Wild Elves of the Pirate Kingdoms
In the Chillgrove Woods north of Allenwood a settlement of wild wood elves hides, well secured within a vast mountain grove. Their hunters deter the ice kobolds from the north and the humans from the south from encroaching on their territory, and any who could sneak past them face an enchantment that protects the settlement.
For where the mountain stream becomes a river, the water splits and forms an island, where their dwellings nestle among the towering trees. The water around this island is enchanted such that only elves may cross to the island. Any other who tries will find themselves crossing all the way to the other side of the split in the river, magically bypassing the island completely. This ward may only be bypassed by use of the password, or the spells knock, dispel magic, etc.
Within, their settlement is a pristine embodiment of wood elf culture in the Pirate Kingdoms. Their fierce hunters protect the territory of the animals they hunt from other hunters. Gatherers and cultivators of informal gardens of edible plants, they feast on the wood’s mushrooms, berries, acorns, honey, rabbit, and deer. Patient makers of fine tools, garments, and art, mainly without the use of metal. Good friends with the druids of the region, and host to a grand old druid.
Their homes are mainly built up in the trees, such that one might not notice them if not for the rope ladders hanging down here and there, and the stairs built up around the largest tree in the center of the island. In that tree lives the town’s eldest druid and their family.
They follow the creed of the wood elves, which is that everyone must be free to do as they wish, as long as they harm none. A handful of humans, half-elves, haflings, gnomes, and other forest fey live here in this peaceful haven. When something of import presents itself to the town, a meeting is called, and the people decide as they will, by consensus or vote. Occasionally they must mobilize themselves against the ice kobolds, goblins, and humans who surround them, but their overwhelming advantage in their home woods has led to a fearsome reputation as “the Death Elves of Chillgrove Woods” among their periodic foes.
Posted in Fantasy, Location, Region, Uncategorized and tagged ProphecyoftheSummerFrost by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Claw Claw Bite Magazine Issue 19 Now Available
And best of all it’s free* here: Claw Claw Bite #19
.
Seventy-two pages of fun, action packed science-fiction role-playing goodness!
Use it for a whole campaign, or borrow bits and pieces from it for your own adventures.
Written for Mongoose Traveller, everything here can easily be adapted to other rules systems.
Mechs!
Spaceships!
Droids!
Fantastic Weapons!
Space Pirates!
Planet of the Cybertank, a ready-to-play adventure!
A Detailed Subsector, and a Campaign Seed to use there!
Get it now at DriveThruRPG!
* Pay What You Want
Posted in announcement by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Spooky Mapvember Madness!
First and second drafts of the Vampire Mansion of Von Wlademar. Once the map is done I’ll publish it on @ClawClawBite along with a short adventure to use with it. #mapvember #DnD 🧛♀️🧛♂️🦇 pic.twitter.com/A9yO5ROvdl
— Adam A. Thompson (@AdamAThompson) November 9, 2017
Posted in Uncategorized by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Claw Claw Bite #19
Claw Claw Bite magazine proudly presents issue 19, 74 pages of content for your Traveller, Starfinder, or other sci-fi RPG. All for FREE! Click here for your copy.
Gritty space opera with fast starfighters, towering mechs, blazing plasma-swords, bizarre psionic powers, strange aliens, and a new campaign seed complete with a fully-detailed subsector known as The Skein Reach.
Posted in announcement, Science-Fiction, Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Class of 198X Character Sheets
Folks have been asking for pre-generated characters to use in the Class of 198X adventure, so I re-created the original character sheets that the CowChop crew used.
These characters are for use with the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons rules, with a few items borrowed from the D20 Modern rules. Everything should also work fine with 3rd edition D&D.
These sheets are also being added to the adventure in the store, so everyone who has bought it so far should get an email with a link to download the new files.
Posted in 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons / d20 fantasy / Pathfinder, 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons, Character, D20 Modern and tagged Class of 198X by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Lord Jukt and the Dark Star
Lord Alfrex Jukt is an Imperial noble, exiled from the sector capital at Abilon by the Duke. His cruel, violent disposition has led him to take up piracy and to claim rulership over the barren world Siolax.
Alfrex was born to Lady Emdade, the Duke’s great-niece, and though he had no inheritance to speak of he was educated in the finest schools on Abilon. His sharp mind earned him a place in the Imperial bureaucracy, where he began work as a clerk. His able leadership and contacts made during travel to the interior of Imperial space saw him rise through the ranks until he was supervising Imperial logistics for Subsector 6 of the Skein Reach.
Unfulfilled by the life of an administrator, at age 30 Alfrex left government service and began traveling the spaceways, determined to find his fortune. He took on a crew of lowlifes, modified his star yacht for raiding, and looted the trade lanes that he had previously managed.
Injured several times in the course of leading boarding parties, Jukt eventually lost his yacht in battle and spent a few years wandering space before returning to the Duke’s capital and convalescing at the university there. Starting to feel the effects of age, Alfrex sought out anti-aging drugs, and managed to procure a few years worth by stealing them from the Duke’s personal supply.
Now, at the helm of a newly stolen fast trader, Jukt hunts the spacelanes neat Siolax. Ruthless and intelligent, a favorite tactic is to set mines in orbit around Archeron’s gas giant. When ships approach for refueling, the mines damage them and the Dark Star swoops in to attack.
Lord Alfrex Jukt – 44 year old human male, captain of the Dark Star
Noble (Administrator – Supervisor) 3 terms, Rogue (Pirate – sergeant) 4 terms, Drifter (rank 1) 1 term
Attributes: St 6 Dx 7 En 7 In 10 Ed 11 So 8
Skills: Admin 1, Advocate 0, Astrogation 1, Athletics 0, Carouse 0, Diplomat 0, Electronics 0, Engineer 2, Flyer 0, Gun Combat (energy) 1, Gunner (turret) 3, Investigate 0, Leadership 1, Melee (blade) 3, Persuade 0, Pilot (medium) 2, Recon 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 1, Vaac Suit 0
Equipment: combat armor (with combat medikit, grav belt, psy shield, armor 17), lightsword (4d6 AP 8), laser rifle, laser pistol
Dark Star – armored Type A3 Fast Trader
Tons: 200 – Streamlined
Hull: 4
Structure: 4
Armor: 4
Jump: B – 2 parsecs
Manoeuvre: D – thrust 4
Power Plant: D
Weapons
triple turret: beam laser x 3
triple turret: particle beam, missile launcher, sandcaster
Cargo: 48 tons
The Dark Star is usually commanded by Lord Jukt, crewed by hard-bitten mercenaries, and carrying at least one APC, combat walker, and starfighter in the cargo hold.
Posted in Character, Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Warp Gate Rings – TL 18+
At the height of the Nicerian Empire’s power and technological advancement, they were the unquestioned ruling power of the region. A network of warp jump gates spanned the region, and allowed the Empire’s ships reach and speed that none could stand against. Their capital was said to be protected by an invincible battlestation, now jokingly refereed to as “Walhalix” in the regional myths.
When their capital’s sun exploded, so did the suns of all of the Nicerian core worlds with jump rings. The event that triggered the first nova spread like wildfire through the warp tunnels that the rings made, igniting dozens of stars into blazing nova. This multi-star apocalypse scoured the Empire’s core systems of all life, melting most of their planets and sending their remains to scatter into the void of space.
Now, thousands of years later, the remnants of those worlds float, brilliant strands of glowing color against the darkness beyond the galactic rim.
The Nicerians built jump gate rings that could create a jump gate for ships all the way up to 10,000 tons, and at the time of the nova most Imperial traffic was carried by 10,000 ton ship carriers like the space hulk at Skein Reach subsector 6, hex 0201. For military operations, they would load up the ship carriers with monitors, fighter carriers, and troop transports as needed.
The jump gates transported ships both ways, and depending on the ring and the power input can transport ships at the equivalent speed of jump 1 to jump 6.
Posted in Equipment, Vehicle and tagged Skein Reach by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Session Recap – Commissioned
Last night on Space Opera – Droid Uprising, the Travellers accepted a commission from the Confederation of Planets to join the CoP Irregulars and help protect travel and trade near Aurora Station. With their a simple supply run under their belts the crew of the Calamity took a far riskier job: reconnaissance of the Imperial fleet assembling for exercises at Hawkings.
On their way to Hawkings the Travellers picked up a derelict on their sensors. A closer scan showed it to be a 100 ton Free Trader with its engines completely destroyed and eighty tons of basic machinery in the cargo hold. After refueling at the nearby gas giant, the crew sent over Dan Zig and a drone to check things out.
Soon, the trap was sprung! The notorious pirate Lord Alfrex Jukt’s ship the Blackstar, which had been waiting nearby, powered up weapons and demanded that the Calamity shut down all systems and surrender their valuables. Never ones to run from a fight, the Travellers brought their weapons to bear and engaged the foe. Glittering lances of deadly light and refractive countermeasures filled the darkness of space with an awesome and beautiful display of power.
Nearly matched, the Blackstar and the Calamity did severe damage to each other’s hulls before Lord Jukt decided to cut his losses and jump away. Left as salvage for the victorious Travellers were the hulk of the Free Trader and a Quarterhorse mech that was ejected when the Calamity put a hole in the Blackstar’s cargo bay.
The crew spent five days repairing their hull with parts from the wreck before making the jump to Hawkings to tally the Imperial fleets. There, arrayed in orbit above the Imperial starbase known as The Watchtower, were the 427th Imperial Expeditionary Fleet: a Colonial Cruiser, two Imperial Corvettes, two Patrol Corvettes, two Close Escorts, and a half-dozen Scouts.
The crew of the Calamity laid low and refueled at the gas giant before setting a course to pass near The Watchtower and get better readings. As they crossed the star system more ships jumped in behind them at the gas giant – a portion of the local Duke’s fleet.
When the Calamity got closer to The Watchtower the larger fleet sent a Scout to intercept the Travellers, ordering them to stop for inspection. When these orders were ignored the fleet sent a Close Escort to intercept, burning hard at 6G. Severely outgunned, the crew decided that their scans of the Imperial fleets were sufficient and jumped away before the Escort got them in weapons range.
What awaits the Travellers on their journey back to the Confederation of Planets base on New Iraneous? Tune in next week to find out on Space Opera – Droid Uprising!
Posted in Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Mantid Drug – “Bug Love”
Designed by a rogue xeno-bio-chemist in the coreward part of the Skein Reach, this drug stimulates a mantid’s endocrine and reproductive systems, creating euphoric sensations in the user.
Mantid use it by smearing the paste on their thorax, where they draw the chemical pheromones into their respiratory system.
Side effects include friendliness, often verging on the inappropriate, and stimulation of the egg-depositing organs, causing fluid and sometimes eggs to be released involuntarily.
Posted in Science-Fiction, Traveller, Uncategorized by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Mining Droids
Manufactured in the Skein Reach by the Katoba Corporation under license from Galactic Mining Equipment, these mining droids all come equipped with a grav drive, a mining laser, a manipulator appendage, and ore storage. With a basic intellect and mining software, these droids can mine without the constant supervision required by drones, and are therefore preferred by large mining operations such as AMC in Micon.
MSM-X47 – Strength 14 (+2), Dexterity 10 (+1), Hull 4, Structure 4
Traits: Armour 9, Integral System (grav floater), large, Specialised Computer/1 (running Intellect/1 and gun combat (0) Expert Trade (mining)/1)
Weapons: multi-spectrum mining laser (3d6+3), manipulator (unarmed), 2d6 damage)
Price: 105,000 Credits
TSL-9 Strip Excavator – Strength 11 (+1), Dexterity 10 (+1), Hull 4, Structure 4
Traits: Armour 8, Integral System (grav floater), large, Specialised Computer/1 (running Intellect/1 and Expert Trade (mining)/1)
Weapons: broad-beam mining laser (3d6), manipulator (unarmed), 2d6 damage)
Price: 95,000 Cr
Posted in droid, Science-Fiction, Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.