The Bogeywoman's Cave

I couldn't really work up the energy to write up a full paragraphed style post about monsters, but I had enough ideas to write a decently long bullet point list on the origins and mythology of some monsters. (The Wolf Man from Van Helsing) Monster Origins Goblins were essentially foot soldiers in the war between faeries and humans, created by the faeries to reproduce fast (all goblins are capable of producing young without needing sexual intercourse) and survive in most environments. However, after the war they escaped the servitude and infested the land. Over time, mutations have created specific strains of goblins, such as kobolds, hobgoblins, and bugbears. Orcs were created by a demon worshiping wizard long ago, fused together from the corpses of humans and beasts using a dark ritual. However, his slaves killed him, and learned from his notes how to create more of their kind. Orcs wander the land, burning and killing, and then use the corpses of l...

(The Jersey Devil as depicted in the Philadelphia Post in 1909) Jersey/Leeds Devil Move:  180 feet/turn/fly 180 feet/turn Hit Dice:  5 Armor Class:  7 Treasure Type:  nil Alignment:  Chaotic Evil Attacks: 2 Damage:  1-8 The Leeds Devil is a hideous monster that haunts forgotten backwoods, coming out at night to kill children and livestock. Legend has is that there was once a woman named Jane Leeds, who had 12 children. When she became pregnant with a 13th, she swore that the child would grow to be a devil. When the child was born, it originally seemed normal, but before the onlookers' very eyes it transformed into a hideous beast, with a kangaroo-like frame, wings, and a tail. The newborn creature killed the midwife and flew away out of the chimney, with Jane Leeds dying out of shock. Some say that Jane Leeds was seduced by a devil, and that her child was not conceived by any man on Earth. Others claim that her own belief that the child was...

(The original sketch of the alleged creature, drawn by Madelyne Tolentino) Chupacabra Move: 120 feet/turn/leap 180 feet/turn Hit Dice: 4 Armor Class: 6 Treasure Type: nil Alignment: neutral Attacks: 2 claws + 1 bite = 3 Damage: 1-4 claw. 1-6 bite The chupacabra is a mysterious, 4 foot tall, reptilian humanoid, with faintly glowing spines on its back. Its name means “goat sucker”, due to its vampiric feeding habits and a tendency to kill livestock. The chupacabra is known for killing chickens, goats, and even cows, leaving them completely drained of blood, with fang marks on their necks. Despite the creature’s size, it is exceptionally deadly. Anyone bitten by the chupacabra must make a saving throw versus turned to stone. If they fail, this means that the chupacabra has latched on to their neck and begins to drain their blood. Each round the chupacabra is latched to its victim, they take 1-4 damage, though every round they may make a saving...

The capital of the holy empire is a large city called Faithhold, located in the center of the empire. All major road systems lead to its walls, and it is where most of the military are stationed. The outside of the city is protected by a large, ancient wall, built shortly after Unification. Further into the city there is a second wall, which protects the palace where the emperor dwells, with the city’s layout essentially being two rings, one inside of the other. Within the first ring is where all citizens in the city who are not government officials live, such as merchants and scribes. Such citizens must pay a high amount of taxes for the honor of living so close to the emperor. Within the second ring is the holy palace, along with the homes of many nobles and church officials. While there are many churches in Faithhold, the largest cathedral in the entire empire lays beyond the second ring’s walls, close to the palace. This is where the council of divinity meets. ...

All of the 30 minute dungeons I wrote have been edited, giving them maps, modified monster encounters, modified treasure values, and other changes, to make them completely playable "out of the box". I have entitled this ~60 page tome of dungeons "The Book of Delves", and am selling it now on RPGnow for only 5 dollars in pdf, and hopefully I can figure out a print version soon! If you like my blog and want to support my silly posts, feel free to pay the 5 bucks and get those short adventures. If you don't feel like paying, the original versions of the dungeons are still available in the 30 Minute Dungeon label on my blog, and are still quite usable. You can buy them  Here

Taking a break from the posts describing Urth and the holy empire as a whole, I’ve decided to focus on a single town, a place that could be used as a home base for novice adventurers. Grennenburg is a small town in the outskirts of the empire, situated near a small forest and surrounded by hills. The woods nearby are not as ancient and vast as the dark forest that fills the northern end of the empire with dread, but they are still dark and deep. Wanderers in those woods may glimpse ancient stone ruins, clearly not all of them being human-made. A river flows through the valley, allowing for some fishing, as well as trade by river boat. This allows the town to pay its taxes of grain and other crops to the rest of the empire. Like nearly all settlements in the empire, Grennenburg is governed by a minor noble, in this case the noble is a middle-aged woman named Lady Penn. Penn served in the empire’s army for some years, starting out as simple soldier but swiftly rising throug...

There have been countless interpretations of Hell in role playing games, almost all of which have their own unique spin on things. However, I’m also fond of Lovecraft and Clive Barker’s depiction of demons as simply being beings from another reality, not necessarily Hell. Influenced by decades of RPG history and such stories as The Hellbound Heart and Dreams in the Witch House, I concocted my own explanation of extraplanar beings and locations. (Pinhead from Hellraiser) Humans can perceive three dimensions of space, but there is a fourth, which is utterly unknown. It is impossible to describe simply in mundane terms, but one could use chess as a metaphor. In chess, pieces can move in two dimensions across the board, but what if they were to move up and down as well? What if there were countless other boards above and below them, with different rules and shapes? This is essentially how extraplanar travel works, except movement through the fourth dimension instead of a th...