Empire of the Ghouls - 28 Sept 2024 Session Planning Notes

Spoilers follow...

Secrets & Clues

• Gybick was the center of the "Mice," the late king of Krakovar's spy network.
• Velda Lupei is the secret leader of the Mice, and is in hiding in Gybick.
• Morrowdown, a village on the road between the Black Fortress and Gybick, has had several years of prosperity despite the undead, but now it's crops and harvest are failing--what could be causing this?
• Grisal controls the Black Fortress. Its warriors and paladins constantly battle the forces of the undead.
• The leader of Grisal is Enzali Hackel, the Defender of the North, a paladin of Khors.
• The great Commander of the Black Fortress, Jaro Whitebeard, leads the main fight against the Darakhul and the Blood Kingdom.
• The vampire lord, Baron Fandorin, of Fandorin Keep is rumored to be capturing dwarves of Grisal instead of merely slaying them in battle. The fell purpose is unknown.
• Baron Fandorin maintains a lair in the Walkers' Wood, called Whispergloom. 
• Whispergloom contains a secret tunnel to the Ghould Imperium.
• Tannenbirg Castle was destroyed by the ghoul assault on Krakovar, but has been rebuilt by the Grand Ruchy of Dornig. It is a center for rebel activity and military staging.
• The people of Wallenbirg are ready to throw off the yoke of the shroud-eaters, but they need someone to undertake the perilous journey north to cement an alliance with the Reaver Dwarves of the Wolfmark, who will take control and protection of the city once the vampires are overthrown.
• The queen of Krakovar is at Kariessen, along with her brother in law, the Archduke Avgost. They direct what forces remain loyal to them against the Blood Kingdom.
• The shrine at Liadmura has the symbols of Valeresh depicted on it. This mysterious structure stands against the wind and weather, and between it's pillars is an area that is mild like a spring day at all times.
• The city of Vallanoria has great military strength and infrastructure--it could be a good target for sabotage.
• They say Baron Urslav, lord of the city of Vallanoria has a bounty of 1000 gp for any rebel turned into him.
• The rulers of the Blood kingdom assemble at the palace in Vallanoria for Ghost Night, which marks the start of winter.
• The Band of the Twice Damned, a mercenary company serving the vampire lords of Morgau, is in Western Krakovar, fighting rebel forces and preying upon villages.
• The rebels opposing the Blood Kingdom's occupation of Krakovar are split in several factions. There are those loyal to the queen and archduke, the former spies of the king, the shield maidens of Sif, and other more opportunistic mercenaries.
• The Shield Maidens of Sif are now based out of the city of Jozht in the Wolfmark.
• One of these mercenary groups, which doesn't care about quarter or rules regarding civilians, is the Grim Accord.
• Many strange monsters walk the dark lands of the Blood Kingdom, released from the underworld and fell tombs by the undead powers that rule the kingdom.
• Many caves in the region have entrances to the underworld and the Empire of the Ghouls under Midgard. These are often treacherous and infested with monsters.
• Direct entrances with easier paths to major cities of the Ghoul Imperium are often heavily guarded locations within the Blood Kingdom.

Fantastic Locations

• Temple of Ninkash at Gunnacks: A massive feasting hall, with three fire pits, giant boars roasting upon spits. Five keg gollems march about, as dwarves fill massive tankards with the beer. Pillars carved with beer flowing and runic designs line the hall, leading to a massive gilded keg on a platform. Large distillery equipment is behind the ceremonial keg, with arcane symbols, and engraved designs of mighty feasts. The hall bustles with energy, as merry revelers enjoy the feast.
• At a certain point, the high priestess of Ninkash, Hilda Gunnacksen, appears and the hall falls silent, as she goes and draws a glass of golden brew from the ceremonial keg with a large glass stein. She raises the stein above her head and speaks and invocation to Ninkash, praying for the blessing of the goddess upon all present, that they might be free and fair in their joyous celebration as the days of high summer pass on into the fading of Autumn. She also prays that their axes will bite ever sharp on the morrow.

Ptolus Campaign: Unexpected Turns

My most recent session of my Ptolus campaign took an unexpected turn when the players decided the rates for rooms on Tavern Row in Midtown cost way too much. Where are the cheapest rooms, and where did they go? The Warrens.

The Warrens have a reputation as the roughest and poorest section of Ptolus. The streets are unnamed and the tenements and builds are closely packed. They found an apartment building advertising a vacancy through a scrawled sign directly on the exterior which could have been mistaken for graffiti. They paid a deposit of two months rent and paid the first month upfront for a single room. The room was unfurnished, on the second floor, with warped floorboards, dust and debris scattered about. The window had no glass, just a torn fabric covering fluttering in the breeze. Water damage around the window and mold and mildew throughout completed the scene. Outside in the hallway, individuals with sunken, blackrimmed, and bloodshot eyes quivered with the shakes from the drug shivvel. 

Certainly a far cry from the warm taproom of the Ghostly Minstrel, with its easy access to Delver’s Square and influencial clientel. 

But it’s what the players were interest in roleplaying, and for at least two of them, it made some sense for their backstories (one is a con artist, and the other grew up in the Warrens but left the city for a long time).

But more than that, it was an interesting exercise in completely improvising an environment and events that occurred, like their trip to an eatery down the street that resulted in one trying a drug for the first time and playing Peg the Tom (the knife between the fingers game) in a high stakes bet. Or the confrontation in the morning after hearing a scream in the alley outside their house. The Warrens native knew to keep well enough away once he found out it was connected to one of the major crime families.

I've always wanted to try out a gritty, crime driven game. I didn't expect the opportunity to arise so soon. Looking forward to exploring a type of fantasy different from my normal fare.

The bigger takeaway is that it helps to have fictional ideas in your head for these situations. TV shows or movies that tell different stories help prime you for improvisation. The players don't care if you ripped off another form of media—they usually don’t even notice! Reading, playing other games, and watching interesting stories all give us opportunities to learn from and create our own unique stories. The coolest part about tabletop RPGs is that you never know where your players will take you once you jump the rails.

Mountain Shrine Battlemap

 

Mountain Shrine map - by Faxfire

The mysterious shrine on the summit of a small mountain persists despite wind and weather. A relic of an ancient empire perhaps, or the arcane creation of a master spellcaster. The summit is detailed as a location for an encounter, with a hidden entrance under a stone alter or statue to a small dungeon beneath the mountain.

I drew this original map partly inspired by the Kobold Press blog's recent description of the dungeon under Liadmura in the Ironcrags. My party has an elven cleric of Valeresh, the Midgard deity mentioned in the article, so it was a perfect fit for a sidequest in my own playthrough of Empire of the Ghouls. The adventure has been a great experience so far, and I highly recommend picking it up, and the Midgard Worldbook!

This website contains unofficial Fan Content for Kobold Press’ Midgard setting. Not approved/endorsed by Kobold Press or Open Design LLC. Portions of the materials used are property of Open Design LLC.

Mharoti Empire Campaign: Resources Index

In a recent Twitch stream, Mike Shea of Sly Flourish mentioned his plans to set his next campaign in Kobold Press’ Midgard setting in the Dragon Empire. I’ve been slowly combing the my Warlock and Worldbooks from Kobold Press, and I love his campaign concept so I figured I might as well throw together an index of material that would be helpful for such a campaign. Below is a list of relevant sources on the Dragon Empire and surrounding regions. In addition to the outstanding resources in Kobold Press’ Warlock Grimoires, definitely don’t sleep on the outstanding content from its blog—which regularly produces publication quality content and lore that you can access for free.

Dragon Empire

Warlock Grimoire 1

• 10 Magnificent Sultans of the Mharoti Empire (pg. 33)
• Into the Dragon Empire: Maria and the Islands (pg. 39)
• Phosus: Dread Wyrm of the Falls (pg. 124)
• Dragon Turtles of Midgard (pg. 129)
• Terrors of the Dragon Empire (pg. 137)
• Yek Demons (pg. 142)
• Blood Mages of Kaa’nesh (pg. 216)

Warlock Grimoire 2

• Treasure Vaults of Midgard (pg. 81)
• Galvanix (pg. 162)
• Lost Combat Spells and War Magics of the Red Wastes (pg. 210)

Warlock Grimoire 3

• Dancing with Dragons: Intrigues of the Mharoti (pg. 68)
• Dragon Templates (pg. 174)
• Barbarian Subclass: Path of the Dragon (pg. 271)
• Warlock Patron: The Great Dragons (pg. 274)

Warlock Grimoire 4

• Azure Band: Organized Crime in the Dragon Empire (pg.144) 

Kobold Press Blog

• True or False: Rumors of the Mharoti Empire
• Warlock’s Apprentice: Intrigues of the Mharoti
• Welcome to Midgard: Origins of the Mharoti Empire
• Midgard Expanded: The Travels of Lucano Volpe, or On the Road to Mharoti
• Mharoti Master Chef: A Background 
• Exotic Trade Goods of the Mharoti Bazaars
• Midgard Monday: Favor of the Dragon Empire
• Midgard Monday: Teeth of the Dragon Empire 
• Midgard Monday: Twists of the Dragon Empire 
• Adventure Jigsaw: What Lies Beneath
• Midgard Monday: Prospects of the Dragon Empire
• Moving to Midgard: Favored Nations
• Midgard Monday: Eyes of the Dragon Empire
• Wyverns of Midgard 
• Bhain Kwai Minotaurs of Midgard
• Lizardfolk of Midgard
• Trolls in Midgard
• Shoal Gnomes of Midgard 
• Saints of Midgard: Fire Saint Tyverus
• Magical Wastelands: Battlefields
• Saints of Midgard: Stone-Saint Elharee 
• Rogue’s Gallery: Zarkut Baros
• Midgard Icons: The Dragon Sultan 
• Welcome to Midgard: Khanate of the Khazzaki
• Welcome to Midgard: The Great Serpent
• Midgard Heroes: Kobolds
• Races of Midgard: Chernomoi
• Terrors of the Dragon Empire: Dracotaur
• Terrors of the Dragon Empire: Scorpion Assassin
• Dragoncoil Guide: A Background
• Terrors of the Dragon Empire: Wyvern Knight
• Draconian Academe: A Background 
• Midgard Expanded: The Travels of Lucano Volpe, or Betik and the Book
• Midgard Expanded: The Travels of Lucano Volpe, or So it Begins
• 13th Age: Dragonleaf Tree
• Midgard Icons: The Dragon Sultana
• Monster Monday: Tekelnetiress, the Sultana’s Pin

Beldestan

Warlock Grimoire 1

• The Forbidden Mountains of Beldestan (pg. 21)

Nuria Natal

Warlock Grimoire 3

• Wonderous Locales of the Southlands (pg. 154)
• A Survey of Southern Occultism (pg. 278)

Elemental Planes

Although they are not necessary for a Mharoti campaign, the Elemental planes of Midgard are closely tied to the Dragon Empire due to the elemental cults and magic there. The article below specifically mentions the Dragon Empire connection, but the articles on the other planes might be helpful as well.

Warlock Grimoire 4

• Endless Skies: Elemental Plane of Air (pg. 77)

Adventures 

Bonus: I’m scrubbing through the various Kobold Press adventure anthologies and pulling out ones that would be appropriate to a campaign in the Dragon Empire. I’m also including ones that might easily be moved there or are set in a nearby region.

Book of Lairs

• Castle of Sand
• The Hive
• Monument of the Thunderer (Nuria Natal)
• Tomb of the Scorpion Prince
• Fane of Serpents
• Sky Stairs of Beldestan
• Citadel of the Void Dragons 

Creature Codex Lairs

• Lair of the Fire Cult
• Caverns of the Howling Moon
• Swept Away
• King of Ill Fortune

Tome of Beasts 2 Lairs

• To Track a Thief
• The Forsaken Fort
• Fight for Horseshoe Rock Oasis
• House of the Worm God
• Terror at Mountain Lotus Temple 
• Tunnels Below Skulltop Tor
• Fire and Fury

Tome of Beasts 3 Lairs

• Proudheart’s Predator Problem
• Flight of the Dromedaries
• Evil Rises
• Redoubt of the Perfidious Guru
• The Lost Forge
• Chaos at the Caldera 
• The Twisted Sanctuary 

Eldritch Lairs

• Under the Devil’s Thumb (Southlands)
• Palace of the Wind Lords (Southlands)

Kobold Press Blog

• “Sunken Treasure” of Hammra Cistern
• Out of the Frying Pan: Desert Dragonkin
• Out of the Frying Pan: Eyes of the Iron Spike
• Out of the Frying Pan: Weaving Words, Silk, and Steel

100 Post Milestone!

With the last post this blog reached the milestone of 100 posts! This was accomplished in less than ten months from the time of the first post. For anyone reading out there, I can’t thank you enough for spending some of your time melding minds with me and reading my thoughts and ideas. 

I’m still figuring out this blog, my own goals, and how I can positively contribute to a hobby while living a very full life with work and family. Going forward, there are a few goals that I have for the short and long-term.

Short-term:

• Draw more original art, and post and/or use it in projects.
• Ditto for my own cartography.
• Set up a Patreon page with a basic supporter level.

Mid-term

• Improve my engagement with the TTRPG community to reach new people with my work.
• Write and publish more short dungeons and adventures using the 5.1 SRD Creative Commons license, or the OGL.

Long-term

• Develop my series of posts on the mercenary company campaign concept into a full-length campaign arc and manuscript (I’ll continue posting material, but might consider including draft PDFs of all the material as a Patreon exclusive item).
• Work on my setting idea of writing a detailed guide to the Lower Realms (i.e. the lower planes).

I don’t know how much use my campaign write-ups, reactions, and review posts are to potential readers, but I enjoy doing them, and engaging with new RPG content, so I will continue them.

Here’s to the future, and hoping that we reach more readers and carry out the goal of this blog, which is to create interesting and fantastic content for game masters and players to enjoy together.

Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen - The Knight’s Tomb (Part I)

Spoilers follow for the Tomb of the Restless Knights dungeon, designed by me… you should totally go check it out…

The adventurers spent the next several days in Kalaman, getting up to various shinnanigans, as soldiers do during wartime. Their money soon arrived from Aubrey Drallion and they found themselves awash in more cash than any of them had ever seen. Naturally Asterius and Gringle immediately spent a quarter of their earnings by attempting to procure magic weapons from a disreputable goblin in a seedy dockside tavern. They paid almost sixteen hundred gold pieces as an “incentive” to attempt to secure the goods. A magic crossbow was unable to be located, but a very rare set of plate mail was found for Asterius, which had the curious effect of mysteriously halting his aging while using it. It cost nearly three thousand gold pieces, but the knight bought it.

Additionally, Davgin spent several days practicing and committing to memory the incantations for the spell Chromatic Orb. He knew he could reliably cast it at least once before beginning to drawn on his customary reserves of magical energy.

Fallon research and questioned as many as she could find attempting to gather information on how to remove the curse from the magic sword she had purchased. 

After their days of rest, the adventurers traveled to the tomb. They arrived as the last light of dusk faded, entering the tomb. In the first chambers they found a raised area for offerings and four metal statues that seemed greened by rust. Upon examining the statues, they noticed hinges at the joints of the statues. This immediately aroused their suspicions, and they began to examine the chamber to see if they could open the door without triggering the guardians. Eventually they elected to pick the door lock, and while they opened the door, the statues lurched to life. They were able to make short work of them, then descended a curving staircase into the depths of the tomb.

The first room they encountered down the stairs appeared to be a preparatory room for burials. Ancient jars and instruments used in mummification appeared to be left in the chamber from when it was closed. Tapestries, old and decaying, showed images of Solamnic knights. In a side room they found a well that seemed to descend into the darkness. They dropped a small statue that they had found down the well to see how deep it was. It appeared to be thirty or forty feet down into some lower level.

Next they came upon a hidden entrance, where the side of the hill and the tomb seemed to have slide over time, created a hidden opening not far from the main entrance.

They descended another staircase and found a large crypt, filled with alcoves of stacked bones. Asterius warned his friends not to disturb the knights’ rest, but the glint of coin caught Gringle’s eye, and he slipped a coin from one of the alcoves. Moments later, the bones began to animate, coming together as six skeletons, as Asterius berated Gringle for his foolishness.

GM Reflections

I’ve found it much more rewarding lately to create my own adventure content rather than relying on the pre-written adventure. I think there was a period where an adventure provided a set of good training wheels to get the hang of how an adventure should probably flow and the basic pieces, but at the certain point you have the realization that I might have been able to plan this point better than the disconnected writer. I still enjoy published adventures for ideas and particularly for larger pieces that are more interchangeable—namely dungeons right now, but I’m getting better at stealing plot elements and combining them with my own ideas. And more comfortable with non-linear narrative structures. 

One funny part of this session was when the party dropped the statue down the well. All the players have a greater STEM background than me, so they asked how many seconds it took to fall to calculate the height…I begged for mercy.

Lost Mine of Phandelver - Wave Echo Cave (Part I)

 

Spoilers follow for the adventure…

22 Mirtul

The day dawned bright, far brighter than the mood of Aina, Anarath, and Amafrey, still in shock at the sudden loss of Bree the day prior. The mysterious goblin druid they had found in the cave the day prior, Blaaz, seemed blissfully unaware of their feelings, and they awoke to see her dancing in the golden spot cast into their shared room by the rising sun, flowers woven through her hair and floppy hat. 

They soon made their way downstairs, drawn by the smell of fried bacon and beef, along with scrambled eggs. Sitting in the tavern was a new person they didn’t recognize. He appeared to be a large humanoid with the face and hard scales of a lizard. His scales were tinged green, and he had a light red fringe running up the center of his head. His eyes rotated towards them in a detached, reptilian manner as he bit into an egg, shell still on.

“Who are you? What are you?” Asked Blaaz. The small goblin stood on the wooden bench next to the lizard man, poking his hard scales.

“Have you never seen a hard-skin before,” said the lizard.

“No! You’re funny!” laughed Blaaz. “How are your eggs?”

“Delicious. They’re wonderful when you suck the yolk out. Would you like to try?”

The goblin accepted the raw egg and bit a small hole with one of her upper fangs, then sucked at the egg through the opening. Amafrey groaned as he watched the display.

“It is delicious!” Said Blaaz, a dribble of egg white running out of the corner of her mouth.

“You look like adventurers,” said the lizard man. “Are you adventurers?” 

“Well…yes I suppose,” harrumphed Anarath. Since the pulling the card from the Deck he had felt strangle aged. He’d noticed grey in his normally youthful beard and hair. And his back was sore from that bed.

“Ah, I have been looking for adventurers to help,” said the lizard man. “Ever since I saw some like you defeat evil lizard warriors in my swamp I have desired to learn your ways. You are going adventuring today? May I join you?”

“Great, another stray,” said Amafrey under his breath, glancing at the small goblin in her tattered white dress and hat, its top daisy poking up at a jaunty angle. Louder he said “Well, why not? The last few days have been strange enough. What’s your name?”

“Thorntail, and much thanks.”

The others agreed, and after finishing their not raw breakfasts—Toblen Stonehill, the innkeeper looked sideways all morning at Thorntail, but brought him half a dozen more fresh raw eggs—they set off towards Wave Echo Cave.

Upon entering and moving down the long passage, they reached the larger entrance cavern and the opening which they had climbed down into. They also found Gundren, who had elected to stay behind rather than leave his greatest mining stake behind the night prior. He had spent a white knuckle evening, shivering in the dark, and looked even more tired and disheveled than they had last seen him.

They poured him some strong black coffee they’d brought from the Stonehill Inn, and the gleam returned to his eyes of a dwarf close to finding treasure.

“Saw a bunch o’gobbos going into the cave. Said they was following the Spider. You best hurry. It sounds like this Spider fella is hot on the trail to the fabled Forge of Spells. Who knows what kind of power he’ll get from that thing,” said the dwarf between ravenous bites at a loaf of bread.

The adventurers descended the rope into the main cave once more, then choose to take the left passage rather than the right where they’d already been.

As they moved through a maze of old mine tunnels the adventurers heard a loud wet slap as an ooze of mustard yellow and brown fell from the ceiling. It began to slap them with its harsh pseudopods. They made short work of it though, and continued on until they found a larger natural cavern with a large pool of water. Thorntail and Blaaz dived in and swam until they came upon a humanoid skeleton. They pulled it to the surface and found a magic ring upon the long dead mage.

Next they proceeded into another portion of the cave that was worked stone. Soon they stumbled into a room where the Spider’s bugbears appeared to have set up a camp. They immediately attacked, with Blaaz and Anarath laying down wind gust and wall of fire to control the battlefield, and the others making short work of the enemies. They pursued one as he ran along a corridor, shouting, and slew him with an arrow. 

They returned to the room with the camp, then moved into a ruined great hall divided into three platforms by height. In this massive chamber they came upon bands of ghouls, hungry for flesh, which they defeated quickly. The  they headed through another tunnel to find a giant smelter and a water wheel surrounded by another pack of zombies with a mysterious floating skull, wreathed in green fire…

GM Reflections 

This session occurred 48 days (according to the chat timestamps) after the last one. So the losses to the Deck of Many Things were less fresh or painful. The addition of a new drop in character (Thorntail), played by a close friend, was a welcome addition.

It was a fun session, and interesting in being the first time trying to balance against a party with characters of various levels. By this time though, I was getting tired of the campaign and really hoped that they’d follow the passage where the fleeing bugbear was going and stumble upon the Spider as the final boss fight.