Episode 26: The Nilkin

October 18, 2025

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The Party joins the mysterious wild halflings, the Nilkin, in their village in hopes that the local shaman might be able to help them find the planar travel device. The Nilkin are not as firendly as they might seem, and have a dangerous task that needs doing.

This episode of Swords Against Madness includes a discussion of the Dungeons & Dragons module Hot Springs Island by Jacob Hurst et al. at Swordfish Islands.

This age-of-sail tropical island hexcrawl has set the standard for me for adventure design and I used many of its monsters and encounters in designing Nar. It consists of two books: A Field Guide to Hot Springs Island and the Dark of Hot Springs Island, although some of the dungeons included are also sold separately as The Lapis Observatory and Toxic Elvish Smut.

Monsters mentioned in today’s episode included:

Kuji Bird: HD: 3+3; AC 2 [17]; Bite: 1d4; MV: 12; SV: 16; AL: N; ML: 7; CL/XP: 3/60

  • Kujibirds have naturally ocurring gold feathers and talons. A kuji bird’s body is worth 300gp.

Wild Halflings: HD: 1d6; AC 6 [13]; Atk: sling (1d3) or short sword (1d6); SV: 19; AL: N; ML: 8; CL/XP: B/10

Plant Zombie: HD: 2; AC 5 [14]; Atk: slam (1d6); SV: 17; AL: N; ML: 11; CL/XP: 1/15

Music in this Episode

From the Free Music Alliance:

  • King Edward by Mister Smith (CC-BY) from the Free Music Archive

From Pixabay:

Generated with Suno

  • Reign of Shadows
  • Eternal Nightmare Initiation

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