Sidequest Deck & NPC Deck Previews Begin!
We will be making more of our best-selling Sidequest & NPC Decks! A Kickstarter will launch near the end of March or early April for four new Sidequest Decks and four new NPC decks. The decks will have paired themes–one Sidequest Deck and one NPC Deck will have the same theme. We held a poll for what deck themes people wanted to see, and the winners were:
- Taverns – Staff & Patrons and related quests.
- Castles – Nobles & Staff and related quests.
- Desert Outpost Town – We’ve done Frontier & Coastal towns in the past.
- Mini-Lairs – Something like a deck of 5-room dungeons, but a little less structured.
For the mini-lairs theme, the matching NPC deck will feature a prominent character from the adventure. But as with all of the decks the NPC card isn’t essential to the sidequest and vice versa.
If you’re interested in the project, please follow this link and click “Notify me on launch”.
And now for a preview of a Mini-Lairs sidequest:
Hybrids
A wizard is grotesquely making hybrid creatures.
Getting the PCs Involved
- A PC’s (or friend’s) horse was kidnapped.
- The PCs see a strange flying creature (horse/condor/lion hybrid) and guesstimate where it lands.
Encounter Key
- Looks like the horse/condor/lion’s lair. It defends itself, but can be calmed if approached carefully. However, the entrance is alarmed–Lord Arkenson arrives in 1 minute. He incites the creature, casts spells from cover, then flees via the secret door.
- 10 creature images with colored backgrounds line the walls. Red: Horse, Navy: Troll, Blue: Bull, Purple: Lion, Yellow: Condor, Green: Bear; Pink: Spider, Orange: Drake, Brown: Snake, Lime: Scorpion. Three crystals change color if rotated. If disc nearby is pressed, a creature with head, torso, & legs matching the crystals appears. Creatures have all traits possible. (Drake head can breath, but flight depends on torso.) Arkenson runs here and summons one useful creature per round until PCs arrive. If things go bad, he’ll flee to 5 and use the scroll. Good PCs may wish to heal the creatures.
- Study: Books, lab equipment, potion ingredients. Notes implicate a noble in the animal abuse.
- Kitchen: The PCs interrupted Arkenson’s meal.
- Lockable door. Poison gas chest: teleport scroll.