#encountober

[catbatart]

UHHH so some of you might remember my Non-Denominational October Art Challenge last year (Encountober.) Aaaand some of you might remember that I basically didn’t post anything about it other than the prompts.

HOWEVER! I’ve been using some of this time to start chipping away at them because I’ve been in a BIG map mood lately. So, these are the “Early Level” encounter maps (CR 1-4!)

These black and white maps will be available in full res on my Patreon for the $10+ tier so you can color the linearts and use them for your own games if you want! I will also be coloring them myself at some point, and those will be available at full res for $5+ patrons! 

And I’ll be picking at LEAST one map to make available to the public at full res once they’re done! 

Obviously the list isn’t done, but feel free to use it for inspiration even outside of October! :P

#dnd #dnd maps #dungeons and dragons #dnd 5e #ttrpg #fantasy maps #art challenge #encountober

[depizan]

Broken bridge, from @catbatart's Encountober

#i draw #art in october #encountober

[unreluctantone]

Encountober

As part of @catbatart’s Encountober, I present:

Mushroom Soup - (a Dungeons and Dragons Encounter for 4 characters of levels 4-5)

Helaine Hercaryn, a half-elven wererat tomb raider, in a mushroom carpeted catacomb.

The catacombs of the Lords of Amriel were once a complex of sanctified tombs and beautiful stonework, but they have been abandoned for decades as the ground water rose and ancient elemental wards eroded. They are now damp and unwholesome, haunted by rats and worse, and weird fungus sprouts from every ledge and wall. Infused with necrotic energies, these mushrooms represent an ever-present danger to the party as they explore the catacombs. But they are not the only danger down there...

Helaine Hercaryn is a clever and capable tomb raider, an expert in gleaning the secrets necessary to penetrate the defences of ancient burial sites. In order to reach the tomb of the First Lord of Amriel, she has disguised herself as an innocent with her hat of disguise, ransacked a church for a heirloom ring, and tricked a grief-maddened spirit into revealing the secrets of the family tomb to her. She is also a wererat and her shape-changing power has allowed her to slip past several direct dangers. Now she is nearly through to the innermost chamber and the rare magical relics within, which is when the party stumble across her.

Even if the party is not here to catch her, Helaine is not interested in splitting her take and responds to their presence by shooting at one of the peculiar blue-glowing mushroom scattered about this antechamber with her hand crossbow. These are deathshroud mushrooms, and aside from casting dim blue light out to ten feet around them, when damaged they release a burst of necrotically charged spores in a ten foot radius. Anyone caught in this spore cloud must succeed at a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or suffer 10 (3d6) points of necrotic damage and be poisoned for a minute. Even a successful save inflicts half damage.

She will then close to melee combat, first tripping a selected target with her rat's tail whip, using her Cunning Action to Disengage and close with the tripped target, following up by sneaking attacking with her rapier. She will also continue to burst more deathshroud mushrooms, relying on her own immunity to being poisoned to limit the ill-effects to herself. This immunity is an unusual gift of her wererat transformation, as if the disease inflicted by her bite. Helaine will not fight to the death and begins to retreat if she is reduced to 21 hit points or less.

She has identify a suitable passage through the catacombs for this previously, one studded with milky eye puffballs. These fungi resemble clusters of whitish eyeballs and explode in a thick cloud of white spores when disturbed. These spores float in the air in a ten foot radius from the disturbed fungal cluster, for a minute, and lightly obscure anything inside that radius. Helaine will trigger a cluster and then use her Cunning Action to Hide in the area. She will then either strike from concealment with her hand crossbow or shape-change into a rat to retreat safely, depending on the party's response.

If the party manages to capture her, considerable effort is required to make her cooperative (a Successful DC 17 Deception, Intimidate, or Persuasion check) and even then all she will do is explain what she has already done and why: To retrieve from the tomb of the First Lord of Amriel his famous weapon, a dragon slayer sword, for an interested and wealthy buyer in the coastal town of Harensport.

If it was a party member that she impersonated at Sodden Hope, she is explain that she was shown their image by a wandering hedge-mage, named Kovoun Blackgranite. She expects that they can find Blackgranite at the Dragon Turtle Tavern, an establishment rumoured to be tied to various dark dealings across the Dreadful Mire.

One thing that she won't do is help the party get any further into the tomb, if that's something they want. After all, the dragon slayer is her prize and she's not going to give it up if she can...

Rat's Tail Whip

Weapon (whip), rare (requires attunement)

This magic whip closely resemble the tail of some giant rat. In addition to striking as magical, it has the same functions as a rope of entanglement. As part of a successful attack with it, the wielder can command it to restrain the target of the attack. If the target fails the saving throw against the whip and is restrain, the wielder must release their hold on it.

If the whip is unattended, it will crawl back to its attuned bearer at a speed of 60 feet around. It can climb and swim at the same rate, but will not move closer if that would result in it taking damage.

Helaine Hercaryn, in the act of raiding an ancient tomb, her hat of disguise providing a little extra bling.

(Art source 1, RavenseyeTravisLacey on DeviantArt)

(Art source 2, tjota on DeviantArt)

#encountober #characters #fantasy art #tabletop roleplaying games #dungeons and dragons #d&d homebrew #elemental knights #the dreadful mire #the seraphim coast #d&d monsters

[docbe]

Tryin drawtober once again…day 1 ft Gabdin Dragonfawker, my sorcerer swamp dwarf (who coincidentally was also featured in day 1 from 2018’s attempt at the exact same prompt list lmao but we’re doin it this time)

Prompt is “Dwarf” from @catbatart (specifically the RPG inktober prompt list and inspo from “marshland village” from her Encountober list for this year)

Hopefully I can keep it going this year 😤

#drawtober #rpg #Encountober #dnd #doodle

[rubertdubert-deactivated]

@catbatart‘s “Encountober” Prompt list, Day 1 was “Marshland Village” I doubt I’ll have the time to go this hard on all of them but if there are others I’m even half as proud of as this one then I’ll definitely post them!

#encountober #dnd art #dnd map #dnd #battle map #digital art #illustration #inktober #drawtober #Dungeons and Dragons #d&d #my art

[depizan]

Octopus's Garden, from @catbatart's Encountober list

#i draw #art in october #encountober #octopus #slightly silly

[depizan]

Okay, the prompt was supposed to be "mushroom cave," but, eh, close enough.

From @catbatart's Encountober list.

#i draw #art in october #encountober

[depizan]

Summoning Circle: @catbatart's Encountober

#Encountober #i draw #art in october

[depizan]

Mountain Monastery from @catbatart's Encountober.

#Encountober #i draw #art in october #or november as the case may be

[depizan]

Magic Library: @catbatart's Encountober

#i draw #art in october #encountober #maybe I should've put a little bit of color on the floating book...

[depizan]

This one's from @catbatart's Encountober list: Artificer's Workshop

#i draw #encountober #art in october

[catbatart]

I've had a hankering to do my own take on TTRPG creatures again, so I made a PART 2 to my 2019 RPG Monster Art Challenge! Because 31 monsters just wasn't enough.

Even though it's labeled as Inktober, it's absolutely a Non-Denominational October Art Challenge! Drawtober, Arttober, whatever you wanna use it for!

Credit is not necessary, but I do try to reblog folks who are participating in my prompt lists!

+Other RPG themed Art Challenge Prompt Lists I've made: TTRPG Character Prompts Encountober (Maps/Encounters/Art Prompts) RPG Monsters Part 1

#dungeons and dragons #ttrpg #pathfinder #inktober #art challenge #october art challenge #drawtober

[catbatart]

In classic Cat fashion, I had an itch to do an art challenge this October, but since the classic inking-tober has developed so much baggage, I decided to make my own!  I was inspired by the “Maptober” challenge that was floating around a few years back but couldn’t find one for this year.

ENCOUNTOBER is a Nondenominational October art/writing/DMing challenge! Each week is divded into general Challenge Ratings to build your encounter, map, or illustration around, but aside from that and the prompt, the world is your oyster! Use the tag Encountober if you choose to participate! I’d love to check out and reblog other folks’ stuff! 

The prompts themselves were given to me by my amazing Patrons on my discord! They came up with some AMAZING prompts that inspire SO many ideas! If you want to be a direct part of projects like these, definitely check it out!

#art challenge #drawtober #inktober #dnd #dnd 5e #pathfinder #dungeons and dragons #Encountober #prompts #art prompts

[unreluctantone]

Encountober - Foo Guardians

As part of @catbatart's Encountober, I present:

Holy Guardians (a Dungeons and Dragons Encounter for 4 characters of levels 2-4).

The village church of Sodden Hope has been ransacked and the party have drawn in to investigate, possibly because the village reeve is convinced that the party is somehow responsible. Dedicated to an ancient river goddess, the church has stood on this stop for centuries and holds many secrets. The priest is unavailable at the moment, as they are still recovering from wounds suffered when they attacked the ransacker, but an elderly caretaker (half-elf commoner) named Young Eled is standing guard outside. If the party have official approval for their search, he'll gladly stand aside, otherwise he will need to persuaded with a DC 11 Deception, Intimidate, or Persuasion check.

Investigating the church, the party will find that everything disturbed: religious objects strewn on the floor, pages torn from tomes and scattered about, and every piece of furniture that is bolted down has been knocked over. A successful DC 13 Investigation check will reveal that much of this is just random chaos intended to conceal that the search was more focused and planned than a random attack. The ransacker targeted the church's collection box, a specific tome concerning famous warriors who are buried in the church, and the locked cabinet that held the church's religious paraphernalia. If he is present, Young Eled can tell the party that an antique but seldom-used holy symbol is missing.

Regardless of whether or not they gleaned this information, the party's search leads them to a door in the church's basement that has obviously been disturbed recently, and then closed again. Young Eled can only tell the party that he can not recall the door ever being unlocked. It is now, and when opened, reveals a surprisingly large chamber (an expansive 40 feet by 50 feet!). Rusty, antique weapons hanging on along the walls, and opposite the door stands an ancient shrine, flanked by two half-pillars on which set a matched pair of ornate stone lion-dogs.

The shrine consists of a cabinet on an stone altar, and is recognizably not dedicated to the same faith as the rest of the church. The party will need to get closer to identify it, which is when things get tricky. As soon as anyone moves within 30 feet of the shrine, a magic mouth triggers and speaks the command phrase "For the High Throne" in Tabaxi, activating the two stone foo guardian wondrous statuettes. These swell to large size and leap to attack anyone in the room.

The party can fight them, or if their nature as a magical item is identified (DC 15 Arcana check) retreat out of the door and wait an hour for them to revert to mere statuary. In a fight, the foo guardians begin by trying to pounce on the nearest target, and then roar to weaken their opponents. They will fight to their own destruction, but cannot pursue beyond the room.

Once the foo guardians have been dealt with, the party can investigate the shrine more closely. The cabinet contains a small statuette (not magical!) of a woman with six arms, each of which hold a different weapon, and a five old golden signet rings (each is worth 10 gp, or 25gp if sold to an antiquarian in a large city). The same symbols found on the rings are carved into the wall behind the shrine, along with a sixth symbol. A successful DC 11 Investigate check will tell the party that there is a void in the dust inside the cabinet, indicating that until recently, a sixth signet ring sat there, presumably matching to the sixth symbol on the wall. A successful DC 13 History check, or consulting Young Eled, will identify the symbols and signets as belong to noble families that dwell in the surrounding area in the days when it was part of the now-fallen Kingdom of Calamar, with the sixth symbol and the missing signet ring belonging to the Lords of Amriel, whose ruined villa is only a half-day's travel north of Sodden Hope. A successful DC 13 Religion check will identify the woman as a war goddess named Lady Mara, while a successful DC 15 Arcana check will noted the similarity to a type of powerful demonic summons known as a marilith.

And yes, if the party has successfully identified the foo guardians, they now potentially have a useful new magical item.

Below: Young Eled.

Argh, so many words to set up the actual meat of the encounter! My simple combat encounter swelled to a full investigation. Also, the cultural specificity of foo guardians made this one tricky.

(Art 1 source, Vlad Kuzmin on ArtStation)

(Art 2 source, DaywynsDnd on DeviantArt)

#encountober #dungeons and dragons #tabletop roleplaying #elemental knights

[unreluctantone]

Encountober - Tree House

As part of @catbatart’s Encountober, I present:

The Harpy's Nest - (a Dungeons and Dragons Encounter for 4 characters of levels 3-4)

A green-plumed harpy cackler and two green-plumed harpies, using a tree-house as a lair. The tree house is surrounding by net traps.

Deep inside a large grove of trees in the Dreadful Mire, there is a graveyard. A remnant of a none-lost kingdom, this graveyard is where the half-elven noble families of the land buried their dead, in sprawling catacombs and tombs built beneath the roots of ancient oaks. The party have come to investigate one of these tombs, that of the Lords of Amriel, but first they'll need to face the territorial creatures now living above the graveyard.

The entrance to the Amriel tomb is underneath the same great oak that is home to a tree house of half-elven construction. Built as the home of the grave priest who once tended this graveyard, it is now home to a troupe of three green-plumed harpies. Typically found in warm forests and coastal jungles, green-plumed, or veridian, harpies are cleverer than their more common cousins. They possess more colourful plumage and parrot-like qualities, and are more prone to trickery and mischief than unprovoked attacks. Unfortunately, approaching their nest is frequently seen as provocation.

There is a ring of carefully concealed net traps (as per DMG 122 except as noted, DC 15 Perception or Investigation check to detect) set 100 feet from the tree house. These nets are hidden amongst the grass and leaf litter that covers the forest floor, and pull their captives upwards, leaving them suspended ten feet off the ground. Wooden chimes tied to the ropes clatter loudly when a trap is triggered, alerting the inhabitants of the tree house to danger.

The troupe consists of two green-plumed harpies and Oresta, a green-plumed harpy cackler, who possesses a smattering of bardic magic, the skills to devise the net traps, and a salvaged half-elven magical relic known as the Reclaimer's Strings (extra thunder damage not included in stat block). Oresta will move towards the triggered trap and target anyone she can see with enthrall while her troupe mates attempt to sneak into ambush positions, so they can take advantage of their Surprise Attack trait. They will attack with capture in mind, retreating up to the tree house if reduced to 10 hit points or less.

Particularly persuasive characters (on a successful DC 15 Persuasion check during attack, or DC 13 after they have retreated) can convince the harpies to talk to the party. The harpies will want some sort of tribute to allow the party to approach the tree their house is in, either in the form of fine music (a successful DC 15 Performance check) or in a quantity of shiny things (shiny, not necessarily valuable).

If the party came here in pursuit of an impostor who ransacked a church, the harpies will also ask if the other intruder is with the party, and if they'd like her back. They will explain that this intruder is a half-elven woman who they captured after she got caught in the harpies' nets, and who they have tied up in the tree house. When they go to fetch her however, there will be a great outcry as they find that she has somehow slipped free of her ropes...

The Reclaimer's Strings

Weapon (shortbow), uncommon (requires attunement)

This shortbow has four extra bow strings, stretched between its arms like it was a a harp.

Resonant Strikes. When you hit with an Attack using this magic shortbow, the target takes an extra 1d6 thunder damage.

Song for the Dead. It can be used as a harp. It may be played for one minute to cast gentle repose as a ritual.

(Art source 1, Lisa Rye on DeviantArt)

(Art source 2, Gabriel Evans on DeviantArt)

#encountober #tabletop roleplaying games #dungeons and dragons #fantasy art #elemental knights #fantastic creatures #d&d homebrew #d&d monster #the dreadful mire

[unreluctantone]

Encountober - Villa

As part of @catbatart’s Encountober, I present:

Master of the House - (a Dungeons and Dragons Encounter for 4 characters of levels 2-4)

Ruined Lar, in the colonnaded garden of the villa. If your players do exceptionally well, consider having Eroan use a lair action to animate four or more twig blights (Monster Manual, pg. 32) from the twisted weeds of the garden.

The Dreadful Mire is studded with abandoned and ruined villas, relics of the Kingdom of Calamar that once ruled over the land in the days before the supernatural disaster that created the Mire. These fine houses were once the country homes for the half-elven nobility and may still hold riches and secrets worth the effort of exploring them. They are also frequently lairs for a wide range of dangerous creatures.

The party has cause to search one such ruined villa, the House of Amriel, located a half-days travel from the village of Sodden Hope. Perhaps they are pursuing the person who impersonated one of their band and looted the church of the village, perhaps they are merely seeking to uncover the riches that the Amriels are rumoured to have hidden within its walls. Regardless, they will be confronted the last inhabitant of the decrepit hall: Amriel Eroan, the grief-madden household spirit.

Household spirits, commonly called lar (plural lares, pronounced 'lair', 'lair-reez') by the Calamareans, are small fey spirits that occupy particularly old homes or houses were they are accorded special honour. This occupation binds them to the building and its immediate environs, and is believed to help protect the families that dwell within from more mischievous types of fey, who are bound by the rules of hospitality to respect the lar. Unfortunately, if some great disaster befalls the home and the lar is not unbound from the house, they become twisted into a malevolent shadow of their former selves, which is made more powerful by the potent grief that drips from their fingertips like poison. Characters may be familiar with this lore if they succeed at a DC 12 Arcana, Nature, History, or Religion check.

Amriel Eroan is a such a shadow. Formerly much respected and lauded by the Amriel family, he loved them in return and their hurried abandonment of the villa torn out the little fey's heart. He now spend his days lurking around the ruins, particularly the large colonnaded garden, now overgrown with weeds and woody shrubs, although his tremorsense means he is typically aware when intruders arrive. He will Hide (DC 13 Perception check to avoid being surprised, roll Stealth +3 if you prefer), wait for someone to step into sight, and then start to pelt anyone he sees with chucks of the ruined structure. He will switch to melee when people approach him or if an opponent appears to prefer non-spell-based ranged attacks, in the latter case Eroan will misty step to the ranged attacker and unleash a melee Multiattack on them.

The entire time, Eroan will be ranting and screaming invective at his opponents, upbraiding them to leave the ruins. In particular, he will keep referring to an unnamed recent female visitor who warned him to expected looters and robbers. He will insist that she is an Amriel, returned to collect him and take him back to the family, and that she had worn the signet ring of an Amriel heir.

If reduced to 20 or less hp, Eroan will misty step away to elsewhere in the ruins to try and set up another ambush. He will be raving about how his Amriel visitor had said she needing the family sword so that she could cut him free of the ruined villa (Arcana DC 15 to recognize this requirement as false, the family head could simply un-invite the lar) so he showed her the maps that lead there, and that he just needs to hold on a little longer. So that she can return and save him.

He will fight to the death.

Afterwards, a search of the ruins will uncover a secret compartment in the floor of the dining room, that has been left open (it would normally be a DC 15 Investigation check to find it). It is empty of any gold or relics, aside from 3 old gold pieces that are clearly part of a larger, now absent hoard. What it does contain is several tomes describing the lives of the Amriel family and the history of the Kingdom of Calamar, which will be worth 100 gp to an antiquarian, collector of rare books, or historian. One tome in particular, which bears the crest of the House of Amriel, should be pointed out as important: It contains maps. A hour's study of this tome will provide the party with directions to the Tomb of Amriel, where the impostor has gone to next.

A typical lar, dressed in the typical Bloodwood fashion:

An example of a Calamarean villa. Replace all references to Romans with half-elves, and we're good 🤣.

(Art source 1, Tam Turtledove by Tony DiTerlizzi, from Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide via the Spiderwick Chronciles Wiki.)

(Art source 2, artist sadly unknown, image originally from Great Empires: An Illustrated Atlas by Stephen G. Hyslop and Patricia Daniels)

#encountober #dungeons and dragons #tabletop roleplaying games #poorly sourced art #elemental knights