[Dungeon] Bloodsoaked Gem Caverns, OSR adventure

Wrote a small adventure today! It's set in an old mine, which is sort of a classic trope, but there are also a couple of interesting rooms and twists and whatnot. And the group might end up with a potentially lucrative mining operation (rules for running the business included). For low-level characters (2-3-ish). Stats are generic "OSR-isms", so you can basically use it with any system that has hit dice. 8 pages, 16 rooms...

I used Michael Raston's wonderful "Generic Room Stocker" tables for the title, one of the monsters and to get started with some of the rooms, then the rest really just wrote itself. It was fun.

In hindsight, I should have made the dungeon map less dense, space out the chambers a bit more, give them some breathing room... but then, at least it fits on the page nicely :) 

Download PDF directly

or

get it on itch.io (free/PWYW)

[5e] Warlock: The Diamond (D&D meets Steven Universe)

Steven Universe is great, for a multitude of reasons --- and for me it's also a good aid on portraying aloof and whimsical Archfey type creatures. In my current 5e game, the players will soon meet a Lady of the Fey. At first, I planned her to be more standard, but then I got into Steven Universe, and decided to play her as a Diamond. I reskinned her dungeon into a crystal palace and everything. 

So, if you have a Diamond, why not also have a Diamond-Pact Warlock?

Here's a quick write-up. The extended spell list is new - I concentrated on spells that control minds or manipulate inorganic matter. The features are ripped from the Great Old One and Archfey Warlocks, with one original addition.

Warlock: The Diamond

Your patron is a Diamond, one of the four leaders of The Great Diamond Authority, a cosmic entity of vast power. Her behavior is whimsical and unknowable, like that of the fey, but her goals are crystal clear. She grants you dominion over inorganic matter and the feeble minds of mortals. But in exchange, you must prepare your own planet for colonization by the Gems.

Expanded spell list

The Diamond lets you choose from an expanded list of spells when you learn a warlock spell. The following spells are added to the warlock spell list for you.

Spell level	Spell
1st	Chromatic Orb, Command
2nd	Calm Emotions, Phantasmal Force
3rd	Blink, Meld into Stone
4th	Conjure Minor Elementals, Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere
5th	Antilife Shell, Dominate Person

Awakened Mind

Starting at 1st level, your alien knowledge gives you the ability to touch the minds of other creatures. You can communicate telepathically with any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances, but the creature must be able to understand at least one language.

Misty Escape

Starting at 6th level, you can vanish in a puff of mist in response to harm. When you take damage, you can use your reaction to turn invisible and teleport up to 60 feet to an unoccupied space you can see. You remain invisible until the start of your next turn or until you attack or cast a spell.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a short or long rest.

Lustrous Retinue

Starting at 10th level, your Diamond delegates one of her servants to aid you. You can summon an Amethyst (as Earth Elemental, MM p. 124) or a Pearl (as Air Elemental, MM p. 124). The conjured creature serves you unquestionably.

Once you use this feature, you can't use it again until you finish a long rest.

Create Thrall

At 14th level, you gain the ability to infect a humanoid's mind with the alien magic of your patron. You can use your action to touch an incapacitated humanoid. That creature is then charmed by you until a Remove Curse spell is cast on it, the charmed condition is removed from it, or you use this feature again.

You can communicate telepathically with the charmed creature as long as the two of you are on the same plane of existence.