Devil Skull of the Wailing Priest | Morcaer Seavers | Cold Water Cavern | The Dripping Forest | Six Odd Folk
Welcome to the GM’s Sunday Supplement! Behold four campaign components and a handy d6 list to add to your campaign and GM’s toolbox.
Want the Markdown Files? Every member of our Patreon campaign gets the markdown files for the new-look Sunday Supplements to make it even easier to add them to their campaign.
Devil Skull of the Wailing Priest
Campaign Component | Magic Item | Unholy Relic
Although slain by holy paladins of Darlen centuries ago, the soul of the so-called Wailing Priest, Jirak Gratel, did not rest long in his unmarked grave. As a scion of the Seven Hells and the foul progeny of the congress between a succubus and a depraved archmage, Jirak was always marked for terrible deeds. Death did not change that.
Some things will not stay hidden, no matter how deeply they are buried. Years after his death, Jirak’s devoted acolytes finally found his unmarked grave. They carried his skull away as a foul relic of their faith and performed certain sanity-shattering rites before it in accordance with a certain hellish prophecy. Now Jirak’s soul—stripped bare of all mortal concerns—lurks in the skull and assists, advises and manipulates evil-doers who fall into its orbit. Ever-patient, yet driven by implacable hatred towards Darlen and his followers, the Devil Skull works toward the utter ruination and annihilation of Darlen’s faith. It exults in the corruption and fall of holy paladins and priests, and it gloats at the suffering it has meted out to its enemies since it died and was risen anew.
Morcaer Seavers
Campaign Component | NPC | Pirate
Morcaer Seavers—a noble from a distant land—and his ship, the Grim Hydra, was once the scourge of the high seas, a pirate feared by all who dared to sail beyond sight of land. But now, Morcaer Seavers is a reformed character—for he has given up the pirating life—and now sails as a freebooter-for-hire. For all his protestations, however, rumours of foul wrongdoing still hang over Morcaer and his crew.
Under the protection of the flag of a powerful mercantile nation, Morcaer and his crew sail the seas seeking out pirates and the like. Sometimes the Grim Hydra also carries wealthy merchants or travellers in need of extra protection. He’s also known to love a good treasure hunt, and the Grim Hydra has carried bands of adventurers on long journeys across storm-tossed seas to isolated, unknown islands in search of elder treasures and pirate loot. Not all such expeditions have been successful.
Now middle-aged, Morcaer is still an impressive sight. Clad in the finest robes money can buy, he is a big fan of colourful, gaudy hats and favours the rapier as his personal weapon; few are said to be his match with the blade.
Cold Water Cavern
Campaign Component | Cave
A fast stream pours from the slick and near-freezing rubble-strewn depths of Cold Water Cavern. The stream’s water is ice-cold, and sometimes a chill mist drifts from the cave mouth. A waterfall lies a little way back into the cave, and mangled, terrible things sometimes tumble over it, before being carried out of the cave and into the narrow gorge through which the stream flows.
Locals shun the gorge; the surrounding forest is thick and tangled, and the terrain is steep and difficult to traverse. People go missing in the surrounds and unexplained frost has been seen clinging to some of the trees, even during the summer months.
A monster—a rare cyrohydra—dwells in the cave, luxuriating in the chill water and spray. Locals believe the constant roar of the waterfall is, in fact, the unkillable monster’s breathing and thus ascribe it terrible size and awesome might. Since the cyrohydra claimed the cave a decade or more ago, no one who has entered the gorge has ever been seen again.
The Dripping Forest
Campaign Component | Cave | Subterranean
A weird and singular subterranean forest of stalagmites, stalactites and stands of monstrously large mushrooms fills this cold, dank cavern far underground. In many places, the stalagmites and stalactites have joined together to form vast glistening columns of slick stone; mute testimony to the great age of the place. The sound of water is a constant companion in the Dripping Forest, and some explorers who have spent much time in the place have been driven mad by its incessant and unending presence.
A few of the vast columns towering above the Dripping Forest boast steps cut into their glistening flanks. These now water-blurred stairs spiral upwards to caverns above the Dripping Forest cut into the living rock for some unknowable, ancient purpose. Goblins claim some of these as their tribal lairs.
Pools and streams are common throughout the Dripping Forest, and blind albino fish teem within. Small clans of myconids dwell in the Dripping Forest. These peaceful folk are occasionally forced to fend off the depredations of the goblin tribes dwelling above and the gaggles of primitive kobolds dwelling in the remains of a cliff village cut into one wall of this monstrously large cavern. Unsurprisingly, the kobolds and goblins incessantly fight among themselves, and the signs of this unending low-grade warfare are scattered throughout the Dripping Forest.
Six Odd Folk
Campaign Component | 1d6 | NPCs
Benjam Kari: Emaciated and bent over almost double, this one-eyed man shuffles along. He wears rags and leans heavily on a gnarled, stout oaken walking stick.
Mateli Kuura: Wearing dirty voluminous clothing, this obese middle-aged woman has thin, scraggly hair, puffy eyes and several chins. She leans heavily on a walking stick that noticeably bends when she puts her weight on it. A greyish bandage covers her left forearm.
Kosti Leino: An “intense” and pungent personal odour radiates from this stick-thin man. He wears red and blue clothes and finishes off his outfit with a tall black hat decorated with a jaunty yellow feather. He’s hard to miss.
Lassi Ampuja: Visibly sweating, this bald, pale-skinned middle-aged man has a large hooked nose and astounding amounts of red curly body hair; his eyebrows are shockingly dense.
Miina Ihalempi: With thick, ragged grey hair and large blue eyes that blaze with intense emotion of an indeterminate nature, this hirsute woman stands out from the crowd. She wears fine, but ill-fitting, robes and highly polished black knee-high boots.
Tahvo Ilakka: Massively tall and fat, this man wears stained robes of fine quality and carries an iron-shod staff; gold and silver gems adorn his fat fingers, and he speaks in a shrill voice.
Campaign (noun): a connected series of adventures; Component (noun): a constituent part
Thank you for reading the Sunday Supplement; I hope some of this week’s Campaign Components make it into your game or sparks your creativity.
Want the Markdown Files? Every member of our Patreon campaign gets the markdown files for the new-look Sunday Supplements to make it even easier to add them to their campaign.
Remember, Everything is Better with Tentacles!