Animals of Dolmenwood #3 Weasels everywhere!

OK, I may have gotten carried slightly away...

  Living in a country bereft of weasels except for the occasional pet ferret, they seem to epitomes all that is strange and whimsical to me.

So of course blowing out a 1 line stat block to an entire backstory seems eminently sane and rational thing for the betterment of my Dolmenwood game. 

May I present The Weasels of Dolmenwood.

Animals of Dolmenwood #2 The Gobble

 I appear to meandering through the critters, selecting them much on whim here... And there are few beasties in the book more whimsical than the wide eyed Gobble. 

Its cute eyes and fluffy bunnikins look is just crying out for a deeper delve.

And i take no responsibility for any likenesses encountered, be they accidental and completely unintended.

The GOBBLE

The Music of Dolmenwood: Dreg, Brackenwold and Orbswallow

Mostly from the bitter experience of trying to force my dodgy music tastes on players, I've found that ambient soundtracks work best for background gaming music. (Side note, my children once dared me to play the weirdest thing in my collection. They ran screaming from the house shouting 'stop it.... Stooooop itttttt') 

HOWEVER. 

I quite like the idea of adventures and places having a specific leitmotif to introduce its theme. If played each time a party visits It can be a useful foreshadowing that doesn't intrude too much. Music can then return to congenial ambience thereafter. Its also a sneaky chance to surreptitiously inflict my music on the party. 

These are what I've settled on for towns so far:

 

Dreg 

Villon Song by Stick in the Wheel 

Villon Song

Truth is I bloody love this song and am looking for pretty much any excuse to play it. I stumbled into 'Stick in the Wheel' only this year and and was riveted.  This song oozes menace and fey skullduggery by shiftless thieves. 

The entire song consists of underworld slang words from the 1880's but it's a rewrite of a poem from the 15th century thief, murderer and poet, Francois Villon. Slit eyed watchful peril is conveyed marvellously. It says.. PLAYERS BEWARE.  Any song that mentions Goblins and crime is clearly meant for Dolmenwood.

Lyrics here and for a discussion of the song see: Medieval Gangsta Rap

Castle Brackenwold 

Saltarello by Dead Can Dance, 

Saltarello

Brackenwold is the seat of power, both Church and State, so it needs gravitas and pomp. Here you are entering the High Seat - BE respectful OR ELSE. 

There are more gentle, medieval versions out there ( Medieval Salty ) But the Dead Can Dance rings like the clarion call of a church bell much more to my taste. 

Orbswallow 

Moss Mantra by Pamela Wyn Shannon 

Mossy Goodness

It's a hazydream liturgy of different moss names... How could this not be Orbswallow? The song has gotten harder to pickup as the original album it was on is no longer available ('Weirdlore: Notes from the Folk Underground'). It was up digitally free years ago but YouTube is one of the few remaining spots it can be found easily.

Animals of Dolmenwood #1 Shaggy Mammoths

The richness of Gavin Noman's magnum opus 'Dolmenwood' is quite astounding. The books effortlessly pour forth a cornocopea of content to the table and are a joy to read. There are also deep pools of material secreted all over in various corners and nooks of the books. One such rich picking is the appendixes in Dolmenwood Mosnsters. The Adventure parties, mere mortals and animals hold some fertile seeds ready to sprout to life in the GM's hands. Its the 'Animals' section that has grabbed me the most. These critters show every bit as much character and quirk of Dolmenwood as the more fully flesh and bone Monsters that are front and centre. You could fill the ecology of Dolmenwood with a plethora of things to trap, wrap and ensnare an unwary party. And at least SOME of them would be less terrifying to encounter for you quaking at the knees first level foolish mortals who dare enter the woods. Each beastie should be shown it's own love and expanded to an entry similiar in scope to their monstrous brethren. So here is my first attempt. Some handy random encounters as well as an Adventure seed: I give you

The Ecology of the Shaggy Mammoth