Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Briar Island

Briar Island is roughly 870 square miles of hilly, temperate woodland, resting comfortably somewhere in the Thistle Sea. It is peopled by humans from Solstheim and the Northern Provinces, a dozen clans of goblins, and a smattering of other folk and monsters. Folk not born on Briar Island think little of it, when they think of it at all.

Made with Inkarnate
For many years, Briar Island has been just another small county to be taxed by the duchy of Solstheim twice a year and then forgotten. However, the Archmage Zordol, a long-time resident and embittered tax dissident, has recently discovered that the Island lay at the center of a nexus of leylines. With the right prompting and arcane know-how, impossible spells can be cast here, and where impossible things can be done, there is profit to be had!

How this all pertains to you, and your lives thus far in Greengriffin Fort, will be the subject of our story. We'll be playing Lamentations of the Flame Princess with some homebrew rules for character creation, and I'll update this page with session recaps, setting lore, and all kinds of other fun stuff.

Until then, here's one of several Random Encounter tables to pique your interest. It might be worth your characters' time to invest in bronze futures.

Random Encounters (d20)
1-12 – No Encounter
13 – 2d10 thugs, out crusin’ for easy silver pieces at the PCs expense.
14 – A wandering mercenary, looking for work. (S)he’ll hire on to the PCs expedition for a fair rate, or if they’re jerks, (s)he’ll go find a group of 2d4 thugs and come back to get some satisfaction.
15 – 1d2 bounty hunters out searching for wanted thugs.
16 – 1d3 ultramarine oozes, near the outskirts of a deserted camp
17 – Peacock-crab. The locals call it a paonymph.
18 – A slow-moving but inevitably deadly chartreuse ooze.
19 – 2d10 thugs. The woods are full of these losers.
20 – 1d8 feral hogs.

Thug. AC 12, 1 HD (5 h.p.), 1d6 slashing (short sword) or 1d4 piercing (thrown dagger). Morale 6.

Mercenary. AC 15, 1 HD (8 h.p.), 1d6+1 slashing (short sword) or 1d6 piercing (shortbow). Morale 9.

Bounty Hunter. AC 16, 5 HD (30 h.p.), 1d8 slashing (silvered longsword) or 1d8 piercing (longbow). Stealth 3 in 6. Bushcraft 4 in 6. Can brew a special tea which will recover 1d4 h.p. if drunk. Morale 12.

Ultramarine Ooze. AC 12, 2 HD (10 h.p.), 1d6 acid damage. Mv 20', Morale Fearless. Damaged only by silver weapons. Destroys wood on contact. Any creature killed by an ultramarine ooze is devoured over the course of 1d4 rounds (assuming it is man-sized; larger or smaller creatures are left to the DM’s discretion). The devoured creature’s hit points are added to the ultramarine ooze’s total hit points, and it heals 1d8 hit points per Hit Die of creature devoured. 

Peacock-Crab. AC 15, 3 HD (14 h.p.), 1d6 piercing (beak). Hypnotic shell – save vs. paralysis or be fascinated until the beginning of the next combat round. (Fascinated creatures can’t take actions – they can only stare in awe until they are attacked). Morale 10.

Chartreuse Ooze. AC 12, 2 HD (10 h.p.), 1d6 acid damage. Mv 20', Morale Fearless. Damaged only by bronze weapons. Destroys flesh and leather on contact. Any creature killed by a chartreuse ooze becomes a chartreuse ooze within 1d6+1 combat rounds. 

Feral Hogs. AC 13, 4 HD (16 h.p.), 1d6+1 piercing (tusks). Morale 7.