Recent Reading - 02/13/2015

(1) The party comes across the remains of a caravan, still carrying the skeletons of people who failed to make the journey. (Dark Sun)

(2) Do you trust your gamemaster enough to:

– Dive into that unknown portal…

– Listen to the mysterious voice in your head telling you to do something…

– Trust the completely untrustworthy NPC that just gave you advice…

– Not have someone stand watch at night since your group is so tired…

– Flip the switch with an unknown purpose…

– Separate the party…

– Deal with a dragon…

(3) “We have been seeing a big uptick in these lately,” the Diviner at his kiosk says as he pushes the scroll over the tiny desk to the Paladin.

The Paladin feels confused. The little Wizard is alone. There are no other Wizards in sight.  Perhaps the Diviner refers to himself in the Royal We.  He is a Wizard and Wizards are weird.

“This scroll casts Leomund’s Tiny Hut.  If you cast it, you get about eight hours of protection.  Useful, because it’s portable, but it doesn’t manifest any particular creature comforts.  See this mark here?”  The Diviner points to a small scrawl and a happy little printed cartoon mage on the base of the scroll.  “Ozmo’s Magic Hospitality Company produced this scroll.  We’ve been tracking these scrolls with great interest.”

The Paladin thanks the Diviner, pays for the identify spell and leaves.  The Paladin doesn’t share that he has eight more identical Tiny Hut scrolls in his pack.

(4) Wandering monsters. There's a few reasons to use random encounters (somewhat synonymous with wandering monsters), and one is to keep the action going. Sure it may seem like you're slowing things down with another combat, but even if the PCs are hiding in a dungeon room, the locked doors may draw the attention of a wanderer. And if its the right kind, one group of goblins can bring all hell down (or at least the rest of the goblins) on the PCs. Just make them reasonable: goblins patrol their encampment or just get drunk and need a piss (or a fuck?).