Burnt Giant
These creatures are the dumbest of
their kind and most likely lumbered right into a forest fire
to see the pretty lights. But now they are badly burned, half their
body or more scarred bone-white or charred and oozing depending on
how recent the fire was. They are in terrible, constant pain and
thus unpredictable and very dangerous. (may fight or not but once fighting never roll for morale, +2 to
hit and damage, will fight for an additional 2 hit die after all its
hit points are gone)
They tend to come down into the
lowlands wandering randomly or looking for easy to catch prey like
fat merchants.
They are one of the few reasons human
rangers work in groups.
Elves treat them with great caution
attempting to lure them into icy-cold mountain streams, which soothes
their pain, and then dispatching them with arrows to ear or eye.
St Boll was said to have laid healing
hands on one as it crushed him to death in its grasp. The calmed
creature became a protector of the local church for the rest of its
short life.
Seasonal Maps
Thanks to Richard in a previous post for this idea. Has there ever been a supplement or module that provided multiple maps for the same area in different seasons? I don't recall any. I think it could quadruple the interesting bits of a small starting sandbox. Imagine mountain trails snowed impassable in Winter. Fords flooded in Spring. Different trade routes, pilgrim routes and road encounters. Festivals. Different wandering monsters. Weather. Man, this really makes me want to try and do it.
ps did the 5e playtest not come with a map? Because I'm getting a bunch of hits looking for "Caves of Chaos map" leading to this post. Or maybe they made a new one and people want to compare it to the original?
Regarding caves of chaos: They provided a scan of a original, it appears to be yellow from age, and has 'PLAYTEST' watermarked on it. One in your post is little bit more readable.
ReplyDeleteI recommend Weem's map. http://www.theweem.com/2012/02/01/caves-of-chaos-reimagined-by-weem/
ReplyDeleteIn fact I never liked the blue ones... ;)
Thanks anon. And thanks for the link RH. It's a pretty map. I think it could show more than just the size and locations of rooms though. In fact, looking back at my post about the original map, I think the way I'd do it now is put color coded dots to show # and location of monsters, or maybe even numbers to show how many hit points each has. I'd like to reduce the number of times the DM has to turn eyes from map back to module text as much as possible.
ReplyDelete