Hello, and welcome to this week’s issue of LoreMasters - Your regular source of inspiration, ideas, and homebrew for your TTRPG games. In each issue, I'm going to be bringing you a veritable Heroes Feast of items, spells, podcasts, streams, Kickstarters, and STUFF, so if you like this, please subscribe and pass it on to your close friends and distant relatives.
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Gargantuan Swarms
The sky was bright and the wind strong, the bright orange sails of The Lord’s Favour were full and taught. They were making good time.
The waves broke easily along the bow as Captain Qhell stood aloft, his eyes trained high on the horizon, the grey clouds massing there.
A movement in the waves catches his eyes, he smiles. A quipper leaps out of the water, sparkling in the sunlight.
A good omen.
Another jumped clear of the spray. And then another. Four more. Ten. Twenty. A hundred. The sea was alive with them, splashing in all directions.
Qhwll frowns, this is wasn’t right. This wasn’t normal.
With a jerk, the ship shifted left under him, the weight of the fish crashing into its bow - and again to the right, a deep creak of wood.
Qhell sprinted the length of the deck, calling out, “All stop! Too many of them!”
But it was too late, a loud crack came from below, and the loud roar of pouring water. The ship pitched back, the water pulling it down, the crew gasping for air as their life ebbs away, the wreck disappearing beneath the waves as another quipper leaps clear of the water, shining beautifully in the summer sun.
Gargantuan Swarms
Not going to lie, I love these. I’ve always enjoyed swarms as a concept, the idea of a player covering crawling bugs, fighting to get them off. They are a staple of low-level combat, but mostly disappear after that. And I think this is a missed trick, and so we get to Gargantuan Swarms!
These are meant as hard solo encounters, either as general environmental hazards or as some sort of summoned foe by a Big Bad. Picture an evil mage standing atop a hill, summoning the dark arcane arts, to send thousands upon thousands of wasps after a foe.
In terms of the design, they are mostly a twist on the existing swarm mechanics - I increased the size, the hit points, and tweaks the Swarm ability into Gargantuan Swarm, and attempted to add each one with a unique ability to fit the creatures within it. The quippers get the Shipwreck ability, giving them a Kraken/kaiju feel, the bats get to Smother an enemy, piling all their energy into it, and the Wasps get Hive Frenzy, they get that feeling of wasps all around you, crowding you in.
And as always, if you find a place for these at your table, let me know!