I Cast...Brainstorm issue 34!

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This week — A Mad Villain!

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Let’s brainstorm some fun!

In this issue...

• A Mad Villain

  • Carymm Bel’rasso, the Demented

• Adventure Hooks

  • Serious

  • Scary

  • Silly

• Brainstorming Links

• Gifts for Gamers and People Who Love RPGs

Happy Thanksgiving Leftover Day, to all those who celebrate! I hope the holiday gave you extra time to play games with friends and family.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week of telling amazing stories with folks you love!

A Mad Villain

As a young elf, Carymm Bel’rasso was a wizard of some power, part of a triumvirate of adventurous souls, including a rogue named Sardonnus and a soldier named Vitrik. The trio often explored dark, forgotten places, looking for items of magical power. In the ruins of an ancient tower, nearly buried to the top by the sands of a vast desert, the group discovered a Deck of Many Things, and as the sun set, they made camp and tried their luck. Carymm was the first to draw, and pulled the Donjon card. He instantly disappeared, entombed in an extra-dimensional sphere, and as his compatriots prepared to locate and release him, the camp was set upon by a Purple Worm, which gulped down Sardonnus and Vitrik, along with Carymm’s last hope of escaping his doom.

Carymm’s extra dimensional prison was soon discovered by the Great Old One, an ancient god of malevolence and chaos. The strange being gleefully reached into the helpless mage’s mind, pulled apart his memories, and then twisted them into nightmares to be relived over and over. Carymm was imprisoned and tortured for over 400 years, until, for reasons beyond logic, the god released the insane shell of the elf upon the world.

Carymm’s memories have been so twisted, and so painful to revisit, that he barely knows himself. His last vivid memory, however, is of a powerful deck of cards, and this is what drives him — seeking out this deck, which in his madness he sees as the source of his pain. Carymm knows the one who owns such a deck is his tormentor, and must be punished…unfortunately he sees everyone else as part of the plot, too. Despite brief periods of lucidity and reason, his interactions with others always end in murder, with Carymm sure beyond a shadow of a doubt that the victim was working with his tormentor, plotting to return him to the prison.

Carymm Bel’rasso, the Demented

664-year-old elf
Personality - Insane, driven — doesn’t remember who imprisoned him, or why he was imprisoned so long, and thinks everyone he meets is plotting against him
Alignment - CN
Type - Mage/Warlock
Items and Appearance - A thin pale elf with haunted blue eyes, wearing ancient robes
Values - Solitude, loud places (which drown out the screaming voices in his head)
Goals - Release from his memories and his torment, and revenge on those who imprisoned him

Adventure Hooks

Serious

A mysterious benefactor — an old elf with haunted blue eyes — hires the party to find the owner of a Deck of Many Things, and bring him the name and location of the owner.

Scary

A collector of strange objects nearby claims to have found The Darklight, a lantern that glows with a reddish light, and causes the shadow cast by anyone in the lantern’s light to attack its caster.

Silly

Drinking from a hidden magical pool in the forest outside town is rumored to give the drinker god-like hearing. (This is true, but it also makes the drinker’s ears grows four times their original size.)

Brainstorming Links

You probably already know about the folks below, who are real inspirations to me, but if not, do yourself a favor and check them out.

The Arcane Library — masterpiece adventures, and Shadowdark, too!
https://www.thearcanelibrary.com

The Angry DM — so angry….so many great ideas….
https://theangrygm.com/

DMDave — on point analysis of D&D rules, and a ton of fun ideas
https://bsky.app/profile/dmdave.bsky.social

RPGBot — whip smart critique and explanations of 5e rules
https://rpgbot.net/

Sly Flourish — a DM’s best friend who is also a better DM
https://www.slyflourish.com/

Treantmonk — years of helpful advice and clever ideas
https://www.youtube.com/@TreantmonksTemple

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The original ideas in this issue of I Cast….Brainstorm! are covered under the Creative Commons BY-SA license — all content is free to use (including commercially) and change, with proper attribution.

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