Hey, did you guys know that I love plants? These ones aren’t even statistically useful, with the possible exception of the Tasseo-Bush (which is very situational), so I didn’t even bother with rarity. I just thought they’d be fun.
This is a D&D adventure for four 5th level characters.
Background
Ugthorn Goutish has fallen in love with Amora Falor the local flourist. He is inept in love and seeks the heroes out for help.
Regretfully Snide Vice has figured out that Amora is set to inherit a large estate on the night of the Amathyst Ball. He seeks to wed Amora then kill her for the profit.
Summary
The affable Ugthorn approaches the heroes to help him win over the love of his life Amora. While helping Ugthorn they notice that the greasy Snide is trying to win over her affections as well.
On the night of the Amathyst Ball Ugthorn should be set to ask Amora to the ball, thanks to the help of the heroes, only to find a note conveying that she had chosen Snide and that Ugthorn should just forget how he feels. Snide had actually kidnapped her and taken her to the Amathyst Ball where he plans to force Mayor Hoffsteader to mayor them.
Ugthorn, bolstered with confidence he gained during the adventure, asks for the heroes help in figuring out what’s going on. Upon arrival at the Amathyst Ball they see Vice leading Mayor Hoffsteader to a private chamber upstairs.
Once the heroes interrupt the forced wedding there is a final confrontation with Snide. Snide brought an explosive ring box as security. He will marry Amora or else everyone dies. Once Snide has been handled Ugthorn and Amora express their love for each other and they get to live happily ever after.
Encounters
This adventure has three sections. The first is helping Ugthorn win the love of Amora, the second is the pivot where Ugthorn receives the note, and the third is the final confrontation at the Amathyst Ball.
Helping Ugthorn
There are many ways to help Ugthorn win the love of Amora, but ugthorn doesn’t want to lie to Amora. He is only willing to accept help as long as the heroes don’t do all the work for him. Here are a few ideas he had for winning her affection if the heroes are struggling.
1. Read a poem. He knows that Amora loves poetry, and he is more than willing to read a poem to the love of his life, but he isnt very proficient with the quil and could use some help expressing himself. Have the players write a love poem for him to read to Amora.
When he goes to present the poem Snide is there trying to whoo her as well and scoffs at his efforts.
2. make a bouquet. Ugthorn knows that Amora loves flowers, she is a flourist after all, but her favorite flowers are Sunfloras a rare flower that grows deep in the forest. The heroes can attempt a Nature or Survival skill check DC 15 to find the flowers in a glade. Regretfully 2 Owlbears call that glade home as well.
When Ugthorn presents the flowers, Snide is there and demeans the gesture by saying its not magical, then shows off an expensive piece of jewelry he bought for Amora that never tarnishes.
3. A rare book. Ugthorn knows that Amora loves the novel ‘The Splinters of Light’, but her copy was destroyed in some accident. He knows that Mayor Hoffsteader has a 1st edition copy but he doesnt want to sell it. If the players inquire about acquiring the book Hoffsteader is begrudgingly willing to part with it if the heroes can kill whatever is destroying his farm and eating his cattle. Once the heroes bring the corpse of the Bulette to Mayor Hoffsteader he gladly gives the book over to the heroes.
When Ugthorn presents the book to Amora, Snide mentions that it will make a good read after their date at a magnificent vinyard.
4. The Amathyst Ball. Once the heroes have helped Ugthorn perform three tasks he finaly will have the courage to ask Amora to the Anathyst Ball. See The Pivot.
The Pivot
There are several events that may lead the heroes to confront Snide. These events will eventually lead to the Amathyst Ball.
1. Confronting Snide Vice. If the heroes grow tired of how Vice treats them or Ugthorn and confront him, Vice will say that at least he isn’t after Amora’s vast Inheritance like Ugthorn is. He will deny any desire for the property, even though it is obviously a lie, and says that he hasnt done anything illegal and he will have the heroes imprisoned if they harrass him again.
2. The Amathyst Ball. When Ugthorn goes to ask Amora to the ball she isn’t home. There is a note left on the front door saying the following:
‘I’m sorry Ugthorn but Amora has accepted MY request to take her to the Amathyst Ball. You should just forget how you feel and move on with your little miserable life.
-Snide Vice’
If the house is checked there are signs of a struggle, but no one is home. Snide had kidnapped her and taken to the Amathyst Ball.
Ugthorn finally has the courage to persue her and asks the heroes to accompany him in case Snide causes trouble.
The Amathyst Ball
This is the climax of the story. Snide is attempting to force mayor Hoffsteader to marry Amora to him.
1. The Ball. The ball is lovely and many people from around town have come well dressed to the dance. Ugthorn encourages the heroes to dress appropriately for a ball before storming the ball since they will stick out otherwise and it would be tabboo.
Once they arrive they will see Snide escorting mayor Hoffsteader to a chamber upstairs. A successful Investigation check 15 reveals that the Mayor is moving under duress.
2. Final Confrontation. The door is locked, and nothing can be heard from inside the room due to the festivities below. but once the heroes force their way in they see Amora tied up and gagged in a corner, Snide Vice holding a wedding ring box, and Mayor Hoffsteader conducting a wedding cerimony.
Snide tells the heroes to shut up, get in, and close the door or everyone dies. The wedding ring box has a Glyph of Warding on it. If the ring box closes everyone within a 20’ radius must make a Dexterity saving throw DC 14 or take 5d8 acid damage, or half as much damage on a successful save. This is more than enough to kill the mayor, Amora, and Ugthorn.
Snide then exclaims that he will marry Amora and acquire the official documentation. He then will be allowed to escape or else he closes the ring box. He says he will let everyone live if he’s allowed to escape. This is a lie of course, and as soon as he is married and 25’ away he will throw the ring box at the heroes, the mayor, Amora, and ugthorn. The heroes must make an acrobatics check DC 12 (each character can make a roll) to catch the ring box or else the glyph of warding detonates.
Snide is only a Noble and gives up if all of his plans fail, but will detonate the glyph of warding if he feels its his only option.
Reward
If Amora and ugthorn live to the end of the adventure they proclaim their love for each other and thank the heroes. Amora then gives the heroes the obnoxious lavish gifts snide tried to win her effection with totalling (300 gp worth of jewelry with a 500 gp diamond embedded in a bracelet)
If the heroes let Amora and ugthorn die, you can give the players a small victory by allowing them to collect a 500 gp reward for Snide Vice who has apparently been conning various ladies of wealth all over the kingdom.
This is Taziel, my warlock for the upcoming D&D 5e game on the Scratticus twitch channel! She has been so much fun to design, especially as I’ve never played warlock before so this will be exciting!
Like the previous Forest Assets, Tavern Assets, and Snowy Assets
before it (all linked in the Urban pack above), this pack is made free
to use for all and because they’re all at the same battle map scale,
they’re all compatible with each other! In addition to huge number of
different roof combinations and detailing pieces, I also worked to
include a number of different other urban set pieces that might help you
set the scene a little more convincingly.
Please share your feedback and things that you may want to
see in future iterations of asset packs that look to cover the urban
theme and share back out any maps you may be making with these new
assets! Hope you guys enjoy!
It emits light through any fabric and even through leather. Only metal can block its shine. Emits heat, but is bearable to the touch.
Upon breaking, a miniature star is released that illuminates a radius of 200ft like daylight. Any creature within 50ft of a released star will be blinded by its light and will suffer severe burns. The glass is thick and must be either smashed with great force or dropped from a high altitude.
concept and design: p47y
Do you think this is not well balanced? Any tips on making better homebrew items are greatly appreciated!
It was about time I made a simple list of all the Fantasy Biology posts I’ve done so far, collected in one place. Some of the oldest ones are a different format, before I started doing them regularly, but I’ve included them anyway.
As an unrelated topic, I love seeing the comments and tags on the Fantasy Biology posts. I think every one has been someone’s favourite, except perhaps the unfortunate manticore. These are some of my favourite comments you’ve made.
Make sure the system you use matches the kind of players you have, for an optimal experience
Admin Note: This is part of the ongoing series called “D&D isn’t the only TTRPG if you don’t want fantasy play another goddamn game!”
I already reblogged this once but this is important:
Like I run a D&D blog. I understand that D&D is the most well-known and popular RPG in the world. But a lot of the time I see people going like “Hey I want to run a D&D campaign and throw out all the D&Disms and here’s all the notes I have for running a campaign about courtly romance and chivalry in a historical setting” and I’m just like STOP YOU DON’T NEED TO RUN THIS USING D&D
There’s a sort of a mistaken assumption that because D&D is the biggest game on the market and that it’s fantasy that it should be the go-to fantasy game but look it’s not D&D isn’t a generic fantasy game it’s a very specific kind of fantasy all of its own, one that steals liberally from swords & sorcery and high fantasy and adds fucking extradimensional cube robots for good measure
So next time you’re thinking about a fantasy campaign in a decidedly non-D&Dish setting consider instead of jamming the square peg that is D&D into a round hole trying to find a system that actually supports what you’re trying to do
And this is not to say that you shouldn’t play D&D: D&D is hella fun. But there’s a lot of genres and styles that D&D does a piss-poor job of doing, and because of that it’s so good we’ve got other games
*cracks knuckles*
All right then. I’ve been meaning to dust off my own D&D sideblog for a while, so here we go with providing some examples. I’m limiting this specifically to other types of fantasy outside of the standard high fantasy and sword & sorcery millieu.
Courtly Romance and Chivalry
There are a number of options for this, and they range from standard secondary world fantasy to more historical and mythological settings. My list here shouldn’t be treated as fully extensive.
Blue Rose – based on the romantic fantasy subgenre, specifically as seen in the works of Tamora Pierce and Mercedes Lackey. A lot of courtly drama and intrigue and swashbuckling, based in a fictional world.
Pendragon – naturally based off of Arthurian mythology, and having a lot of stuff given over to the court of Camelot and the chivalric adventures of the various knights. The same company also has a kickstarter for a spin-off called Paladin: Warriors of Charlemagne that might be worth checking out.
Historical Fantasy
This one’s a bit more prominent as historical settings serve as an inspiration for a variety of fantasy worlds and games, and this of course invariably extends to settings that actually use historical settings with a degree of fantasy elements thrown in. Note that I’m going to emphasise Europe here simply due to greater familiarity with games in that millieu, and as a European myself I’m ill-equipped to judge how accurate or respectful games using other settings actually are.
Because of this, feel free to add other examples in reblogs
Chivalry & Sorcery – one of the early tabletop games inspired by D&D, taking a more pseudo-historical approach.
It’s based on 12th century France and strives for a degree of historical accuracy and medieval politics.
World of Darkness, Dark Ages (including Vampire and Mage) – while the World of Darkness has earned some negative attention lately (and for good reason), the dark ages RPGs are still an old favourite of mine. Also worth checking out is Mage: The Sorcerer’s Crusade, set during the Renaissance. The Mage stuff has a really cool open-ended magic system worth checking out.
Ars Magica – this exists along very similar lines to the dark age material above, based around mages and magic-users in a ‘Mythic Europe’ setting. It also has a really cool open-ended magic system, and one of my personal favourites.
Awwww shit heck yes I might want to add to this list but this is a really good starting point
Practicing with more dynamic forms, with the D&D monster as the subject. It was also nice to practice with imbuing a conservative and dark set of values with color.
Hipsterpotomu5 dnd 