Jaunt in the Shadowfell

A.K.A. Dark Legacy Part 1

This weekend I had some time to watch Battlestar Galactica (which I loved) and felt the need to step away from all the Dark Sun brainstorming to keep myself from getting burned out. Not from D&D altogether, though. With autumn here and Halloween coming up, I really wanted to read a few specific D&D books: 4e Encounters Dark Legacy of Evard, 4e The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond, Die, Vecna, Die!, and I want to sit down and pour through The Keep on the Shadowfell — not to mention dozens of Ravenloft books I miss.

Even though "Halloween weekend" is over, I couldn't help but pick out some pieces of Dark Legacy of Evard — which, by the way, was a pleasant surprise to read through and I think could make for a good weekend of Shadowfell (or Ravenloft) adventuring — and whip up a few creatures and a couple of rewards for a little 5e adventure in a town, nearby ruins or a swamp, a forest, tombs, you name it. A pdf of the adventure can be found on DriveThruRPG for only $4.99. I've tried to find physical copies of it and the Dark Sun Encounters adventure but they are always astronomically high. Speaking of DriveThru, if you're reading this in October and haven't browsed their Halloween Sale already, it's always worth checking out to get some very cheap, very awesome RPG books. I always look for Ravenloft books I don't already have, there are loads (something like 10,000+ items?) of rulebooks and item tables and monsters for all kinds of zombie, demon, eldritch horror/thriller adventures and a ton of stuff that's just weird and fun.

I'll also to implore everyone to dig into the world and art of Magic: the Gathering's Lorwyn and Shadowmoor. When making (adapting?) the umbral sprites I was picturing the insectoid, chitin-wearing, dream-stealing faeries and all of the art of that world. At the very least, look up "Faerie" creatures on Gatherer. Better, even if you know them and their art, look up Rebeccay Guay (Dawnglow Infusion, Bitterblossom), Terese Nielsen (too much to list), Matt Cavotta (Wydwen, the Biting Gale), Daarken (Kulrath Knight for a not-so-obvious one), Zoltan Boros & Gabor Szikszai (Faerie Swarm), Wayne Reynolds's faeries, both Michael Sutfin's and Willian Murai's versions of Vendillion Clique, so many more; Tony DiTerlizzi last but not least, though I figure if you see this blog post and know any of the other artists, you probably know DiTerlizzi.

On top of the few things below, flail snails and vegepygmies would fit great in any forest adventure of course, one adventure I'd love to see (or make) is to play in a party of tiny fey creatures going through the Shadowfell, encountering pixie civilizations and fighting huge (for a pixie) flail snails, faerie dragons, giant (again, for a pixie) spiders, enemy pixie swarms, fiery elemental scarecrows (or scary fire crows?). Or a goblin adventure in the same forest. There's so much that can be explored. But anyway. Onto what I really came here to paste down and get out there this morning: monsters! Just a few, but just sprinkling a few of them into short and simple encounters can make for a lot of fun. Hopefully they're useful or inspiring in some way and they show how minor changes to other monsters can add so much more "flavor" to an encounter. Oh, and some monsters know "Ancient Netherese," I suppose it's mostly completely pointless but it might be good D&D lore to look up.

Encounter 1

Animated Gargoyle (3)
Small elemental, neutral evil
AC 13, HP 32 (5d8 + 10), Speed 30 ft, Fly 30 ft
STR 9 (-1), DEX 13 (+1), CON 14 (+2), INT 6 (-2), WIS 11 (+0), CHA 7 (-2)
Saving Throws: DEX +3.
Damage Resistances: Piercing and Slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren't adamantine.
Damage Immunities: Poison.
Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Petrified, Poisoned.
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perception 10.
Languages: Common.
Challenge Rating: 1 (200 XP)
Abilities
False Appearance. While the gargoyle remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an inanimate statue.
Harry. If the gargoyle moves at least 10 ft straight toward a target and then hits it with a claw attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 13 STR save or be knocked prone and become Stunned until the start of the next round.
Actions
Multiattack. The gargoyle makes two claw attacks.
Claw. Melee weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. 4 (1d6 + 1) slashing damage.

  Tactics: These creatures work together to bedevil those who enter the room. Each round, one gargoyle uses harry to knock a character prone then the others swoop in to claw at those on the ground.

Shadow Stalker (2)
Medium undead, chaotic evil
AC 14, HP 19 (3d8 + 6), Speed 60 ft, INI +6
STR 10 (+0), DEX 16 (+3), CON 13 (+1), INT 14 (+2), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 8 (-1)
Skills: Stealth +4 (+6 in dim light or darkness), Perception +3.
Damage Vulnerabilities: Radiant.
Damage Resistances: Acid, Cold, Fire, Lightning, Thunder; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical attacks.
Damage Immunities: Necrotic, Poison.
Condition Immunities: Exhaustion, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Poisoned, Prone, restrained.
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perception 10.
Languages: Understands Ancient Netherese and Common but can't speak.
Challenge Rating: 2 (450 XP)
Abilities
Amorphous. The stalker can move through a space as narrow as 1 in wide.
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, the stalker can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Sunlight Weakness. While in sunlight, the stalker has disadvantage on attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws.
Triggered Abilities
Shadow Stalk (1/day).
  Trigger: Whenever the stalker hits a creature with an attack.
  Effect: The target must succeed on a DC 16 DEX save or the stalker shifts into the target's space and melds with its shadow. While the stalker is melded with the target's shadow, it remains in the target's space and moves with the target without provoking opportunity attacks and has an additional +5 to hit with attacks made against the target. The target can spend 1 action to attempt to make a DC 16 DEX save to disconnect from the stalker and end the effect.
  If a non-evil humanoid dies while the stalker is melded with its shadow, this ability recharges and a new shadow stalker rises from the corpse 1d4 hours later.
Shadow Step.
  Trigger: A living creature within 25 ft drops below 1 HP.
  Effect: Until the end of its next turn, its speed becomes 60 ft and it gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls.
Actions
Shadowy Touch. Melee weapon attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one creature. 10 (1d8 + 6) necrotic damage.

  Tactics: The stalkers are hidden at the start of the encounter; a character must succeed on a DC 20 Perception check to detect them. They each pick out its own target and attack with shadow stalk as soon as possible. If a creature saves against the shadow meld, the shadow flits back to a dark corner of the room to Hide and attack again.

Encounter 2

Swarm of Umbral Sprites (1)
Medium swarm of Tiny fey, neutral
AC 17, HP 40 (8d6 + 12), Bloodied 20, Speed 20 ft, Fly 30 ft (hover), INI +5
STR 6 (-2), DEX 22 (+6), CON 13 (+1), INT 10 (+0), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 17 (+3)
Skills: Perception +5, Stealth +9.
Damage Resistances: Bludgeoning, Piercing, Slashing.
Condition Immunities: Charmed, Frightened, Grappled, Paralyzed, Petrified, Prone, Restrained, Stunned.
Senses: Blindsight 30 ft, Passive Perception 15.
Languages: Ancient Netherese, Common, Elvish.
Challenge Rating: 3 (700 XP).
Abilities
Magic Resistance. The swarm has advantage on saves against spells and other magical effects.
Stinging Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny sprite. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
  An enemy that ends its turn in the same space as the swarm takes 3 piercing damage.
Triggered Abilities
Fade Away.
  Trigger: The swarm becomes Bloodied.
  Effect: The swarm immediately becomes invisible and flees.
Actions
Darkwave (Recharge 5-6). The swarm bursts with dark energy, creating a zone of magical darkness in the space that lasts until the swarm's next turn. Each creature within 5 ft must make a DC 11 DEX save, taking 13 (2d6 + 6) necrotic damage or half as much damage on a success.
Flurry of Stings. Melee weapon attack: +9 to hit, reach 0 ft, one creature in the swarm's space. 10 (3d6) piercing damage.

  Tactics: The sprites hover near the frogs, waiting for them to waylay something interesting.
  This horde flies into the best position to use its darkwave attack against the most characters possible. The swarm cares little about the frogs, but it tries to avoid impeding their attacks. After using darkwave, the sprites skirt around the edges of the battle, attacking with flurry of stings. If it gets hurt but the frogs are still alive and being attacked, it might stay if it can take down an enemy.
  When a creatures stands in the same space as the swarm, they will have umbral pixie dust in their hair or face and on their shoulders.

Sporeback Frog (1)
Medium beast, unaligned
AC 14, HP 22 (4d8 + 4), Speed 15 ft, Swim 25 ft
STR 14 (+2), DEX 11 (+0), CON 13 (+1), INT 2 (-4), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 3 (-4)
Skills: Perception +2, Stealth +5.
Senses: Darkvision 30 ft, Passive Perception 12.
Languages: —
Challenge Rating: 1/2 (100 XP).
Abilities
Amphibious. The frog can breathe air and water.
Standing Leap. The frog's long jump is up to 20 feet and its high jump is up to 10 feet, with or without a running start.
Swamp Camouflage. The frog has advantage on Stealth checks made to hide in swampy terrain.
Triggered Abilities
Spore Burst.
  Trigger: The frog drops to 0 HP.
  Effect: The fungi on the frog's back pop, releasing a cloud of spores and gas. The nearest creature within 15 ft of the frog must succeed on a DC 15 CON save or take 8 (1d6 + 5) poison damage and become infected with a disease. (Creatures immune to being Poisoned are immune to this effect.) Until the disease is removed, the creature takes a -2 penalty to attack rolls and CON saves. Spores start growing inside the creature's lungs and will kill it in a number of days equal to 1d12 + the creature's CON score. After the creature dies, it sprouts 1d4 Tiny fungi that grow to full size gas spores in 7 days.
Actions
Barbed Tongue. Melee weapon attack: +5 to hit, reach 15 ft, one target. 8 (1d8 + 4) slashing damage, and the target is Grappled (escape DC 14) and pulled up to 15 ft toward the frog. Until this grapple ends, the target is Restrained, takes 4 (1d4 + 2) acid damage at the start of each of the frog's turns, and the frog can't use its barbed tongue another target.
Bite. Melee weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage, and the target is Grappled (escape DC 13). Until this grapple ends, the target is Restrained, and the frog can't bite another target.

  Tactics: This amphibian hangs back by the pond, moving only close enough to use its barbed tongue attack. If it can, it pulls its target into the pond and underwater.

Thornskin Frog (2)
Medium beast, unaligned
AC 13, HP 18 (4d8), Speed 20 ft, Swim 30 ft
STR 12 (+1), DEX 13 (+1), CON 11 (+0), INT 2 (-4), WIS 10 (+0), CHA 3 (-4)
Skills: Perception +2, Stealth +3.
Senses: Darkvision 30 ft, Passive Perception 12.
Languages: —
Challenge Rating: 1/4 (50 XP).
Abilities
Amphibious. The frog can breathe air and water.
Leap. The frog can spend all its movement on its turn to jump up to 20 ft horizontally or 10 ft vertically and may make a slam attack.
Actions
Bite. Melee weapon attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage, and the target is Grappled (escape DC 11). Until this grapple ends, the target is Restrained, and the frog can't bite another target.
Slam. Melee weapon attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. 7 (2d6) slashing damage.
  Tactics: These frogs each leap at the two nearest creatures and use slam against them. If there are any creatures that are not grappled by frogs, they will use bite against them on their next turn, leaping into the pond with them — otherwise they use leap and slam as often as possible.

More Stuff

Umbral Sprite Captain
Tiny fey, neutral evil
AC 19 (chitin armor), HP 3 (2d4), Bloodied 1, Speed 10 ft, Fly 40 ft, INI +3
STR 4 (-3), DEX 20 (+5), CON 11 (+0), INT 10 (+0), WIS 14 (+2), CHA 13 (+1)
Skills: Arcana +3, Perception +5, Stealth +5.
Senses: Darkvision 30 ft, Passive Perception 13.
Languages: Ancient Netherese, Common, Elvish.
Challenge Rating: 1 (200 XP)
Abilities
Duskbody. The sprite is vulnerable to nonmagical attacks from iron and steel weapons, and has resistance to nonmagical attacks from silver weapons.
Innate Spellcasting. The sprite's innate spellcasting ability is CHA (spell save DC 14). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring only its umbral pixie dust as a component:
    At will: umbral druidcraft.
    3/day: detect poison, blindness, faerie fire, sleep.
    1/day: confusion, dispel magic, invisibility.
Magic Resistance. The swarm has advantage on saves against spells and other magical effects.
Triggered Abilities
Countercharm (1/day).
    Trigger: The swarm becomes the target of a spell that would Charm it.
    Effect: The spell is recast at the source of the spell.
Fade Away.
    Trigger: The sprite becomes Bloodied.
    Effect: The sprite immediately casts invisibility on itself and flees.
Actions
Poison Prick. Melee weapon attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. 2 piercing damage. If the target is a creature, its STR is reduced by 1d6 until it takes a short or long rest.

  This sprite wears tiny blue and black chitin armor and wields a tiny violet needle as a weapon. Their house is a hole in the base of a large elm tree, hidden by a cluster of thick shelf fungi that can be found all over the woods here (DC 17 Perception check to spot the house). When they aren't leading a swarm, they spend their time studying umbral spell scrolls and collecting new thorns and shells for arms and armor. Inside their house is a small (for a human) round glass vial with a red cap inside and filled with salt (a trapped redcap).

  Tactics: If the party is higher level or larger than expected for the swamp encounter, this sprite will leave their home and join the umbral sprite swarm, boosting the swarm's confidence in battle. While they're part of the swarm, the sprite can use poison prick whenever the swarm deals damage. They save their spells for when the swarm is in danger, using confusion on large threats.
  Notes: See Lorwyn and Shadowmoor block faeries for aesthetics, attitude, and miscellany. See bracket fungus like dryad's saddle (Cerioporus squamosus) or turkey tail (Trametes versicolor) for mushroom references, 1d4 chance it will be a different mushroom that looks the same but is poisonous (causing nausea, minor hallucinations, or Confusion for 1d4 hours).

Umbral Faerie Dragon
Small fey, neutral
AC 15, HP 14 (4d4 + 4), Speed 10 ft, Fly 60 ft, INI +4
STR 5 (-3), DEX 20 (+5), CON 13 (+1), INT 16 (+3), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 14 (+2)
Saving Throws: CHA +5.
Skills: Arcana +4, Perception +3, Stealth +9.
Damage Resistances: Acid, Fire.
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perception 13.
Languages: Draconic, Sylvan.
Challenge Rating: 2 (450).
Abilities
Limited Telepathy. Using telepathy, the dragon can magically communicate with any other faerie dragon within 60 ft.
Magic Resistance. The dragon has advantage on saves against spells and other magical effects.
Shadow Stealth. While in dim light or darkness, the dragon can take the Hide action as a bonus action.
Sunlight Sensitivity. While in bright light or sunlight, the dragon has disadvantage on attack rolls and on Perception checks that rely on sight.
Innate Spellcasting. The dragon's innate spellcasting ability is INT (spell save DC 14). It can innately cast a number of spells, requiring no material components.
  1/day each: contagion, dominate beast, fearie fire, mirror image.
Actions
Bite. Melee weapon attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft, one creature. 3 (1d4 + 1) piercing damage.
Shadow Breath (Recharge 5-6). The dragon exhales a puff of foul smoke in a 10-ft cone. Each creature in the area must succeed on a DC 13 DEX save, taking 4 (2d6) acid damage and, for 1 min, the target can't take reactions and must roll 1d6 at the start of each of its turns to determine its behavior during the turn:
  1-4. The target takes no action or bonus action and uses all of its movement to move in a random direction.
  5-6. The target doesn't move, and the only thing it can do on its turn is attempt to make a DC 11 WIS save to end the effect.

Treasure

Umbral Pixie Dust
When pixies fly (while not invisible), a shower of sparkling dust follows them like the glittering tail of a shooting star. A sprinkle of pixie dust is said to be able to grant the power of flight, confuse a creature hopelessly, or send foes into a magical slumber.
  One pinch of umbral pixie dust can substitute for the material components of any transmutation spell of 3rd level or lower. The dust can also be used to makes things blend into shadows and muffle sound made by footsteps or beating wings.

Spells

Bitterseed
1st-level transmutation
Casting Time: 1 action.
Range: Touch.
Components: V, S, M*.
Duration: Instantaneous.
Up to four seeds appear in your hand and are infused with magic for the duration. A creature can use its action to eat one seed. Eating a seed deals 2 necrotic damage and causes the creature to feel starved and become infected with a feverish disease. Until the disease is cured, the creature has disadvantage on STR and CON checks and saves, and attack rolls that use STR.
    The seeds keep their potency when ground into a powder, and lose their potency if they have not been consumed within 24 hours of the casting of this spell.
* - (an almond flower)

Umbral Druidcraft
Transmutation cantrip
Casting Time: 1 action.
Range: 30 ft or touch.
Components: V, S; or M*.
Duration: Instantaneous.
You create one of the following effects within range:
You create a tiny, harmless sensory effect that predicts what the weather will be at your location for the next 24 hours. The effect might manifest as a black snake encircling your finger for a shadowstorm, a warm gust of wind for a tornado, leaves turning brown and shriveling for snow, and so on. This effect persists for 1 round.
You instantly make a flower blossom, a seed pod open, or a leaf bud bloom.
You touch a plant and determine its condition. You instantly know whether the plant is healthy, dead, near death (will die in the next two hours), Poisoned or diseased, undead, or neither alive nor dead (such as an artificial plant).
You touch a sleeping creature and instantly sense their nightmares.
* - (a pinch of umbral pixie dust)

And one little extra:

Tiny Book of Umbral Druidcraft
A very tiny book made of pale brown leaves with text and diagrams inscribed with the finest black and silvery ink. It requires a magnifying lens for a human to read. The book contains one scroll each of the following spells: countercharm (1st-level), darkwave (2nd-level), enhanced darkwave (4th level, darkwave that inflicts targets with faerie fire).

Cheers, happy Monday.

Continued in Part 2
Part 3

The Jabberwock

A Jabberwock.

Why? Good question! Alas, I have no answer. I do have the urge to watch the newer movies now, though. I watched part of Tim Burton's Alice but hardly remember it, and wasn't there a sequel?

Mine would end up being a mashup of various jabberwocky from the classic poem and various RPGs with a few twists and quirks. My first notes were partially taken from my skimming over AD&D 2e's Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume Three and the only homebrew stat block I found for 5e, along with my own ideas of the creature and a few great depictions: the original illustration by John Tenniel (of course), a close resemblance to the original (sans coat) made for Pathfinder by Wayne Reynolds (Pathfinder Bestiary 2 and artwork for Pathfinder: Kingmaker), and the creature in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) and great concept art by Michael Kutsche.

The Jabberwock
Huge monstrosity (dragon? aberration?), neutral, CR 14 (11,500 XP)
A huge carnivore (20 ft tall, 30-40 ft from head to toe, possibly more) that prowls the land, flying and swimming from time to time. Although it is more bird-like in form — aside from its long, serpent-like neck and front claws — it could easily be mistaken for a bluish-black drake but with a short-feathered head crest and winged forearms with reflective lateral red-orange stripes (similar to red-tailed black cockatoo tails).

• Puzzling Predator. The Jabberwock is an oddity among creatures, superficially resembling a dragon with gangly arms and stretched neck, and  lives in dense forests or swamps. It's locally debated among "scholars" whether they are the only member of their species or not, most commonfolk correctly believe there is only one.
    There is a widespread myth that during eclipses they lay an egg that hatches and grows into either a kind or terrible creature and that the parent and child fight to the death, the victor consuming the other.
    Another myth is that the Jabberwock does not need to eat or that, if it does, it only needs to eat during an eclipse. The truth is that it constantly hungers for many kinds of creatures and toys with most of its prey before feasting.
• Babbling Beast. The Jabberwock continuously chorps and murbles as it wanders and even while it sleeps. It clearly understands every local tongue and learns new languages almost immediately — despite showing a child-like intelligence and forgetfulness with most other things — but rarely speaks words itself.
    Thanks to the distorting effect its chorpling has on those nearby, it is almost impossible to discern and remember what the Jabberwock looks like.
• Enemy of Drakes, Lover of Fey. The Jabberwock treats most creatures as prey and hates other predators, especially drakes. However, it is fond of fey and tolerates druids in its wonderland, and if only such creatures are near it, the Jabberwock is playful, gentle, and childlike.
• Casual Cache. The Jabberwock has no urge to work for treasure and doesn't desire a hoard. Nonetheless, it amasses one over time thanks to baubles and jewelry and contraptions brought as friendly gifts or distractions from its hunger. It has developed a keen sense of smell for treasure it prizes most and some it fears: silver, platinum, adamantine, sapphires.

Good at: being a fearsome beast, regenerating itself, being mysterious and intimidating.
Bad at: remembering things, strategy, flying, not getting its head detached from its body.
Stats: ++STR, +CHA/CON, -INT.
Equipment: scaly, unnatural hide.
    Other weapons: teeth and jaws, claws (hands and feet), tail. (Not the wings.)

Taking all of that, I hammered away at a stat block for 5e, loosely balancing it against classic dragons around CR 13-15 and eventually being happy with this iteration:

The Jabberwock
Huge monstrosity, chaotic neutral
AC 17, HP 216 (21d12 + 80), Bloodied 72 (HP/3), Speed 40 ft, Fly 20 ft, Swim 30 ft, INI +5
STR 22 (+6), DEX 16 (+3), CON 20 (+5), INT 7 (-2), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 18 (+4)
Saving Throws: STR +9, DEX +9, CHA +7.
Skills: Athletics +8, Insight +11, Perception +5, Stealth -2.
Damage Resistances: Fire, radiant; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks not made with adamantine weapons.
Damage Immunities: Poison.
Condition Immunities: Charmed, frightened, petrified, poisoned.
Senses: Blindsight 30 ft, Darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perception 12.
Languages: Understands Common, Draconic, Elvish, Sylvan (but doesn't speak).
Challenge Rating: 14 (11,500 XP)
Legendary Resistance (3/day). If the Jabberwock fails a save, it can choose to succeed instead.
Abilities
Amphibious. The Jabberwock can breathe air and water.
Regenerative Resting. While the Jabberwock is asleep it has +2 AC, resistance to damage from magical attacks, and recovers 4d12 HP every hour.
Sinister Smights. Whenever the Jabberwock hits with an attack, that creature and other creatures within 120 ft that can see the attack become Frightened for 1d6 rounds. A creature can make a DC 18 WIS save at the end of each of its turns to reduce the duration by 1 round, and can repeat this save on a success. If a creature critically succeeds, they stop being Frightened and immediately feel the need to fight the Jabberwock for the next 24 hours. When the Frightened effect ends, the creature is immune to the Jabberwock's Sinister Smights for the next 24 hours.
Treasure Sense. The Jabberwock can sense the location of silver, platinum, adamantine, and sapphires within 60 ft.
Triggered Abilities
Bloodied, 72 HP. The Jabberwock immediately regains all of its spent legendary actions and uses one legendary action.
Actions
Multiattack. The Jabberwock makes one gnash attack and two slash attacks.
Gnash. +10 to hit, reach 15 ft, one target. 17 (2d8 + 8) piercing damage.
Slash. +10 to hit, reach 10 ft, one target. 16 (3d10) slashing damage.
Snatch. The Jabberwock spins toward its target and lashes out with one of its claws, slamming it into the ground and grabbing it. +10 to hit, 10 ft, one target. 15 (2d8 + 6) crushing damage. If the target is Large or smaller, it is Grappled (escape DC 16) and Restrained until the grapple ends. The Jabberwock has four clawed appendages but can grapple two targets at a time.
Legendary Actions
The Jabberwock can take 3 legendary actions, choosing from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature's turn. The Jabberwock regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn.
Detect. The Jabberwock makes a Perception check.
Chorple. The Jabberwock lets loose a caucophony of strange noises and nonsense in various languages known to the Jabberwock. 30-ft cone. Each creature in the area takes 27 (6d8) force damage. Additionally, each creature in the area that can hear the Jabberwock has moderate hallucinations, giving it disadvantage on WIS checks while it remains within 60 ft of the Jabberwock, and must make a DC 13 WIS save or become confused (as if under the effects of a confusion spell) for 1d4 rounds.
Snatch Attack. The Jabberwock uses its snatch attack.
Mystical Mirror (Costs 2 actions). The Jabberwock casts a spell that targeted and affected the Jabberwock this round, choosing new targets for the spell. It casts it immediately and does not need to use any components to cast the spell. This action is disabled for 6 sec (1 round) upon waking from sleep or unconsciousness.

More Stuff

Tactics: When the Jabberwock decides to snatch a creature, they may pick a place to bury them such as their horde of treasure or deep water. It prioritizes neutralizing targets wielding adamantine weapons, then targets casting confusion spells.
    If the Jabberwock is hurt and bleeding or finds itself outmatched, it has no qualms about fleeing from the area (even its lair) to take a nap. If an opponent is too small and nonthreatening, it may ignore it entirely; it may also ignore creatures it finds boring or try to eat bothersome creatures such as dull or boorish wizards.

The Jabberwock lives with a young and particularly smart gith girl. It lets her ride on its back while they sing a strange duet sang with throat singing and whistling which lulls the two to sleep by the end of their ride. There are no discernible words to the song.
  Optional rule: If any creatures stumble upon the pair while they are singing and focus on the song for 1 min, there is a 50/50 chance they will become slightly dizzy and have minor hallucinations or become Charmed for the duration of the song or until they move more than 100 ft away.
  Perhaps the girl keeps an adamantine saber somewhere in the lair or a chest in the pile of treasure, or perhaps some of her teeth are made of adamantine. Why? Good question...

The Jabberwock might also understand the following languages (or myriad others) from past experiences with other creatures: Aarakocra, Ancient Halfling (Athasian), Blink Dog, Druidic, Giant, Gith, Mulhorandi. Some of the languages are likely known through encounters with hostile creatures, and the Jabberwock remembers and occasionally "parrots" phrases they heard while it chorples.

Notes:

• Crushing Damage. A physical attack that inflicts crushing damage ignores resistances against bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
  
• Vorpal Weapons. I've never used vorpal weapons in D&D, and outside classic jabberwocky or faerie tales they don't seem to fit very well, so I made them weak to adamantine (by way of damage resistance to non-adamantine weapons) which could easily be replaced with resistance to non-vorpal weapons or the following ability:
    Vorpal Sensitivity. Attacks from vorpal weapons made against the Jabberwock have advantage.
    Its ability to sense adamantine (treasure sense) could be replaced with vorpal enchantments to keep that bit of fluff, or vorpal weapons could be made with adamantine and/or sapphires. Either way, I like the idea that the Jabberwock can sense such threats and would be able to hunt a potentially beamish slayer.

Twenty-Five

Another year older. It never feels like I'm much older or any wiser and certainly doesn't feel like I ever have my life more put together...

In high school I hoped to be living in a studio apartment or cottage on a hill making art or publishing books and making a living out of it. Around five to four years ago I was planning to move out of town into a cold, empty studio and make art alongside working a low-stress, part-time job and apply to work in a brewery. Of course none of that worked out. Too much sleep deprivation, too many days without a night off work, too much stress from work and broken relationships and so on and so on, I repeatedly got too mentally unwell or physically ill to work and things fell apart. I decided to call it quits and refocus everything I could.

Years later, I've been technically unemployed since then but have worked dozens of odd jobs online from enthusiast brewing consultant to community and brand manager and consultant to freelance artist and graphic designer, to most recently a (very short-lived) freelance writer and game designer and, currently, caregiver to my grandfather. Thinking back on it, it's been a strange, nebulous and rocky trail, the path forward is utterly grey and unclear. With my grandfather's worsening conditions this past month, he had the option to undergo a dangerous surgery (dangerous due to his impressively old age) to hopefully permanently fix the issues, or have a minor (minimally invasive) procedure as a workaround that would inconvenience him every day. Thankfully, for everyone else, he went with his doctors' strong recommendations and chose the latter option which he went through yesterday.

Seeing family members struggle is always difficult. Yesterday had a lot of struggles, physically, mentally, emotionally. I'm glad I'm here, though. With my other grandparents I either wasn't around as much as I wanted to be — or when I was my stubborn grandparents insisted their grandchildren and even children would let other people (nurses, etc.) take care of them — or there simply and sadly was nothing that I could do to help when strokes and dementia were at work.

Right now I'm trying to maintain a balance between taking care of myself physically and mentally and being there for my grandfather, cleaning, cooking, assisting, teaching, and baking and sharing desserts and cocktails or warm bread and beer or wine when time and energy allow.

I turned a quarter of a century old today. Time always seems to fly by whenever I think about it.

Brash Brutes: Spider Edition

Spiders. I'm one of those rare people who lets all but the most dangerous ones "rent out" a corner of their bedroom. Whenever I see a new one, I love trying to look it up and identify it. I don't know a huge amount about most of them, but I really do love them. They're really fascinating creatures. And there can never be enough of them in D&D.

One type of spider I want to use all the time in games is the Missulena occatoria, or the red-headed mouse spider, especially fantastical spiders with the same coloring as the males with bright red jaws and black legs and blue abdomen. Visually, they are so striking and menacing. I don't have much else to say other than if you haven't already (and you don't hate arachnids!), go look them up! No rambling about artists or any of that, the inspiration this time is purely the creature itself.

First notes:

Spider: Large arachnid (by D&D and Dark Sun standards, not real world standards) with 10 stout legs (5 pairs; 5 legs on each side, 2 of which are frontal legs but not quite developed into true pedipalps), two large, downward-pointing chelicerae with fangs (jackknife chelicerae; fangs only cross in "mutants"), book lungs, spinnerets under the middle of the abdomen, and a visibly segmented abdomen.
Simple description (for male): Large black and gunmetal blue arachnid with a strikingly bright red head and fangs.
Medium beast, unaligned, CR 1/2 (100 XP)

• Stealthy predator. Beneath webbed trapdoors in cave and oasis lairs they lie in wait, nearly undetectable.
• Menacing. Their striking appearance, their hunting capability, and their unique venom make them terrifying to any creatures that are capable of feeling fear.
• Vile diet. Smaller species eat insects, birds, and other small, soft-bodied creatures. Larger species (considered "giant" in other settings) eat anything meaty and even kill animals they don't want to eat for bait to lure things they do hunger for.

Good at: Stealth, explosive ambushes, fighting when cornered.
Bad at: Engaging creatures in the open (especially multiples).
Stats: ++DEX.
Equipment: Poisoned natural weapons (fangs).

With that stack of notes, I set to filling out the typical stat block. I started with a very simple spider and added a few things to make it more interesting to me. I have several iterations of this thing, one of them was this:

Menacing Spider, Male
Medium beast, unaligned
AC 12 (natural armor), HP 18 (3d8 + 5), Bloodied 9, Speed 35 ft
STR 12 (+1), DEX 15 (+2), CON 13 (+1), INT 10 (+0), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 9 (-1)
Skills: Intimidation +5, Perception +3, Stealth +4 (+7 in lair or Web Trap)
Senses: Blindsight 15 ft, Darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perception 13
Languages: --
Challenge Rating: 1 (200 XP)
Abilities
Spider Climb. The spider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Web Sense. While in contact with a web, the spider knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web.
Web Walker. The spider ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.
Actions
Bite. +2 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. 4 (1d8) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 11 CON save, taking 6 (1d8 + 2) poison damage or half as much on a success. If the poison damage would reduce the target to 0 HP, the target is reduced to 1 HP instead, becomes Poisoned for 1 hour, and is Paralyzed while poisoned in this way.
Triggered Actions
Ambush, on Web Trap trigger. The spider lunges forward, moving up to 10 ft to the target and making a bite attack with advantage. If it hits, the attack deals an additional 4 poison damage, then the spider and target make opposed STR checks. If the target wins, it can move 5 ft away. Otherwise, the target is dragged 10 ft away to a nearby wall or ceiling and webbed to it. They are Restrained and must make a DC 13 Athletics (STR) check or spend a turn burning the webs to escape.
Bloodied, 9 HP. The spider makes a spittling hiss, backs away up to 10 ft, and stops attacking. If it is attacked again, it will resume attacking as normal.

But that didn't feel very... menacing. I feel good about the way its bite attack works, it's built into the attack that the monster makes a point to avoid killing its prey, of course it needs to have an ability for when it's hiding in a web. And I love using bloodied triggers, they can make creatures feel more alive, more deadly, sometimes more desperate or plain creepy. This one ended up being nicer to newer or lower level adventures and, thus, players — which is what I've mostly been as a player and what most people I know play — and I feel great about that. Still, it was missing something, maybe a few things, so I took several more shots by amplifying a few facets and eventually got here:

Menacing Spider, Female
Medium beast, unaligned
AC 13 (natural armor), HP 36 (7d8 + 5), Bloodied 18, Speed 35 ft
STR 14 (+2), DEX 15 (+2), CON 15 (+2), INT 10 (+0), WIS 13 (+1), CHA 9 (-1)
Skills: Intimidation +6, Perception +3, Stealth +4 (+7 in lair or Web Trap)
Senses: Blindsight 15 ft, Darkvision 60 ft, Passive Perception 13
Languages: --
Challenge Rating: 2 (450 XP)
Abilities
Spider Climb. The spider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.
Web Sense. While in contact with a web, the spider knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web.
Web Walker. The spider ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.
Actions
Bite. +3 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. 4 (1d8) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 11 CON save, taking 6 (1d8 + 2) poison damage or half as much on a success. If the poison damage would reduce the target to 0 HP, the target is reduced to 1 HP instead, becomes Poisoned for 1 hour, and is Paralyzed while poisoned in this way.
Triggered Actions
Ambush, on Web Trap trigger. The spider lunges forward, moving up to 10 ft to the target and making a bite attack with advantage. If it hits, the attack deals an additional 4 poison damage, then the spider and target make opposed STR checks. If the target wins, it can move 5 ft away. Otherwise, the target is dragged 10 ft away to a nearby wall or ceiling and webbed to it. They are Restrained and must make a DC 13 Athletics (STR) check or spend a turn burning the webs to escape.
Bloodied, 18 HP. The spider makes a spittling hiss and immediately leaps up to 15 ft, making a bite attack at the creature that hit it last or another nearby creature. Then it forces all creatures within 20 ft to make a DC 15 WIS save. On a success, a creature stands their ground and gains 1d10 Temporary HP for 1 hour. On a failure, a creature becomes Frightened of the spider for 2 rounds and has one less action on their next turn.

Much better. It has slightly lower HP compared to other CR 2 monsters I've seen but can dish out a lot more damage. Its bloodied action feels strong and scary to play against, especially if there is a male and female spider with that ability or if it makes all creatures within 20 ft of each of the two spiders Frightened. One thing I'm still not sure about are the "if the target wins, if they lose..." and "on a success, on a failure..." which can make the encounter snowball into being very hard or very easy much harder than if it were designed around just "if the target wins..." or "on a failure..."
    But I do like it a lot. It leaves a lot of room for DMs to play around with tactics and environments, from spiders that hide in trapdoors in grassy plains or savannas, to oasis and wasteland lurkers, to groups that stalk prey in pairs or larger groups with spiderlings in cave systems.

And there is a ton of room for Missulena occatoria's appearance to be used for other kinds of monstrous spiders, here are two templates that came out of a dozen more scrapped ideas:

Weaver
AC 10 (natural armor)
STR 10 (+0), DEX 16 (+3)
Skills: Perception +3, Stealth +5 (+7 in lair or Web Trap)
Languages: Understands Common (but can't speak)
Actions
Bite. +3 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target. 4 (1d8) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 11 CON save, taking 6 (1d8 + 2) poison damage or half as much on a success. If the target fails the save, they become Poisoned for 1 hour and are Blinded while poisoned in this way.
Web Spray (Recharge 5-6). +5 to hit, 20 ft, two adjacent targets. The creatures are Restrained by webbing and make a DC 15 DEX save. On a success, a creature can take an action on their turn and make a DC 11 Athletics (STR) check to break the webbing; on a failure, DC 15 instead. The webbing cannot be burned away by fire, attempting to do so deals 1d4 fire damage to the restrained creature.

One version of the web spray looked like this: "15 ft radius, 5 ft range. The spider creates a sticky web around them, creating difficult terrain. Creatures in the area must make a DC 12 DEX check or become entangled by webbing. As an action, the entangled target can make a DC 12 STR check to break the webbing, but it cannot be burned away fire..."
    Another version had the spray in a 20 ft line and it leashed creatures together. I seemed cool, but the ways I kept writing and editing the ability that I was playing out in my mind was always messy and clogged up with so many words to cover all of the movement restrictions I kept thinking of. Good idea, I couldn't find a reasonably concise way to write it, so I scrapped it. The "two adjacent targets" version above is so much simpler to me and fits that lower level monster league.
    The language it knows not only means that it can understand commands given by a handler, it also means it can understand when hostile creatures make plans out loud speaking that language and that it can react to those plans. To me, this spider is also begging to be turned into a complete NPC with the ability to communicate telepathically and their own goals and plans, or to be hired by the party or recruited as a follower. It could be added onto drider creatures or, if it were the companion to a raider, rogue, or barbarian (PC or NPC) it could be an insectoid assassin with psionic abilities and relay information it hears to its handler.

Bulwark
AC 15 (natural chitin armor)
STR 14 (+2), CON 15 (+2), INT 4 (-3), WIS 6 (-2)
Skills: Athletics +5, Perception +3, Stealth +3 (+5 in lair)
Abilities
Wall of Legs. The spider has an additional +3 AC against attacks from the front and +3 to attacks against enemies directly in front of it. The first creature that attacks the spider or that it attacks becomes its focus, and the spider will face and attack its focus whenever possible. If its focus moves 15 ft away, it loses its focus until the next time it is attacked or that it attacks a creature.
Triggered Actions
Stomp, Bloodied. The spider's armor breaks off and it angrily flails its legs at each creature adjacent to it. +2 to hit, reach 5 ft, 8 targets (max). 4 (1d8) bludgeoning damage. The spider's AC is reduced to 12.

I don't know anything about my audience for this blog so far, so in case all of you have never played Gears of War, the "Wall of Legs" ability was shamelessly taken from the Corpsers in the Gears of War series. They could be burrowing arachnids or, like any of the spiders, mystically trained as pets for hunters or barbarians or what-have-you, with extra layers of padded, bone, or metal armor or weapons added to their legs to make them even more menacing. Making this type of spider Large instead of Medium — increasing its stats appropriately — would also make it much more terrifying when it stomps on players, I'm sure.

Creepy Confrontations

"Since morning they've been tailed by a pack of hell hounds, at midday they spotted a dust storm heading in their direction. At the first chance they had, they decided to take shelter in a cave where they won't be hit by the storm and could easily fend off the hounds. It just so happens that it's home to various critters..."
    When a character enters this cave (or for each of the encounters inside, if you prefer), roll on the table below to determine which creatures are living in it. One of that type of creature will hastily move past the character and leave the cave, giving someone the heebie-jeebies.

1d4	Creature	# per Encounter
1	Swarm of Bats	1d2
2	Stirges	1d4
3	Giant Centipedes	1d2
4	Scorpions	1d6

Minor Cave Encounters

Each room in the cave is significantly cooler during the day and will stay comfortably cool at night (or comfortably warm with multiple creatures in the room).
    If a character decides to sleep in any of the rooms or the entrance, the menacing spider will find them and attack at some point unless the path is blocked or the spider is killed. Roll for the spider's Stealth (1d20 + 4), characters must make Perception checks against it or be ambushed.
    Every room (except the front of the tunnel entrance) is extremely dark, so a light source is needed for most characters to see. Standard torches shed bright light in a 20-ft radius and dim light up to 40 ft, but I don't find that to be extremely useful for theater of the mind play. For me, each room has a number given for the torches needed to fill the room with dim light, double that for the number needed for vibrant light. Keep in mind for nighttime and cave encounters that most characters only have two arms and hands to light and hold torches with, limiting them not only as far as being able to see their surroundings but also use weapons, tools, and other items in combat. Additionally, if characters have obscured vision (such as in poorly lit areas), they make Perception checks at disadvantage. Small things like that can make a little cave much more dangerous than the combat encounters might imply. Granted, a lot of non-human characters have some form of darkvision which can negate the effect, adding unnatural darkness to rooms three and four below is a simple way to keep the cave interesting and isn't unreasonable considering at least one of the creatures there.

Onto the cave design:

• Entrance. A narrow gap in the rock is a tunnel with a very low ceiling 3-ish ft high (most characters need to crouch). It is small enough that only 3 Medium size creatures can fit at a time, or 1 Large creature if they are prone. At the back of the tunnel is another gap similar to the entrance which leads to Room One.
  
• Room One. 1 torch. The ceiling is 6 ft high with a few stalactites and the room can comfortably fit 6 people. At the back of this room is a slight decline and the room narrows to a 2 ft wide tunnel that leads to Room Two.
      Minor Encounters: 10 ft left of the entrance in the corner of the room is a gap in the rock. If someone makes a loud noise or puts anything in front of or inside the gap, the creatures will start skittering out and attacking.
• Room Two. 2 torches. The ceiling is much higher and has stalactites completely covering it. This room is much larger overall, able to fit a large family, but has an uneven floor and rough, winding and narrow walls. Taking a short rest here is possible, taking a long rest will not relieve Exhaustion. Something can be seen glimmering in the path to the left.
      The first character that walks more than 10 ft in the room must make a DC 14 Perception check (DC 11 if using a light source). On a success, they scrape against the walls but manage to avoid hurting themselves or snagging equipment on a rock. On a failure, they feel something scratch at them and take 1d4 slashing damage (from scraping against the walls, but don't tell them that unless they're already on to you).
      There is one violet fungus in the middle of the room.
      To the left: The path widens and the space transitions into Room Three.
      To the right: The path narrows slightly and leads to Room Four.
• Room Three. 3 torches. Roughly 40 ft wide and 65 ft long. It has a similar ceiling to Room Two and the walls are smooth and wavy or rippled except for a tall crack to the right and a dozen circular holes scattered around. The far wall is a dead end with a wide, natural shelf jutting out about 4 ft up that a character could sleep on. There is water dripping from the ceiling, running down several parts of the walls and pooling under the shelf (2 in deep).
      To the right of the shelf is a section of wall covered in white crystals with a few large red crystal chunks: 4 red garnets worth 50 coin each, 1/2 lb each.
      Minor Encounters in some of the holes: 5 ft right of the entrance near the floor, 10 ft left of the entrance and halfway up the wall, and another in the far wall overhead the shelf.
      A Dune Reaper Lair is in the crack in the wall 15 ft to the right of the entrance. See below.
  
• Room Four, Menacing Spider Lair. 2 torches. Circular, roughly 30 ft diameter. A few stalagmites dot the floor, stalactites and strands of silk hang from the ceiling, thick webs are strung between walls and stalagmites. The cave boss and 1d6 spiders wait silently and patiently beneath the floor in a trap door web near the center of the room which goes down 20 ft. In the room, roll for the spider's Stealth (+7). The first character that enters must make a Perception check against its Stealth or be ambushed.
      The room is covered in webbing and counts as Difficult Terrain. Webs can be burned away, or can be slashed at for one round to clear the space around a character.
      Wrapped in webs around a stalagmite is a dead humanoid with assorted equipment (random starting equipment for a random class). Two torches are tangled in webs at their feet.
      (Note again that if the spider is not killed or trapped, it will search for the characters in the cave and attack them while they rest. If the party stays in the cave and doesn't enter the last room, they don't avoid the boss fight, the fight just happens outside the spider's lair.)

The lair here isn't just a creepy monster hiding in a spot, it's a trap with a trigger and conditions and so on. This way, it adds a lot to the little area but keeps it simple and manageable and is easier, at least for me, to whip up and tweak to balance as opposed to making a whole monster and all of its stats. I like using dune reapers in Dark Sun games, having a hatchling instead of an adult drone or big warrior allows them to be introduced to players much earlier on.

Dune Reaper Hatchling Lair
Simple trap (level 1-4, dangerous threat, 150 XP)
The former nest of an adult dune reaper who preyed on the other cave denizens before dying. Now there is only the stench of rot and a weak dune reaper hatchling — weak compared to adult warriors, that is.
    Inspecting the hatchling reveals that it is very young and wounded: one leg is broken, the other leg has two deep slashes and damaged muscle can easily be seen. Inspecting the lair reveals some of the debris is the corpse of a half-eaten adult dune reaper. In the very back is one broken egg and two whole eggs (2 HP).
Trigger. A Tiny to Medium size creature moves in front the lair.
Effect. The hatchling attacks the creature. The creature makes a DC 15 DEX save, taking 9 (1d10 + 4) piercing damage or half as much on a success. If this causes the creature to fall to 0 HP, the hatchling drags them 5 ft into the lair and starts eating them, dealing 9 (1d10 + 4) damage at the end of each round. Otherwise, the hatchling retreats deeper into the lair until another creature triggers this effect.
Countermeasures. DC 13 Perception (WIS) check to notice a rotten smell and quiet chewing sound coming from the crack in the wall. On a critical success, a disturbing, alien presence can be felt tickling the character's mind when they focus on the lair.
    The dune reaper has 14 AC and 16 HP. It will retreat deeper into the lair and stop attacking when it reaches 8 HP or fewer unless provoked (by being attacked) or threatened (such as by a large fire in their lair).

Optional rules that can add realism or just a little extra to the encounter:

• The dune reaper becomes sated for 24 hours after eating 4 Tiny, 2 Small, or 1 Medium sized creature. While it is sated, it retreats deeper into its lair and will not attack unless provoked or threatened.
• If the dune reaper is killed by fire, acid, or asphyxiation, its dying screams can be felt by any creatures with psionic capabilities (or the ability to sense telepathic communications) within 100 ft. It deals 1 psychic damage to affected creatures within 20 ft and they are effectively Deafened for one round.
• If the dune reaper or spider dies and its body was not burned, its carcass will attract one of the Small sized creatures in the area (the same creature determined earlier). At sunrise the next day, the attracted creature's population in the immediate area will be doubled; if all of the Small creatures in the area were destroyed, one of the encounters will refresh instead (roll again on the table above).

With all of that, this cave could be its own adventure for low level characters or newer players, but if they play well or have a few levels it could be a breeze.

Another ball of notes finally out there. As I said on Twitter and have mentioned before, I'm busy with more family and personal business this month and can't write these posts a quarter as often as I would like, hopefully they're still enjoyable when I can get them out here. If you have any cool spiders that would fit Dark Sun or any kind of fantasy setting, share them! I'd love to check them out. Thanks again for reading, cheers.

Digging Deeper

Last week, oh wait, no... Nearly two weeks ago (oof it's been a busy week) on the last episode of "Blabbing About Dark Sun" I talked about DS1 Freedom, how much I hated it, how it influenced the first Dark Sun adventure I cobbled together, and how great that adventure was despite how little I had planned. Not long after, I dug very deep into that little area we played in, within a week my desk and desktop became littered with loose lined paper and notecards and sketches, folders upon folders within folders stuffed with more notes and ideas. And I never got to use more than a single paper with a shoddy sketch on one side and a paragraph's worth of information about NPCs and a cursed item on the other. That first post was, really, just a step to get here: an attempt to make sense of a mess of old folders and realize a drop of the potential within those smudged notes. And I hope that I can toss a couple of folders into the recycling bin by the end of it.

A Bigger Pile of Rubbish

Wider, deeper, denser, I was all-in on making the starting location and main hub for this adventure more interesting so other groups wouldn't say "screw this, let's leave!" right away (even though it did turn out well the first time). If players stayed, I'd need NPCs  to interact with and things to do besides stare at the literal pile of rubble that makes up a large percentage of the place. After all, even if life in the world of Dark Sun totally sucks for most people, especially at the exact time and place that this adventure starts, we don't follow and play the main characters of the story to see how much their life sucks every day.

I've always loved to flesh out and tweak towns and adventure locations and all of the NPCs when I get a new adventure book, adding extra "side quests" or quirky moments or giving off-the-wall items or abilities to monsters. If I'm not using premade maps, I'll spend a while planning out buildings, shops, roads and what-have-you and drawing it. I love doing that stuff, I really like making all of that myself from scratch, it might be my favorite part of D&D is creating stuff. But the stuff I make always feels like it's missing something big. Whether it's a good selection of hooks for a variety of PCs/players or believable NPCs or a serious quality map, for this adventure I scrapped countless ideas, erased and redrew a dozen rough maps for the town because it never felt "right" as a whole, it never felt finished.

Now, when I get ideas for something new it happens explosively. For this it was the same, but with a lousy twist: I got a huge amount of great ideas — the type that you know are solidly great from that feeling in your gut and in the back of your mind — right away, saw loads of potential in every tiny detail I came up with, I wrote and thought and thought and wrote for days, then the brainstorm inevitably subsided. I ran out of steam and all the potential I was seeing before had turned into a mass of unsatisfied fantasies, like a wilted, rotting garden of formerly splendid flowers and fruits. So I shoved all those ideas aside and buried them in desk drawers and bookshelves, meaning to dig them up and re-explore them in the future but feeling deep down that, like most unfinished projects of mine, that will probably never happen.

Fast forward a while to me meandering between odd jobs and eventually absorbing a lot of D&D content and having a lot of time on my hands. I started writing about D&D, getting hooked on the idea of Dark Sun, and so on and so forth. The first folder I looked at had notes about a cult and photo references of cliff dwellings and canyons and I got that feeling of "explosive creativity" again, remembering all the tiny details I had scribbled down.

It also made me realize even more how little is really needed to have a great time playing D&D. We had hardly anything to really work with yet everything went smoothly and the group had fun. It says quite a bit about playing in the theater of the mind, how much everyone's imagination and a little improvisation matters and how little a complicated plot and colorful NPCs are really needed. That said, a big part of me, and I think a lot of players, still wants to have a stockpile of things to fall back on, to dip into every now and then, to draw from whenever I draw a massive blank.

Building Nowheresville

I'll admit now that I don't actually know that much about the world of Dark Sun, especially not the metaplot, and most certainly not the geography. The only places I knew more than just the name of were a few of the streets in Tyr and a nearby slave pit, so I didn't care to put the place I created anywhere specific. "Nowheresville" — the very creatively named starting location — I imaged to be something of a trading post. Beyond it would be three "big" locations in three different directions with a couple of "small" locations between those and the central town. I figured one small area would be another town that trades with Nowheresville, somewhere there's a wasteland or savanna and maybe a crummy oasis, elsewhere is a canyon. And very far away is a big city (Tyr was the only candidate at the time) that maybe the party would get to some day or they would end up meeting someone from there, possibly the villain. Good enough. Nothing too complicated so far, but then I had to answer the question of what's in Nowheresville besides a fresh mound of dirt and rubble?

Aside on Locations
We played in the theater of the mind using very few maps and not using any miniatures for combat. I used sketches to make sure I could stay oriented and avoid turning the players or their characters and the players drew a few things but nothing huge. With that type of game, what was important to us is that there were places to go and a certain way to get there and that there were characters and things happening in those locations. The map for Nowheresville wasn't a carefully planned, concrete city made of houses and streets and all that, it was a nebulous place with places and people vaguely related to each other as far as direction goes. The shops and wells and everything weren't important because they didn't need to be important for anyone at the table. The same goes for everywhere else in the adventure.
    If I had the ability, the tools to make it happen, I would love to make high-quality maps and plaster them all over this post. It can't happen right now though, maybe some day. Until then, hopefully anyone reading this who wants more maps can get inspired to make their own.

NPCs
Obviously there would be NPCs. Before the "test run" I had made a few characters that appeared in the intro scene plus a handful of others, all of them very simple, and I didn't change a whole lot afterwards other than adding a few templates. Over time, I tore pages out of notebooks full of material initially destined for other adventures and completely different settings and games and stuffed them into other folders, including my Dark Sun ones.
(I don't use them but end up making them anyway, so here's a racial breakdown for Nowheresville: 30% human, 30% mul, 15% half-elf, 10% goliath, 10% halfling, 4% thri-kreen, 1% cyclops.)

• Big Bad Dude. I never made any details about this character, wanting to wait for when the party and story had gotten going to dig into them. The only thing I decided is they exist (shocker) and that they have a "base" in town but their home is far away from the starting location. And the note: "It could be anybody..." Spooky.
• Henchmen. Minions of Big Bad Dude; raiders, slavers, defilers, warlocks, poachers, aarakocra, mutant waspmen, gnolls, undead dray, there are tons of options for who/what could be working for them. I went with mostly raider and slaver types at the beginning, people who act like orcs from The Lord of the Rings or the more villainous seafaring, pillaging vikings or, with more direct orders from their superiors or Big Bad Dude, probably terrorists to some extent.
  One of the "breakthroughs" I had during the "creative boom" was for a cult faction of warlocks who are also archaeologists and follow highly esteemed (within the cult, that is) figures, some of whom work for Big Bad Dude because, well, of course they would.
      The distinct outfits for the raiders is yellow, tan, or brown garb with red and black accents or stripes, they ride the typical Dark Sun mounts (inix, kanks) and other creatures that pull their chariots. Luckier raiders and wealthy slavers have skiffs or barges at their disposal or even deprived basilisks (see raiders in the canyon section below).
      The distinct marks of the warlocks are bands tattooed on the wrists and ritual scarification on the chest or face for higher ranking cultists. They ride similar chariots as the raiders.
• The Elders. A druidic shaman and warlord oversee the town, its lawmaking, trading, and the protection of its people, and they deal with paying taxes (monetary and human resources) to the tyrannical ruler of the greater area who resides in the city beyond the wasteland (who may or may not be Big Bad Dude).
      During the intro scene, the shaman and warlord are the "lookouts" who predict where the burrowing creatures will breach and cause the most damage.
  • The shaman maintains preserver traditions and the group of druids in town and works closely with the potters and, of course, the gardeners and healers. During the non-inferno months (non-summer) they don't have as many constant crucial duties and use their spare time teaching youngsters and spurring on and offering odd cooperative jobs to would-be adventurers.
  • The warlord, a former commander of a legendary sand skiff crew, maintains a staff of laborers and soldiers and spends their spare time watching over the town and its people from afar. With firm pressure from the shaman, they are looking for (and looking out for) psionically gifted people, particularly one to train as their apprentice who will help them prepare for, anticipate, and eliminate psionic assassins and other threats, and to shape into their eventual successor.
• Druids. Under the leadership of the shaman they are dedicated to protecting the town, its people, and the world as a whole from magical and natural disasters as well as doing mundane but very necessary tasks, usually construction and maintenance and providing food. I've gone back and forth on what to call this group and what it is they actually do, but I like the idea that they function like a summer camp-y scout's school and that a handful (party) of them are selected each year and asked to join the warlord for some special mission, such as being taken into some part of the wasteland and taught to construct skiffs from scratch and how to sail them, or to take on an especially difficult task on the outskirts of the greater region.
      After the intro scene, several of them start assessing the damages and losses and report back to their families (if they're alive...) and the elders.
• The Hunters. One group of hunters is seen in the intro, notably the father figure and child unpacking before disaster strikes. This group, if the players weren't involved, would be the focus of the story, these would be the heroes we would follow and root for through thick and thin; when there is danger, they run towards it; when there is a long and hard road to be traveled, they happily embark on another adventure. I thought of them as a party of level 3 characters who mostly grew up here. They know the area fairly well and frequently hunt in the wasteland and savanna.
      The father tends to treat people respectably, some like siblings, others like neiphlings, and seems stern and demanding at times. When he's stressed or trying to work with someone who is lazy, unreliable, or untrustworthy he can become unintentionally intimdating. He refuses to work with those who disrespect or harm children or are slavers and will push for the rest of the townsfolk to drive them out except with the most redeeming of characters. He doesn't back down from fights, even to the death, and is not troubled by the deaths of his adversaries.
      Immediately after the intro scene, he and the other hunters will run towards the destruction, shouting a few orders out to the larger crowd.
• Beastmasters. A town mostly in the middle of nowhere certainly needs mounts and hunting companions and pack animals and so on, as well as people specializing in domesticating and training them and taking care of them and their stables. They work closely with the warlord and any of the slaughter chiefs who don't piss them off on a daily basis.
• Slaughter Chiefs. Professional trappers and butchers who trade with hunters of all kinds in the area. Collectively, they know a good deal about hunting every type of creature from personal experience — all the way from humans to cloud rays, even drakes — and while none of them have ever hunted and killed a burrower, two have had the opportunity to scavenge from one of their gargantuan carcasses.
• Merchants. Nowheresville, as mentioned above, is a trading post roughly in the middle of nowhere. It can't be a trading post without crafters and merchants to trade with.
  
  • Putter. An elderly half-elf potter and sculptor who makes red and white clay earthenware cups and dishes, pots and jugs, tiles and bricks, talismans and fetishes, also ocassionally gets commissions to make clay pot stills, wooden pipe instruments, and small clay whistles. He wears large hoop earrings nearly the size of his face, if one looks closely they can see subtle but extremely detailed animalistic scenes carved into their surface; if asked, they were his wife's who died several years ago.
        His storefront on the far side of town is somewhat barren. Only a few pieces are up for sale at a time, and there are only a few other pieces inside which are already spoken for; one piece that is always hanging above the kiln is a glossy blue charm in the shape of a disc with two breasts on the front (an arcane item meant to be used to imprison an evil spirit), but is never for sale. They spend the evenings and mornings crafting and firing their works from mid-morning through the afternoon, sleeping in the "back room" of their store.
  • Golkran the Mongrel (also known as "Golkran the Slaver" for reasons not entirely known). A very large mul gladiator-turned-merchant and local fence who works for several families and other groups in the area, frequently away on business for said parties. Their home is located in the dwellings nearest to the trade quarter and he rarely lets anyone inside to barter with. Inside it is lined with weapons from floor to ceiling: stone and iron shackles, steel hooks, jawbone glaives, bone and obsidian daggers, ropes and nets, whips, bone spikes, and one wall completely covered with stone arrow, spear, and axe heads.
  • Pic'areet. A thri-kreen gardener with a halfling servant. They deal in assorted mundane goods but specialize in their well-nurtured plants and variety of snuffed and smoked medicinal and recreational drugs. The area, located next to the stables, smells of a mixture of incense, dung, and dirt during the day, only more pleasant than the stables themselves if one isn't prone to gagging from the potent incense.
        The halfling (lvl 1 barbarian) is only called "hey" or "you" by the thri-kreen, never by a name nor title. They're tattooed from chin to ankle and are always seen gnawing on scraps of hide. Rumors in town say they are more beast than person and they spit at and bite customers from time to time; DC 13 History (INT) check to know that those are only rumors stirred up by merchants in the nearby village to dissuade customers from going elsewhere for their plant-based needs, though chewing on hide and "mystery meat" doesn't help the rumors fade.
• Farmers and Bakers. I asked if farming would be a thing this far from a river or without a major source of water for irrigation. I never settled on an answer to that question, but I wouldn't think it's impossible to believe that farms would exist what with druids and other gardeners being a major part of this society despite being in a desert world. The farmers are on the outskirts of both Nowheresville and the nameless nearby village and are mostly families with "preserver" members who are, or were at some point, students of the shaman or gardeners who moved to be away from other people or a certain lifestyle they weren't happy with.
      If there are farmers, shouldn't there be people to cook and feed others with the products the farmers grow? Well, what is it the farmers grow? Probably grains, and grains mean bread and beer, thus the rough idea for bakers (who are also brewers) was born.
  
  • One baker is a very motherly (or grandmotherly) character who is friendly to everyone in town except for the warlord, who she does not speak to nor speak of. If they meet a PC and do not see them for two days, the next time they see that PC they will be suspicious of that PC and act paranoid around them.
• Healers. Professionals who mend people physically and emotionally, with some families or the elders doing mental/psychic healing. They live in their own shared house that acts as a hospital and nursing home, and nearby is a "pleasure house" which is part of the "healer's quarter" of Nowheresville. They overlap with the druids and the gardeners, but not entirely. There could also be ritualists/spiritualists in the market and members of caravans who pass through and offer mending services, some who volunteer their time.

NPC Personality Templates
To be added to other characters, allies or enemies. They all revolve around a drive and a flaw.

• "Mira."
  Drive: To Lead. They have great ambition to lead and teach others and takes pride in using their drive to make a better home for those around them and set a good example for others to follow through their dedication, perseverance, and optimism. When it will be noticed by someone they look up to, they tend to take small risks or try to overachieve so they will be admired, but not if it puts someone else in danger.
  Fatal Flaw: Rage. When they are personally threatened or insulted, or under duress and something escalates their emotions, they tend to react by violently retaliating, verbally if not physically. They will be aggressive until they get revenge and the perceived threat is gone, focusing purely on those goals at the expense of their own well-being and that of those around them, and taking extreme risks to reach their goal. If they become angry at a family member or companion, they will punish or blame them and may become insensitive towards them.
• "Armet."
  Drive: To Support. They are very independant but thrive by supporting others emotionally and psychically, especially those who are struggling. They are humble and accept that everyone is flawed, including themselves, and patiently looking past those flaws to discover the best aspects of everyone they meet is second nature for them. When they meet someone who is struggling but will not ask for help, they come forward and offer it; with those who stubbornly or aggressively refuse help when offered, they tend to leave them alone. When they are presented with fortune or an opportunity to become part of a group or to lead, they tend to refuse.
  Fatal Flaw: Pain. When their life does not move forward and regularly change or they fail to help someone, they lose confidence in themselves and their own answers to problems they face, becoming quiet, melancholic, and unproductive, and will be crude in the ways that they try to help others. If they try and fail to help a close friend or lover with a serious problem, they will isolate themselves for a long period of time.
• "Rhoda."
  Drive: To Fulfill. They have a somewhat restless mind, always thinking ahead and always striving to achieve more in terms of wealth, security, and knowledge.
  Fatal Flaw: Fear. They will be doubtful of their own thoughts and will become vulnerable to malicious advice and misguidance. The more excess of wealth they have, the more insecure they will become and the heavier their guilt will be.

Plot
What's going on before the burrower catastrophe? Big Bad Dude must be doing big bad things, they probably have their hands and toes dipped in every vile little thing going on. Besides the probably-main-antagonist faction, who else is in the immediate area and beyond and what are they doing?

• Big Bad Plans. The henchmen above are working for higher ranking henchmen who follow Big Bad Dude and their master plan to get rid of their puny, but numerous, enemies. The master plan involves sending teams to place magical lures in cities throughout the region which lead to a dangerously polluted oasis, causing other creatures to do the dirty work and die a terrible death shortly after, giving their allies access to materials from the creatures. The creatures lured by the magical devices are, naturally, gargantuan burrowing monsters of basically whatever description you want: megapedes, huge demonic death snakes, purple worms, ankheg queen and warriors, Hellboy's Conqueror Worm; the creature I loosely described was essentially the iconic Sandworm from Dune, though I picture something between that and a Nydus Worm from StarCraft with parasites attached inside and outside, or that oozes foul blood or slime.
      In town, there is a worn stone slab where a well used to be (it collapsed, the slab is thought to just be a reminder by most but is really a puzzle door). One night just before the adventure, a raider used a cloak spell to sneak into town and open the puzzle door with a "key," they set a lure in a cave connected to the well, just beneath one of the dwelling areas. Simultaneously, lures were placed in the neighboring village and the polluted oasis (which was defiled weeks ago). Two of the smaller teams regrouped in the wastelands, waiting for the next move.

Events (or "Main Quests")
Goings-on that are connected to the main plot that the party can focus on for several sessions. The first question I asked was "how do the townsfolk react to the destruction and what does the community need immediately?" The hunters/heroes would run to help... When the opening scene was done and the dust settled (literally), I couldn't have nothing for the players to do, there would have to be something besides the obvious of going to the wreckage and lending a few much-needed helping hands (which they spent a grand total of zero seconds doing). From there, a handful of other questions followed like "what would I do in this situation," "what happens in real life when disasters occur" and so on, though the answers to many of those questions ended up becoming side quests since they didn't have that major event feeling.

• HELP! Everything is destroyed, people might be injured, things need rebuilding.
  Help the merchants: rioting in (what's left of) the streets.
  Help the beastmasters: one of beast pens was destroyed and the animals need to be rounded up; roll on a table of monsters to determine which, then 1d8 for how many escaped.
• Assist the Hunters and Druids. They intend to head out for another hunt in the savanna for food by midday, stopping by the village. A druid speaks with them briefly, then they leave to find where the burrowers are headed. If the party wishes, the druid will go with the party instead, or the three groups may all go together.
      In the savanna: chance of stampede. If they encounter the stampede (started by animals running from a burrower according to the druid) they will try to cut a straggler off from its pack (or two if the party joined).
  
  • A few hours after leaving town, they will reach a ridge near the oasis in the desert and get a distant view of a smaller burrower stretched across the surface of the sand and mound of exhumed dirt and dead, long-buried, dried up creatures, slowly dying over the next hour. Their body is being taken apart by a group of figures in yellow garb (raider henchmen), hauling pieces of flesh and containers of fluids onto a barge. One of them is sorting through junk in its gaping, humid maw.
        DC 15 Perception check to see magically cloaked raiders approaching. If the party does not go with, they'll be ambushed: 1d4 of them will fall in combat or be captured and sold to a slave tribe, the rest will return to town with bad news by the next dawn.
• Each of the "henchmen factions" can be tackled head on, taking out any of them will lead to encountering Big Bad Dude and escalate the party's and the town's situation with the remaining factions. Eliminating any of them would be no frivolous undertaking. There are the raiders and slavers, "evil" hunters (opposed to the "hero" hunters and the druids), and warlocks for the minions. Defilers who lead the minion factions have their own faction and base in a larger city and are led by Big Bad Dude.
• Do... none of that. Always a possibility, and the main reason for having all of this extra stuff to use if/when the party takes this route.
  If the party is full of totally chaotic/evil characters, their goals would likely be to add to the chaos or to complete a task assigned by Big Bad Guy during the chaos. They could toss more wrenches into the NPCs' plans, strike at specific people in town, look for certain items or metal to strengthen their forces, steal a beast or skiff to ride back to their base, and so on.

Side Quests
Events and tidbits scattered around that give the adventure a little extra flavor, small morsels that could go completely unnoticed or that could become their own short adventures. These are quirkier things that don't have much to do with the main plot and other events, if anything to do with anything, but could make new allies and enemies and gives more for a DM (read: me) to draw from. Most of these are just tiny idea "sparks" unlike the larger events.

• Beads (or "The Dead Messenger"). A woman in town is worried about a package and message (from the dwellings in the canyon) not being delivered to her. If she is told about or sees particular yellow beads or the messenger's bag, she will ask them for the beads; if the party doesn't have them, she will ask them to find the beads or she will leave to find the messenger herself (possibly getting into trouble by encountering wandering monsters). If she doesn't have the beads within two days, she will take the body to the messenger's cousin in the dwellings and keep the ashes for a ritual. Otherwise, she will bury the ashes in the canyon crypts and return to Nowheresville.
  
  • The beads, painted yellow and made of wood, 9 total: Using arcane means to identify the beads reveals that pieces of dark spirit are trapped inside each bead. If any of the beads are missing, the parts will feel as if they do not make a whole. (The spirit is an oni, if the beads are broken it will release the creature. If released in daylight, they will flee the immediate area and haunt children and pregnant women at night. If released at night, they will attack the first person they see.)
      In the canyon: Scraps of brown cloth hang from a ledge above a twisting dead tree with frizzy feathers stuck in its branches. Inspect from below: there are dry, sinewy pieces of flesh, a yellow wooden bead, and a tooth where the cliff meets the canyon floor, a lump of brown cloth can be seen on the ledge where the scrap is hanging. Inspect fully (climb): a dead human, brown waistcloth and bag are torn and half caked with dried blood along with a few smaller feathers (molting feathers), their brow is shattered and some ribs are broken, an arm is missing, all the bones have been picked clean and are mostly dry.
      The bag has three horizontal lines stitched onto the strap, it smells like non-descript stale incense, stale blood and stale bread, and is torn and stained in several places. Contents: a lightly stained but usable roll of paper (2 pieces), a bundle of incense, 8 yellow wooden beads (scattered around the ledge), 1 black crystal sliver.
      More belongings can be found a stone's throw away: a small matching bag, matching bundle of incense, scattered sun-bleached threads (red, light blue, dark brown, and yellow strands used to make fine clothing with), stone shards, and a frayed bolt of pale, slightly yellowed cloth.
• Drugs in the Desert. Many, many different forms of drugs can be seen and acquired in town and throughout the entire region. If any party members are interested, they can investigate crimes that happen as a result of drug use and trading of the more dangerous substances which the raiders, warlocks, defilers, and Big Bad Dude are involved with as well as some of the gardeners in town and the small village.
• Putter, the shaman, and the gardeners have an ongoing offer to anyone in town: haul bones from the boneyard near the butcher's area to Putter's shop, and haul pots from the store to the shaman and gardeners. The shaman and gardeners accept the pots and a token from Putter and pay with a ration of food (bread, veg, or meat) and 5 coin (salt or ceramic piece).
      If someone climbs one of the "mountains" in the bone pile: DC 17 DEX check or fall into the pile, taking 1d8 piercing damage.
• In a distant part of the wasteland there is a rocky structure that juts out of the sand. It may be ruins buried under the sand, an ancient monument, or there may be a dead or dying NPC sitting against it (possibly chained to the structure, cursed with undead and eternal suffering).
• A great beast, a walking fortress, was seen far to the southwest. Several groups are going to look closer and possibly make a great hunt and harvest its body while other groups are opposed to the killing of great beasts and wish to inspect it and begin a symbiotic relationship with the creature.
• An urgent delivery or collection needs to be made. The PCs have to travel beyond the wasteland or the canyon or to the distant city.
• The PCs are offered to join a group of warriors or raiders who are either at war with the slaver faction or turn out to be part of that faction.
• Lastly, there's this little gem: "There's an insectoid vampire shapeshifter haunting the area whose victims are metamorphosing into flesh-hungry locust abominations. They are magically resistant to obsidian and can regenerate lost/broken limbs, and have supernaturally strong psionic defenses, but are afraid of spiders and deathly afraid of dune reapers."

Accidentally West Marching

We didn't use any battle maps with grids or really any maps at all, the few that popped up were sketched by the other players, and me drawing when I needed to or if there was a disconnect. I did make a very (extremely) rough map to help me to get my bearing, so to speak. But all the locations I had in mind never got used nor expanded upon after the group picked a direction to head in. I didn't realize then, but what we had done was start a sort of West March, an abstracted, hexless crawl: they were exploring, there was abstract mapping, encountering wandering monsters and random weather. Plugging in loose to very abstract wilderness travel, navigation, and water consumption rules could really heighten the experience, but the game has enough rules to interact with already. What I really wanted that I didn't have was a richer setting for all of that exploration to happen in.

The Canyon and Tribe
When I slapped a canyon into the adventure (should I call this a campaign by now?), I didn't have a whole lot in mind as far as what it really looked like and what would be there besides maybe bird people, critters, and monsters and rocks and a dead messenger. Of course the Grand Canyon in Arizona comes to mind to a lot of folks when they hear the word "canyon," as well as the Canyonlands in Utah, maybe a hint of Moab, Utah for me too.
    It was after the adventure that I got a wallop of visions of the McElmo Canyon Ruins in southwest Colorado, the Anasazi people and their cliff dwellings in the canyon and the museum in Manitou Springs, Colorado. If you haven't heard of any of those places, Google Image Search nets some good stuff; if you haven't been to any of those places, well I haven't been to Arizona or Utah, but I can say for certain they are extraordinary places. I've been to the cliff dwellings in Manitou Springs multiple times and to Red Rocks, the Garden of the Gods, the Cave of the Winds, exploring and seeing and experiencing the landscapes, the incredible above-ground and below-ground rock formations, each one of those places offers so much to explore. Twisting those areas to fit an "alien" world (not that they need much tweaking) and adding fantastical monsters to them was such an obvious and thrilling idea. The Sahara, Algeria, the Hoggar Mountains and the Tassili n'Ajjer Nation Park were more places that I pulled parts of into this tiny piece of Dark Sun I was creating, especially the gorgeous sunsets there. Again, Google all of those places.
    Crazy how I wouldn't have thought of any of that if not for the party ditching the chaos in town and squirreling away to the place they did.

After those "ahah!" moments, all the digging and diving I had done, I wanted needed to change "Nowheresville" to look similar to what I was imagining that vivid canyon and dwellings to be or at least feel like it had evolved from the cultures from those places. Originally, all the houses in Nowheresville were wooden and pueblo shacks and apartment-like houses. The pueblo idea worked when I imagined that architecture next to the cliff dwellings and I would keep some of that, but after perusing every corner of the internet for inspiration, as you do, I found the Berber architecture of Gasr Al-Hajj in Libya and the ghorfas at Ksar Ouled Soltane in Tunisia. I loved those ghorfas, combining that architecture with that of the cliff dwellings and the pueblo houses solidified my vision of Nowheresville — now with this vision the name is tragically inadequate.

Now let's get back to the subject for this section: adventuring in the canyon.

NPCs
Early ideas of NPCs — early as in before we played and the canyons were just a scribble on a torn piece of scrap paper — and the people of the canyons were that the tribe there was named after a plant and they shared their name with that plant and incense made from its fruit. I called them the "mogo" people, something about the name struck a cord with me as did an idea that they were an ancient dwarf tribe. Much later I elaborated, dug more, all that.

"Their oldest stories (creation myths) tell of them being birthed from the berries of an ancient thorny shrub: under the sweltering sun, the red, clay-filled berries burst open when the crust of the planet broke, scattering the clay which was tortured into existence by the sun's power, forced to writhe on the floor of the great oven in a dance of agony. Those who died were given a second life as spirits of hatred (demons), those who survived found each other as the ground split beneath them and a giant garden of stone rose around them."

The mogo plant would be hard to find growing naturally in the canyon and tribe's dwellings, but could easily be found in the "godless garden" past the western mouth of the canyon where, presumably, the ancient families were driven from by demons, war with slave tribes, and drought. The "spirits of hatred" could refer to creatures resembling oni (or any demon), and ties in nicely with the bead questline.
(Racial breakdown for the canyon: 30% dwarf and mul, 15% human, 15% aarakocra, 10% goliath, 10% gnoll, 5% cyclops, 5% demon, 5% halfling, 5% tiefling.)

• Injured Gnoll. They were attacked by aarakocra and made camp in a dark cave an hour's walk into the canyon from the entrance (DC 13 Perception check to hear them breathing in the cave). They have 1d10 HP and will be raging until they take a long rest (healing to 18 HP). If the party misses or ignores them, they will take a long rest and will prepare to ambush whoever comes through next or will try to hunt a wandering monster for food.
      Equipment: backpack, weighted net, sawtooth club (modified club, can be used for bashing or slashing), knife (bone), rations (1), bandages (1, 2 used), scrap (5 coin).
• Shadowy Figure. An elf dressed in dark robes is skulking around the canyon, following the party from a longbow's reach away. They believe one of them has something to do with the disturbances in Nowheresville and possibly the burrower catastrophe. Unknowingly, they're under the influence of a cunning and manipulative psionic assassin.
      The elf has the stats of a standard spy, the assassin will not show up in this adventure but the presence of a strong psion can be felt within their mind if one attempts to contact them through the use of telepathy or other psionic manifestations. If they introduce themselves, they will start to say their name but suddenly forget it just as their mouth forms the sound, and will pass it off as not wanting to divulge such valuable information (DC 13 Insight check to suspect they are worried at not being able to recall their own name); attempting to learn their name through arcane or psionic means will yield no fruit.
• Alessa. An older woman is laying in the road in front of a house on the near side of the dwellings. She is middle-aged, wearing brick red clothes with a necklace and bracelet of dark blue beads and green beetle shells, and has three cross tattoos: one on her forehead and one on each cheekbone. On closer inspection: her face is bruised and her legs are bleeding from a series of hasty, sloppily aimed cuts and she is unconscious. If she is revived, she is mute and will need to take a full rest before being able to convey information about the attack through simple, emotional, telepathic transmissions; she will give half their food to the party if revived and insist they take it.
  
  • Dalenn. A young boy with dry tears on his dirty face is hiding inside the house (DC 11 Perception check to see, DC 17 for hostile creatures or character's wearing garb that matches the raiders'), wearing beads and shells on his ankle that match the woman's trinkets.
        Equipment: shoes (simple, worn), bracelet, blowpipe, darts (3), dart with pink petals (poisoned, when hit: DC 15 CON save or collapse unconscious, save every minute to wake up), sling.
        AC 11, HP 3. STR -2, DEX +1, CON -1, INT -1, WIS +0, CHA -1. Skills: Stealth +7.
        If the boy is seen by the party, DC 11 Persuasion (CHA) check or otherwise make peace with him to have him wave the party into the house and tell them what happened: The raiders came (he will point down the road) and knocked out one of the warriors, attacked the boy's mother and the elder, and started making demands and taking food and supplies. He remembers two of them yelling and asking where crystals are but doesn't know what they meant by it.
        If any member of the party is aggressive, he will run further into the cliff dwellings and climb up and hide; if he is intimidated or threatened in any way, he will shoot a poisoned dart.
        No matter what, if the party engages the raiders and a fight breaks out, he will shoot a poisoned dart and join in from afar.
  • Items in the house: bread (7 rations), grain (1 lb), mortar and pestle, pots of beer (3), incense, beads, rope (hemp, 10 ft), ink, bedroll (3), salt (20 coin), clothes.
• Elder. An old dwarf woman leads the tribe. She is an excellent crafter and stone-shaper and her parents and grandparents were expert shackle crafters and elemental binders.
      Notable items in her house: iron manacles, shoddy obsidian axe, keen cinnabar dagger ("Imp-Fang," DC 18 Investigation check to find, within a day she will notice if it is taken).
• Town Drunk. Druid by trade but not by heart. They obey the demands of raiders and warlocks in the area and will slowly grow opposed to the tribe, leave their work as a farmer and brewer, then start working for malevolent parties.
• Fighter. There is a tall, heavily-built goliath with a dozen tools and weapons on them, face-down in the dirt, unconscious...
• Raiders. Menacing figures dressed in dark brown, hooded shawls with matching bands tattooed on their forearms. Some of them double as slavers, all of them work alongside the warlocks. The collective cult is led by two defilers and Big Bad Dude.
      Equipment: clothes (linen, leather shoes), club (wood), whip (leather), knife (bone), smokebomb, cheese (3, wrapped in hard bread and cloth). One in the chariot has a rope (hemp, 30 ft), one has a black crystal shard.
  
  • Leader's equipment: hide armor, snake head (spellcasting focus, grants use of acid arrow when attuned to and wielded), mace (wood, stone reinforced), barbed whip, serrated knife (obsidian), flask (flashpowder, 5 uses), and a small pouch with: charcoal, sulfur rock (10 uses), curlpepper sprig (3), flint, tinder (5 paper, 1 wood), pouch (meat wrapped in hard bread), 2 cheese wrapped in hard bread, salt worth 12 coin), tiny black bag (tied on belt, full of dark bluish seeds).
        They have 3 spell slots and can cast the following spells: flare (0 slots, uses 1 flashpowder; 60 ft range, 1 min, creates a glowing red orb that provides dim light in a 20-ft radius), acid arrow (1 slot, uses 1 sulfur, requires snake head), darkness (1 slot, 2 min duration).

Note on special items:

• Mogo Berries. Fruit from a shrub native to the "godless garden" outside the canyon has a strong sweet and tart smell with a distinct fresh soil aspect. They can be eaten and taste similar to how they smell, though to some they taste more like bitter clay. (25% chance to taste bad and cause skin and eye irritation when handling the plant, berries, or incense.)
  
  • Mogo Incense. Aromatics made with fresh, properly harvested and processed berries have an almost woody and resin-y aroma with faint lemony tartness. Incense made with overripe berries or low quality materials can smell like dirty, burned meat and fired clay, though some makers intentionally make this version and add other spices (chili seeds) to enhance the charred aroma.
• Curlpepper. A dull, gangly plant that is harvested just before it flowers. The curled heads are used as a spice in some cultures but is more often ground into a coarse powder and burned to make a stimulating drug which is snuffed while still warm and smoking. Its main effects as a drug are brief and it causes drowsiness afterward. When added to tea without being burned it gives a peppery flavor and has a very subtle calming effect, even in large amounts. Eating the plant is very unpleasant as the stem, head, leaves, and flowers are coarse like sandpaper.
• Item and Spell Components. Pitch or tar, charcoal, sulfur, and flashpowder are all used for making smoke bombs and fire bombs and are used as spellcasting components.
• Incendiary Weapons. These are vessels made of wicker or clay and materials like charcoal, sulfur, flashpowder, and so on. They require an action to use and are destroyed when used, only scraps can be gathered from them afterward (1d2 coin worth of scraps per bomb).
  
  • Smoke Bomb. Tight wicker basket or clay pot filled with sugar, flashpowder, and sulfur with a hemp yarn wick. When lit, it creates a 10-ft sphere of opaque white smoke that obscures the area for 2 min. If thrown, smashed, or used in a windy area, its duration is reduced by 1 min. Very strong wind will negate the effect entirely.
  • Fire Bomb. Clay pot filled with tinder, pitch, and flashpowder with a heavy wick made of cloth and tinder. When lit and broken by throwing up to 60 ft (or by dropping, smashing, etc.), make a DC 12 DEX check: on a success it deals 2d6 fire damage to all creatures within 10 ft of the target location, on a failure it deals damage centered on the user instead (including the user).
• Glass Lens. Rare Item. Curved piece of glass used to inspect small objects or ignite tinder and other small, flammable objects in sunlight. (Randomly give to a henchmen or place inside a building, cave, etc.)
• Cinnabar. In the real world, cinnabar is a bright red mineral that contains mercury. Because of its mercury content, it is dangerously toxic. For Dark Sun, objects made with a pseudo-fantastical (is that a word?) version of cinnabar, and the mineral itself, are still extremely toxic but it can be carefully made into effective weapons in much the same way that jade is in other settings and is usually enchanted (or cursed). It is very rare to find it around the world, weapons and amulets made with it are just as rare and very unique.
      "Old tales say it is demon blood turned into crystal form. Regardless of the old tales, most believe the weapons are all cursed, warped by the dark energies of hell crossing with the destructive energies of the sun, the material itself seeks to destroy those who work it."
  
  • Cinnabar Dagger: Imp-Fang. Same as a standard dagger plus: 10 charges. When you hit a creature, the dagger loses 1 charge and the target makes a DC 15 CON save or takes 2d6 poison damage. On a critical hit, the target automatically fails the save.
• Black Crystals. These function like psicrystals. When you attune to them, they give a warm or pillowy sensation and remove negative things from the mind. Younger and older users commonly get "cravings" for the presence of the crystals, especially those who use larger crystals to stimulate the mind which helps users to focus on complex mental tasks. Particularly high quality crystals can be infused with psionic powers and will absorb qualities from their users over time which can "bleed" into the minds of others.

"What does all of this stuff cost?" Since item prices and, in my limited experience with the setting, the type and value of currencies differ wildly between Dark Sun groups and require significant testing and feedback to be useful to anyone else, I didn't give any of the "coin" values for any items. In my game, currency consists of scraps, ceramic coin, salt, and metal coin (copper, silver, gold, platinum). Unlike settings like the Forgotten Realms or Planescape, buying and selling isn't done mostly by trading items for coins, most things in Nowheresville are traded and bartered for with scraps, salt, food stuffs, or weapons. Since this post isn't about economics in Dark Sun, and the adventure and players didn't need it to be finely tuned, I'll leave that to other people (and plenty of people have designed fine Dark Sun economic systems and put it out there).

Events

• Trouble. Three raiders are threatening a group of people (7) on the far end of dwellings. One of them (of lower rank) is standing in a chariot being drawn by two beasts. They are harassing and threatening the tribe to pressure them into sending laborers and to give them black crystals.)
  
  • The beasts pulling the chariot are "deprived basilisks": large lizards with two large eyes on their head (in the usual places) and a row of pits to each side of their spine. They have the ability to paralyze creatures with their gaze (similar to standard basilisks) but these domesticated basilisks have had their eyes removed, relying entirely on their heat sense (using their heat-sensitive pits) and directions from their handlers to maneuver.
        Items in the chariot: 2 sacks of grain (10 lbs each), 2 sacks of meat (5 lbs each; 1 fresh, 1 rotten fruit and organ meet with chitin for animal feed), sack of spice (2 lbs), sack of incense (1 lb), bundle of curlpepper sprigs (20).
  • Near the beast pen and cave is another raider, dressed the same but with their shawl wrapped around as a mask and with noticeably red, dry, irritated eyes. They are stepping through muck to harvest mushrooms growing on the cave wall and around the pen. Before long they will fill a pouch with the mushrooms and return to the others, telling them they "didn't find any crystals" but will show them the loot, prompting the group to get in the chariot and leave after a few more harsh words to the tribe.
        Equipment, same as the others plus: sling, fire bombs (2), grinding stones, snuffing tray, flint, tinder (paper, 5 uses).
        If they see the party, they will start shouting and run towards their allies, and may light a fire bomb and throw it at the party (or use their sling to do so) if attacked.

Rewards
Every D&D adventure needs to have cool rewards. I try to keep it very simple for myself and use a handful of items and tables (okay, way more than a handful) from older adventure books and the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide to pull rewards from, adapting their appearance/flavor or mechanics to the game, the characters, and the setting as needed. However, any item listed with any NPC has the potential to be loot for the players to steal for themselves or win through role-playing or combat.

Random Weather

On the first adventuring day for us, the weather was completely normal: warm with light winds. At nightfall or sunrise random weather was rolled. In the canyon, wind effects are reduced by 1 level. I believe the following table for wind strength and visibility — fairly loose mechanically except for the effects on creatures in storms — was originally made with notes from DSR4 Valley of Dust and Fire (I only borrowed the book and skimmed through) combined with notes of desert weather here on Earth and weather, seasons, and the atmosphere of Mars.

STRENGTH	WEATHER	EFFECTS
None	Clear sky
Light	Light low dust, calm
Moderate	Low haze, fresh breeze
Strong	Thick low haze, driving
Storm	Sandstorm, severe	Trouble breathing, +1 Exhaustion stage, +1 illness/disease stage
Death Wind	Blinding storm, violent	Extreme difficulty breathing, +2 Exhaustion, +1 illness/disease stage

Wind Table

I also have these tables which, while I don't remember precisely how I came up with them, were no doubt inspired by the Wind Table and other weather and encounter tables from older adventures. I don't remember testing them out and I have some faded notes on how I would intend to finish them and use them. As for how the (sort of) work: 1d20 or percentile die, high rolls are good and low rolls are bad, first roll for raw weather conditions then roll for weather modifiers.

1-2 (10%)	Violent storm; no visibility, choking dust, violent wind	Roll 1d6, on 1-2 (~33%) a twister forms
3-4 (10%)	Sandstorm; low visibility, very dusty, strong wind	Roll 1d6, on 1 (~17%) a twister forms
5-6 (10%)	Dusty, moderate wind
7-12 (30%)	Clear skies, moderate wind
13-18 (30%)	Clear skies, low wind
19-20 (10%)	Cloudy skies, low wind

Raw Weather Conditions

1-2 (10%)	Blistering, very dry
3-4 (10%)	Very hot, very dry
5-8 (20%)	Hot, very dry
9-14 (30%)	Hot, dry
15-18 (20%)	Warm, somewhat dry
19-20 (10%)	Comfortably warm, somewhat dry

Weather Modifiers

1-2 (10%)	Violent storm
3-4 (10%)	Sandstorm
5-12 (40%)	Dusty, strong wind
13-18 (30%)	Clear skies, high wind
19-20 (10%)	Clear skies, low wind

Raw Summer Conditions

1-2 (10%)	Blistering, extremely dry
3-4 (10%)	Blistering, very dry
5-8 (20%)	Very hot, very dry
9-14 (30%)	Hot, very dry
15-20 (30%)	Hot, somewhat dry

Summer Modifiers

Daytime and nighttime weather temperature and additional effects would be determined by the raw condition rolled. The idea is simple: during the daytime the lowest/"worst" conditions result in extremely hot "furnace" temperatures, at night the temperature shifts to being cool to freezing for average conditions and warm to hot for the worst/hottest conditions. Additionally, cool weather could halve water requirements or rather, depending on preference and water consumption rules, hot and freezing temperatures could double or possibly triple water requirements at the most extreme end, or points of Exhaustion could be given.

I'll mention the "Gray Death" weather condition that happens when strong winds blow over the Silt Sea. The condition affects creatures within a certain range of the "epicenter" of the storm, halving movement for flying creatures up to 500 ft in the air within a mile radius of the epicenter during moderate winds, thirding movement for all creatures and all flyers within five miles during storm winds, completely halting movement and flight on the surface of the sands and above for creatures within 20 miles during a "sirocco" — violently strong winds are called a "sirocco" in DSR4 according to my notes, equivalent to "Death Wind" in my table — which last for 1d4 days before ending. This is one of those things that I would only use in an extremely simulationist-style campaign if the party was regularly traveling across large sandy seas, and I imagine it has great potential to make encounters in the area more interesting as well as supremely tedious and unfun.

An optional rule I mulled over for quite a while was reading the weather: When a character would attempt to predict incoming weather, roll 1d20 in secret and add the character's Survival or Nature (WIS) bonus (their choice). DC is based on the weather or the adventure: 11 for calm weather, up to 19-21 (or higher) for extreme or "freak" weather.

• Success: Accurate weather reading and accurate prediction.
  "It's warm and it won't get any colder until dusk. There are large, unnatural dust clouds on the horizon and wind blowing in your direction. There will be a storm by sunset, possibly sooner if the wind keeps its course."
• Partial Success: Accurate weather reading but inaccurate prediction.
  "It's warm and there are large dust clouds on the horizon but not much wind. The storm won't get much closer, let alone hit you."
• Failure: Inaccurate or false reading.
  "A warm day with no wind, some dark clouds on the horizon might bring rain later if you're lucky."

I really love the idea behind this. I remember being inspired by alternate Stealth rules I have used which involve the DM rolling in secret that tends to add some tension to escape and heist sequences and can push strategic players into playing more carefully, more considerably, and in my experience tends to make them ask more questions. For most games the alternate Stealth rules aren't favored by players, but I can see these "weather reading" rules being added to any kind of campaign in a huge range of settings (especially seafaring games and hex crawls).

How useful will all of this be, really? I'm not sure, the tables are very similar with a few minor differences. I see them as being useful for giving the game a little extra flavor. I do feel like taking the ideas and looking back through source books like DSR4 and myriad tables from other editions of Dark Sun as well as countless tables online and adding heftier mechanics to make a whole system, but that would be for another time.

*deep sigh* Finally. That's one folder's worth of information out there. More to come soon, hopefully very soon. Thanks for reading, cheers and have a great weekend.