Tuesday, 5 October 2021

Darkmaster Passions: Senjutsu Edition

 

One of the many things I really like about Against the Darkmaster is that the rules explicitly advise you to use metal to inspire your Passions. So with Iron Maiden's 17th outing, Senjutsu, recently released (it's ridiculously good), I thought I'd pull out some Passions based on the lyrics within.


Must be steadfast, must be patient, must believe we can win


I try to find my way back home to feel the same again


Holy fury locks me in, imprisoned by my deadly sin


Open your heart and I'll open your soul


Pity me none at the gates of our hell

For I am but a messenger, one

Sent to do reckoning what must be done


Just remember that patience is no sin


I wish I could go back

Will never be the same again

Bled for all upon this hell on earth


Sunday, 3 October 2021

Lastwatch, an Against the Darkmaster adventure site

 While this is an adventure site for Against the Darkmaster, it's easily repurposed for any fantasy game. Feel free to drop Lastwatch into any location with plains and contested borders. 

Lastwatch once stood proudly on Beacon's Hill surveying the verdant Westerland Plains and the sprawling Fingrod Forest to the east. The watchtower was the first line of warning against incursions from the Ashlands beyond the border, where tusked invaders crossed into the king's lands with broadaxe and scythe blades. Now the structure barely stands, a crumbled husk of its former splendor, claimed by the creeping vines and knotted weeds of the encroaching forest. 

Two of the four stone reliefs remain. Once proud high man warriors perched on the surface, their gaze meeting the oncoming enemy. Now only Theoran and Eremor still stand, cracked and weathered from the tides of time. Once these would come alive as stone guardians, surprising the enemy and charging into the fray. These guardians were controlled through a circlet, now lost beneath the rubble. They now stand, waiting for their next master.

Recently a redcap encampment has sprung up within the broken watchtower, led by the Fear Deag Anklin who paints his face blue and yellow and sports a jester's cap. Anklin has heard the songs of the magic circlet and covets the item. After days of digging Anklin finally unearthed a battered silver circlet. Placing it on his head he willed Theoran and Eremor back to life with murderous glee. His first act as master was to set the guardians on a local hamlet, driving its inhabitants out so the redcaps could rush in and take the spoils. 

After scuttling orc encampments and more small villages, Anklin has gained followers who have sworn fealty to him. Redcaps, orcs and dark mortals now serve Anklin as King of the Westerland under the banner of the Fool's Cap. Now his sights are set on larger towns where more treasure can surely be acquired. But this rests on his ability to broker a deal with the wild trolls of the Fingrod Forest to help decimate Farduin. 

Rumours on the Westerland:

1. Men of stone have been ransacking villages (T)

2. Bands of orcs, redcaps and men have been seen travelling together. (T)

3. Lastwatch burns with fires and echoes with the din of chanting and screeching song (T)

4. A powerful sorcerer has returned from the Ashlands for vengeance (F)

5. Two of Westerland's greatest heroes of old have returned in the thrall of evil (F)

6. Redcap spies have been spotted near the town of Farduin to the northwest (T)

Anyone making a hard Songs & Tales check will have heard of how the stone guardians were used in the watchtower and that some sort of magical item was used to control them, but what it was is debated (a ring, a circlet, a brooch, a harp). 

Anklin knows Chanting and Mind Control spells up to the second weave.