Here’s a list of historical characters who are mentioned—often as background—in our upcoming book, 101 Adventure Frames in Enchanted England.
Read MoreAdventure Frame for Magonomia - The Gullimore Ghosts
As a preview of our upcoming Magonomia supplement, 101 Adventure Frames in Enchanted England, here’s the completed text of another of the 101 frames” “The Gullimore Ghosts” by John Tibbetts and Mark Lawford.
I promise not all of the adventure frames are about ghosts or cemeteries. We are posting this in October, so we couldn’t resist.
About Adventure Frames
Many game masters don't play published adventures as written, but rather use them as a source of ideas for their homebrew games. An adventure frame is just the essential plot structure for a one-session adventure—the part people are most likely to use. It's the spark to set your imagination running. Details of specific scenes, characters, and challenges can be filled in as the game master wishes. An experienced game master should be able develop an adventure frame into a customized story in about thirty to sixty minutes.
Shewstone Publishing's adventure frames are presented in "hook, line, and sinker" format, originally developed by Jolly Blackburn in Shadis magazine in the 1990s. The hook is the opening scene or scenes that motivate the player characters to participate in the adventure. The line is the set of fun events and challenges that make the adventure worth playing. The sinker is a surprise, usually a plot twist, that makes the adventure unique and memorable. The sinker can often be omitted if you want the plot to be more straightforward. Finally, preparation notes give you an idea of what homework the game master should do to get ready to run the adventure.
The Gullimore Ghosts
Stock image from 123RF.com. Used with permission.
by John Tibbetts and Mark Lawford
Summary: Find out why ghosts are congregating at the town of Gullimore
Content Warnings: Death, desecration of graves
Genre: Mystery
Place: A small town
Time: Any era
Length: Medium (2-4 hours)
Hook
The (fictional) market town of Gullimore has a ghost problem. Ghosts arise every night, screaming and pleading for peace. It started six months ago with a single ghost, but now there are at least a dozen. No one has been harmed, but the villagers cannot get any sleep. Gullimore is at a crossroads that many merchants travel, and the disruption to trade has become so severe the sheriff (a high official responsible for public safety) has offered a reward to anyone who can put the ghosts to rest.
Line
Arriving in Gullimore to investigate, the PCs find that they aren’t alone. Others have heard of the problem—and the potential reward—and have decided they will solve the problem.
If the PCs have any particular rivals, they may be present and ready to make trouble. Other, less experienced investigators try to tail the PCs to learn what they know and to try to get the jump on them. Others still are there to sell charms to the townsfolk to ward off ghosts and to ensure a quiet night’s sleep. It’s as though the investigators are as much a problem as the ghosts themselves.
As for those ghosts, they appear to be recently dead—within the last six months or so, which aligns to the length of time the problem has been ongoing. There is no shortage of witnesses, and the fear and dread has turned to annoyance. At night, during the witching hour (between 3 and 4 o’clock), the investigators flock to the streets to try to commune with the ghosts, to catalogue them, and to ward against them. All the while, the ghosts wail and complain at their disturbed rest.
Speaking to the ghosts is not very informative. They know their names and something of their former lives, but they’re obsessed with being unable to rest and are fruitlessly searching the for what disturbed them.
If the PCs ask the townfolk who the ghosts are, they find the spirits are not local, but there are witnesses who recognize them. One identifies old Rob, a stonemason from yonder town. Another identifies Meg, a farmer’s wife from the other end of the county.
Following the trail to those locations, the PCs can find the ghosts’ graves and can determine via magic or physical inspection that those final resting places have been robbed and the bodies removed.
Sinker
The ghosts are rising because body snatchers have been digging up graveyards throughout the area and stealing the corpses to sell to physicians in the nearest city (likely Cambridge or Oxford or somewhere with a university or medical school). The hauntings are directed toward the body snatchers, who must be caught and the bodies returned to their graves to end the nuisance.
The body snatchers are Bill Tanner and his son John, and they have some limited magical power bought from a theurgist, specifically a kind of ward that hides them from ghostly attention (see the attached spell description). The Tanners live in a quarter of the town that the ghosts mysteriously avoid, and their tanning business takes them across the county collecting animal hides and bringing them back to Gullimore for treatment—a perfect cover.
The bodies have been sold to the medical school, studied, and then buried in unmarked pauper’s graves in the nearest large cemetery.
Preparation Notes
You may need a few fellow investigators, each with their own motives and methods, some of whom are schooled in the magical sciences. You’ll also need to note that there is a small district of the town that has remained free from the ghostly invasion. When asking questions in that area, the PCs will learn that the neighborhood is actually where the haunting started, which suggests someone has done something to change things there.
Keywords: Ghosts, body snatchers
101 Adventure Frames in Enchanted England is coming to Kickstarter! Follow now to support a strong launch.
Orcs by Jeff Koch. ©2023 Shewstone Publishing LLC.
Orcish Language of Drintera - Creative Commons License
In our Drintera fantasy setting, orcs aren’t treated as inherently evil monsters. They’re people. In fact, they’re cool people that we hope you’ll want to play as characters in your TTRPG campaign.
To add depth to Orcish culture, we commissioned a linguist to create a basic Orcish language, used on the continent of Niere. This language outline is free for you to use, modify, distribute, and republish under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribute-Sharealike license.
Language design by Logan R. Kearsley. Vyeghat stryeltso!
Drintera is coming to Kickstarter! Follow us now to ensure a strong launch.
Adventure Frame for Magonomia: The Angel of Stone
As a preview of our upcoming Magonomia supplement, 101 Adventure Frames in Enchanted England, here’s the completed text of one of the 101 frames: “Angel of Stone” by Jaclyn Lewis.
About Adventure Frames
Many game masters don't play published adventures as written, but rather use them as a source of ideas for their homebrew games. An adventure frame is just the essential plot structure for a one-session adventure—the part people are most likely to use. It's the spark to set your imagination running. Details of specific scenes, characters, and challenges can be filled in as the game master wishes. An experienced game master should be able develop an adventure frame into a customized story in about thirty to sixty minutes.
Shewstone Publishing's adventure frames are presented in "hook, line, and sinker" format, originally developed by Jolly Blackburn in Shadis magazine in the 1990s. The hook is the opening scene or scenes that motivate the player characters to participate in the adventure. The line is the set of fun events and challenges that make the adventure worth playing. The sinker is a surprise, usually a plot twist, that makes the adventure unique and memorable. The sinker can often be omitted if you want the plot to be more straightforward. Finally, preparation notes give you an idea of what homework the game master should do to get ready to run the adventure.
Angel of Stone
by Jaclyn Lewis
Summary: Protect Hampshire from a vengeful tomb effigy.
Content Warnings: Death of a child, Death by decapitation
Genre: Mystery
Place: A prosperous parish, such as Elvetham in Hampshire
Time Period: Any era
Length: Medium (2-4 hours)
Hook: Well-to-do gentleman Edward Havishire summons the wizards to aid him with a problem. The children of his peers have become increasingly dismissive of their duties, instead chasing rumors of an Angel of Stone that has been sighted prowling various estates by night, and is said to rush toward sinners with blinding speed. Edward is particularly nervous for the young people’s well-being, as many of the teens were friends with his late daughter, Rebecca.
Line: The “Angel'' in question is Rebecca’s tomb effigy. During the day, the effigy rests in the cemetery by the parish church, but at night, it wanders about as a tomb warden, searching for Rebecca's friends from life. The wizards must track the source of the “Angel” to the church, perhaps get past other overprotective tomb wardens in the cemetery, and determine, through magical or conversational means, that Rebecca’s necklace has been stolen, provoking her tomb warden's ire during her nightly excursions.
Sinker: When Thomas Chester’s son Frances goes missing, the wizards find his body near the grounds of the parish hall . . . and his head several yards away, struck by a stone sword. The wizards must locate the necklace, which he had stolen and given to his paramour, Agnes, before Rebecca strikes again.
Preparation Notes: Create an encounter, combat or otherwise, with a tomb warden (use the statistics for a Tomb Warden from A Bestiary of Enchanted England, page 134, or create your own). Choose a pretext for how Rebecca's tomb warden obtains a sword: either her tomb effigy includes a sword contrary to expected gender roles, or the tomb warden takes a sword from the effigy of a nearby male relative. Develop ways for players to discover the truth of the stolen necklace, and, if desired, craft personalities and social dynamics for Frances, Rebecca, Agnes and the other young people of Hampshire.
Keywords: Theft, teenagers, cemetery, murder, tomb warden
Tomb Wardens
From medieval times and into the Tudor era, wealthy or prominent people were buried above ground in large, hollow stone blocks that enclose the coffin. These tombs are as likely to be found in churches as in mausoleums. The top of the tomb is usually carved into a tomb effigy, which is a life-sized statue of the deceased lying as if asleep. Tomb effigies are made of unpainted stone (often marble) and, for mens' tombs, usually include a carved sword and perhaps armor.
Legends speak of tomb effigies coming to life to defend the church or mausoleum from thieves. In Magonomia, such animated effigies are called tomb wardens. They're possessed by some kind of spirit but theologians of Enchanted England doubt that it's the ghost of the dead person. It's thought more likely to be some kind of minor angel—or devil—that comes without being summoned by any mortal. Being made of stone, tomb wardens move with a ponderous gait but have a magical ability to move quickly when no one is looking at them directly. They use this tactic to cut off thieves from escaping before they attack. Tomb wardens are merciless, known for decapitating their victims with their stone swords. The best hope to survive a tomb warden's attack is to drop any ill-gotten treasures and run for your life.
Additional lore and adventure ideas for tomb wardens can be found in A Bestiary of Enchanted England.
About the Book: 101 Adventure Frames in Enchanted England
The title says most of what you need to know: it’s a book of 101 adventure frames set in Enchanted England. The book is designed with a general gaming audience in mind: although rooted in English folklore and Renaissance magic, the adventure frames are system independent and can be adapted to nearly any fantasy or urban fantasy campaign. Coming to Kickstarter in Spring 2025.
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Drintera Issue #4 slightly delayed
Issue #4 (June 2024) is currently in layout and proofreading. There is a good reason it's running behind. We've contracted with a talented new (to us) layout artist, Luna Norwood. She completely redesigned the interior look of Drintera Magazine.
Her results are so outstanding, I decided to restart the layout of the June issue using her design. Take a look at page 11!
I don't know exactly when Issue #4 will be ready. Layout for the July issue will be started as soon as June is done, so I have full confidence next month's issue will be delivered before July 31.
I'm very proud of the work the team is doing. Become a supporter to help Drintera pay freelancers like Luna for their outstanding work!
