Since I currently can't make the time to really sit down and write full modules or illustrate series of items or monsters, I decided to try on something new and create these "single page" adventure prompts in the style of the DnDified monsters I used to make.
Each adventure would be centered around a single "brand", which can basically be anything going from a company to a person that I would turn into one of these prompts featuring one magic item, one monster and one battlemap for 5th edition D&D.
First in this series is Azamon, an adventure starring Jeff Bezos as Beelbezos, the archdemon who runs the distribution center of hell. He tries to gain dominion over mortals by tempting them to use his cursed creations, known as the boxes of Azamon, and be eternally bound by them in debt to him.
Beelbezos' true form isn't just a dragon that is obsessed with his hoard, he is the actual embodiment of his hoard. Growing more powerful as the hoard grows, which happens each time someone uses one of his boxes.
The design of Beelbezos was originally a lot more focused on illustrating the individual coins, something I translated in the story as the coins growing larger as they were absorbed by the construct. The only issue being that I felt it limited me in the design of the actual dragon. Form over function and all. I had a similar journey in designing the box, only the other way around. The first version was more of a treasure chest, but I realized it didn't translate the concept of the amazon box into fantasy properly. Just like the actual box it needed to look like a simple shipping crate, something cheap and not engraved with gold symbols.
When I first started doing items and monster I did most of the work building the stats myself, generally only using other stats as a building block or reference to help me figure out the balance of my content.
For these short prompts I decided that I would do whatever helps me move the process along instead of wanting to do everything myself. My teleporting box had to be rather specific in design, making the actual reference to size and cost of shipping used by Amazon and having it work in tandem with the rest of the designs. The coin animated dragon however was not as important to get perfectly right, in another world I would have made sure to fill the statblock with references as well, and that's why I got on DnDbeyond and found myself the perfect fit for my concept in this GARGANTUAN COIN ANIMATED DRAGON by Farseer2020.
I would love it if DnDBeyond had a way to contact creators so I could ask people to help me translate their designs to make it even a better fit, but this will do.
VISUAL REFERENCES
Another reference I made in the design of my creature is of players fighting a bald humanoid who presents himself as Beelbezos, just so you can have your players actually fight the man himself for a second, and explode into coins the moment he's struck. This is a reference to the amazing stylings of Edgar Wright in his adaptation of Scott Pilgrim in the titular movie.
I also like this idea of fighting this humanoid, who basically functions like the fin ray of an angler fish, as the coin animated dragon remains hidden underneath you attacking from the pile of coins. It would look like the humanoid is in control of the coins instead of the other way around.
If you like what you see step by my website www.crossheadstudios.com for more or support me on https://www.patreon.com/Crosshead for more creations!
