Monster: bearded simian

The "clay apes" created over an aeon ago by civic minded mages to serve and protect the interests of the elite of the day. Nowadays they pop up only rarely guarding perhaps an aristocrat's tomb or some crumbled storehouse. Essentially automatons, the bearded simians are supposedly powered by black mercury enabled by crystals in adjacent areas.

Stats
A/C - 13
HP - 3d10+5
Speed - 30 ft, climb 30 ft,
Str +2, Dex +2, Con +2,
Athletics +5, Perception +3
damage resistance - magical attacks
Language - ancient Oamnic
Attack - 2 fist attacks +5 to hit 3d6+2 bludgeoning damage
Recharge 6 - horrifying shriek, wis save 12 or become frightened for one minute.

When killed the bearded simian will leach black mercury a very poisonous substance...

Magic item: the arbiter's signet

This legendary item was said to belong to the arbiters of the Oamnoi as a sign of the office. Term to term it was passed on throughout the years considered a source of insight granting authority to its wearer. A ritual was performed daily over the ring where in it was fed a small spoon of honey so as to make judgment sweet. 

Mechanically, the ring, when attuned, grants the wearer "detect thoughts" (phb 231) once a day provided it has been fed its honey. To attune the ring the intended arbiter must place one of his or her teeth into the chamber of the ring. 

Ūla the river giver

A forgotten goddess of the high River dynasty, Ula may have been an ancient river troll or perhaps a powerful naiad. What little is known of her worship is contained in the linguistic remnants hidden within the names of the two arms of the river which flow out from the umbra of Torenwœl, Sh'ulla, which runs west through Vali to the sea, and Tulla, which goes south terminating in the swamplands of the lizard folk. There are also a handful of short inscriptions that seem to provide a list of possible epithets: the river giver, sister of the west wind, protector of Uama, mother of the sturgeons, guarantor of sacred vows.

NPC: breeder of the east-woods

 

Short enough to be mistaken for a halfling, Yushek is a bit of a recluse. A breeder of guard dogs, his customers must travel through the treacherous penumbra of Torenwœl to do business with him. He has a reputation as a knower of secrets, a healer, and walker of invisible paths. One must be truly desperate to risk the journey to his door but once a year he attends the fire-nut festival with his best stock. Rumour has it that he has a collection of antique books.

Player improvised battle terrain

Often, Especially in the theater of the mind, in combat a player will ask something like, "is there a barrel in the corner for me to hide behind?" And the game master Will say something like, "yes and you receive three quarters cover." In an even better scenario the player might asks, "can I push over the barrel so that the monster slips on the pickle juice?" And the game master will say something like, "Give me a strength check to topple it over, and if anybody moves through the pickle zone they must do a dex check or fall prone." While this is fun and dynamic play often, I imagine, players will be either too shy to ask or too set in their ways to improvise and think outside the box. If there was a simple mechanic or convention to encourage this type of on-the-fly Battlemap generation I think it would be good. For example, maybe directly after rolling initiative one player in the rotation would be encouraged to put something on the map, with whatever limitations or lack thereof the game master desires (maybe the person who's last in initiative order as a consolation prize). Or maybe this could be tied in to the inspiration mechanic as a way to spend your inspiration point from last encounter. At first I considered going around the circle and having each person put one thing on the map but, after a little thought, I wonder if that would bog down the progress of the encounter too much. The main drawback with using a solidified rule that I foresee is having players be intimidated to be ad hoc about things. Not sure how this will play out, just some food for thought.

Idea: reward system

After listening to the most recent design games podcast episode about reward cycles and reward systems I began thinking about applying some thought to houseruling the inspiration mechanic in 5E DND.The inspiration rule is written fairly open and laconic, essentially, "if the DM thinks you did something cool you get advantage on a roll sometime soon." This is a nice little side system that doesn't interfere with the primary reward mechanic in the game, xp/ levelling. Since I don't usually play with xp anyway inspiration might be a convenient way for me to reward specific behaviours at the table. One idea I had was to open up the table briefly before the session to set out narrative themes which if touched will give the players inspiration. For example, somebody says they want to see the theme of "cleverness beating strength" while someone else wants to see "forbidden knowledge leading to complication." The only major difference from conventional inspiration would be that the inspiration would be awarded before rather than after the roll in question. That is, the roll which furthers the story in the direction agreed upon before hand gets a little boost. 

Here are some examples of narrative themes:

"Lose the battle to win the war "

"Poetic justice "

"Sacrifice for the team"

"irony"
"the brink of disaster" 
"super cool mega heros save the day"
"don't trust respectable advisers"

"Trespass social norms to follow your heart "

"Redeem your past actions through selflessness "

Boxed text

After an exhausting day climbing through the mess of roots, vines and convoluted herbage your unlikely collection of adventurers finds something of note. The skeleton of a lizardfolk clutching a large silver bell. Further investigation reveals facts about the bell and the lizardfolk' demise and an adventurers' pack can befound mouldering a ways off. Close by, a clay structure can be found no bigger than an outhouse but obviously made in the immaculate style of the high river dynasty. There is no door but there are three symbols carved into the hard baked clay substrate: 🌗⚡️🔔