Dillon, details Ankeshelian Relics, including four types of vril batteries (with information on their cost, weight, and number of charges), Ankeshelian armor, a vril shield, and vril-powered vehicles and weapons. These artifacts might be found for purchase in Cassadega, or they might be discovered in yet unplundered ruins beneath the waves.

So while you’d be fine just going with what’s in the Worldbook, if you wanted to dive back into the past for more detail in Sunken Empires and combine that with the information on vril technology in Warlock (as well as the added lore therein on the Wasted West, Bemmea, and Tintager), you could spin quite a campaign about exploring ancient ruins for forgotten magics and arcane sciences, tying in the forgotten origins of the merfolk, the quest to resurrect a dead language, lurking ulat-kini, and perhaps even the returning threat of an ancient foe, the aboleths. If so, the final entry in Sunken Empires, “The Ecology of the Aboleth,” may be of assistance to you. Did you know that the monsters grow cities out of coral? Or that they cannot abide orichalcum? With a little tweaking, the optional rule Orichalcum Warding is going in my game. When you read Sunken Empires, you’ll want it in yours as well.

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Lou Anders is the author of Frostborn, Nightborn, and Skyborn, the three books of the Thrones  & Bones series of middle grade fantasy adventures, as well as the novel Star Wars: Pirate’s Price. You can find out more about him and his works at www.louanders.com and visit him on Facebook and on Twitter @LouAnders.

The Ironcrags rise out of central Midgard, a stony sword thrust toward the heavens and the homeland of numerous dwarven clans that migrated from the Northlands. They found the mountains rich and verdant and established many scores of canton strongholds throughout the peaks and valleys. While dwarven culture became more urbane and political, the dwarves never lost their taste for combat and martial activities. Mercenary companies created by younger dwarves and aging veterans unwilling to retire quietly march out early each spring to earn fortunes and hard-fought experience on the battlefield. The cantons benefit from those who return, gaining an influx of blooded veterans, strategy, and treasure.

Mustering and Marching

Never ones to shy away from combat, Ironcrag mercenary companies gather in the canton of Tijano, mustering and recording their heraldry with the priests of Volund before marching out to serve under the banners of the Septime Cities throughout that region’s Season of War.

While this tradition does provide valuable combat experience, it also provides dwarves the opportunity to take captives, pressing them into service as thralls for 10 years. The custom discourages others from attacking the Ironcrags, both for fear of becoming a thrall and for concern on the safety of countrymen held as thralls. Thralls are fed and cared for, worked hard but not beaten, generally receiving a tattoo or brand on the shoulder to mark their status, and live a decade of hard labor before being released. Dwarven law dictates all slaves have the right to sustenance, shelter, and life, and they are permitted to complain to a magistrate if denied food or to accuse a dwarf of killing a slave.

As warriors, the Ironcrag Free Companies enjoy excellent reputations for steadfast dedication, the ability to endure harsh conditions without complaint, and being ferocious combatants. Their shorter stature almost never plays a role, and they often match their allies’ marching pace while wearing heavier armor. However, dwarven mercenaries are also known for using any advantage they can find on the battlefield. They love using the terrain to their advantage and performing night operations, using their darkvision and discipline to work from the shadows when an enemy might otherwise be blind.

Tools of the Trade

Two new weapons presented here, the chain hook and the Dolen axe, offer maneuvers to make combat more interesting, called Weapon Options. Weapon Options appear in Midgard Heroes Handbook and unless specified otherwise can be used by any character as long as they’re wielding the appropriate weapon and are proficient with it. If a maneuver requires a creature to make a saving throw, the DC equals 8 + the attacker’s proficiency bonus + the attacker’s Strength or Dexterity modifier (attacker’s choice). Unless specified, these maneuvers have only their listed effect and don’t deal weapon damage.

Chain Hook

This unusual and multipurpose weapon greatly resembles a robust, utilitarian interpretation of the Cathayan yawanga. Its development and use among canton mercenary companies is uncertain but may have traveled west with merchants or explorers. Consisting of 6–9 feet of hefty chain and terminating in an iron weight set with a bladed hook, this weapon can be used to attack, unhorse, and even occasionally disarm opponents.

You have disadvantage when attacking creatures within 5 feet of you.

Weapon Option: Disarm

When a creature attacks you with a weapon, you may use your reaction to catch their weapon and attempt to disarm them. Make an attack roll with your chain hook. If the result of this roll equals or exceeds their attack roll, their attack misses, and they must succeed on a Strength saving throw or drop their weapon.

Weapon Option: Trip

As an attack while you are wielding a chain hook, you may entangle your opponent’s legs, attempting to trip them. Make an attack roll against a Large or smaller creature. If the attack hits, the creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw or fall prone. If mounted, they have advantage on this saving throw; failure indicates they are pulled to the ground, prone.

Special Material: Soulbound Steel

Steel forged with the ashes of the fallen dead, first pickled in ale and cremated through special ritual to Ninkash, creates a special alloy known as soulbound steel, said to contain a sliver of the spirit of the warrior rendered into ashes. The strong, flexible metal has a light grey color and a beautiful, powdery finish, sometimes worked into frost-like patterns. Armor is not usually made of soulbound steel although rarely a buckler or shield is forged. Other items not primarily of metal are not meaningfully affected by being partially made of soulbound steel: a longsword can be a soulbound weapon while a staff cannot. When wielding a weapon made from soulbound steel, once per long rest, the bearer may use their reaction to roll a saving throw with advantage against a mind-affecting spell, effect, or ability. A character can only benefit from a soulbound steel item once per long rest, regardless of how many they possess. These weapons cost an additional 500 gp to create…

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Read more of this and other great articles in Warlock, only on Patreon!

To the west of the Crescent Desert lie the harsh and foreboding lands of the Dominion of the Wind Lords. Here, the great Stone Desert stretches to the sea in sun-baked plains of red and black rock. This is a bleakly beautiful landscape devoid of the crescent-shaped sand dunes found elsewhere in the Southlands. The seemingly barren Stone Desert hides bubbling springs, seasonal waterholes, and a scattering of precious oases.

DOMINION OF THE WIND LORDS

Ruled by the Wind Lords and home to living nature spirits, the enigmatic jinnborn, and the Tamasheq, the Dominion’s days of greatness are long gone. Once, the region boasted the Moon Kingdom of the minotaurs, a shining jewel of arts and learning, and the magnificent civilization of Golden Ulthar. Today the Dominion is filled with the ruins of past glories and inhabited by dangerous gnolls, treacherous elemental spirits, and secretive Tamasheq nomads as mercurial as they are haughty.

Within the Dominion, most elements of nature have an animating spirit bound to them, aware and conscious, each with its own personality and character. For the past 800 years, these spirits have fought a cruel civil war between forces loyal to the Wind Lords and those beholden to Boreas, the North Wind. The struggle’s long timeline does not make it any less dangerous for mortals who end up caught in the middle. Spirits angry with one side or the other often lash out at passing caravans, and sometimes entire tribes vanish beneath battling earth elementals. Life in the Stone Desert is never easy, and the wise take pains not to end up caught in the spirits’ epic struggle.

The Wind Lords

The Wind Lords are ancient and powerful entities from the earliest ages of the world, created from the breath of the giant Aurgelmir. While they have almost no interest in the lands outside their borders, they take an active and personal role in the Dominion’s internal affairs. Chergui the East Wind is the most benevolent to mortals, embodying the cleansing winds that blow from the sea to soothe the Stone Desert’s heat, and acting as a calming influence on his peers. Conversely, Shamal the West hates mortals and wants to drive them from the spirits’ lands. The West Wind is an enveloping gale of rocks and grit that scours flesh from bone and wears mountains into dust. Khamsin the South Wind embodies the hot winds that blow from the southern wastes. A being of extremes, both in temperature and temperament, Khamsin’s opinions float between those of his fellow lords.

Opposing these three is Boreas, the North Wind who has been reborn as a true god. He maintains a separate realm far to the north, but he often visits the Dominion to stir up trouble. Serving him are the spirits he has gathered as allies and three major Tamasheq tribes.

Jinnborn

Scattered throughout the Dominion of the Wind Lords— and, to a lesser extent, the Crescent Desert—are insular tribes of jinnborn. Native people from the deepest deserts, the jinnborn claim they were the first mortals to walk the world. They say that in the beginning, all the world was a vast desert beneath a fiery sun; in those times, the jinnborn wandered where they willed, and ruled over all they saw. They refer to themselves as the sab siraat, or “people of the path.” Descended from powerful elemental creatures called jinn, the jinnborn manifest gifts through their lineage that help them survive their harsh home environment. Air sab siraat are proud and aloof. Fire-based sab siraat are vicious and draconian. Water sab siraat are carefree but mercurial, and earth sab siraat are stoic and driven. Even with these tendencies, though, jinnborn tribes exhibit great diversity in customs, laws, stories, and mannerisms.

Passionate people, the jinnborn seek wealth when they can, revel in revenge when they must, and cherish close companionship always. Outsiders label them as capricious or even savage, never fully aware of the veil that hides the jinnborn’s true nature. For more information on playing a jinnborn character, see the Southlands Campaign Setting or Unlikely Heroes.

Tamasheq, People of the Desert

Virtually unknown outside the desert, half a million Tamasheq inhabit the Southlands. Most live in the Stone Desert, but they are also widespread throughout the Crescent and Sarklan Deserts surrounding Nuria Natal. They speak their own hidden tongue, called Tamasheq, as well as the Southern Tongue and not infrequently Gnoll, Draconic, and Kushite. Organized into vanhu, or tribes of several families each, their lives are spent on the move from oasis to oasis, keeping herds of goats and camels and conducting trade with the Kingdoms of Gold and Salt. A secretive people, they take great pleasure in convincing the Nurians and Kushites that they are simple nomads. The truth, however, is that the Tamasheq have a thriving and advanced civilization, though they take great pains to hide this from the world. Only in their secret capital of Kel Azjer do they flaunt their greatness.

The Tamasheq display signs of their status in their long white robes and colorful turbans, their exquisitely tooled camel saddles, and their elaborate scimitars. Their prowess in surviving desert journeys gives them wealth, valuable trade routes, and a position of great influence. They are expert travelers who can ensure a caravan’s safe journey— and also raiders who can destroy even a well-defended caravan or sandship…

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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. (OGL)

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook, Midgard Heroes Handbook, Creature Codex, and Creature Codex Pawns!