Tribes of the Land: Gaspak's Clan

This entry was written by James Lawson, for the April Contest: Tribes of the Land. He can also be found on his website and twitter under @blackengorge.

Story
Gaspak's Clan

Gaspak's Clan is a small tribe of Xivorts (see MM3, p.208) that have taken refuge in the world and are waiting for the day that they become strong enough to exact their revenge on the giants and ogres that they see as their oppressors.

Distant cousins of gnomes, Xivorts have been changed and ravaged by fell magic and torture by formorians in the Shadowdark. Many xivorts are still slaves to the formorians, but a lucky few have managed to escape into the feywild or the world. However, for some this escape was at a price - bargains with cabals of hags to help them escape left them with gross exaggerations to their twisted features as they escaped through the Shadowfell. Many xivorts harbour hatred towards larger creatures, such as goliaths and half-orcs, but reserve their fiercest ire for ogres and giants.

One such xivorts that managed to flee the formarians' servitude through the Shadowfell is Gaspak, who's journey through that plane has transformed him into something stronger than normal. He saw opportunity for revenge when he was released by the hags and made further deals with them. The hags would continue to free xivorts and hold them for Gaspak in exchange for riches and treasures from the world.

Gaspak steadily built up his clan, starting with those that escaped with him, and gradually adding to his numbers with gifts and offerings to the cabal of hags that freed him.

The main tactic the clan employs is to find caves or hideouts fairly close to small villages and towns. Time is spent fortifying these places with traps and hazards, and then they begin small raids - more intent on terrifying than any real destruction. These raids are disguised as best they can as goblin or kobold raids, with the hope that the village will employ any wandering adventurers to solve the problem.

When adventurers arrive the xivorts use their traps and hazards to waylay them and then attack in swarms. The intent is to relieve the adventurers of any items they have that the hags would like. Gaspak takes his share of the items, picking and choosing those that will ultimately help him reach his goal of being powerful enough to take on giants and ogres, before meeting with the hags at pre-arranged times and places to offer them the remaining riches.

Gaspak stays in the location for as long as he deems it safe and the raiding disguise holds, or until adventurers stop coming. The clan then leave in the night to find a new base of operations.

This process has been repeated over and over again for more than three years, and their leader has gradually accumulated items that he believes will help him in his crusade. His clan now numbers over thirty, with new xivorts from the hags helping bolster his numbers, or replace those that have fallen.

Gaspak is a single-minded and determined Xivort, the thought of revenge all he truly has to rest upon after years of suffering and torture. Clever and decisive, he has thought of many of the traps that the xivorts employ - the tinkering skills of their distant cousins, the gnomes, present in his bloodline. He leads battle from the front when he has to, using the weapons and armours he has taken from past adventurers to his best advantage.

Sample Encounters:
Level 1 Encounter (550xp)
- 2 Xivort Slashers (MM3, p.208)
- 1 Shadowhunter Bat (MM, p.27)
- 1 Xivort Darter (MM3, p.208)
- 1 False Floor Pit Trap (DMG, p.87)

Level 3 Encounter (750xp)
- 3 Xivort Slashers (MM3, p.208) mounted on...
- 3 Giant Rats (MM, p.219)
- 2 Xivort Darters (MM3, p.208)
- 1 Xivort Netcaster (MM3, p.209)
- 1 Spear Gauntlet Trap (DMG, p.87)

Level 5 Encounter (1,025xp)
- 3 Xivort Slashers (MM3, p.208)
- 1 Xivort Darter
- 1 Xivort Netcaster
- 1 Xivort Shadow Caller
- Gaspak (see above) mounted on...
- 1 Dire Rat

May Contest: Anachronisms

I wanted to start 2011 off with some contests and hopefully we can continue to run various contests each month here on the Wastex Games website. I now present the May Contest...

Anachronisms

Pick a single piece of modern technology and have an adventurer find it. Assume that whatever magic brought it to the DnD world keeps it fully functional, even if it normally needs electricity, network connections, etc. Show how it could provide an advantage to your adventurer and his or her party, whether a combat advantage, or through being able to avoid conflict altogether.




There is no minimum or maximum word count required and it is open to anywhere Amazon.com will ship.

Submit your entry below and tweet the following on Twitter:
I just entered the May Contest at @WastexGames! http://bit.ly/jReaRy #dnd #rpg

If you wish to include any images, include a link to them in the form below. If you do not have a file sharing service, I highly recommend DropBox. It is free and if you use my referral link (here), both our accounts will receive an extra 250 MBs of storage.

The winner will get their choice of one of the three following items:

Lords of Madness - Miniatures 6-pc Booster Pack


OR

Deluxe Dungeon Master's Screen (4th Edition D&D)


OR

Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game: An Essential D&D Starter (4th Edition D&D)



Use the form below to submit your entry, submissions will be accepted until Tuesday, May 31st at 11:59 PM EST. If you have any questions or comments, ask away here in the comments! Good luck!

Contest is closed.

Tribes of the Land: Contest Winner!

April's winning entry was written by Tony Mastrangeli, for the April Contest: Tribes of the Land. He can also be found on twitter under @DnDHelper.

Story
The Anher Haunt

Sevron was a necromancer of some renown in his day. Legend has it that he worked in a liar built into the Nadam mountain range, just outside the town of Anher. Sevron's goal, of course, was Lichdom. However, as powerful as he was, he wasn't able to complete the ritual properly. The result was a magical mishap the kept his brian functioning, but destroyed his body.

Trapped in his own dead body, he wait for months until a unfortunate peasant boy from the town of Anher stumbled into his mountain lair. Using his mental influence, he quickly dominated the boy and set him to do his bidding.

Once the boy had Sevron's brain safely interred into a jar, his use came to an end. Sevron had the boy kill himself and then proceeded to raise him as a ghoul.

Now with his most pressing need taken care of, Sevron began to think about the danger this nearby town might pose to him if they came looking for the boy. So he ordered his new ghoul servant to take him to the nearby graveyard for the town of Anher.

They went down into the deepest crypt and setup shop. With a massive supply of "raw materials" Sevron knew he could build his tribe up quickly. Using the first ghoul as his hands, he ordered him to start by bringing him a few corpses, to which he quickly raised in to skeletons. So over the months, Sevron managed to build up his tribe into a fierce band of undead.

He had thought about creating more ghouls, but knew they would be much harder to control then the simple-minded undead. So he deiced to work on experimenting with different types of zombies and skeletons. In addition to old corpses, anyone unfortunate enough to walk near his graveyard was quickly "recruited" into the tribe.

Thus, over the months, Sevron was able to create himself the Tribe of the Anher Haunt as he calls it. Locals know something isn't right and steer clear of the graveyard. Sevron knows it's only a matter of time before a group of adventures decides to come bother him, so he diligently is working on increasing his tribe.

This day his tribe consists of the following:
Sevron, Brain in a Jar
Level 6 Controller

Unfortunate Boy, Ghoul
Level 5 Elite Soldier

5 Skulk Zombies
Level 3 Skirmisher

4 Hulking Zombies
Level 4 Brute

10 Skeletons
Level 3 Soldier

5 Skeletal Archers
Level 3 Artillery