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

April Contest: Tribes of the Land

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 April Contest...

Tribes of the Land

The world is a big place, and when you include all the other planes of existence, the possibilities of what you may find are endless. Create a tribe of monsters (any kind), include their leader, some background of how they came to be, and some interesting lore.

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 April Contest at @WastexGames! http://bit.ly/ei77aN #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 Saturday, April 30th at 11:59 PM EST. If you have any questions or comments, ask away here in the comments! Good luck!

This contest is closed.

Minions Encountered: Chamber of Fire

March's winning entry was written by David Flor, writer for BrainClouds.net, for the March Contest: Minions Encountered. He can also be found on twitter under @BrainClouds.

Chamber of Fire, a.k.a. Goblin Go BOOM!

You enter a massive underground chamber that appears to be some sort of temple. At the far end is the goblin leader performing some sort of ritual to a large idol of Bane. In between you and the altar are two narrow bridges of stone that hang over a deep chasm of flowing lava. The goblin leader turns to face you and begins shouting, motioning several goblins in front of him to attack.

Download the full encounter here: Chamber of Fire, a.k.a. Goblin Go BOOM!

Fantastic Locations: Temple of Geryon

Geryon was once the lord of Stygia, the Fifth Layer of Hell, a position he gained right after the demotion of Levistus.

Known for his staunch loyalty to Asmodeus, Geryon was the only one to support the Lord of Nessus upon the Hell-wide revolution known as the Reckoning of Hell. But, in the aftermath, his faithfulness was apparently useless, as Geryon was demoted and banished to Avernus with his court by Asmodeus himself.

He was at one time a commander of a Stygian fortress known as Coldsteel, only to later lose that position as well. His physical form has ultimately been destroyed and his life-essence was given to power up Glasya, Asmodeus's daughter.

After Geryon's short reign over Stygia and his swift demise, his occult followers began to wander aimlessly in search of another dark deity to follow, abandoning the temples built in Geryon's honor and most of the treasure and magical items within them. One such temple is buried deep in the jungle and has been overrun by creatures both from the local habitat and those left behind, used in various ceremonies and rituals done in worship of Geryon.

Geryon's temple was once a bustling metropolis of dark dealings and charismatic denizens. The minotaur faithful ran the city with a strict, ironclad hierarchy, though allegiances were not as orderly as they may have seemed. Physically twisted and fanatically loyal, the Priests of Geryon were the unquestioned rulers within the temple walls, and guarded their positions jealously. They were a web of despots, each with his own small domain to crush under his iron heel.

After Geryon’s fall and destruction, the priests tried to hide the change in circumstances from the rest of the city. They were used to their privileges and their power, and intended to keep them. Eventually, it became obvious that Geryon was no longer manifesting, and the truth eventually reached the ears of the general population. The other races in the city banded against the minotaur priests, and both fought each other to near extinction. What few remained wandered off to find better fortunes elsewhere.

For decades, the temple was a quiet place. The jungle has reclaimed much of what was the surrounding city. The temple itself remains barren, as if even the jungle plants can feel the taint of the terrible things done there, though the stones have begun to collapse in on each other, making the maze of rooms treacherous. The more dangerous fauna of the jungle tend to gravitate to the temple, drawn instinctually to the place.

In recent years, minotaur sightings have become more plentiful near the old ruins of the city. They wear metal armor, tinged with a whitish blue sheen that evokes the eternal ice of Stygia. Whispers and rumors abound of a new High Priest taking residence in the inner sanctum of the temple. The Priests of Geryon Resurrected work tirelessly toward uncertain ends, going about inscrutable errands in the ruins of the city and in the surrounding jungle. Only one thing is certain: since the priests returned, nobody who has entered the temple has ever been seen again.

March Contest: We Have A Winner!

The March contest, Minions Encountered, came to a close with two really great entries! I would like to thank everyone that submitted an entry, all were great to read and will be posted here over the next few Mondays. Now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for! The winner is…

David Flor!

Here is a short excerpt from his entry, stay tuned until Monday when it will be posted here in full:

If the players manage to get close, the bombers will position themselves for maximum damage; they will not damage Gax with their explosions on purpose, but don’t care if any of the other goblins are caught in the blast.

You can find David on Twitter at @BrainClouds and as a writer for his website A Walk In The Dark.