Jamison Stone's Blog, page 13

"Asundering" a New Year!

With Solstice over, light is returning back to our word! Hark and rejoice! What a better way to usher in a new year than exploring Asunder, a brand new Dark Fantasy RPG system by our good friend Adam Lawson. 

Asunder is a dark tabletop RPG set in a world without metal where plants and insects have been transformed into living weapons and machines. Created by Adam Lawson, director of Wil Wheaton's TableTop, Spellslingers, Sagas of Sundry and Escape the Night. It uses the Shadow of the Demon Lord game system created by Rob Schwalb.

In Asunder, the divine Essence inside humans bonded with elements of their world, allowing them to reshape plants and insects into living weapons, command beasts, grow multiple limbs, defy gravity and wield Chaos.

Asunder was once a large landmass, but was shattered when the gods ripped the iron from its core. Humans were then placed on the many islands, and their divine Essence spilled out and bonded with their environment.

On the island of Pacari, the people's Essence bonded with beasts allowing them to take on their shape and attributes or even command great herds. They are tribal people reflective of the beast they choose at a young age—the tribes who bond with bog wolves and very different from those who bond with four-winged ravens.

But don't take our word for it, If you want to see Asunder in action you can watch our very own Satine Phoenix play a Beastmaster named Sonya in Gaia's Judgement - "Blister Socket" Ep #1 | of Asunder's Liveplay!

We are very excited to share Asunder with you all and truly hope you enjoy it! Happy New Year!

Merry Solstice! ALL The Red Opera Writing is Done!

Tonight is Solstice -- the longest and darkest night of the year -- and as Rick Heinz so eloquently put it, "While Jupiter and Saturn are making out in the sky, we have just finished ALL of the writing for The Red Opera!"

You heard us right, folks! We are so very excited to officially announce that all our writing is done! A HUGE round of applause to Rick Heinz (our lead writer), Pat Edwards, Court Penney, 2CGaming, and all our stretch goal writers and professional partners, too! So very awesome!

Although we still have more art to do, as you can see above and below, everything is coming along really well and we are right on schedule! Feels good to be on track and have this writing milestone completed! 

Additionally, we just wanted to say, on the darkest of nights, before the light once again returns to The Shadelands, THANK YOU to all our backers and supporters! 2020 was a really hard year for our planet, but YOU have given us hope that light will return, and for that, we are eternally grateful! 

So, if you wish to join us in the Solstice and Holiday celebrations, along with exclusive behind the scenes art, AND RED OPERA PLAY TESTING, then just click HERE to join our Discord server! We have over 530+ people in our growing community and want YOU to join us! It's a lot of fun and you can even pledge yourself to one of our many unique Patrons and get EXCLUSIVE TTRPG content to download immediately! Seriously, Join Our Discord, you won't regret it!

So, bundle up for this dark Solstice night, but know that light is coming back, even if that light is the fire breath of a hungry dragon~

Campaign Holidays - Rest of the Hammerhand

When you look at a society, a huge number of people living in towns and countries, there's one thing that ties them together far better than the flags they live under. It's the traditions they keep. When a game master builds a world, it's easy to plot a map of a city, and fill in the names of streets and buildings around all the important spots for players to go to. Making that city, or country, or world feel compelling and lived in is another matter.

In past looks at settings for Roleplaying Games, we've looked at individual places, stores, fight clubs, and landmarks. A public holiday is a much more broad thing to bring into game, but something that can give just as much context, a great slice of realism, and weight to your world. With all that said, we can consider one such holiday I've had in my homebrew Dungeons and Dragons setting for almost as long as I had it.

Rest of the Hammerhand

All craftsmen put down their tools on this one day a year - photograph by Paul Sellers

The Rest of the Hammerhand, or often called Low Hammerhand, is celebrated on the twenty fifth day, on the year's last month.

There are many cultures that worship the gods of craft, invention, and construction. They honour their gods by working tirelessly in their great furnaces under the mountain and magical workshops deep in enchanted forests.

Those gods of building love all that their stout children make, but they can't always be working. One day, each year, it's religious law that all craftsmen in all crafts put down their tools and close up shops. Just for one day.

In the millennia since this holiday was started, things have become all the more serious. All professions and anyone working now closes their doors on Low Hammerhand. If you're a home-maker, nothing can be done around the house. The feast to celebrate the season is always cooked the night before, on Low Hammerhand's Eve, and cut up into bite sized pieces. Chewing can be considered tough sometimes.

No Rest for the Wicked

There's an entire day, where a relatively gung-ho society of people just slow down and chill. Though the most important characters in your game rarely get that luxury.

The player characters may be baffled to see this holiday being celebrated. Maybe some members of the party are of that religion or race of practitioners. The game may become more relaxed as characters might deserve the well earned rest themselves.

I think it's more interesting to get the players active. If anyone's ever walked through a big town during Christmas Day, the eerie quiet is always a fun environment to describe.

Dark cultists could be working on the deepest occult, without anyone in the restful town knowing - ‘Cabal Ritual’ by by Kieran Yanner

The party may have been asked to maintain the peace while the country is closed for it's holy vigil. Maybe an insidious force has moved in to invade the township or perform illicit magical experiments while the city turns a blind eye. A more ambiguous or villainous party could be up to the heist of the century, when the security in high value targets is at its all time low.

The world is closed for the many NPCs celebrating the holiday, but knowing how players can use that quiet time is crucial to making it work for your setting.

Resting After Work

I came up with this holiday during the festive season around three years ago. It's normal, and a good idea, to have things in your setting mirror the real world, so the players have an easy thing to catch onto. It's been a holiday, alongside the exact opposite in the summer, that I've refined and used in my games many times.

Now we want to hear from you, are there any interesting holidays you use in the games you GM? Are there customs you would like to see translated to your tabletop RPG? Let us know on our Discord server and in the comments below.

With the strange times away from our gaming tables, it can all seem strange, so from all of us here at Apotheosis Studios, we'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy 2021.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.

Adventurer Haircuts? Welcome to the Snip of the Gods

An adventurer's life is usually thrilling. The game master has them wandering across their setting, fighting the most fearsome creatures, earning treasures, and the prestige of their world. When all is said and done for those eternally busy adventurers, the things we mortals see as incredibly mundane are forgotten in games, but that doesn't mean they aren't interesting.

In past location articles, we've looked at the exceptional magical wares stores and the shadiest underground fight clubs. I'm always interested on a magical twist on a fairly uninteresting shop like a tailors, but there was always one establishment, one place I used to hate going to when I was little. I wish I could have gone to a barber shop like this.

Snip of the Gods

Barber Shop Interior by NextLuxury

A shop with tall windows show huge leather seats facing a mirror. By the doorway is an immense jar, with red and white magical energy twirling around each other. The doorway into this place is both taller and wider than the average human.

By the front door, is a list of reasonably priced options you'd get in a barber shop or salon in our world. Beard trims, men's, and children's haircuts. The immense list of colouring and styling options, done with traditional dyes and enchantments to make the hair move like it was underwater or crackling with fire.

Lastly it has many options for horn maintenance and styling. In worlds with people descended from devils and dragons, living alongside satyrs and minotaurs, keeping horns is just as important as styling hair. Filing down horns and resizing them are among the easiest procedures, and at the top of the price list. To get horns engraved, or stamped with jewels or other trinkets are much tougher.

Cutting Room Floor

Inside the barber shop are anything from three to six tall chairs. The seats range for people as short as three feet tall, or up to hulking forms at seven foot, able to cater for all customers. The creaking supports inside the chairs buckle under anyone's weight but never break. “Old things are usually reliable” the small shoeless owner would say.

Under each mirror was the wide display of gleaming scissors and heavy combs with varying sized teeth. The opposite wall, over the patchy waiting seats, are the multiple bottles of tonics, waxes, gels, and horn paints that anyone can buy. “We offer all you need to put true flair in your hair” one of the barbers, with deep purple skin and gold-adorned horns would say.

Sometimes the hair cuts back - Hair Monster by Akino Fukawa

The far wall, by the staff door has the tools one would usually see in a carpenter's shop or on a torture rack. Saws of various sizes and blade thickness alongside rasps and files, all there to manicure horns. A customer who wants a reduction will be seated on the last seat, with the large head supports to help them hold still while they saw or file down the immense, heavy horns. “It's a rough job, but do you want to look unfashionable, or accidentally impale people? I don't think so,” says the gruff minotaur woman who does most of the horn work.

Cut Above the Rest

Adventurers can treat a place like this as welcome R-and-R between missions, bringing hair wild with grease and full of dirt, spiderwebs, or worse here for the needed clean and reshape they need.

If adventurers become all the more regular, some quests that a barber shop could offer could be as simple as trying to get ingredients for a rare magical hair mousse. The barber shop could be a secret front for illegal or cult activity. Perhaps one of the barbers is a wizard, who instead of sweeping the hair away, animates it into a little man that walks into the trash, but one of these hair golems has grown too big and is on a rampage across town.

Hair Golem Stats generated by Homebrewery.Naturalcrit

In any case, the suggestions for a magical barber shop add realism to a world of magic and monsters, but there are ways to make it remarkable again. Now we want to hear from you. How would you use a barber shop with magical clients and strange products? What element of the mundane would you like to see made magical? Let us know on Discord, or in the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.

Steel Dragons - Bastions of their Ideals

There are more Dragons under the sun than ever possibly dreamt of. Past articles in this series have seen grand heroes and dastardly villainous breeds of dragons for dungeon masters to insert into their games.

Among the metallic dragons, we've read about the sagacious and thoughtful titanium dragons and compared them to the wandering cobalt dragons. Now we look to societies' fringes. To wild lands where tribes of destructive peoples roam free. On any warzone where the cause is righteous, the steel dragons stake their claim.

It's important to note that though this is a metallic dragon, this dragon does not have the 'good' alignment. This may be a controversial decision but this does not mean steel dragons are outside the good alignment. If they fight for virtue and safety, that draws them back to goodness. If they find themselves revering a society built on conquest, then they can be a ruthless, evil tactician for an expansionist empire.

A lookout over the city he was born to - Steel Dragon by Chris Seaman

Steel Dragons

The proud forms and gleaming grey of the steel dragons strike a very different silhouette than the silver dragons. The arrow like head, with the sharp beak for a muzzle. Each part of them is sharp with many wrought spines on their joints. Instead of solid wings, they have a series of immense, thirty foot long blades which work generally better for soaring at high altitude and long distances.

Their immense bulk, and wide gaze make them particularly keen lookouts. While most dragons brood well within their lairs, steel dragons sit at the openings, looking out for any and all intruders on their land. It's been said among more colloquial draconological societies, that it takes less time to wear down a mountain from the wind than to lose a steel dragon's patience.

Unyielding Spirit

Steel dragons have a unifying sense of self-righteosusness granted by being one of the oldest breeds, aside from gold and silver dragons. Considering themselves killjoys is a strong understatement.

Ancient Steel Dragon Stats generated with https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/

Adult Steel Dragon Stats

A steel dragon born on the fringes of a humanoid kingdom will spend their formative years learning the laws of that land. It will patriotically defend the laws of that land, with its life, until the day it dies. It will ardently support the ruler of that land as long as that ruler complies with the laws the dragon has chosen to uphold. If the regime falls or the system of government diverges from what the dragon has come to expect, it will become the dragon's mission to restore the land to its former rule.

In the far more likely event that the steel dragon was not born in the fringes of society, they'll grow learning their own moral code naturally. It's just as likely for a steel dragon to learn virtue and fairness from an itinerant knight who showed it a good deed, as one who approves of might and conquest after emulating a barbarian queen slaying her foes.

Steel dragons are made all the more unique by the variety of things they choose to fight for, but they all fight for something and would sooner die a zealot than be convinced of another opinion or be made to feel like a hypocrite.

Steel Dragon Lairs

Steel dragons roost in high altitude or open expanses that grant them good visibility over their surroundings. High mountains, grand hills overlooking plains, or tall towers in liked civilisations all make for ideal homes.

Lair Actions

On initiative count 20 (losing initiative ties) the dragon takes a lair action to take one of the following effects:

Young Steel Dragon and Steel Dragon Wyrmling Stats

Magical fog billows around one creature the dragon can see within 120 feet of it. The creature must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or be blinded by the dragon until initiative count 20 on the next round.

A tremor shakes the lair in a 60 foot radius around the entrance of the lair. Each creature other than the dragon in that area must succeed a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw or be knocked prone.

Region Effects

Charisma (Persuasion) checks within one mile of the dragon's lair are made with disadvantage. If a character would apply their proficiency bonus to this check, that bonus is ignored.

Rocky fissures and gaps in the earth within one mile of the lair form portals to a random point six miles away, to deter trespassers.

Solid as Steel

With dragons as we know them, varied and diverse as the people they walk with and fly over, we have to wonder what other breeds lurk on the fringes of our world. Now we here at Apotheosis want to hear from you. Where would a steel dragon appear in your games? Would they be beacons of reason, fairness, and justice? Or are they zealots of misguided ideas that they can’t otherwise escape from? Let us know in the comments below or on our discord server.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.

Cute but Dangerous - Beware the Sneaky Zeebles

The term monster in Dungeons and Dragons has always meant anything a group of players could fight and destroy in a combat encounter. This leads us to imagine grim things. Stuff of nightmares. Horrors from the secret groves of faeries or many fearsome dragons. The term monster can also mean something kindly that aid and befriend a group of players. They need in game statistics as enemies won't take kindly to those who help the heroes. Or, the more likely, your players are monsters who will gladly kill something sweet and fluffy because the world is cruel.

What about the unlikely common ground? I like the idea of a monstrous and fearsome aide to the players. My usual table still cannot forgive me for the fate of a certain goblin. But what about the opposite? What about an unintentionally creature was wrapped in the cuddliest, friendliest shell?

Adventurers look on at the source of the chirping - Sneaky Zeebles by Dao Le

Zeebles

On the slopes of the highest mountains, live myriad troubles for those adventurers on their climb. Dragons and other beasts accustomed to the ice are around each peak, and the howls of banshees and yetis cut through the snow. One such noise may still catch a wanderer's attention.

Zeeble statblock generated with Homebrewery.naturalcrit.com

In calmer spots up a mountainside, where the air is calmer and land has flattened with travel, adventurers may find themselves in a raft of zeebles.

Sky Otters

Zeebles resemble large otters, commonly found on the surface in places where woodland and water mix. Zeebles are similar, mixing in an area of wood and air – particularly where the air is clearest from the pollution of humanoids and the natural magical energy found in the upper atmosphere. Their purple fur and thick plumage make them well suited to the life in the alpine heights.

Zeebles are omnivorous like otters from ground level. They keep to family groups of around 6, hibernating in dens in the winter.

Mischief Makers

Zeebles spend the majority of their time, aside from roosting and drifting from peak to peak, causing mischief for anything and anyone travelling the mountainside. Zeebles have very slight psychic energy. The ability to move items and speak into thinking minds is tough for a master of mental magic, but child's play for a lone zeeble.

They never play any of their tricks with real malice. For a zeeble, the true motivation is definitely play. They see humanoid explorers as upright walking, hairless zeebles. Throwing enormous rocks or bringing down tonnes of snow onto travellers is fair game. Stealing provisions is an unthinkable disaster for a mountaineer, but a zeeble would relish the unexpected treats.

Zeeble Mischief by Kudos Productions

Zeebles are particularly hard to domesticate, given their tight knit family structure. One raised from near birth makes for a high-maintenance pet for the immensely rich. Upon seeing somewhere of high altitude though, the zeeble will be instinctively drawn back to the mountain.

Coming to the Ground

The cute and cuddly mean well, but can spell doom for a party. You'd be a monster to slay one in combat, but who could put sword or spell to something so cute? Now we want to hear from you. What strange creatures lurk in the fringes of your setting. How would you use or amend the zeeble in your games? Let us know in the comments below or talk to us on Discord.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.

Sinister Potions - Much A-brew About Nothing

Locations make the adventure sometimes. It's all well and good to know what your players are doing, but where they have to go and who they interact with is arguably more important. The NPCs that they interact with are the sources of their gear, their information, and more importantly their conflicts.

In past posts, we've spotlighted locations that your players can go to for assistance and quests from kindly seamstresses and shady, but well meaning criminals. There's room for all kinds of NPCs, and the villain is my personal favourite.

Much A-Brew About Nothing

Don’t stay too long, even if it all looks inviting - Silent Laboratory by Cygames Inc

The alchemist shop at the end of the lane is as common as the greengrocer or leather worker's. The magical becomes somewhat mundane in the world of fantasy RPGs. For some, a shop that offers over the counter potions or common magic items to make manual labour that tiny bit easier is very welcome.

Many undergraduate mages work in stores like this while they study. It's good for their college credit an few wizarding organisations would take an apprentice on without “real world experience”.

One such alchemical shop, the Much A-Brew About Nothing, is nestled down a back street in the quiet end of a bustling town. The whole building has tilted a few degrees, and the wood furnishings across the front have rotted. The building shouldn't be standing, but it is.

The inside is just as grim. The smell of rotting wood mixes with the gargling sound of many beakers and glasses full of colourful liquid. The benches and worktables lining the walls on the front and left side of the store are covered in heavy glass containers filled with viscous liquids. The ones on stands have small flames under them, held and lit from nothing.

The Proprietor

Enid is a face anyone can trust - ‘Kindly Stranger’ by Ryan Pancoast

A very old human-appearing woman runs this store. She shuffles as she walks. Her hair is a mess of wiry white knots and her clothes are covered in stains of her potions. She shuffles about her workshop muttering. She refers to everyone as “my ducky” and is generally amiable. In my games, I called her Enid, but if you take on this location for your fantasy RPGs, feel free to call her whatever you desire.

When she has to interact with anything on or about her workshop, that's where the newts come in. Hundreds of dirty yellow lizards skitter from gaps in the floorboards, crevices in the brick work, or even in gaps in her clothes. The newts clamber over each other and do a lot of her heavy lifting. The little lizards clamber over each other to move her glassware and operate her many tools and utensils.

Enid offers magical wares, potions, and minor enchantments. Compared to the rates offered by other magical shops, she is incredibly cheap, and does her work very quickly. This should make many player characters very eager to come back for more.

The Unusual Brew

one of her many loyal lizards - Rootwalla by Roger Raupp

The more often players return to this store, the more strange things will inevitably become for them. Enid is inclined to give them quests, such as to source particularly rare magic items or reagents for potions. The requests will shift from rare plants and minerals, to living things, or samples of flesh and blood. As a group become less involved or interested in filling her orders, they'll fins that her form becomes monstrous, and the workshop full of lizards becomes a place to battle an insidious witch.

Closing Shop

The suggestions, of an insidious witchy shopkeeper and her aid of many newts, are simply suggestions. If you want to keep her kindly, or to say her wares are from a technological standpoint and she's helped by mechanical mice, then that works too. Now we want to hear from you. How would you use a character like this? What kind of quests would an insidious alchemist dish out? Let us know on our discord server, or the comments below.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.

Cobalt Dragons - The Wandering Curiosity

We return to the realm of the dragons in today's article. The malicious forces of brown and purple linger beneath the sand, and in the deep places of the world. Some rarer breeds of dragons are so different compared to others, it's a wonder why they're lost to time.

Cobalt Dragon by Howarrd Lyon

In any case, the inscrutable, calculating mind of the cobalt dragon make them hard to understand and harder to trust. Those lucky to have the favour of a cobalt dragon have a staunch ally, but should also do well not to besmirch their draconic friend.

Cobalt Dragons

The rushes of midnight blue and deep, sonorous roar of the cobalt dragon make it unmissable to the few draconologists who know about them. Their forms are stocky, with a rounded face, and two great horns at the back of their heads. Metallic frills wave at the tops of their necks, hardening into spines the further down the tail they go. As wyrmlings, cobalt dragons are born with dull grey, bumpy scales. As they mature, the deep blue colour of refined cobalt starts to shine across their form.

Cobalt dragons breathe forces baleful light, with enough force to incinerate most in its area of effect, whilst giving off very little to no heat at all. The glow of this breath weapon is usually in the range of an iridescent blue. Traces of cobalt give it that colour, but it's a brighter shade than their scales.

There are many elements of the cobalt dragon's nature which make them very different in attitude and action than any other dragon. The most stark difference is that they're migratory. At some point early in their existence, the cobalt dragon's attitude on the notion of a fixed home were abandoned. Other dragons settled in caves, undersea caverns, dense jungles, or endless sands. The cobalt dragon keeps near constantly in motion, unless businesses it chooses to meddle in keep it in an area. Their migration paths follow ley lines, trade winds, or tectonic currents. Any naturally flowing path of air, water, or magic that can be found in your setting.

Cobalt Dragon Ancient Stat Block generated on homebrewery.naturalcrit.com

Cobalt Dragon Adult Stat Block

While other breeds of dragons hoard wealth and riches, the hoard of the cobalt dragon is far more subjective. By using its shapechanger ability, the cobalt dragon offers its services as a labourer and a journeyman to humanoids of all walks of life. By never staying in the same place for too long, they garner a wide variety of skills during their lifetime. By making these contacts, the cobalt dragon collects promises, debts, and favours from the people it works for. A cobalt dragon will always honour its debt, and will expect the same courtesy from those it asks assistance from.

Region Effects

The migratory cobalt dragon never settles in an area long enough to establish a lair like the coastal caves of bronze dragons or the boggy swamps of black dragons. However, cobalt dragons are inherently magical, and their presence does lightly distort the local area they're currently residing in.

Bodies of still water within 1000ft of the cobalt dragon, take on an opalescent turquoise colour. If they were safe to drink before the dragon's presence was close, drinking this water grants the drinker 1 temporary hit point.

Anyone making a crafting check using artisan's tools within 1000ft of the dragon, does so with advantage.

Young Cobalt Dragon and Cobalt Dragon Wyrmling Stats

Journeying On

Previous articles have given us magical titanium, elusive purple, and cowardly brown dragons. Now we want to hear if there are any dragon ideas you had in your Dungeons and Dragons games. Let us know or talk to us about anything related to classic RPGs on our discord or the comments below!

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.

Welcome To the Glimmer Weaver

Whole worlds for RPGs are hard to imagine. We can try to build the geography and politics of the whole place, but there'll always be one question from one player which will make a Game Master go glass eyed and uncertain. It'd be nice to dream up an entire world for players to use, to dip in and out of, but individual places are much easier.

We've looked at a classic hub of scum and villainy in our previous location article. Now let's look a little closer at somewhere more everyday, but no less wondrous.

The Glimmer Weaver

The Glimmer Weaver can be found tucked into one corner of a market square in the commercial heart of any city in your setting. You can find just about any and every shop around here. One such shop is a tailors. The store takes up only one storey. Its wide window has a mannequin stand showing a stunning black suit, and a flowing emerald green dress with a sheer neckline. Spools of heavy fabric, which appear as different colours are propped in one corner of the window.

The store's interior is small, but functional. It's twenty feet deep, and the floor space is roughly square shape. On the right wall are many tall spools of fabric of varying textures and colours. The left wall is dominated by a floor to ceiling cabinet, with many inch wide drawers. Each one has thread inside, of different textures and colours. A wide table fills the central floor space, with many nicks and cuts in the woodwork. A door on the back wall leads off to the changing rooms, the owner's office, and the back door. The space behind the work table is littered with thick blankets and heavy pillows, which the owner often reclines in.

Garments suited for every occasion - ‘Tymna the Weaver’ by Winona Nelson

Upper Management

Just some of her selection - Fabrics photograph by Cottonpickins.com

Like my last article about The Break Knuckle Pit, I'm going to leave my characters anonymous. I'll tell you all about the looks and attitudes I've come up for them, but if you take inspiration from this article, then it'd be amazing to see Game Masters put their own spins on my characters.

The owner and main seamstress in The Glimmer Weaver is a woman with a calming voice and dark complexion. She has her hair tied up tight and simple, almost clerical dress. The striking feature on her person is the great bandage going across her eyes. Eagle eyed characters will notice that when she talks, she talks to the middle distance.

Her apparent blindness doesn't hamper her ability to craft perfect clothing. When a customer, usually players come in. She'll talk to them for a few minutes before. The act of walking around the squat store will let her know their pant size. When it comes to making the clothes herself, the cloth floats from their rolls and as much thread as she needs will slink from the drawers. She cuts slowly, and with precision, with a pair of gleaming silver scissors that she keeps in her bundle of hair. She never reaches for any colour or cut of fabric in particular, but always knows which colour and texture will drift into her grip. She always knows what cuts to make and folds with origami precision without hesitating, and obviously without looking.

She'll do her best to outfit the players with things they'd truly like, while surprising them with the skill it was made with. She's the calm voice that a player character can trust and confide in, and despite the suspicious minds a player may have, won't really go back on them. Sometimes NPCs can be nice for niceness sake.

To the most trusted of player characters, she can be a wondrous font of quests. If you’re working in a city with a lot imports, perhaps escorting her to take in new wares, only to defend a remarkably capable blind woman. Or perhaps she could ask the players to intervene on her behalf to shady nobles or members of trades guilds, only to find out darker plots are starting to unfold…

Closing Shop

With all the garments you need to tailor this clothes shop for your games, we want to hear from you. How would this clothing store fit in your scifi or fantasy setting? Do you have any ideas for interesting spots in your games you'd like to be featured? Keep a close watch on Apotheosis Studios for more monsters, locations, and handy ideas for your roleplaying games.

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.

Brown Dragons - Scourge of the Sands

A brown dragon moving effortlessly through the sand - Faeron by kelpie-monster

We continue on our draconology mystery tour with an oddity of the draconic world. In terms of the dragons I've designed and used for my Dungeons and Dragons games. This one has many mechanical differences that I think the monster type somewhat needs. When you couple that with how they fight and where they live, it'll make some interesting encounters indeed.

Brown Dragons

In the arid, yellow sands of the world's deserts, many might find other breeds of dragons. Those dragons have an affinity for living in the intense heat and with the whipping sand, but they were not born for it or moulded by at is brown dragons were.

Their shapes are extremely unique, almost alien compared to other dragon breeds. Their bodies are incredibly slender, almost gaunt. Their arrow shaped heads and wings which fold multiple times over to stay clung to the thick spines on their backs are for a singular purpose. Draconologists believe that brown dragons are the evolutionary gap between dragons and great wurms.

Having lived in intense heat for tens of thousands of years, the brown dragons have evolved immense skills for burrowing and tunnelling, much like wurms. This is a far more efficient means of travel for these dragons, even over flying. In events when they do fly, their visual differences can be striking. Instead of two great pairs of wings dominating their back, a dozen much smaller wings beat remarkably fast, like a bumblebee or hummingbird. Sustaining flight is tiring for brown dragons, but wings like these help keep its body cool, work as fins, while burrowing, and can kick up the sand like a dervish to help its escape.

The other, stark difference is their breath. Instead of creating blasts of intense energy, they weaponise their home and landscape. As they burrow, they engulf hundreds of tonnes of desert sand. When under attack, the heat of their internal organs partially smelts this sand back down into rough glass crystals. This intense shredding can turn most suits of armour to ribbons and living things to pulp.

Ancient Brown Dragon Stats - generated with homebrewery.Naturalcrit.com

By virtue, brown dragons are incredibly cowardly. Seeking to keep their hoards of raw metals deep in burrows below the surface of the sand. They'll snivel and whine to avoid a confrontation, and will only seek to kill a foe if they're at their weakest, and an easy target. In most cases, the craven dragon will seek to hide under the sands rather than fight.

Lair Actions

Adult Brown Dragon Stats

Brown dragons roost deep under the sands of immense deserts. In the unlikely event adventurers find their way into a brown dragon's lair will be caught in a labyrinth of winding sandy tunnels.

The dragon has memorised the placement of each tunnel in its lair, like a map in its mind, and can use that to its advantage. The dragon burrows around one of the tunnels, or low ceiling areas and damages the weak sand in the cavern. Each creature within 20 feet of the dragon must make a DC 15 Dexterity Saving Throw or take 14 (4d6) bludgeoning damage from falling sand.

The dragon uses the immense heat of its breath to superheat the inside of its lair, making it inhospitable for trespassers. The dragon chooses a 20 feet cube it can see within 120 feet of it. The air in that cube becomes unbearably hot. All creatures that start their turn in that area have disadvantage on attack rolls and ability checks until the start of their next turn outside of that area.

Regional Effects

The skies over the dragon's lair are devoid of any clouds or precipitation, keeping the desert particularly arid.

Young Brown Dragon and Brown Dragon Wyrmling Stats

Immense sinkholes within one mile of the dragon's lair pop up at random locations. Those walking over one must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or fall up to 1d10 feet into the sand, and risk being trapped inside.

Mirages of things that a traveller would find personally horrific or terrifying are increasingly common within one mile of the dragon's lair.

Beneath the Sand

I remember using brown dragons just like these to chase the heroes across a seemingly endless desert. Now we want to hear from you. How will you use the dragons who breathe sandstorms? What takes on other dragons, or fantasy monsters do you want to see made real in 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons?

Adam Ray contributes much for adventurers here on Apotheosis Studios. As co-founder of fantasticuniverses.com, he writes about card gaming and PC gaming to a corner of the internet he carved out himself. On Youtube, he can be found game mastering for No Ordinary Heroes, or editing the antics on The Hostile Atmosphere. Follow his Twitter @IzzetTinkerer.