DM Essentials #123: 10 Rogue Fence Encounters

In most games, the fence is just a vendor. You bring stolen goods, they give you coin, you leave. A transaction with a shady background.

But a fence is not a vendor. They are the underworld's banker, its librarian, its memory. They know the value of a jewel, the history of a painting, the weight of a secret. They trade in objects, but their real currency is information. They are patient, paranoid, and they trust no one. Their shop is a front. Their real business is conducted in back rooms, coded phrases, and the silence between words. A single favour from a fence can save a life – but it will be collected, with interest.

DM Essentials #123 gives you ten ways to make underworld fences feel secretive, dangerous, and indispensable. They are not shopkeepers. They are the hidden economy of the city, and they remember every face that owes them.

What's Inside?

The Fence's World (Short Essay): Who they are, how they survive, and why information is worth more than gold.

10 Encounters in the Back Rooms: Each one gives you a situation, the truth behind it, and a way for the players to respond.

- The Back Room – A fence leads the party into a windowless room. “Speak fast. I do not have much time.” The fence is being watched.
- The Hot Item – A stolen item at a suspiciously low price. The mark is a noble who will kill to recover it.
- The Informant – Carry a message to a rival gang. No questions. The fence is using the party as a decoy.
- The Debt – “Your face was on my wall. That information saved your life.” The debt is real. Pay, or owe interest.
- The Rival – Another fence offers a better deal. Both are playing the same game. Neither can be trusted.
- The Sting – A job too good to be true. The fence has flipped. The Watch is waiting.
- The Family – A fence's child is sick. Steal the medicine. A favour from a fence is worth more than gold.
- The Safe House – A place to hide. The fence has already sold the party's location.
- The Ledger – A record of everyone who owes the fence. The party's name is in the book.
- The Retirement – The fence wants out. “Take my network. The life is killing me.” The offer is genuine – but the network may be poison.

Quick Reference Table: Roll d10 and get a full encounter hook in seconds.

Who This Is For:

- DMs who want the underworld to feel like a network of favours and debts, not just crime stats
- Players who think a fence is just a merchant until they realise the fence knows their name, their face, and where they sleep
- Anyone who understands that the person who moves the stolen goods also moves the secrets that can ruin you

ENTER THE ARCVERSE

More DM Essentials, adventures, and settings at the link below.

The back room is windowless. The ledger is full. The fence is waiting. What do you have to trade?

In the Roadside Underworld, every neon sign is a warning, and every cup of coffee is a gamble. Roll at your own risk.

Leave the high-rise glass towers behind and descend into the grit of the highway. The Roadside Underworld is a collection of five d30 tables designed for the mjhGames Modular Table System (MTS 3.0) and the mjhGames MTS Publisher to flesh out the shadows of your campaign map. Whether your players are looking for a place to lay low, a contact in the mob, or just a dangerously greasy breakfast, this pack provides the names and atmospheric details to make every stop memorable.

No more leafing through rulebooks for seedy places to frequent. These d30 tables are sready to roll!

What’s in the Pack:
Truck Stop Names: 30 rest areas where the diesel flows and the coffee is strong.
Biker Bar Names: 30 chrome-and-leather dives where the jukebox is loud and the crowd is rough.
Mobster Hangout Names: 30 discreet social clubs and "fronts" for your city's criminal elite.
Greasy Spoon Names: 30 diners where the health inspector is the only person more feared than the cook.
No-Tell Motel Names: 30 rooms rented by the hour for travelers who don't want to be found.

Sample Encounters:
The Diesel Den: Check the pumps—they might be at 12% capacity.
Sam 'n Ella’s: A diner with a Health Score of 42 (Failing).
The Velvet Lounge: Watch your back; there are 8 goons currently in the booths.

Technical Specs:
Format: JSON - Optimized for the mjhGames Modular Table System (MTS 3.0) and the mjhGames MTS Publisher.

Plan your next one-shot without the hassle.

This clean, practical framework helps you organize your session from start to finish—perfect for Daggerheart or any other RPG system. It keeps your ideas structured without slowing you down, so you can focus on what really matters: running a great game.

Inside, you’ll find tools to quickly set up your session:

• Define tone, themes, and your core pitch
• Present a clear, engaging introduction to your players
• Structure your one-shot into acts and encounters
• Keep track of notes, NPCs, and key elements
• Wrap everything up with a strong conclusion and epilogue

Built to be fast, flexible, and easy to use—whether you’re prepping in advance or putting something together on the fly.

Includes two versions: English and Portuguese.

Astrae Virellion

The Prism Sovereign

Backstory

Before empires learned to measure time, before worlds cooled enough to bear life, there were the Harmonics—vast, unseen forces that shaped reality through resonance rather than matter. Astrae Virellion was born from one of these. Not in a womb. Not in a cradle. But in the convergence of orbiting bodies—where gravity, light, and sound aligned into something aware.

The Crystal Throne

Her “throne” is not furniture. It is a fixed point in space, a crystalline convergence where: starlight refracts into infinite spectra, gravity bends into symmetry, and sound becomes structure.

From this place, Astrae listens. Not with ears—but with the frequency of existence itself.

Every planet sings. Every star hums. Every living thing adds to the chorus. And when something falls out of harmony… She notices.

Her Power

Astrae does not wage war. She retunes reality.

• Fleets lose cohesion as their navigation systems “desynchronize”

• Weapons fail as their energy frequencies destabilize

• Entire civilizations collapse into silence as their worlds drift out of harmonic balance

To her, this is not cruelty. It is correction.

The Tragedy

Once—only once—she tried to descend. She took form. Walked among mortals. Learned their music. And for the first time… She heard something imperfect.

Something chaotic. Emotional. Beautiful. She stayed longer than she should have. Long enough to become attached. When that world inevitably fell out of harmony, she hesitated. That hesitation cost millions of lives.

Since then, Astrae has never stepped down from the throne again.

How Others See Her

• To some: a goddess of cosmic balance

• To others: a cold, distant tyrant of physics

• To a rare few: a lonely being who hears everything… but is never truly heard

Use in Your Games

She works as:

• A cosmic patron (warlocks, psionic characters, etc.)

• A distant BBEG who doesn’t see herself as evil

• A neutral force the party must convince, not defeat

• Or even a final arbiter of reality itself

“You call it destruction. I call it silence… where there should have been song.”

Pictish Warband – Woad & Iron (6 Miniature Set, 3D Printable STL)

Before kingdoms. Before crowns. There were tribes who painted themselves for war… and never bent the knee. The Pictish Warband brings a brutal, historically inspired force to your tabletop—fighters of mud, hide, and iron, marked in woad and bound by blood.

This is not polished fantasy. This is raw, northern survival.

Included in the Set

Woad Huntress

Fast, silent, and deadly. A master of ambush with bow in hand and eyes always on the horizon.

Shieldmaiden Spearwoman

The line-holder. Spear and shield ready, she stands firm against any charge.

Seax Raider

Close-quarters brutality. Armed with a heavy blade, he thrives where the fight is thickest.

Axe Warrior

Pure aggression. A crushing force meant to break shields, bones, and morale alike.

Bear-Skin Shaman

A bridge between worlds. Draped in fur and crowned in antlers, he calls on spirits older than empires.

Woad War Maiden

Fierce, relentless, and untamed. A symbol of the tribe’s will to fight and endure.

Set Features

• Fully themed Pictish-inspired warband

• Bold woad markings and tribal identity

• Realistic hide, leather, and primitive gear

• Cohesive mud, stone, and battlefield bases

• Designed for clean, reliable 3D printing

• Perfect balance of historical grounding + tabletop readability

Perfect For

• Low-fantasy or historical campaigns

• Northern tribes, raiders, or rebels

• Roman vs tribal encounters

• Or anyone looking to break away from standard high-fantasy tropes

Build the Battlefield

Pair this set with:

• Roman legion miniatures

• Ancient ruins and frontier terrain

• Forest, swamp, or rocky highland environments

Create clashes where discipline meets fury—and only one survives.

BONUS: Original Warband Soundtrack Included

Bring your table to life with 4 original, warband-themed ambient tracks, designed to match the tone of the Picts:

• 🥁 War Drums – driving battle rhythm
• 🌲 Ambush in the Woods – tense, stealthy atmosphere
• 🐻 Shaman’s Ritual – eerie, spiritual soundscape
• ⚔️ Battle Frenzy – chaotic, primal combat energy

Perfect as background music for sessions, encounters, or painting sessions.

They do not build empires. They tear them down.

Hi All

Here is the Manor Floor Plans for SWAG Adventure The Mummy 

Some treasures do not grant bonuses, cast spells, or glitter in a dragon’s hoard. Some
carry memory. A grandmother’s quilt, a father’s armor, a song sung to a restless child,
these can become emotional landmarks in a fantasy world. Heirlooms & Reveries gives
Game Masters a way to use cherished objects, places, and traditions as subtle narrative
magic, fragile enough to be broken, powerful enough to be remembered.

Hi ya

Here is my first foray into a Savage Worlds Adventure, this is a Horror/Mystery Adventure parody of Scooby-Doo.

The characters, The Gang, have been contacted by their mysterious patron to investigate a Manor house in Oxford England that is supposedly Haunted.

Be sure to download the Manor Floor Plans which is a separate file.

As metioned, this is my first foray into writing a Savage Worlds Adventure, and I would really appreciate your feedback, thoughts, comments, critique, and any improvements you think can be made.

Thank you for downloading this adventure, I do hope you will have fun running this tongue in cheek parody - keep it Fast, furious, and always FUN

Cheers GH :)

Vinecrest Shrine — Hilltop Ritual Ruin 35×35

Vinecrest Shrine is an ancient hilltop ritual site built atop a stone outcrop shaped like a great weathered foot. Broken pillars, scattered stone blocks, and a central spherical stone orb mark the remains of a harvest shrine once used for offerings, revelry, or seasonal rites. A ring of grapevines curls around one of the “toes,” and the surrounding hills roll outward in all directions, giving the ruin an open, wind‑touched presence beneath the sky.

Included Maps

Vinecrest Shrine — a ruined hilltop ritual site featuring cracked stone floors, broken walls, scattered debris, and a central stone orb set within an exposed, elevated landscape. The layout is arranged for clarity, tactical readability, and grounded environmental storytelling.

Variants provide alternate lighting, weather, and narrative‑state changes for different encounter styles.

Sunset
Long shadows stretch across the stone as the sun dips behind the hills, with warm light catching the orb and softly illuminating the grapevines.

Night
Moonlight filters through the remaining stained‑glass fragments, scattering faint color across the ruins and deepening the shrine’s dreamlike atmosphere.

Night‑Lit
Candles and surviving sconces cast warm illumination across the shrine, outlining the orb, fallen pillars, and pathways for secret gatherings or late‑night rituals.

Occupied
Supplies, tools, and drawn plans indicate preparations for an upcoming event, with additional candles marking focal points around the basin.

Ceremony
Runestones glow with active energy, candles burn brightly, and the shrine stirs with magical resonance — a ceremony in full performance.

Cold
A thin frost clings to stone surfaces, pillars, and the central orb, creating a harsh, winter‑bitten version of the shrine.

Fog Low drifting fog rolls across the hillcrest, pooling around stones and shifting the ruin into a mysterious, shape‑shifting landscape.

What You Get

• 300dpi print‑ready JPGs
• Grid and gridless versions
• 72dpi VTT‑ready gridless JPGs

All files are organized for quick use at the table or online.

ANGELS AND DRAGONS

Presenting five angels of divine power and 5 new varieties of dragons to fill out your Dragonbane gaming world!

Enjoy!