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Oh my gosh. I just found this website that walks you though creating a believable society. It breaks each facet down into individual questions and makes it so simple! It seems really helpful for worldbuilding!

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Greetings!

The group has descended to Hell. A place of madness, blood and gore. They’re here to rescue a wayward soul that was wrongfully bound to this plane.

Indescribable beings hound them from all around, trying to make their mortal souls stay down here forever.

Yet the adventurers press on, unfazed by the horrors that surround them.

The pathways of hell are confusing and labyrinth-like, there’s frequent need to use portals to get around.

The heroes reach a place where three giant skulls speak directly to their minds. They speak of the beast that lurks within each one of them. They want them to betray their companions in exchange for power. Can the heroes resist the temptation? Will they survive the encounter once they reject the fiends?

You can see a preview of this map’s Patreon content by clicking here.

If you liked the map I’d be extremely thankful if you considered supporting me on my Patreon, rewards include higher resolution files, gridless versions, alternate versions, line versions, PSDs and more. Thank you!

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Random Encounter: The Red Reaver

don’t jump the trail, don’t snap a branch/

don’t go in the reaver’s woods or else his ax you’ll catch/

don’t say a word, don’t even breathe/

don’t go in the reaver’s woods or else you’ll never leave/ 

-A village children’s rhyme 

Setup: While venturing out into the depths of the wilderness, the party is stalked by a revenant from a long forgotten war, a skeleton in rusting armor that seems to have an almost preternatural ability to hunt them through the woods. Far from some flimsy necromancer’s minion, the Red Reaver ( so called because of the rust and bloody reputation) is intelligent on top of seeming neigh indestructible, favoring hit and run tactics and traps that single out prey or provide some kind of diversion while striking from the underbrush.  Best utilized against a lower level party that haven’t quite found their strength yet, the Reaver is meant to harry the party while they attempt to carry out their larger goals, striking unpredictably like a silent killer out of a slasher flic. Encounters with the Reaver should also leave some kind of lasting mark as a reminder of the party’s terrifying experience, though it’s up to the dm to decide whether these are mere scars or more debilitating wounds that require the services of an expert healer. 

Adventure Hooks: 

The party come across a derelict hunter’s cabin that will provide a good place to rest during the night, and may serve as a basecamp while they search the locality for a particular site of interest. Inspecting the cabin reveals that despite the general state of disrepair, the only two things that seem to have been used lately are the grindstone out back and a particular section of the floor covered in scratches as if it was frequently pried out of place.  Unfortunately for the party, they’ve decided to take up residence in a cabin used by the Reaver to store its spoils, leaving the party to discover a grisly collection of stolen trinkets, mismatched teeth, and mummified hands all taken as trophies. Will the party abandon their shelter in fear ( even as the weather seems to turn) or will they start digging around in this obviously cursed prizebag? 

Seeking to spur prosperity, The local baron wants to resettled a stretch of territory that was depopulated during the last war, rebuilding the villages that were burned and cutting back the forest that has grown up in the intervening decades. More than a few of the surveyors sent out to check the land did not come back, while some others returned with haunting stories of being stalked. Obviously this means that something wicked has taken up residence in the region, and there’s a need for a capable band of sellswords to clear it out. Should the party be amenable (and survive), the baron will award them with a disused keep to call their own, which may become a seat of power as the region develops. 

The Scars of war seldom heal cleanly, as the reaver is but an echo of the terror and violence suffered by the people of the forestlands during a sudden and unexpected invasion. Those that slay the Reaver will be troubled by dreams of being stalked and trapped, which will slowly grow worse in the following months until they feel as if the Reaver is stalking them once again. Perhaps visiting a shrine to the god of healing and warriors can bring them some peace, primarily by confronting their relationship to fear, pain, and violence, and growing as an individual. 

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Spark in the Supplies, side-view ship interior map.

Hello everyone, I've got another map commission I've been given permission to share with my patrons, Spark in the Supplies is another from Brotherwise Games' Cosmere RPG. Knowing how much people seem to enjoy boat maps I enjoyed trying something a little different with this and making the map in a profile view, similar to old ship interior maps. I've also included a night time variant. Happy sailing!

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Burning City Streets Battle Map 22x33

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💎 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗺! Mask of the Plumed Pugilist
Wondrous item, very rare (requires attunement) ___ This colorful mask stretches to fit your face. While wearing this mask, you have advantage on any Strength (Athletics) or Charisma (Performance) check you make. In addition, your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier on a hit, and other creatures take a −2 penalty to ability checks and saving throws made to escape or resist being grappled by you. 𝘿𝙧𝙖𝙢𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝙇𝙚𝙖𝙥. While wearing the mask, you can jump up to 20 feet, either vertically or horizontally, without a running start (up to your remaining movement). 𝙋𝙡𝙪𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨. If you jump and land in a space that’s within 5 feet of another creature and immediately take the Attack action to make an unarmed strike or Strength (Athletics) check against that creature, you also roll up to 4 fewer d6s when calculating the damage you take from the jump’s fall. If the unarmed strike hits, the creature takes an extra 1d6 bludgeoning damage for each d6 the falling damage was reduced by. You can attempt to grapple the creature as part of this attack; that creature makes the contested ability check or saving throw with disadvantage. You can use this property of the mask once per turn. 𝙍𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙧𝙮. When you hit a creature with an unarmed strike, it automatically becomes focused on you. For the next minute, the target makes attack rolls against other creatures with disadvantage. This effect ends early if another creature that’s friendly to you deals damage to the target. Once the effect ends on a creature, it’s immune to the effect for the next 24 hours. ___ ✨ Patrons get huge perks! Access this and hundreds of other item cards, art files, and compendium entries when you support The Griffon’s Saddlebag on Patreon for as little as $3 a month!

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Thirsting Grail, Outergod of Wants and Wounds

Artsource

Adventure Hooks:

While travelling the party encounters a once famed surgeon who seeks their help in undertaking pilgrimage to the distant shrine of a death god. When pressed on her motivation, she reveals that through some curse or divine act of cruelty, those she operates on can never die, but also cannot heal. 

There is a tree that grows in the ruins of the old braon’s castle, said to have sprouted from the chopping block upon which he had his wife’s lovers executed. The tree grows no leaves, only flowers, and it’s said that if you make a tea from its blossoms, you will receive a vision of your one ture love.  Beings of woven thorn are said to guard the tree, but there are those who would pay desperately to drink of its boughs. 

A once peaceful kingdom dissolves into a generations long civil war, any hope of peace drowned beneath a tide of violence, ruination, and grievance that none can hope to escape.

Among the outergods there are none more eager to engage with mortals than the entity known as Thisting Grail. It is a thing of violence and appetite, and seems all too eager to lend its power to those most likely to misuse it, whether they sought it’s aid in the first place or not. 

Scholars and madmen have long debated the Grail’s motivations, what goal or ideology it is trying to achieve with the visions and often horrific miracles it bestows. In truth, Thirsting Grail has no goal beyond the pursuit of violence and longing, it is a means without an end, ready to lend itself to any cause that would make the world a bloodier, hungrier place. 

The god is formless, an ocean of boling blood that takes on the shape of whatever “vessel” its followers imagine for it, borrowing their cultural iconography and birthing itself anew each time. There are litanies of these avatars, hundreds more likely forgotten by history;  blood saints and baleful red stars and heart hungry blades. Perhaps because of blood’s ubiquity in ritual and occult practice the Grail’s influence can “seep” its way into the worship of other entities, divine or demonic, and it’s not unheard of for otherwise upstanding and dogmatic worshippers of banal gods to accidentally begin practising the grail’s bloody rites. 

Sanguimancy and other forms of blood magic are the most obvious of Thirsting Grail’s gifts, but it has other more esoteric offerings: smoke from sacrifices or incense mingled with the formless god’s essence can grant visions of desires made manifest, though often twisted through a disturbingly carnal (in both senses of the word) lens. All too often worshippers ( and the cult leaders that encourage them) see these visions as prophetic, leading to the outergod being sometimes called “the mother of truth”.  It can also manifest the objects of desire: succulent fruits, unearthly lovers, weapons of inordinate power, but there is something fundamentally wrong with these creations as they cannot grant true satisfaction, and often leave those that partake of them wanting more than when they started. 

Those who fall prey to Thirsting Grail’s influence can become warped as their own veins become polluted by the entity’s ichor: becoming feral creatures of endless cruelty and appetite, or having their wounds open wider and wider until there is nothing but wound remaining of their swollen flesh. Those so overtaken grow and warp and merge with others until new horrors are birthed from them, a permanent seedbed of 

Titles: Mother of truth, formless mother, font erubescent, the bloodstar.  Symbols: A red grail or fountain, cultural iconography stained with blood.  Signs:  Wounds that bleed but do not heal, plants overflowing or cracking open to expose their innards. Unsettling red dreams.  Worshippers: Those with bloodstained hands be they doctors, butchers, or murderers. Vampires, occultists, and other sanguiphiles. Instatiable gourmands and unfulfilled lovers.   

Inspiration:  I wear my influences on my sleeve with this one.  I’ve been turning the Elden Ring mythology over in my mind for some time partially because I think there’s a lot of fun ideas there but also because I felt like (in typical Fromsoft fashion) there wasn’t enough shown to really scratch my itch for discovery. 

The formless mother/bloodstar was chiefest among these elements: A killer aesthetic with lore that was a little too thin to use as inspiration. After a while that thinness turned into a feature, the idea of an eldritch entity of pain and violence that conformed to the needs of those who worshipped it, granting power to those who would go out and make the world more violent and painful.  I liked the idea that “mother of truth” was a misnomer, and that cultists would ascribe meaning and intent and iconography to a god that didn’t care one way or another. 

Another strong influence is the Grail from Cultist Simulator/Book of hours ( SERIOUSLY, play book of hours you fools), an eldritch entity/aspect of reality that presides over hungers and births be they literal or figurative.  The Blood + Mother connection was obvious here, but the Grail provided some more texture and esoteric aspects to fill out my version’s storytelling potential.

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Greetings!

The adventurers followed the pumpkin path, not knowing where it would lead them. Deeper and deeper into the forest they went, battling the pumpkin warriors that stood in their way.

From the distance they made out three giant shapes. Their curiosity now at the fullest they kept on their journey with haste.

What they discovered was both amazing and frightening. A set of three giant pumpkins stood before them. With a deep, hollow voice the biggest among the pumpkins spoke to them. It told of delicious riches for the taking. But only if the adventurers were able to put the show of their lifetimes battling the powerful scarecrow warriors.

The other two giant pumpkins bickered among themselves, placing bets on whether or not our heroes would be able to pass the test.

The adventurers, never to back down from a challenge started to entertain the spirits of All-Hallows' Eve.

Can they survive the onslaught by the living pumpkin scarecrows?

You can see a preview of this map’s Patreon content by clicking here.

If you liked the map I’d be extremely thankful if you considered supporting me on my Patreon, rewards include higher resolution files, gridless versions, alternate versions, line versions, PSDs and more. Thank you!

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Gothic Vampire | Printable DnD Character Sheet PDF for Dungeons and Dragons 5e by TheBronzeBowShop

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Welcome to the Fey Tavern! 🍻🦋⁠ ⁠ When's the last time a giant moth made a drink for you?!

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No giant Turtle Island in your game? If not, there should be! 🐢🏝️

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an outfit lineup comm for @Omishu ! Thank you so much for commissioning me

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Wizard Prison [40×49] by Czepeku

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It's a glorious evening for fine dining, music, and merriment. 🥂⁠ ⁠ What would be your dream menu to be served in this Prismatic Ballroom? 🏳️‍🌈

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Who doesn't love a quaint fjordside cabin?!