#camp follower

[dailyadventureprompts]

Ally: Embry & Asher of the Royal Commission

artsource

It's a lonely life being a cartographer in service to the crown, but Embry Mharkos wouldn't trade it for anything. Tasked with sketching out the region's peaks, river systems, and outlying settlements, he'll gladly join the party for a chance to see the sights. In addition to picking up the bill for provisions and pointing them towards points of gossip,  Embry will take over the logistics of running the party’s camp and use his geographical knowledge to help plan routes through the wilds.

Before you ask, yes, the dog has guild accreditation. What are you going to do about it? In reality, Embry used to travel with a man named Ashar, a senior surveyor and rather unplesant drunk who fudged his findings and took a rather predictable fall off a cliff after failing to secure his belaying line. Embry was just going to report his death to the commission field office when a random stray began following him through town. Thinking about all the provisions TWO paychecks could provide, he claimed to be taking over paperwork for his old partner and started forging Ashar's already illegible signature. He doesn't really think of it as lying, Asher's been with him far longer than the old man was, and he makes for a much better conversation.

Adventure Hooks:

Knowing the party for the dungeon delving thrillseekers they are, one of the first places the cartographer is going to point them towards one of the most impressive local delves: The skeleton of an ancient dragon half impaled on the peaks of a nearby mountain.

There's an isolated settlement of orcs Embry has wanted to make contact with for a while, since they've had decades to map the territory's outermost wilderness. Sadly last time he got close he made a rather bad impression on one of their hunting parties, who thought his scouting the precursor to some kind of attack on their territory. Perhaps the party can help him smooth things out, maybe by making some kind of gift to the village elders?

One night Asher starts barking and making a general racket, going as far as to drag one of the party out of their tent by the sleeping bag before running off into the darkness. The source of his distress? The distant cries of a fellow traveller bound to the trunk of a tree, left to die of exposure by a cult operating out of a nearby village. Asher was nearly sacrificed by the cult when he was a pup, and has gained a sixth sense when it comes to detecting their influence.

After the party have gotten to know him a bit (or gotten nosey with the coded letters he's always writing in addition to his usual map sketches), he'll reveal to them that he's been on a secret mission the entire time they've known him: In addition to his duties as a surveyor, Embry is an agent of the local marquess, who's convinced her husband is involved in some kind of scheme and sent him along with a few others to investigate. More than a few of the rumours he's had them check out were pretenses to this spycraft,

[dailyadventureprompts]

Ally: Gulm the Gorger

The usual dust and mildew scents of the dungeon give way to the wafting odor of woodsmoke, vinnager, and frying onions.  As they enter the chamber, they find a hulking orc brooding over a bubbling cauldron. He looks to regard them, and while he is distracted something limp and tendrilled flops out of the boiling water. He swears, and beats the whatever-it-is into submission before using a heavy iron ladle to drown it in the broth.

At some prompting (and his insistance they taste test the soup) the orc introduces himself. Gulm has been the quartermaster for a number of barbarian camps and raiding parties and he’s seen it all. Two decades or so their war leader decided that the party would raid a dungeon, and while all the youngbloods were getting themselves killed in the lower levels, Gulm was getting a taste for dungeon cuisine. The tastes and textures of monstrous cooking are a treat for a gourmand like Gulm, who spends his twilight years travelling to different delves, killing and cooking all the strange new creatures he can find.

Gulm has likely eaten everything “common” at his particular level, but if the party kills something big and interesting and brings it back to him, he’ll gladly cook it for them, granting them extra healing on a rest. He has no taboo against eating sentient creatures, but finds the flesh of humanoids to be plain and unappetizing. He likewise has no qualms about eating undead, and has worked out a few tricks to make it palatable.

The gorger is crude and standoffish, refusing the offer to travel with the party if it is made. That said, they will likely find him inexplicably in their next dungeon delve, and the one after that,  and the one after that. If the party impresses him with a truly rare carcass, Gulm WILL tersely attach himself to the party and begin to act as their quartermaster, ensuring their camp is well cared for, their meals are made to his standard, and their wounds are tended to the best of his middling ability.

Eventually Gulm will die, He has no illusions otherwise. He’s too old an orc to believe his savage fortitude will sustain him forever. He is still an orc though, and plans to go out fighting. If the party has not earned his trust, he will die offscreen, having just set up camp in the final dungeon but seemingly nowhere to be found. If they have earned his trust, he will die for the party, ensuring they live to enjoy at least one more meal. Upon searching his kit, the players will find His prized possession: a cookbook written in orcish, in which he records all his greatest discoveries and experiments. The exact effects of this cookbook are up to you as a DM, but I suggest a once a week “ritual” to cast hero’s feast.

Art

[algorithmik]

Camp Follower aesthetic

[bantarleton]

A woman’s pocket c. 1760. It was formerly a drummer's cap front that was turned into a pocket likely by a female camp follower.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Hello, I was wondering if you could write up some mid-level Hello. Requesting some adventure hooks that incorporate dragonborn characters, since I play a dragonborn born in my game. Thanks. I’m looking forward to Fighter Week soon.

Villain Ally: Ilxadon the Vanquished

“ Won’t you join this old wyrm for a game? It’ll help pass the time between now and armageddon” 

Setup: What happens to evil when the story ends? After the heroes are victorious and darkness is banished back to whatever dank hole it crawled out of? Old Ilxadon would know, given that he’s lived through it all before, perhaps he can give the party some advice as they near they weather their own journey’s tribulations.  

Little more than a hermit in his current existence, clutched on the edge of the world, Ilxadon was once an aspiring dark lord, who’s grand designs are today mostly forgotten save by the longest lived sages, and those celestial figures who still hold a grudge against the mad old lizard. 

Though mostly forgotten, the wizened shaman’s crimes are manifold,  the list topped by the capture the sungod and using blasphemous rites to drink the light from the divinity’s soul. Ilxadon always wanted to shine brightly, but his actions caused a months long eclipse that through the world into chaos and brought a coalition of heroes and demigods to defeat him and the little army of followers he’d built up with his stolen power. 

With the coalition triumphant, the stolen powers returned, and the god restored to their place in the heavens, Ilxadon was left in a story state, rendered immortal by his consumption of divine humors but trapped forever in a blind and burnt-out body that his enemies had no trouble imprisoning.  Time turns however, and sustained by the guttering embers of his power the defeated villain had only to wait for his bonds to rust, his prison to erode, and his jailers to die off. 

While most evils would have gone mad in captivity, Ilxadon has simply become benignly senile, drifting off into fond recollections of his old schemes while puttering about the ruins of his old prison like a dottering old beachcomber. 

Adventure Hooks: 

The heroes may unwittingly stumble into the former villain in some innocuous place, such as on the outskirts of an ancient dungeon or traveling up the road towards a plot-relevant volcano. He’ll likely be searching for something he’s lost, though what exactly it is and where he lost it fade in. If the party manages to reunite him with his treasure, he’ll gladly act as their impromptu guide, though his directions may take a turn for the rambling at points. Possible objects for this task include: The staff he’s enchanted to see through, some marbles, a precious stone he fashioned into a gamepiece, or an unprecious stone he thought was neat and decided to take with him because it was lucky,

Ilxadon can also appear as the advisor to a younger, upstart villain, interested in acquiring the power the shaman used to capture and chain the solar god, or just looking for advise. The failed tyrant often councils caution and graciousness, even in wickedness, and will perhaps betray his mentee if the “ disrespectful punk” goes too far in violating the oldtimer’s sense of propriety.   

A party of a more.... villainous persuasion may seek out Ilxadon as a sort of mentor, perhaps hearing about his unfinished legacy, or just that there’s an immortal sage of evil lurking around some cursed ruins somewhere in want of someone to dispense ominous lessons to. 

If the party ends up befriending Ilxadon, they may end up taking him along with them on their adventures, as the old lizard has quite the archive of apocryphal lore and blasphemous knowledge squirled away in the dusty corners of his mind. These lucid incites usually come about in the middle of one of the many impenetrably obtuse games of dice and counting Ilxadon is fond of, either recalled from a time before his imprisonment or dreamt up during his long incarceration. Learning these manifold games takes time, patience, and more than a shred of kindness, but can be well worth it, as Ilxadon thinks best when he is matched by a challenging opponent. 

Art

[sirencreed]

I feel like the historical costuming community would be a lot more interesting if more people went to the primary sources. Not that everyone has drafting skills or interest to create stuff from scratch based on extants and portraits, but I mean even trends.

The majority of regency costumers I see prefer short stays, probably because it's what they see from the majority of regency costumers, even when that doesn't necessarily reflect the period. Or the lack of check aprons in 18th century costuming, even with the massive number of check aprons found in runaway ads, sketches, lists, etc.

I get that beginners will go for what's easiest to find and replicate, and that's good because it is so accessible. B&T's basic kit sew alongs is an amazing resource that I wish had been around when I was first starting, for example. I just wish there was more accurate rep overall, which is probably a pipe dream, but that's how it goes.

[dailyadventureprompts]

While a war rages, a battlefield scrounger has gotten it into his head to pretend to be a questing wizard. He’s grown a long ratty beard, trained raven to seem as if it can talk, and wanders from town to town selling weapons to gullible chosen one “heroes”.  He has a few tricks up his baggy sleeves to fool the rubes, and is always moved on by the time his wares get anyone into trouble. 

A sacred sword has been lost in battle and is found in the “wizard”’s pack. The cheat has no idea of its magic or its importance, but is happy to sell it to the party at a small markup from a regular blade. Later the family of its previous owner comes looking for it using a seeking spell, thinking the party are the thieves. 

Taking swords from the recently dead is a good way to get cursed, however the wizard is miserable enough that he doesn't notice misfortune, but will pass that on to the players if they purchase from it. 

The scrounger has picked up a few magical trinkets in his days, and is willing to part with them dearly. For special occasions, he’s also aqired a few scrolls of “identify”, in case any gullible adventurers believe his ruse and bring him their latest haul from a dungeon. Willing to sort through their “garbage” for them, he’s as liable to pass off any truly valuable item as junk as to tell them its real effect. 

In a stroke of Karmic justice, the scrounger finds himself in possession of a demonic, willsapping sword that slowly drives him away from petty con-jobs and into more and more dangerous situations in the hopes of freeing it from its metal prison. 

[swisskriss355]

https://www.nps.gov/vafo/planyourvisit/momsarmy.htm

BPS has infiltrated Washington’s encampment!!   For real, if you’re around Valley Forge Mother’s Day weekend stop by!  I will either be laundering, sewing, or decoding secret messages :)