Back in January, I posted stats for Sarana, my version of Stevie from the adventure Tanglewood Keep in DL15 Mists of Krynn. I had a lot of fun with it to be honest. I am planning to use Tanglewood Keep with Sarana/Stevie in my War of the Witch Queens campaign. I think it would be a lot of fun and it would fit great theme-wise and provide the multiverse hoping I really want to do with the campaign.
The adventure is not a difficult one, nor particularly original, but it is fun.
Though...there is one little issue. The crux of the adventure is to regain a crystal to make a magical travel mirror work again. The characters have to get the crystal and return to Sarana/Stevie's home so they can return to their own world. The questions arise. Why can't Sarana/Stevie get it herself? Failing that why can't her Kender friend Twill Topknot get it for her?
The answer is timing.
The PCs have entered Krynn at two important points in time. First, the PCs have entered Krynn during the events of the Dragons of Autumn Twilight novel and the DL1 Dragons of Despair module. This means that, among other things, there are no gods. No gods also mean no healing magic.
The second point deals with the accident of Twill Topknot and this brings me to my character for this month.
In Tanglewood Keep, Twill is a 3rd level kender thief. He is essentially a Tasselhof stand-in. But I wanted to try something new. In particular, I really wanted to try out Sara Thompson's combat wheelchair for my Old-School games. This past summer when this was causing a stir I joked "I was going to make one and put a Kender in it!" Well. The idea was actually too good to pass up.
Putting Twill in a wheelchair makes a lot of sense since I need him to NOT to be able to help the characters; the Keep is not easily accessible.
I am currently rereading the Dragonlance saga and the comment has been made that there are no old Kender. They usually die before that due to accidents. This is Twill's tale. He was adventuring when he slipped and fell off a cliff. He was discovered by Sarana who used her witchcraft to heal him the best she could. While she could heal his wounds and kept him from dying, she could not heal everything. With no healing magic from the gods, she did an admirable job.
Thankfully for Twill, Tinker the gnome was able to craft him a "mobility chair" which Twill thinks is the best thing ever. He has a pocket for his maps, cool little baubles, and a place for his hoopak staff.
Since my War of the Witch Queens is a B/X flavored game, I thought that my current favorite Basic-era game Old School Essentials would be great for these stats today.
Male Kender Bard, 3rd level, Neutral Good
Strength: 10
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 9
Dexterity: 18 (agility) / 9 (movement)
Constitution: 13
Charisma: 15
HP: 12
AC: 4
Saves
D: 13 W: 14 P: 13 B: 16 S: 15
Initiative: +3
Movement: 20
To Hit AC 0: 20
Weapons: Dagger 1d4
Hoopak staff 1d4
I decided that Twill is better suited in my game as a Bard (I was not doing Bards in a vacuum last month). One of the things I found endearing about Tasslehoff Burrfoot was his rich store of stories he knew and wanted to tell. I enjoyed it more on my recent re-read (and was profoundly irritated with Flint every time he told Tass to be quiet). So a Kender storyteller bard sounds great to me. I'll make an Arcane Bard since there is no divine magic in Krynn at this point. Plus the Arcane Bard for OSE still has some thief skills to use.
In my mind, Twill lives (platonically, for now) with Sarana. She thinks it is to protect him (he doesn't need it) and he thinks it is to protect her, being from another world (she doesn't need protecting either). So Twill stays with her in her little house in a haunted forest. He tells her stories that she delights in and she makes him tea. He shows her all his wonderful maps of Krynn and talks about dragons (still only a story now) and she tells him about wonderful worlds she has seen.
No wonder she has no real desire to leave Krynn. But don't assume anything untoward! This is Krynn and there is a certain morality in place (that I seemed to have completely missed at 14 when I read it the first time).
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| Sarana and Twill |
Twill's Mobility Chair
Being a good-natured sort, Twill is quite proud of his remarkable "mobility chair." He will gladly show off the pockets it has for his maps, dagger, and that really interesting thing the PC's just dropped and he was keeping safe. There is even a place on the back for his hoopak. He credits Tinker (a tinker gnome, naturally) for building it and Sarana for enchanting it to cover any ground or terrain.
In fact, he will often state that life with his new chair is even better now, though he will admit he misses wiggling his toes.
Thanks to Sarana's magic the chair can travel over any terrain that Twill himself could do save for anything involving swimming or climbing, with that he can levitate. The wheels have permanent Floating Disk spells on them to provide levitation. Since the chair is new he is still learning how to navigate stairs.
Using the Combat Wheelchair 2.1 for 5e Twill's is a modified basic wheelchair.
You can get (and modify) your own Twill Topknot mini from HeroForge.
ETA: Since I posted this I noticed that Hero Forge has added three wheelchair options.
Here is a new version of Twill with his cat.
