The Bloody Marches - Session Two

Five adventurers stood on the fourth floor of the SINKING TOWER, busy fumigating a wizard's basement in preparation for some magical construction.

• Dewyd the Pious, Friar 1 of Beer & Bread.
• Godwin the Green, Fighter 3.
• Heiwae Mann, Thief 3.
• Robin, Cleric 1 of Phantom Limb.
• Burned Leaves, Elf 1 (retainer of Godwin).

Gavel had volunteered to guard the Brood Snatcher, not trusting the drug-addled blaster caster. He'd lent Godwin his enchanted sickle-sword for killing magical critters.

Dragonbane

The Bloody Marches - Session One, Part Two

With daylight dwindling, the six adventurers went searching for safe anchorage. Hearing tales of traders from the Shattered Islands in the nearby swamps, they soon found the the islanders' outpost, outriggers and stilted huts smelling of fish, spice and woodsmoke.

The adventurers noticed a Triton selling artefacts from a caracoa. Athanasius the Saltman wore an Amulet of Airbreathing and had a bevy of magic items for sale. Godwin tried selling him some Beers of Beard Growth. Despite the Saltman lacking any hair follicles, the fighter managed exchange two flasks for a scroll of Continual Light.

Magic: The Gathering

The Bloody Marches - Session One, Part One

An adventuring party stood on the Brood Snatcher, a riverboat crewed by lizardmen and buccaneers. Their destination was the Bloody Marches, a stretch of frontier bordering the collapsed Serpent Empire, a land of twisting waterways, dense swamps and primordial forests.

• Gavel, Fighter 3.
• Godwin the Green, Fighter 3.
• Heiwae Mann, Thief 3.
• Robin, Cleric 1 of Phantom Limb.
• Burned Leaves, Elf 1 (retainer of Godwin).
• Dewyd the Pious, Friar 1 of Beer & Bread (absentee player).

Gathered around a freshly drawn map, the party noted the location of Serpentman ruins deep in the Marches. Robin, acting as their local guide, cautioned the area would be filled with superpredators, unnatural horrors and tribes of hostile monstermen. Best pursue some easier jobs first, lest they get turned inside out by an overlevelled random encounter.

Arkadi Rylov

Pelts For XP - Hex Collection 6

William Tylee Ranney

With the playtest well underway, it's time to finish the last few hexes. I've also got a few outstanding minidungeons to complete, which should be done in the coming days. 

MEDUSA'S MANSE

This swamp hex has gravel paths made from hundreds of petrified bugs and rodents. They converge on a macabre stone hut of piled earth and calcified animals stacked upon one another. In front of the house is four "statues" of Plated Gator-Rats (CC2), caught mid-snarl.

The hut is 30x30' in size, with no windows and a crude door of driftwood and hides. The interior is 10' deeper than ground level, filled with statues of petrified humans, Orcs, Voormi, Blue-Tongues etc. Unsurprisingly it's the lair of a Medusa (OSE). The monsterwoman is unique insofar as she can undo her petrification, which she abuses to unleash the trapped Gator-Rats on trespassers.

Pelts For XP - Hex Collection 5

Andrew Knez, Jr.

Penultimate hex collection post. I start the playtest tomorrow, so I'll be relying on crib notes if my players reach any unkeyed hexes. I doubt they'll get that far, but it's fine if they do. 

Full credit to Primeumaton for coming up with Uave Twice-Burnt and Izaak Compleat.

HANGTOOTH BLUFF

This hex of riverside cliffs is home to the Hangtooth, a tribe of ten Weretigers (OSE) and the four Sabretooths (OSE) they tamed. The beastmen act like stereotypical barbarians, fighting naked with chert spears, but they're just pissant dirt farmers mutated by Serpentman bioweapons. 

These posers hunt for their food, including humans. They eat plenty of animals who think and speak, so it's really only fair. The tigers accept surrender, but only if you volunteer something (or someone) for the larder. This doesn't include rations, only fresh corpses (they dislike cooked meat and violently gag at the sight of vegetables).

Three Generic Minidungeons

I need to round out my hexcrawl with some dungeons to plunder, there's too many unmapped locations filled with hordes of high HD monsters. Dungeons are a style of play with far greater options for risk mitigation.

This post uses the "Generic Maps" in the Monster Overhaul. I haven't used any of its statblocks, because I don't know how well they map to OSE and I'm already referencing three different bestiaries.

Pelts For XP - Hex Collection 4

Albert Tucker

Time for a quickfire round. 

These will have titles for posterity. I'll also go through my previous posts and name all those hexes. Same with adding local encounters.

Pelts For XP - Travel In The Bloody Marches

Nick Eggenhofer

OVERLAND MOVEMENT

A party's travel speed ('TS') is their encounter movement rate divided by 5. Mounted parties have 8 TS. Sure their mounts can move faster, but only in short bursts (e.g., during encounters). Those travelling on land vehicles like carts or wagons have 6 TS. Parties on boats have 12 TS.

Wilderness experts like Rangers, Wood Elves etc. can allow the party to move through a single hex without spending any TS, once per day. Doesn't stack with additional characters. This ability could be abused to quickly move through very difficult hexes or ford a river (which is intentional).

Minidungeon - Consecrated To Father Flint

Gwion Gwion

KNAP THE BLADES 

CUT THE EYES
SWALLOW THE COALS
CLUB THE SNAKE
STAB THE SNAKE

EAT THE SNAKE

Flintman war chant, transcribed from rock art

Even More Gods

Eucharius Rösslin

BLOODY MOTHER

Neutral goddess of midwifery and pregnancy. Deaths in childbirth are a specter terrorising every race and creed. Without Bloody Mother's loving ministrations, infant mortality would quadruple overnight. 

The Mother's clerics are wandering healers renowned for zealously defending the pregnant and the newlyborn. Some fundamentalists also punish breaches of moral law; absentee parents are chastised or beaten, rapists are mutilated or executed in cruel and unusual fashions. More progressive sects have pioneered pregnancy tests, contraceptives, abortions and caesarean deliveries. 

Religious orthodoxy states that Bloody Mother is either an aspect of the Knacker or Grain Goddess, but her worship likely predates both religions.