By Kobold Staff Apr 22, 2019 | Articles, Midgard |
Taut dead skin, adorned entirely with tattooed fish scales, covers this woman’s face and hands. She wears scaled armor, sea green like verdigris on copper and wields a strange sword. Her pale eyes stare, unblinking. Undead Warlock Slaves. Ancient and powerful beings across the multiverse grant magical knowledge to mortals through dangerous pacts. Those bound to these pacts become warlocks, but the will and force of their patron is borne by more...
By Mike Welham Apr 19, 2019 | Articles, Warlock's Apprentice |
Many are those needing to store wealth, information, and other odds and ends they’d prefer not fall into the hands of thieves. All across Midgard, special repositories are built to this end: difficult to locate and access and often featuring traps and guardians to destroy intruders. Here are detailed but a few of those. Bemmean Wandering Vault The Wandering Vault is a semi-sentient construct that roams the Magocracy of Allain. The hexagonal...
By Lou Anders Apr 17, 2019 | Articles, Preview |
It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of the Southlands. And one of my favorite designers for that setting is Richard Pett. Now he’s back with a new one, An Enigma Lost in a Maze. In it, characters are sent into the insane maze in the ruins of the city of Roshgazi. Roshgazi was of course the heart of the Moon Kingdom of Tes-Qamar until it was sacked three hundred years ago by the Mharoti empire. Now the maze’s madness has grown to such an extreme...
By Mike Welham Apr 15, 2019 | Articles, Expanding Codex |
The Expanding Codex series fleshes out monsters from the Creature Codex, giving GMs ways to modify the existing monsters to surprise well-prepared players or to introduce monsters to a campaign. Alternate Traits and Actions The following changes allow GMs to alter moon drakes without modifying its challenge rating: Shiftersense. The moon drake can sense the presence of shapeshifters within 30 feet. The moon drake’s darkvision is reduced to 60...
By Kobold Staff Apr 12, 2019 | Announcements |
The forest surrounds you, darkness filling the spaces between the massive boles, as you try to keep the path. There is a certain stillness—a slumbering immensity—just under the surface that is simultaneously inspiring and terrifying, disorienting in its primacy. But the inevitable snap of twig or wind in the leaves continues to bring you back from your frequent reveries… Pre-order Tales of the Old Margreve today! Welcome to the Old...
By Troy E. Taylor Apr 10, 2019 | Articles, Warlock's Apprentice |
“I’ve watched Gispara Ravensbark cast spells on several occasions, and I’ve never ceased to be amazed. The ancient gnome is almost nonchalant as she assumes a well-practiced stance, platinum ankh gently cradled in her left hand, her arm swinging loosely at her side. “There’s a devilish twinkle in her eyes as she begins the incantation. The fingers of her free hand are a blur of motion, precision befitting a maestro. Then comes the somatic...
By Kobold Staff Apr 8, 2019 | Articles, Wallpapers |
It’s April! So here’s a set of wallpapers for your computer, your smartphone, or whatever electronic device you’ve got. This month, we’ve got a peek at Richard Pett’s An Enigma Lost in a Maze for 5th Edition by artist Kiki Moch Rizki. Let’s eat, adventurers! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Please, click on the image you want to download to expand it into a downloadable...
By Robert Fairbanks and Ben McFarland Apr 5, 2019 | Articles, Monsters |
Among the dust-goblin tribes of the Wasted West, there exist some with traditions calling for certain tribal elders, spirit callers, and witch doctors to carry out enigmatic rituals among the wraith-haunted vales of the Flensing Gulch. Those who return, return changed—somehow less than alive, altered by deranged sacraments and the abhorrent, necrotic magicks of the wraiths and other deathless horrors still haunting Flensing Gulch. These warped...
By Lou Anders Apr 3, 2019 | Articles, Preview |
With Courts of the Shadow Fey just released, the timing couldn’t be better for the debut of a special edition Warlock booklet, Guide to the Shadow Realms. The guide was a threshold goal on the Warlock Patreon. If you’re not familiar, Kobold Press is producing Warlock (24–28 pages for 5th Edition in PDF and print), full of world-expanding goodness and awesome mechanics for your game, and Warlock Lairs, short adventures playable in a session or...
By Kobold Staff Apr 1, 2019 | Articles, Midgard |
The Free City’s austere feudal history explains the city’s current freedom‑loving citizenry. After suffering under the long, harsh reign of the aristocratic Stross family, the people of Zobeck have little love for nobles or the institution of feudalism. They have vowed to never again accept a lord’s yoke. Instead, commerce and the ability of every man and woman to grab life’s wealth with gusto rule the Zobecker spirit. Free to make their way in...
By Jacob Huebsch Mar 29, 2019 | Articles, The Far Side of the Table |
Rummaging through the worn backpack, Strass pulled out and counted each potion of mind-shielding—three remained. Sharing a knowing glance with his friends, Strass passed out the potions: first to Kara, next Azreal, and then he motioned for Val to take one, but the rogue waved it away. Quaffing their remaining potions, the heroes prepared to enter the dark cave that stood before them. Strass ignored the feeling of dread that ran down his back....
By GM Lent Mar 27, 2019 | Articles, The Sorcery Stop |
Magic is the lifeblood of fantasy. Arguably the dividing line between fantasy and other types of fiction, magic can be strange, mysterious, frightening, comical, or anything in between. And if you’re looking to explore the applications of magic in a fantasy roleplaying campaign, you want to visit the Sorcery Stop! Slime (Is On Your Side) An aspect of classic fantasy (and magic) that is oddly underrepresented in the current rules is true...
By Kobold Staff Mar 25, 2019 | Articles, Midgard |
This slight creature resembles a goblin, but its blue skin and the icicles hanging from the tip of its long nose speak to the chilling truth. The fraughashar are a race of short, tricky, and cruel fey who inhabit cold mountainous regions. Fraughashar have light blue skin, short pointed ears, and needlelike teeth. Delighting in mayhem, they always seem to have devilish grins on their faces. Sacred Rivers. They view cold rivers and river gorges...
By Dan Dillon Mar 22, 2019 | Articles, Warlock's Apprentice |
Midgard’s Western Wastes are a wound that will never heal, festering in the wake of the Great Mage Wars. Fine dust chokes the blasted landscape, swirling across dunes, craters, and ruins held in the grip of deadly unpredictable magic. Empires lay buried in the wasteland’s dust, and beneath even those remains, echoes of lost Ankeshel rest in the cold dark. In the shadows of the Dread Walkers and their spawn, few creatures could survive, let...
By Lou Anders Mar 20, 2019 | Articles, Preview |
I chatted with co-designer Dan Dillon about his work bringing Courts of the Shadow Fey to 5th Edition, and naturally, we ended up talking about Midgard-in-general quite a bit too. Lou: So this is a 4th Edition product—that was quite celebrated when it came out—now updated and significantly expanded for 5th Edition. What were some of the major changes in this version? Dan: Yep, originally 4E, though it went through a conversion to Pathfinder...
