SESSION 28B: ON THE EVE OF THE BANEWARRENS

September 14th, 2008
The 15th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

TAVAN ZITH AT CASTLE SHARD

They left. Once they were safely in the carriage and driving away from the Cathedral they talked things over.

“I don’t trust him,” Tor said.

Dominic nodded. “You can put crimson robes on a pig, it’s still not a novarch.”

They needed to know more. They needed to question Tavan Zith, and the only way they could think to do that was by going to Castle Shard. They also needed to know if Lord Zavere was the one responsible for opening the Banewarrens. And, if so, why.

As they rode, Dominic looked at the others. “So… do we have any idea how we’re going to do this without getting killed?”

Agnarr shrugged. “Sure. We ask him. If he didn’t do it, we don’t get killed.”

Tor came up with a better strategy. “We tell him that we respect him. Tell him we’ve been approached about this. But if he’s involved, we’re more than happy to stay out of it. We just want to know that before getting in his way.”

Kadmus was waiting for them at the gate of the castle. He ushered them in to see Lord Zavere. He welcomed them warmly and seemed genuinely pleased to see them.

Unfortunately, their plan fell apart fairly quickly. Tee carefully began working her way around the subject of the Banewarrens – sounding him out on the matter. But then Elestra blurted out Rehobath’s involvement. Before Tee could regain her grip on the situation, Zavere had quickly figured out that they had been approached by both the Novarch and the Inverted Pyramid.

Tee sighed and decided to make the best of it.

“What do you know about the Inverted Pyramid? Should we trust them?”

“It depends,” Zavere said. “Although I have reasons to distrust them, the Pyramid is not entirely monolithic. Whether you can trust them will most likely have more to do with whether or not you can trust the person you’re working for.”

“And what do you know about the Banewarrens themselves?”

Zavere gave them a brief history similar to the one Jevicca had described to them. “No one has ever been able to penetrate them, although many have tried. It’s known that Ghul himself was fascinated by them. He named himself the Sorcerer’s Get and claimed to be a direct descendant of the Banelord himself. The drill I purchased from you would have been only one of many attempts he made to access them.

“Much of our modern knowledge of them derives from records recovered by Gerris Hin, the same loremaster responsible for founding the modern city of Ptolus. Over the centuries, many have attempted to succeed where Ghul failed. Some of them, like Sokalahn, being quite famous. Others less so. But whether powerful or clever, none have ever succeeded.”

“And have you ever tried?”

Zavere laughed. “No. I purchased the drill as a mere curiosity. I doubt it would work in any case. No, the Banewarrens are not a specialty of mine.”

“Do you know who might specialize in it?” Tor asked.

“The Banewarrens have long been a fool’s errand. If you had asked me yesterday, I might have told you that no one was studying it. But clearly the last few hours have changed that.”

“If the Banewarrens have been opened,” Tor said, “I don’t know if we’re strong enough to face them.”

“Neither do I,” said Zavere. “But I will look in the archives of the Castle. If they contain any information about the Banewarrens that might help you, I’ll let you know.”

“Thank you,” Tor said.

“There is something else…” Tee said hesitantly, glancing at the others. “Does the name Tavan Zith mean anything to you?”

It didn’t. Tee quickly filled him on what had happened and showed him the prophecy they had discovered in Pythoness House. Then she revealed that they had Tavan Zith in custody, but had been unable to question him. She let Ranthir explain why and share his theory about how an antimagic field might be used to suppress Zith’s ability.

“Where is he now?” Zavere asked.

Tee glanced nervously at her bag of holding. Zavere followed her gaze.

“Are you serious?”

Tee nodded.

“Very well. Come with me.”

Zavere led them through the Castle, taking them to a small, but well-accoutered laboratory where Lady Rill was working. He quickly explained the situation to her.

Lady Rill lowered a metal cylinder out of the ceiling. Manipulating several devices she created a blue, glowing field of energy within the cylinder. “If you place him in there, he will be restrained and any sorcerous manifestations will be suppressed.”

Tee removed Zith from her bag of holding and placed him in the cylinder. They woke him up.

As Zith opened his eyes, his features contorted into a contemptuous sneer. “The powers of chaos shall make you rue this day.”

“Who are you?”

“I am the sower of chaos! The servant of the true gods!”

“What do you mean?”

“Destruction. Destruction is the ultimate end of all things and the fulfillment of all dreams.”

“Do you know where the Banewarrens are located? Did you come from the Banewarrens?”

But his answers were useless, varying between the megalomaniacal and the insane. After several minutes they gave up. Zavere promised to continue questioning him, although he had little hope of getting anything out of him. They thanked him and Lady Rill both and went on their way.

ON THE EVE OF THE BANEWARRENS

As they passed down through Oldtown they turned aside long enough to stop at the Pale Tower. There Tee left word with the Graven One – asking if any of the Malkuth would be interested in knowing that the Banewarrens had been opened.

Ranthir headed to the Delver’s Guild library and started researching the Banewarrens directly, although he turned up little of substance beyond what they had learned from Jevicca, Rehobath, and Lord Zavere.

Elestra, meanwhile, made a point of buying a newssheet. They were filled with news of the riots in Oldtown, and she found that Agnarr, Dominic, Tee, and Ranthir had been prominently credited with the quick and successful response to what was being described as a sorcerous attack on the city. She also discovered that a 2,000 gold piece reward had been offered for the spellcaster responsible.

Elestra also made a point of digging up older copies of the day’s newssheets, printed before the riots. From these she learned that Gidden Primus, a mage of mild repute, had been found dead the night before in his apartment in Oldtown. His chambers had been rimed with frost and Gidden himself had frozen to death.

Tee had gone straight up to her rooms to snatch some sleep before heading back up to Oldtown to perform her watch duties for the Brotherhood (it had been more than a day and a half since she’d woken up), but Elestra caught up with her in the common room when she came back down around 11 o’clock.

They agreed that there didn’t seem to be any connection between the death of Gidden Primus and the opening of the Banewarrens.

When Tee left, Elestra shapeshifted into a dog and accompanied her. Tee appreciated the company, and they thought it might be useful to have another pair of eyes and legs available if they were needed.

In fact, it turned out that they were needed sooner rather than later. As they passed through the streets of Oldtown, Tee spotted Iltumar sneaking his way back towards Midtown – his watch duties on the apartment complex must have just ended.

Tee warned Elestra and they easily avoided him. Once he had passed, Tee indicated that Elestra should follow him while she continued on to the apartment complex.

Elestra did. Or at least tried to. After a few blocks, Iltumar seemed to become suspicious of the “stray” that was dogging him. Elestra tried to throw his suspicion by acting innocently (sniffing at garbage piles and the like), but in the process she ended up losing him. Frustrated, she turned back and rejoined Tee at the apartment complex.

The rest of the evening passed quietly. When Tee’s shift ended at 6 o’clock they both headed back to the Ghostly Minstrel and managed to grab a few more hours of sleep before the new day began.

RETURNING TO PYTHONESS HOUSE

(09/16/790)

The mansion on Nibeck Street that Jevicca had identified as the origin point for the appearance of the surge of Tavan Zith’s wild magic was very close to Pythoness House. So close, in fact, that they feared there might be a connection. Could the cultists be responsible for the breaching of the Banewarrens?

“If we check it out and there’s nothing there,” Ranthir pointed out, “Then we’ve lost nothing. But if there is, then we may have saved ourselves considerable time.”

So before heading to Nibeck Street, they return to Pythoness House.

They found it undisturbed… until they reached the gatehouse. As Tee passed through the door of the narrow space, the ghostly specter who had assaulted them before suddenly rematerialized. At the same instant, the trapdoor slammed shut behind Tee, separating her from the others.

“Leave this place of evil before it consumes you!”

“Okay.”

“… what?”

“If you’ll just open the trapdoor, I’ll leave.”

“Very well.” The ghost waved and the trapdoor swung open.

Tee grabbed it and held it open. “There’s a ghost! Help!”

Ranthir called up from below, “Did we want to talk to it this time?”

Agnarr, who had leapt up the ladder and had his sword halfway out of his sheathe, stopped. “I suppose…” He sighed heavily.

The ghost, for his part, now seemed to be more flustered than sinister. They asked him his name and he introduced himself as Taunell.

“What are you doing here?” Elestra asked.

“I lived in this house two hundred years ago. I served as priest for the Kollotis merchant family. It was a minor house and its fortunes were waning. It must have appeared weak. One night a band of brigands assaulted the house. They killed most of the household and stole the family jewels. The Kollotis family never recovered. I, myself, found myself unable to leave this mortal plane. I had no greater desire than to see the family protected, and now I seek to protect this house against those who would stain their memory.”

“And the chaos cultists?” Tee asked.

“They came here five years ago. I am shamed to say that I could not make them leave this place.”

“Do you know anything about Wuntad?”

“He was their leader. Among the women who lived here I had a friend named Maquent. She told me that his ultimate goal was to join all the followers of chaos in a common cause. He brought great evil into this house.

Tee grimaced. “He left with it, too.”

“If we brought him back here, is there anything you could do to stop him?” Elestra asked.

Taunell lowered his head. “I couldn’t even stopped him when he lived here.”

“I understand,” said Tee. “It’s all right.”

Running the Campaign: Multi-Threaded Campaigns – Campaign Journal: Session 28C
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

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Go to Part 1

Aggah-Shan has been building Mrathrach tables and distributing them to gambling establishments throughout Ptolus. The Mrathrach Machine operates by harvesting small amounts of chaos from nodules placed within these Mrathrach tables. As a result, the Mrathrach game (Ptolus, p. 331) becomes less random than it should be, generally rewarding higher payouts (which, conveniently, makes the game more popular, resulting in more plays, and more chaos being harvested). On the other end of the interaction, the Mrathrach Machine gathers that chaotic potential, using it to forge a connection to the Pit of Mrathrach (Ptolus, p. 78).

In my Ptolus campaign, I fleshed out the clues for this revelation of the true purpose of Mrathrach. My goal was to give the PCs a better understanding of what was happening with the Mrathrach Machine.

Unexpectedly, however, my players decided to attack the problem from both ends: Not only would they assault the Mrathrach Tower; first they would target and destroy all of the Mrathrach tables.

They had been working with the Commissar’s Men at this point. Once they had gathered enough evidence of what Aggah-Shan was doing, they were able to flex those muscles and assemble an official task force. If your players end up going after the Mrathrach tables in the same way, I’ve included information on the task force below.

The other thing you’ll find here is a Report on the Mrathrach Tables of Ptolus. My players engaged in an extended task to gather this information, and I gave them the Report as a handout. They were able to use the Report to plan their raids, and I was able to use it as the basis for running the raids.

As I’ve described, this scenario was very much an idiosyncratic response to a goal formulated more or less entirely by the players. If you want to increase the odds of being able to use it in your own games, you may want to add additional clues pointing the PCs more clearly in the direction of the Mrathrach tables. (For example, perhaps a list of locations the tables have been shipped to could be added to the workshop in the White House.)

Even if your campaign never ends up including the Mrathrach table raids, however, you may still find this a useful reference guide for gambling establishments in Ptolus.

THE TASK FORCE

WHITE HOUSE INFORMATION: The City Watch’s can be checked regarding Aggah-Shan and the White House.

Thirty years ago, an informant told the City Watch that Aggah-Shan had extensive catacombs beneath the White House. The informant disappeared and the case went with her. Aggah-Shan has kept his nose clean (publicly any way) since then, but it’s likely those catacombs have only been expanded.

CAPTAIN SARTH: The task force is led by Captain Sarth of the Commissar’s Men (Ptolus, p. 141).

COMMISSAR’S MEN: 75 commissar’s man (Ptolus, p. 141).

GOLDSHIELDS: 3 goldshields (Ptolus, p. 144), using arcanist stat blocks (Ptolus, p. 605).

RAIDING THE CATACOMBS: The Commissar’s Men and the City Watch both hate delving into the dungeons beneath the city. Their standard operating procedure is to seal and burn the entrance. Their strong preference will be to leave exploring the catacombs to the PCs.

Playtest Tip: If at all possible, give these resources to the players and let them work with Captain Sarth (and any other contacts they might have) to create a plan. That might be simultaneous raids on all of the Mrathrach table sites (with the Commissar’s Men splitting up to hit them simultaneously) while the PCs head into the catacombs. Or it might be the PCs assisting the Commissar’s Men sequentially hit the raid locations. Or maybe the PCs split up, with each PC accompanying one of the raid squads. Or any number of other possibilities.

My players ended up using teleportation and a potion of giant’s strength, to enable one of the PCs to teleport into a location after the Commissar’s Men secured it, lift the Mrathrach table, and then teleport it to a secure location for destruction.

REPORT ON THE MRATHRACH TABLES OF PTOLUS

AGGAH-SHAN’S ESTABLISHMENTS

Mrathrach tables are being operated at essentially all of Aggah-Shan’s gambling establishments (both legal and illegal) around the city.

WHITE HOUSE (Oldtown): The White House has recently expanded to house three Mrathrach wheels, which are increasingly popular due to their lucrative pay-outs.

• The White House has also been hiring an unusually large number of new operators and dealers over the past two weeks.

COCK PIT (South Market): Started as an underground cock-fighting arena in the South Market, the Cock Pit has grown into one of the largest illegal gambling dens in Ptolus. (The arena has also been expanded to include gladiator duels.)

• It’s operated by a half-orc named Naosh.
• There’s an expansive basement which services the arena and its gladiators.
• There are two Mrathrach tables: One on the sunken portion of the main floor and another in an exclusive gambling room.

Cock Pit (H8)

YELLOW PIGEON (Guildsman District): In an alley running between Carriage Row and Gem Street in the Guildsman District there’s a set of sunken stairs leading down to an iron door. Above the door is the faded painting of a yellow pigeon. The door leads to stairs that lead to a section of Ghul’s Labyrinth that’s been converted into an illegal gambling den serving mostly guild workers.

• There are guards on the door and in the gambling den below.
• The Watch has tried to raid the place a couple of times, but there are multiple bolt-holes leading through the labyrinths into the sewers.
• There is one Mrathrach table.

Yellow Pigeon (H8)

TEMPLE OF THE ONE-EYED GOD (Temple District): A temple based around the veneration / idolization of a mummified beholder’s corpse. While it may have once been a legitimate house of worship, its primary purpose now is to provide a semi-legitimate gambling establishment for Aggah-Shan. (They pay their taxes, but at a substantially reduced rate because the gambling is officially part of their religious beliefs.)

• The western wing of the temple has been converted into a gambling hall, including a Mrathrach table that was installed two days ago.
• The eastern wing houses the “priesthood”.
• The central dome still holds the “One-Eyed God”.

Temple of the One-Eyed God (G4)

BROKEN SPINE (Docks): The Broken Spine is a squalid tavern that ran an illegal gambling operation out of a secret basement for a number of years. It somehow got a reputation for being a place that young heirs of Merchant Houses would slum in. Fifteen years ago, Aggah-Shan muscled his way into the establishment. Ten years ago, he created a separate “basement” catering specifically to the “slumming” merchant princes: This basement is actually a lavishly decorated “bubble” that looks out into the waters of the Docks. Four years ago the place was raided and Aggah-Shan publicly “took it over” and started paying taxes on it, making the place legitimate in the eyes of the law.

• There are two Mrathrach tables here. One in the original sub-basement that still caters to sailors and other dock-crawlers; the other in the bubble.
• Three days ago there was a minor ruckus at the Broken Spine when Caraniss Erthuo, a daughter of a secondary line of the Erthuo Merchant House, fell ill in the Broken Spine and collapsed. She was taken to the Daykeeper’s Chapel in Midtown, but her condition has not improved. Her symptoms include a general fever, telepathic confirmation of nightmares, and fingernails which have turned chalky and weak.

Broken Spine (M6)

HELL’S DOOR (Midtown): In Pipe Row Court, there is a door painted crimson with garish red flames. Nicknamed “Hell’s Door”, it leads to a long corridor containing multiple private rooms. The décor is red velvet and the general pastime are illegal card games.

• One of the private rooms has recently been converted to hold a Mrathrach table.
• A dreamspeaker named Godam Martinelli, who lives a couple blocks away on Farther Street, has been loudly protesting Hell’s Door, claiming that something catastrophic is going to happen there.

Hell’s Door (F7)

URDOCH’S MRATHRACH HOLES (Warrens): Three Mrathrach tables are being run by an agent of Aggah-Shan named Urdoch in the Warrens. They’re set up in various abandoned buildings and occasionally moved around as necessary.

OTHER GAMBLING HOUSES

Mrathrach tables have also been sold or leased to gambling establishments around Ptolus which are not directly owned by Aggah-Shan.

AJACK’S TENT: Located in Tent City (located outside Market Gate), a litorian named Ajack operates a semi-legal gambling operation out of a large tent. (Technically he’s outside the city limits, so he doesn’t owe gambling taxes.)

When Mrathrach was introduced, Ajack was reportedly very excited about how popular it was and leased a table. Unfortunately, he’s been losing considerable amounts of money. He’s borrowed a large amount of money from either the Balacazars or the Killravens and now he’s having difficulty paying it back.

And now it sounds like the stress of it has caused him to fall ill.

Tent City (E9)

BAZAAR OF 1,000 SINS (South Market): One of several large markets scattered around the South Market district, the Bazaar of 1,000 Sins has earned a reputation as being the place to go for illegal, illicit, or simply questionable goods. Drugs, diabolic items, and the like are common.

• A Mrathrach wheel has been installed in one of the elaborate, silk-shrouded gambling tents of the bazaar.

Bazaar of 1,000 Sins (E7)

SILVER WHEEL (Rivergate): Perched at the top of the Great Ramp leading into Rivergate, the Silver Wheel is a legal gambling house catering to the expensive tastes of both Rivergate residents and the merchants passing through the North Gate. It finished construction just six months ago.

• A Mrathrach wheel was installed here three weeks ago. It was decommissioned a week ago, apparently due to the heavy losses it was sustaining.
• During its construction, the Silver Wheel was targeted by a firebomb. Rumor on the street is that the Vladaams were angry about the Wheel interfering with the custom at their Curse Den in Rivergate. It’s believed that the owners of the Silver Wheel agreed to ban Skullrattle and offer a cut of the Wheel’s proceeds from Dragonscales in order to settle the dispute without further bloodshed.
• Recently, however, there are reports that the Killravens are trying to apply pressure.

Silver Wheel (F3)

GILDED PHOENIX (North Market): Located along Argent Street, the Gilded Phoenix is operated by the Killravens. Notable for the nine “Phoenix Wheels”, the establishment recently added a Mrathrach wheel rebranded as a Phoenix Wheel two weeks ago.

• The arrival of the “Tenth Wheel!” was celebrated with a major social event as the latest “rebirth of the phoenix”.
• Reports are that the Killravens are less than happy with the performance of the Tenth Wheel, but since the losses are subsidized across the other wheels in the Phoenix Cycle they’re riding it out for now.

Gilded Phoenix (J3)

THE ARENA (Oldtown): The Ptolus Arena is more than 600 years old. It was built during the 2^nd century as part of the wave of free arenas which became popular throughout the Five Empires.

In addition to gladiatorial combat, a large number of other entertainments and events have been established at the Arena. A legal Mrathrach table was recently installed in one of the entertainment suites circling the concourse.

Arena (D6)

VLADAAM REJECTION

Aggah-Shan’s agents made a concerted effort to get the Vladaams interested in the Mrathrach wheels, possibly for installation in the Vladaam curse dens. The Vladaams, however, rejected Aggah-Shan’s proposals out of hand. The word “sacrilege” was apparently used.

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Go to Part 1

Aggah-Shan has stolen a ledger which belongs to the Balacazar crime family (Ptolus, p. 102). He’s been using the ledger to blackmail and manipulate them, and they want it back. But if they just send their own agents and something goes wrong, Aggah-Shan will be able to cause them a lot of trouble. What they need are patsies who can take the blame (and bear Aggah-Shan’s wrath).

Enter the PCs.

GROUNDWORK

In my own Ptolus campaign, the PCs came to the attention of the Balacazars when they flubbed the “Smuggler’s Daughter” adventure (Ptolus, p. 563) and woke in chains as Malkeen Balacazar’s prisoners. The PCs became very intimidated by the Balacazars as a result, and vowed to (a) avoid them as much as possible and (b) stay on their good side if at all possible.

This laid the original foundtation for this side adventure, which was designed to (a) foreshadow the White House, (b) possibly reveal Aggah-Shan’s involvement with the chaos cultists, and/or (c) provide an alternative vector for discovering the Mrathrach Machine.

Having your PCs similarly get entangled with the Balacazars and/or their thugs is a great way to set up the groundwork for this mission, but it’s not required: If the PCs have any sort of reputation in Ptolus as either heroes or hired help, that’s more than enough justification for the Balacazars to select them for the gig.

ADVENTURE HOOK: THE MISSIVE

Maystra Balacazar sends a messenger to the PCs. The messenger carries a sending token. When he spots the PCs, he’ll use the sending token to send a message to Maystra, wait fifteen minutes, and then deliver Maystra’s Note (in order to give Maystra and Fesamere time to reach the Yellow Wall ahead of the PCs).

PCs who succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom (Perception) check notice the man watching them (from across the street, at the bar, etc.). If they succeed on DC 18, they notice the messenger wears a Balacazar family ring.

---

MAYSTRA’S NOTE

We have a sphere of mutual interest.

You have talents I would find useful.

I have an offer you need to hear.

Come to the Yellow Wall.

M. Balacazar

---

THE YELLOW WALL

The Yellow Wall is a tavern located in the Rivergate District (Ptolus, p. 323). It’s built up right against the city wall, and the wall above it has been painted yellow, off-setting the grain paint and trim of the restaurant itself. The tavern is owned by Fallaster Nobrand.

WATCHER: A Balacazar master thief (Ptolus, p. 612) lounges near the door of the Yellow Wall. When he sees the PCs approaching, he’ll head into the tavern and give a head’s up to everyone inside. A DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check notices the man eye them up and then slip into the tavern.

ENFORCERS: Six Balacazar thugs are mixed into the crowd. DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) or Wisdom (Insight) checks to notice them.

ARKHALL: Arkhall Vaughn (Ptolus, p. 105), the Balacazar’s archmage, is sitting at the bar. He uses detect magic to scope out the PCs, noting any magical items or abilities they have. He’s particularly looking for anything that might allow them to spot invisible intruders. (If he does, Fesamere will be careful to keep her distance during the heist. If not, there’s a 50% chance she’ll get too close and probably be automatically spotted.)

If the PCs have previously interacted with Arkhall, he’ll be using a disguise self spell to conceal his identity.

THE PROPOSAL

Maystra Balacazar sits with her sister Fesamere at a table along the wall of the tavern. A DC 12 Wisdom (Insight) check notes that the tables nearest them are conspicuously empty. (They’ve been cleared out to prevent eavesdropping.)

THE BRIEFING:

• Aggah-Shan stole a porcelain doll that was a gift to the Balacazar girls from their mother. (Lie)
• The doll itself is not particularly valuable, but they belief Aggah-Shan is using it to target them for scrying spells. (Lie)
• They need someone to break to the White House and steal the doll for them. (True, from a certain point of view)
• If Aggah-Shan caught Balacazar agents trying to infiltrate the White House, he’d cause a lot of trouble for the family. (True)
• They need someone to do the job who has no connection to the Balacazars, so that they can be plausibly denied if anything goes wrong. (True)
• Aggah-Shan has temporarily left town. For how long, they’re not sure, but it’s created a window opportunity. The PCs need to do the job tonight. (True)
• They are offering to pay 5,000 gp to break into the White House’s vault and retrieve the doll. (True)

They don’t care if the PCs steal other material, too. (That might even be for the best, since it will hide the true target of the heist.) But they will caution the PCs that the more they take, the more resources Aggah-Shan is likely to put into tracking them down.

MAYSTRA BALACAZAR

Appearance: Tall and lithe, with dark hair and olive skin.

Roleplaying Notes:

• Impatient and distrustful, but willing to hide it.
• Fiery temper if provoked.

Quote: “Enough! I am a daughter of the Balacazars. I am not to be trifled with.”

Background: Ptolus, p. 104

FESAMERE BALACAZAR

Appearance: Dark, olive-colored skin. She dyes her hair golden blond. A slight build and very fit.

Roleplaying Notes:

• A calming influence.
• Playful; perhaps even flirtatious.
• Decadent and self-absorbed.
• Fiercely loyal to her family, but has no interest in the family business.

Quote: “Let’s not all rush to a hasty judgment. I think we’d all prefer a softer touch. I know I do.”

Background: Ptolus, p. 104

Key Info: She’s at the meeting primarily so that she’ll be able to clearly ID the PCs during the heist.

THE REAL PLAN

THE PORCELAIN DOLL: The doll never belonged to the Balacazars, they’re just aware that it exists. The doll actually contains an idol of madness (see below).

FESAMERE’S GAMBIT: When the PCs break into the White House, Fesamere will follow them invisibly. Her goal is to retrieve the Balacazar Ledger in Area 10 of the White House and then leave, preferably with neither the PCs nor the White House guards ever knowing she was there.

The ideal is that the PCs will (a) clear a path and (b) draw attention. Whether they get spotted or just leave evidence behind, it will take heat off the Balacazars.

PAYMENT: If the PCs steal the doll, the Balacazars will happily pay them the agreed to price. (The idol of madness is valuable in its own right, after all.)

IDOL OF MADNESS

Wondrous item, rare

A small, humanoid statue of violet stone. The head seems oddly enlarged and its arms and legs are both longer than the porportions of a human would suggest. (It depicts a Titan Spawn of Lithuin.)

One holding the idol hears a constant, maddening mumur of voices coursing through their mind. The statue opens the bearer’s mind to the mad whispers of the Tainted Dreaming. The bearer gains advantage on Dreaming Arts, Chaositech, and Chaos Surgery checks.

Anyone benefiting from this advantage or sleeping with the idol must make a DC 20 Wisdom saving throw or suffer a long-term madness. If they fail the save by 10 points or more, they instead suffer an indefinite madness.

Go to Part 5: Mrathrach Table Raids

Go to Part 1

Do you want to build a four-foot-high Mrathrach Tower for your Ptolus campaign?

Of course you do.

Below you’ll find a graphics package. This package uses resources shared by users of the old Okay You’re Turn forums on Monte Cook’s website, most notably those created by Eric of Ptolus, but I significantly remixed these into the form you’ll find here.

In addition to the graphics, you will also need to purchase supplies:

(1) Foamboard that is at least 20” x 20”. You’ll need 10 pieces, one for each level of floor. I recommend getting black foamboard, which will significantly enhance the visual quality of the finished piece.

(2) A concrete form with a 10” diameter. The one I’m linking here should work (unless the dimensions have changed in the years since I purchased it). For reference, the dimensions you’re looking for are:

• Inner Diameter: 10”
• Thickness: 3/8”
• Outer Circumference: 32.6”

(3) Glue for attaching the printed graphics to the foamboard and concrete form.

(4) Approximately 4” high ladders for connecting the tower levels. (The ones I used are no longer available for sale, but you can probably make something like this work.)

DOWNLOAD THE GRAPHICS PACKAGE

FLOOR DISCS

All nine levels of floor are identical. The graphics package contains the following floor files:

• A 3-page PDF which has been pre-tiled for printing on letter paper. The pages deliberately overlap in order to make assembly easier.
• The original Photoshop (PSD) file.
• An alternative 24-inch PSD file (which I abandoned because I wasn’t able to find foamboard wide enough to accommodate it).

To assemble the floor discs:

1. Print nine copies of the floor graphics.
2. Glue them to the foamboard and wait for them to dry.
3. Cut them out. For stability, do NOT cut out the inner circle (in black above).

The foamboard gives enough rigidity to support your miniatures.

LEVELS

Each level of the Mrathrach Tower has a PDF file (for printing) and a PSD file (the original graphics). The PDF files are once again prepared for printing on letter paper.

To assemble the levels:

1. Print a copy of each layer strip. (Note that layers 3 and 6 as well as layers 4 and 8 are identical, so make sure to print out a copy of each.)
2. Cut out each layer strip.
3. Cut ten 4”-tall circular sections from the concrete form. (Do NOT divide the form evenly into ten sections. The layer strips won’t fit.)
4. Glue each layer strip to one of the circular sections. Each layer strip includes a red border which is designed to fold over the top and bottom of the section for a clean finish.
5. From your tenth piece of black foamboard, cut out a circular “cap” for the top of Level 1. Attach the cap to the top of Level 1. (You do NOT need a cap for each circular section. Just Level 1.)

You may want to label each circular section by writing its level number on the INSIDE of the section. This may make it easier to assemble the tower.

ASSEMBLING THE TOWER

You should now have:

• 9 floors
• 10 levels

To assemble the tower:

1. Place Level 10 on the floor or tabletop.
2. Place a floor disc on top of the Level 10 cylinder.
3. Place Level 9 on top of the floor disc, lining it up so that it appears continuous with Level 10.
4. Place a second floor disc on top of Level 9, rotating it so that it doesn’t line up with the floor level below.
5. Continue this process all the way to the top of the tower.

Ladders: Attach one or two ladders to each level.

The method that I found worked well was to insert two pins or needles into the edge of a floor piece and then hang the ladder from them. I found that varying their positions on each level, but having one or two places on the tower where they lined up so that you could ascend or descend two levels in the same place was both aesthetically pleasing and created great gameplay.

Cavern Connections: The Mrathrach Tower has been erected in a tall, vertical cavern with intersecting cavern levels. You can indicate the locations of these cavern entrances (on Levels 1, 3, 4, 7, and 8) with flag pins. (These caverns can then be mapped on a nearby table.)

Level 10 Cavern: The base of the tower rests on the floor of the cavern, with a passage leading to the Rhodintor Nests. You could prepare these maps separately and print them out. I just set the Tower on top of a Chessex battlemat and sketched in the relevant caverns.

Permanent Assembly: You could hypothetically use tape or glue to permanently attach the floors and levels together. I, personally, found it easier to simply stack the tower. It’s large enough to remain stable while stacked, and it’s much easier to disassemble and store between sessions.

Go to Part 4: The Balacazar Job

Go to Part 1

Boxed text in an RPG scenario is a prewritten narration designed to be read to the players by the GM. It looks like this:

The center of this room is filled with a massive contraption of brass and copper and rotten, worm-eaten wood. Great hoops of metal are suspended about a central sphere, with various lumps, pulleys, cranks, and levers protruding here and there in an apparently chaotic and incomprehensible jumble.

(from The Complex of Zombies)

The advantage of boxed text, of course, is that it can be prepared ahead of time: It can give you a chance to carefully consider and craft your choice of words to best effect. If there’s essential information that needs to be conveyed to the players, putting it in boxed text will virtually guarantee that it’s not accidentally omitted in actual play.

In The Art of the Key, for example, I talk about how these features of boxed text make it ideal for conveying what characters see when first entering a room or location by clearly delineating the information the players should automatically have from the rest of the key. (Even if you don’t use full-fledged boxed text to achieve this effect, you’ll still want some form of not-boxed-text that fulfills the essential function.)

So why wouldn’t you use boxed text?

• Carefully crafting your words is time-consuming. (Which may suggest its elimination by virtue of the principles of smart prep.)
• The result is inherently less flexible. (For example, if a room has multiple entries the boxed text needs to be generic enough to work for any potential entrance. Add to this NPCs, lighting conditions, etc.)
• Reading prepared text to an audience is a very specific performance, and can easily be one that a GM is not comfortable with. (In such cases, the spontaneity and engagement of improvising a description will often be superior to a stilted or rushed reading.)

If you’re running a published adventure with boxed text and you’d rather not use it — for these or any other reasons — you may find it useful to highlight the key facts presented by the boxed text, quickly turning it into not-boxed text:

The center of this room is filled with a massive contraption of brass and copper and rotten, worm-eaten wood. Great hoops of metal are suspended about a central sphere, with various lumps, pulleys, cranks, and levers protruding here and there in an apparently chaotic and incomprehensible jumble.

(As described in The Art of the Key, you can use the same technique to quickly salvage location keys that have failed to differentiate “seen at a glance” information from hidden secrets.)

SINS OF THE BOX

Performance issues and a lack of flexibility, however, are not the only reasons that people dislike boxed text. Often they will have been on the receiving end of bad boxed text, which is all too prevalent in published adventures and, as a result of their poor example, homebrewed adventures, too. Many of these failures are either freeze-frame boxed text or remote-control boxed text

Freeze-frame boxed text is when the GM starts reading and then the PCs are frozen in place while a bunch of stuff happens. These can often get quite elaborate, with entire scenes being played through while the players sit impotently in their seats, boxed out (pun intended) from actually playing the game, but even subtle examples can be incredibly frustrating:

Grasping weeds and vines erupt from the cobblestone street beneath the carriage at the head of the parade. The ox pulling the cart panics, causing the vehicle to careen into a post covered in decorations. The vegetation then wraps around the cart’s wheels and the closest bystanders. A pair of revelers produce weapons, revealing themselves to be guards protecting the Prince of Vice.

(from Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel)

As soon as the players hear, “Grasping weeds and vines erupt from the cobblestone street!” they’ll want to respond to that. Instead, everyone else in the scene – including the ox! – gets to react before they do.

What we’ve identified here is the reaction point. You don’t always need to immediately stop talking when you’ve reached the reaction point (although often you should try to structure you descriptions so that you do), but even if there are other pertinent details of the world to establish, what you should avoid at all costs is having the game world continue to move forward past the reaction point without letting the players react; without letting the players play the game.

This is an easy trap to fall into with boxed text: The author (or GM) wants to establish the key features of the scene – vines appear, ox panics, cart crashes, disguised guards draw weapons – and the boxed format strongly biases you towards pushing all of that together into a single presentation.

When you see freeze-framed boxed text as a GM, though, what you should do is break it up into actionable chunks. And I use the word “actionable” here because you are specifically looking for the actions you can take as GM, allowing the players to have a reaction to each of those actions.

Here, for example, we actually start at the end of the boxed text: There are guards disguised as revelers. Before anything else happens, therefore, you should call for Perception checks to see if any PCs spot them.

(If they are spotted, what do the PCs do with that information? I have no idea. Play to find out.)

The next actionable chunk is: “Grasping weeds and vines erupt from the cobblestone street.”

That signals the start of combat, which means that it should trigger an initiative check. So rather than skipping past that moment, make the initiative check. (Or don’t if you’ve already rolled initiative and are ready to go, go, go! But either way, you’re moving into tracked combat time.)

The other actionable chunks are:

• the ox panicking and crashing the cart
• the guards drawing their weapons and moving to attack the vines

These can obviously just happen during the first round of combat, with the PCs also taking whatever initial actions they think best, too.

REMOTE-CONTROL BOXED TEXT

Remote-control boxed text suffers from similar problems (preventing the players from participating), but insidiously goes one step further by declaring the thoughts or feelings or (worse yet!) actions of the PCs.

• “You look upon the devastation of the valley and are overwhelmed by sadness.”
• “You step forward and return the king’s greeting with a deep bow.”
• “As you return to Waterdeep, you smile, thinking fondly of the ale at Trollskull Manor.”
• “You see a strange creature crouching upon the boulder. As you step into the room, it looks up with wide, yellow eyes, gives a deafening call of alarm, and then scurries away.”

There are two major problems with this sort of thing.

First, a player controls exactly one thing: their character. When you take the one thing they control away from them — even for a little bit — you have effectively removed from the game. They are, in fact, no longer a player, but merely a spectator.

Second, for many players, the damage that you do in those brief moments of seizing control can extend far beyond the moment itself. If their character does something that isn’t what they would have chosen to do, it can often feel as if there’s something “wrong” with the character. Do it enough — or do it at just the wrong moment — and the player may dissociate entirely from the character. When that happens, you may have easily just ruined the entire campaign for them.

So… don’t do this. As the GM you literally have control over the entire game world. Be content with literally the entire universe of toys you have to play with.

Focus on showing the players the scene and letting them react to it. Don’t tell them how they’re reacting to it.

Those reactions, it should be noted might be:

• physical actions
• emotional reactions
• reflective thought
• dialogue

And so forth. There’s a wide panoply of possible experiences, and some of them may be entirely internal to the player. You may never know, for example, how their character truly felt about something. That’s okay. The important part is that they know, and it will shape their actions and the course of the entire campaign.

Go to Part 14: Fearing the Silence