Tag: dnd

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Temple of the Shrike

I finished up a new adventure over the weekend and submitted a story to an open call anthology. I’ve been on a bit of a folk horror kick lately, so there will probably be a few more in me over the next few months.

Anyway, this new adventure is called the Temple of the Shrike. Shrikes, as you may know are little birds with an awesome tendency to impale their food on thorns so they can save it for later. Butcherbirds. There was a time in my life when I didn’t know these birds existed, and my world was poorer for it. Slowly, from that seed, grew a story idea.

I’ll try to explain some of this without spoiling it, in case you want to hop over to DMs Guild and grab a copy for yourself. My adventures are cheap – I’d rather people were playing them than make money off them.

So let’s start with a village on the edge of a large forest. And the village is really just a group of homesteaders whose ancestors threw their lots in together and made a go of things. Hundreds of years ago. And things were good, for most of those years. But now, things are not going so well.

The crops are spoiling, animals are being dragged off in the night, and thorny vines have begun taking over the old outbuildings on the edge of town. Everything is pointing to the woods just outside the village.

This is where the adventurers come in. It’s a straight forward mystery/save the village/go fight a big bad and collect some treasure.

At least, it seems like that at first. As they poke about, things start to look a little slanted. after a while, the players may start to wonder what side of this they are actually on.

I’m happy with how this adventure turned out because it highlights two things I love to do in D&D. First, I am a huge fan of turning things that shouldn’t be monsters into monsters, and finding good reasons for them to do so. A lot of my horror fiction deals with good people suffering under the yoke of whatever bullshit the universe throws at them. This bleeds into my D&D adventures as well. I think the world not giving a damn about you is kind of a universal feeling. especially in these dark times. But I’m rambling now.

The other thing I love in D&D is trying to come up with new ways to do things. So I can tell you this adventure has a labyrinth in it – a notoriously difficult thing to run and keep interesting. We’ve all been in games where the maze went something like, “You walk ahead 10 feet and come to an intersection where you can go left or right.”
the party, as one: “Always go right!”
“You go right. You walk ahead 10 feet and come to an intersection where you can go left or right.”
Etc.

So this adventure has something different. I gave DMs the option of running it the usual way, or running it cinematically. The form it takes is kind of a mini-point crawl in the middle of the story. Does it work? I think so. I’ve done similar things in my games, and thought they turned out well. Hopefully someone will let me know how it goes for them. Hopefully, they’ll enjoy it.

Anyway, here is the adventure link, and I’ll post the cover on this entry, up at the top, where they always are.

And we’ll se you back here soon. Same bat time. Same bat channel.

Deep in the wilds, the Temple of the Shrike lies in ruin, overgrown and haunted by vengeance. Once a druidic sanctuary, it became a grave when settlers slaughtered its guardians, impaling their bodies and burning their children alive.

A single child, horribly disfigured, survived. Now, she has returned, her wrath woven into a labyrinth of thorns and the unfinished Wicker Behemoth.
The land does not weep. It does not mourn.

It simply waits.

Before you go any further, read this!!!
This story contains themes of vengeance, destruction, and generational guilt. Readers may also encounter unsettling depictions of massacres, human sacrifice, impalement, and the haunting weight of past atrocities. Please proceed with caution if you are sensitive to these themes. For some of you, this is exactly why you have purchased this adventure. For others…

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Temple of the Shrike at DMs Guild

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Our most precious resource

I’ve taken a few days off work. I didn’t take much time off last year, and I’ve been slow to burn through it so far this year. With all the changes going on, there have just been too many things to catch up on, stay on top of, get going on. Anyone who knows me knows I don’t really do the whole work/life balance thing – I love my job, and want to be there. When I’m at home, I work on other things. There just never seems to be enough time for all the things I want to do, and I’m sure I’m not alone.

I find myself rushing between projects, juggling responsibilities, and moving things around. prioritizing. As a result, I usually end up being late for everything. I showed up 20 minutes late for a D&D game recently, apologizing for being late (as usual), and it was agreed around the table that if I ever showed up on time, everyone would know something is wrong. I mean, that’s probably true.

So, what am I doing with these few days off work? I tacked them onto the end of a long weekend, giving me some extra time. I have spent a bunch of that with my daughter and her German Shepard. But I really took this time off to catch up on the work I do at home. Writing fiction, submitting stories, and (as of 2025) designing and creating Dungeons and Dragons adventures. I’ve subbed a story to an anthology that looks promising, and I’ve mapped out a story I would like to write for another. Still waiting to hear back on a couple I currently have out.

I’ve also completed the second part of a trilogy of adventures I mentioned on here before. I’m itching to get them out in the world and off my plate, but I’m committed to releasing them all at once. And I’ve mapped out another adventure I pulled out of me D23 notebook from a couple years ago – I never finished because I ended up spending much of the spring, summer, and fall of 2023 assisting with more than 20,000 evacuees who came through our little town when the NWT and our surrounding communities were evacuated. There just wasn’t enough time.

I feel many artists might agree with this: The older you get, the more you wonder if there will be enough time to do all the things you want to do. The more you wonder if you will be able to look back and think, did I do enough? Have I contributed positively to the things I believed in? Did I spend enough time with the ones I most loved?

Of course not. There will never be enough time for all of that. Just ask Pink Floyd:

And you run, and you run, to catch up with the sun, but it’s sinking.
And racing around, to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way, but you’re older.
Shorter of breath.
And one day closer to death.

If you’re not there yet, you soon will be.

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The Crypt of the Four is now live!

The other day I mentioned that I had a castoff map written up that I was putting together as its own adventure – a plot line that had started tangling up the trilogy I’m working on. I took a break from the trilogy to put this together, and as of a couple days ago, it’s now live on the DMs Guild.

Here’s the teaser from the front of the book:

They were heroes lost to time. But they bore a dark secret…

Beneath the earth, where history is buried and forgotten, something stirs. The Crypt of the Four, once a monument to legendary heroes, has been defiled, twisted by a presence long erased. The Fifth has returned.

Shadows stretch unnaturally, whispers claw at the edges of thought, and the
past refuses to stay dead. A name, chiseled from stone, lingers. Waiting to be
spoken. Mockeries of the past writhe in stitched flesh, torches flicker with
spectral flame, and sorrow thickens the air.

Uncover the truth. Face what was lost.

But beware… some names were meant to be forgotten.

So this is a mystery dungeon adventure, where the players can go through and explore rooms and collect clues to give them a better understanding of the story. My favourite kind of dungeon, really.

This is a longer adventure than the previous two, as the dungeon is much bigger. I’ve priced it the same as the others, however, because I’ve been a writer long enough to know that there is no money in writing. Just to be sure, I’m making these as affordable as possible.

I’m really have a lot of fun putting these together. And I’m thrilled that the prospect people are buying these stories to run at their own tables. Kinda makes me feel like I’m DMing a huge game all over the place.

I have been looking into nontraditional ways to make these into print copies, for conventions and stuff. My local museum stocks a bunch of my books because the Town of High Level staff are awesome and folks around here do one thing better than anyone else: lift each other up.

I’m including a copy of the cover of The Crypt of the Four, which you can find on the DMs Guild:

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/511792/The-Crypt-of-the-Four?src=newest_in_dmg&filters=45469

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My first foray into adventures

As a palate cleanser between stories this year, I have been working on something I have been doing for fun for damn near 40 years, but have never put out in the world. Dungeons and Dragons adventure modules. The first two are live now on Dungeon Masters Guild, and I have a longer one I am just wrapping up.

These first two adventures were one-offs I wrote into a two-year Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign that we just wrapped up before Christmas. I probably added a dozen or so adventures to that game and an entire subplot involving time travel and Vecna, and I would like to get some of them down before they are lost forever. I probably have 1,000 or more commercially-licensed maps, and no end to ideas when it comes to one or two-night adventures.

The first of the adventures I’ve called The Changelings.

A Storm is brewing, and something hungry is here…
Weeks of relentless storms have drenched the region, but the true danger lies beneath the surface. Deep in the woods, a forgotten megalith, once used for blasphemous rituals to an ancient, otherworldly being, has suddenly reactivated.

Lightning has pierced the veil between worlds, unleashing ghastly creatures from the far realm.

Now, the idyllic village of Applewood is under siege. The creatures are infiltrating, wearing the flayed skins of their victims and mimicking their lives. As fear grips the villagers, can anyone uncover the horrifying truth before it’s too late?

Enter the storm, unmask the terror, and face the unspeakable…

A Horror Story for levels 1-3

I have put it up on Dungeon Master’s Guild for $2.99 US (sorry, Canadians – gotta get that money before the tariffs come in!)

If you are interested in this sort of thing, and pick it up, I would love to hear how it goes.

For more information, please check it out over here:

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/510011/The-Changelings?filters=45469