reltastic - Tumblr blog

[reltastic]

Awesome

[reltastic]

Skogafoss Falls in Iceland. What could be lurking behind the falls, or under the lake?

From reddit.com/r/earthporn/, submitted by karmicviolence.

[reltastic]

The first 4E character I really got to play for a while (and, sadly, the only one I've really been able to play for an extended time) was influenced by the Masai Warrior tribes of Kenya.

He was a human shaman with a silverback gorilla spirit companion (not really accurate to the Masai, but I love this miniature and wanted an excuse to use it).

His name was Amri. At paragon, I planned to take him into the Stormcaller paragon path, but after we finished Pyramid of Shadows, that game sort of fell apart and we will probably never pick it back up at this point.

[reltastic]

Abandoned Temple. Why was it left, and how is it in such good condition with the jungle overgrowth? Only one way to find out!

[reltastic]

Swallow’s Nest Castle, Crimea, Ukraine

Awesome.

[reltastic]

Love this. Found it on reddit, but I was foolish and didn't write down who submitted it or where I found it. So, I sincerely apologize for not knowing who to credit.

[reltastic]

Camber Castle would make a really fun adventure site. More views on imgur, which I found on /r/castles originally submitted by Bonkey_Kong.

[reltastic]

Nerd Poker: Dungeons and Dragons with Brian Posehn and Friends.

It’s a pretty fun listen. The story is insane and its always fun listening to funny people play D&D.

[reltastic]

I posted this over on reddit as well.

The Stonebrother Monastery - a 10th level dungeon delve for Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition.

Hundreds of years ago, an order of monks that called themselves the Stonebrothers of Torm cloistered themselves in an underground monastery somewhere in the southern reaches of the Bloodred Mountains. For the most part, this sect of monks had no real historical importance, but there are rumors that the Stonebrothers had a secret. There are some that believe that the Stonebrothers were the keepers of the legendary Stone of Torm.

I really enjoyed writing this, and I'm going to try and get one of these done a month. That seems like a reasonable clip to me.

[reltastic]

I absolutely love the old WEG Star Wars system. My love of that system can be attributed to two main things: my love of Star Wars and the artwork of Mike Vilardi, who perfectly captured the spirit of the setting.

I am very excited to play Edge of the Empire by Fantasy Flight, but there is no chance that it gets its hooks in to me like WEG did so many years ago.

[reltastic]

Since I don't have time to play D&D because of school, I'm just going to vicariously do it through your blog. :D As for an actual question, do you have a favorite setting or system?

Thanks! Glad you enjoy it!

As for setting, I've been using ENWorld's Zeitgeist adventure path for the last year or so. It's pretty great. I like the idea of Dark Sun, but in practice it doesn't work very well for my group. Otherwise, I've been working on a homebrew world for the last several years, which most of the stuff I post on here will reference.

We've been playing 4th Edition, but I like Pathfinder, and I'm very excited to play 13th Age, Numenara, and the new Star Wars Edge of the Empire from Fantasy Flight Games.

[reltastic]

Mushroom Caves

I don't know if I'll ever do anything with this map, but I kind of like it. Made with a gel pen on graph paper. 

[reltastic]

This is an incredibly inspiring photo to me. I don't know what to do with it exactly, but something cool can be done.

[reltastic]

I ran a three year campaign for my group following the exploits of their party - the Guardian Brotherhood. Before we got to the epic tier, I asked each of them to give me a brief synopsis of what their character had been doing between tiers -  during the ten years they were not adventuring together. 

Bharhash was a dragonborn warlord, and the de facto leader of the group. During a skirmish in a small town called Lost Fort, Bharhash was killed by a huge mountain troll. However, due to some strange circumstance (out of game, the player discovered he had a resistance to fire damage, and thus had not taken as much damage as he previously thought, and thus was not actually dead) Bharhash survived, his fate stolen from the Raven Queen. She sent her minions after him until he swore fealty to her to make up for this slight.

Eventually, he made a deal with his new deity (he had previously been a staunch supporter of Bahamut) - he would serve her unquestioningly for five years, and afterward she would answer him any question he wished to know. This sort of inspired me to write this short bit of fiction set in the world of Avalona, and I eventually wrote one for each of the members of the party. It may be something I decide to start sharing on Sundays. Short Story Sundays or something.

Either way, I liked this one, but it's not my favorite. It's simply the first one I wrote for the guys. Hope you enjoy:

====

Five years had gone by.

Bharhash, once of the Guardian Brotherhood, now servant of the Raven Queen, had spent those years toiling under the ever watchful eyes of his mistress. Leading her armies against abominable undead. Securing temples and crypts in her name. Never once did he question her orders, desperate for the knowledge she would soon impart on him. It had been five years, and it was time for Bharhash’s reward.

The dragonborn slowly and reverently climbed the large marble staircase in the main temple of her Darkness in the Shadowfell. His breath crystallized as he exhaled – it was always cold here. The scales on his arms puckered, trying desperately to keep as much warmth inside his body as possible.

At the top of the stairs was a statue of the Lady of Death, wings spread wide over a simple marble block. A purple and black cloth was draped over the block, with the symbol of the Raven Queen embroidered on it. Bharhash approached the alter, got on one knee and placed his wrists, palms upward, on top of the cloth. He took in a deep breath and waited.

Soon, a frigid wind blew through the temple. It hit Bharhash square in the lower back, nearly knocking his breath out of him. It swirled around the statue of the Raven Queen for several seconds before the eyes of the statue came to a deep-purple life. The chilling cold slowly filled up the warlord’s body as the presence of his mistress made itself known.

Bharhash Flamebrow. You have served me well for the five promised years. I have sworn to you the answer to any question you desire, but only one question. Ask wisely.

Bharhash slowly raised his chin to look into the blazing eyes of the statue. This was it. This was the key to his destiny. He took a deep breath and braced himself.

“How do I resurrect Io?”

It seemed simple to him. Maybe too simple. Would the Raven Queen be insulted? Would she deny his request, as he was asking to undo death – her own domain? He was sure he saw the eyes of the statue burn red for a second.

What you ask will not be easy, but is not impossible. You must reunite the scions of Io, and feed the still-beating heart of one to the other.

Immediately, the statue went lifeless again and Bharhash was left, wrists upright, alone in the Shadowfell. The presence of the Raven Queen was gone.

[reltastic]

I love this picture. If I ever get to play, this will be my next character - a barbarian from the frozen north inspired by Fritz Lieber’s Fafhrd.

[reltastic]

A pair of unrelated action shots from two great published adventures.

On the left is a group running through the Dark Sun adventure Ashes of Athas. On the right is the Malice Beast from Zeitgeist's fourth chapter Always on Time. Both are well worth a DM's time to look into.

[reltastic]

I’ve found myself working on a lot of things I’ll probably never use. Here’s one of them: a list of sample names for your D&D campaign.

Click Here for NPC Names on Dropbox.

Hope someone finds this useful. :)