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Airmark's Guide to Planar Vegetables: Arcadian Lightning Tree

Famously grown by the Storm Kings of Arcadia as both signs of the boundaries of their domain and reminders of their might, Arcadian Lightning Trees are relatively innocuous to the untrained eye. Silvery bark shot through with dark, jagged veins and rich green leaves perpetually covered with a dark grey dust the tree uses as protection against the elements make these handsome plants fine decorations lining the broad boulevards of the Kings' domains.

However, the more cautious traveler will note the smell of ozone that permeates the air around these trees and the metallic shimmer of their bark, and perceive the potential danger. Although perfectly content to subsist on water and sunshine as plants typically do, lightning trees also serve as one of the first lines of defense for the Storm Kings' homes, and have been known to attack those who approach with ill will without warning, electrocuting them in the grasp of their branches.

Lightning trees grow happily in any stormy environment, with strong roots and flexible trunks that make them resistant to high winds and a natural conductivity that renders them immune to lightning strikes. It's not uncommon to see them in areas inhabited by cloud or storm giants, and they are an invasive species on the Elemental Plane of Air, where their thankfully traditional method of flowering and pollination by insect has limited their spread somewhat. They do not fruit, but their leaves can be eaten, a sensation most describe as having a 'pleasant tingle'.

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #monsters

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107 Broken Sanctuary

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #maps #floorplans

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Dungeon: A Bleak Picture

Unsure whether they've been trapped inside a painting or been cast back in time, the party must venture through the desolate ruins of a once warm and familiar place to rescue a number of innocents that've gone missing after being abducted by some shadowy force.

Adventure Hooks:

The party arrive in the town of Valasren on innocuous business, following the rumors of a ruin, attending a nearby shrine, or visiting some old friends. When they arrive they're given an unexpectedly amiable welcome by lord Lucas Kevral, who's heard of their earlier exploits and wants to cultivate a good relationship with such aspiring heroes. While taking him up on an invitation to dine at his castle, the party spy a gloomy painting depicting Valasren in ruins. Lord Kevral explains that it was painted to commemorate the near destruction of the town some generations ago, when one of his ancestors left the settlement defenceless to go off seeking glory in war. His grandmother commissioned the painting from one of the survivors, and hung it in a place of honour so she nor any of her descendants would forget their duty to defend the people.

As the party pursue their mission around Valasren they'll begin to notice a number of disappearances that only seems to climb as time ticks on. Rumors begin to circulate about something moving in the night, stalking people, creeping into their homes when they're asleep, leaving only open doors and empty beds come daylight. These rumours become all too real when the party awake one morning to find one of their number missing, taken without a whisper from where they slept. A scattering of untrustworthy witnesses say they saw an unnatural figure carrying a sack up the hill towards the Lord's castle, giving them at least a ghost of a trail.

Following the trail back to the palace eventually leads the party to the painting, an inexplicable cold draft intermittently drifting from its now permeable surface.

Background: The painter who witnessed the destruction of Valasren was a true master, and was years later able to immortalize the hopelessness they felt in that moment through their skill with the brush. There is power in such emotional resonance, and transformed the painting into an overlap with the shadowfell, where the town's sorrow had likewise been reflected. Not quite a portal, the painting never did much harm but making the already drafty castle hall a little more cold and unwelcoming at night, at least until recent days.

Drawn by the warmth of life and merriment on the air, A Snatcher has discovered the painting and forced its way through, one by one dragging inhabitants of Valasren into the upside down for an unknown purpose.

Challenges & Complications:

Once the party figure out there's something up with the painting, cut to the abducted player waking up in the ruined shadow-town. There's no corresponding painting anywhere to be seen, and because they were taken while they were asleep they're likely a bit exhausted and missing most of their gear. They'll have to be quiet and clever to escape the nightmare things and lingering spirits that dwell within Valasren's shadow, but doing so may give them vital clues about what's really going on. Keep the tension on until the isolated hero is backed into a corner, then have the rest of their friends arrive.

It's a grim irony that before war came to Valasren, the painter was working on capturing the beauty and peace of their home town on canvas, only for that work to be destroyed in the town's raising. Thinking it lost forever, the painter added it in as a detail nearby the burnt out remains of their workshop as a meditation on the happiness thought taken from them. Like many things lost to the mortal world, an echo of the painting has come to reside in the shadowfell, and acts as the exit portal back into the land of light. Finding it though is a problem, the snatcher has removed it from it's resting place and given it over to the terrible entity lairing in the castle. Where they've put it, who can say?

Numerous townsfolk have been pulled into the shadowfell and are scattered about the echo of a place they thought they knew. Lost, affraid, and isolated, many of them have run for cover or have started to sink into the spirit siphoning torpor that afflicts all to dwell too long in shadow.

Extra special thanks to @dm-tuz , who's monsters are ALWAYS an inspiration.

Artsource

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #adventure hooks

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Pact of the Heartfelt: Warlock

Time to be the magical girl of your dreams, complete with a transformation sequence.

[G Drive Link]

For rules on the Pact of Regalia Boon and associated invocations, see my Expanded Class features document [Link]

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #subclass #warlock patron

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Turtle lock its a turtle lock y'all!

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #magic items

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Sealing Rituals | Because that super powerful ancient evil had to be locked away somehow

PDFs of this and more can be found over on at my Patreon here!

New month and a new theme and the first post is incredibly on the nose. Inspired by many tales of a sealed away evil. That said, almost every one of those stories involve the evil getting released, but at least it's not the original people's problem anymore. Does go nicely with my Returned background especially if you're the returning evil. Play as dehydrated ganon, it'll be great

And now to plug my stuff. I release homebrews weekly over on my Patreon. Anyone who pledges $1 or more per post don't have to wait a month to see them, and also help fund my being alive habit.

At the moment, they have exclusive access to the following:

Otherworldly Patron: The Bound Demon

It's a Trap!

Judgement Domain

The Greatwyrm Patron

I also have three classes, and a splatbook over on DriveThrueRPG to check out:

The Rift Binder. A class specialising in summoning monsters and controlling the battlefield.

The Witch Knight. A class that combines swords and sorcery in the most literal way.

The Werebeast. A class that turns you into a half beast to destroy your foes.

d'Artagnan's Adventurer Almanac. A compendium of races, subclasses, feats, spells, monsters and more!

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #spells

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Airmark's Guide to Planar Vegetables: Springbush

When you travel to Mt. Celestia, it is certain not to be long before you spot your first springbush. The size and rough shape of a giant goat, these large, ambulatory shrubs are found throughout the Seven Mounting Heavens, traveling in herds numbering from dozens to hundreds.

Possessed of four tough, woody trunks and a healthy growth of glossy green leaves all over their body, springbushes are easy to mistake for simple herd animals at a distance due to their tendency to travel, roam, and even apparently graze like a goat or ram. This appearance comes from the fact that their 'faces' are where their roots are located, and so to collect nutrients and water they lower their heads to the ground in a mimicry of an animal's motion.

Springbushes are highly aggressive and territorial during their flowering season, as their strongly citrus-scented flowers give way to a lemon-like fruit rivaled by few in sweetness or tartness. Fortunately, they seem docile around the plane's native celestials, many of whom seem to have or share duties of herding visitors away from the plants, promising a harvest when the time is right.

Springfruit is best eaten just before fully ripe, as the tart flavor mellows to nothing and the sweetness intensifies dramatically when the fruit ripens fully. Overripe springfruit is suitable for little but the making of sweet cooking vinegar or, should one be so inclined, an overwhelmingly saccharine and mildly alcoholic drink called Asho.

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #monsters

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106 22 gods

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #maps #dungeon maps

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Did you hear the call? The forbidden words, the thoughts of those whose minds were made—not birthed

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #adventure hooks

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Hey Tumblr! I’m a dnd homebrewer who migrated from Twitter so I’m gonna be posting a few of my subclasses! This is the Rime Knight fighter, a crowd control focused fighter who’s really based on the iceborn from League of Legends! 

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #subclass #fighter archetype

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Bait & Switch

High res versions of the art, a Foundry VTT module, and other formats, as well as a full compendium of our 100+ items can be found on our Patreon

The underbelly of this world has some seedy characters in it, but I find them to be some of the most inventive individuals you could ever hope to meet. I think with scarcity comes innovation at times and certainly for those running the proper kind of scams, the right bit of magic can go a long way. Someone with a bent for such diversions seems to have pieced together this two part item to run just the right kind of scam. Or maybe they were just into kidnappings. Whatever the reason for its creativity, it now could be yours for the right price. No, I won’t be trusting any gold pouches you pull out.

If you want to see more of our items you can check us out on our Website, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, Bluesky, Threads or Instagram where we post them regularly. You can also find us at our Discord server where you can hang out and chat with the community.

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #magic items

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Paint your enemies in deadly light, release a noxious cloud of poison smoke from your lungs, and send your enemies flying in today's edition of Spells From The Eternal Lexicon!

---Interested in the month of Boe? Make sure to stay up to date on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/yolosguide

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #spells

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Airmark's Guide to Planar Vegetables: Shurrock Mercywood

The mobile gender of the Bytopian mercywood tree grows on Shurrock, although it will thrive anywhere it has access to rich soil with adequate drainage; it will even relocate itself to such areas if the immobile gender, dothion mercywood, is found there. Unlike its counterpart, shurrock mercywood is stout and strong, although it has the same metallic silver bark with bronze stretch marks.

Built on roughly a humanoid body plan save for their immense size, shurrock mercywood has adapted to climb mountains and roam far and wide in pursuit of good locations to release its pollen payload in spring. While so doing, they often find themselves at odds with local predators, including several forms of wood-boring beetle and a handful of moths.

Their primary defense mechanism, aside from their great strength, is the incapacitating allergic reaction that their pollen provokes in most living things. Capable of producing far more of the powdery yellow pollen than necessary for reproductive purposes, mercywood often make use of it to halt attackers in their tracks by nonlethal means and make their escape while their would-be attacker chokes.

Mercywood's name is largely indicative of its temperament; provided they demonstrate no hostile intent, shurrock mercywood trees are amenable to rescuing lost explorers, protecting them from wild beasts and natural disaster, and generally being of aid where they can. Rough of temperament and wooden of wit, they are not communicative to those they aid, but their intent is often clear by their exaggerated, slow movements in the presence of smaller creatures.

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #monsters

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Map_a_Day_104

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #maps #dungeon maps

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Settlement: Javhintor’s Keel

 Lets get one thing straight, no one sane travels during the winter, not even adventurers. There’s no food to be foraged in the wilderness, which makes for difficult crossings and even more aggressive predators. Likewise, traveling into unpredictable winter weather is suicide for all but the most prepared groups as snow or sleet can make normally hospitable terrain impassable, and exaustion compounds quickly when traveling overland. If you’re a sellsword: find someplace to hunker down where you can still get paid without ranging too far afield, contract work is best, but plenty of settlements will have odd jobs you can make due with in the cold, lean days. 

Dizidel Lek, “A traveler’s guide to not dying like an idiot and having strangers turn over your bones for loose change” , Vol. 4

Adventure Hooks: 

In the dying days of autumn, while considering where they’re going to winter, the party receives an invitation from the Jarl of Javhintor’s Keel, a thriving freehold on the edge of the sea of daggers. She’s heard of their deeds and bravery, and has invited them to enjoy the hospitality of her hall, to share mead and songs and good tidings and to lend their prestige to her own.  A message with great potential to be sure, as such offers of hospitality are often trialruns for offers of more formal oaths of patronage. The exchanging of gifts is a common practice to make such occasions official, but what gift to give a Jarl when you and your friends are but petty sellswords with narry a gold peice to rub together between yourselves?  Why not that beast that’s been rampaging through the countryside nearby ? Hunt it, slay it, stuff it, and present its head(s) to the Jarl as a trophy for her wall and a symbol of the strength you could lend to her cause. 

Once they get to Javhintor’s keel, the DM has an excuse to really let the players dig into a setting, see it develop over their three months of stay, get to know the locals, and become part of the town themselves.  Such distractions may include: 

Exploring wrecks, islands and sea caves along the coast for bitesized dungeon content.

Solving the Mystery behind a haunted lighthouse

Earning the respect of Captian Priska and her crew of reavers, earning an invitation to their next raid on foreign shores, and their own snake-venom tattoo. 

Hunt the mysterious ice-red stag that haunts the forest like a ghost

Make a Pilgramage up to the shrine of Tyr on the tallest peak and see what the god of valor has to say about their prospects

Help a mad fisherman capture a sea-beast that’s encroached on the bay and has been devouring all the fish from his neighbor’s nets. 

Apprentice under one of the many grizzled warriors that make thier home in the keel, learning new fighting techniques

Help a pair of starcrossed traders realize that though they’re fierce business rivals, the oracle’s dire prophecy regarding their competitor was infact a very poorly worded dating advice. 

Prepare for all hearth’s eve, in the Jarl’s palace the biggest festival of the winter solstice. Sneak into the mysterious forbidden wing, and figure out who the hell has stolen all the Hearth’s eve presents! 

Setup:  Jarl Irwyf is a shrewd woman, and in possession of an understanding that led her through her youth as an honored warrior and to her ascension as Jarl of the Keel. She understand that it is a warrior’s reputation that prevents their rivals from encroaching, and that by perusing a path of peace and prosperity for her people, she has dulled her own reputation in exchange. Not some tyrant to wage war on a neighbor just to strengthen her own position, Irwyf seeks to bolster her kingdom’s reputation for might and valor by playing host to the realm’s next generation of heroes. To this end she intends test the party’s character and mettle, bind them to her in loyalty, then send them out into the world to accomplish great deeds that might reflect favorably on her patronage. 

Something however seems intent on sabotaging all her plans. Her winter stores are running out faster than expected, sections of her fortress are overrun with rats, and just as the festivities really kick into gear, something goes and makes off with the food and gifts she’d prepared to bestow upon her courtiers.  A diplomatic disaster waiting to happen, as many of those courtiers are due gifts by tribal right, or else Irwyf will have been considered to have dishonored her subordinates. Her only hope now is to let the party in on her distress, showing her hand as seemingly implacable benefactor in exchange for their aid and discursion. 

Keep reading

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #adventure hooks

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Subclasseptember Day 29: Wild

The Deadeye Conclave - Homebrew Ranger Subclass

For something that's treated as Ranger's equivalent of Divine Smite, Hunter's Mark really doesn't get treated like Ranger's Divine Smite. There's Banishing Smite, Searing Smite, Blinding Smite... Why no Hunter's Mark variants?

We'll have to put that project on the shelf for now. Until then, here's this.

We're almost done with Subclasseptember. Let's finish strong!

Playing around with image formatting around text. You'd think there'd be a better way than manually adjusting every single line, but I haven't heard of it.

... Hey, what happened to Aloy's arrow? Are arrows usually headless?

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #subclass #ranger conclave

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“Reality is only as indisputable as we believe it to be, and sometimes when our perception of its unquestionable and solid nature is undermined or shattered, it leaves a hole – a fracture in its wake."

Check out our whole Homebrew Archive with over 400 brews.

If you like our work, please consider supporting our Tavern on Patreon, you will also get a ton of exclusive rewards, such as Handout Cards, Compendium and Adventure PDFs, Encounter Maps, Tokens and more.

#rpg #dungeons and dragons #dnd #magic items