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SPOILERS FOR PTOLUS: NIGHT OF DISSOLUTION

In the Night of Dissolution, a campaign for 4^th to 9^th level characters by Monte Cook set in the city of Ptolus, the investigations of the PCs bring them to the Mrathrach Machine, a huge structure of chaositech which has been assembled in a cavern beneath the White House, a gambling establishment owned by the lich Aggah-Shan in the Oldtown district.

In the original adventure, the PCs are led to the Mrathrach Machine via an underground tunnel. But whether they come at the complex from above or below, they may nevertheless find themselves exploring the White House or the catacombs of Aggah-Shan.

The White House and Aggah-Shan’s Catacombs are briefly described in Ptolus, p. 310-312. The Mrathrach Machine is described in Night of Dissolution. The material here is designed to enhance this material for your campaign.

These notes were developed for use in my Ptolus: In the Shadow of the Spire campaign. They’ve been adapted to 5E for use with the newly adapted release of the Ptolus sourcebook and campaigns.

Part 1: The White House
Part 2: Aggah-Shan’s Catacombs
Part 3: Mrathrach Machine
Part 4: The Balacazar Job
Part 5: Mrathrach Table Raids

THE WHITE HOUSE

Note: This map is based on the map found on p. 311 of Ptolus, but has been modified to include additional details.

LOCATION OF THE WHITE HOUSE

The White House is located on Fetch Street in Oldtown.

ADVERSARY ROSTER

The adversary roster only lists the armed force the PCs are likely to meet if they cause trouble. The White House is filled with patrons, dealers, table managers, moneychangers, etc. Of particular note is Thurman Rees (steward, Ptolus, p. 613), the day-to-day manager who can usually be found in his office (Area 16). (Note that Aggah-Shan is currently out of town.)

The White House is open 24-hours per day. The guards rotate, but the general staffing doesn’t shift between day and night.

GUARDS: Veteran (MM, p. 350)

ADVANCED GUARDS: Knight (MM, p. 347)

GUARD CAPTAIN: Master Thief (Ptolus, p. 612)

BARRAS NOVEN: Barras Noven is Thurman Rees’ brother. He normally hangs out at the Onyx Spider (Ptolus, p.203). Rees hires him if the White House is experiencing any trouble (e.g., if the PCs or other adventurers raid the place or the Balacazars perform a heist). Once hired, Barras stays in Area 16 unless trouble arises. Barras doesn’t want trouble with the city watch, however, and if the authorities are involved he’ll try to slip out the secret back door (Area 19).

EXTERIOR

• White marble façade. Entrance flanked with massive columns.
• There are a half dozen messengers hanging around outside, waiting to service the late-night crowd.

AREA 1 – ENTRANCE

The White House is fashioned to emphasize a youthful, exuberant luxury. (Some might describe it as “gaudy.”) It lavishes its patrons with pleasures.

STAINED GLASS WINDOWS: Large, stained glass windows flank the chamber, depicting the patron saints of Luck and Grace.

CLOAKROOM DOOR: A man at the door of the cloakroom (Area 3) will check bags and weapons for 1 sp per item. All weapons must be checked.

COMPANIONS: “Companions” are available for rent in the corner of the room.

AREA 2 – PUBLIC GAMBLING HALL

A dozen or so tables, sporting the highest stakes. Games include:

• Green Dragonscales
• Wheels
• Poker
• Orcsnout

MRATHRACH WHEEL (A): The White House’s Mrathrach installation. A large crowd surrounds it.

MONEY CAGE (B): For the purchasing and exchange of chips. Contains 1,500 gp in various coins.

MIRRORS: Large, floor-to-ceiling mirrors line the walls, making the room feel much larger than it is. A DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check identifies them as one-way mirrors (looking out from Area 4).

AREA 3 – CLOAK ROOM

• Contains a variety of common weapons, cloaks, etc.
• Contains 1d6-3 magic weapons.

AREA 4 – FLOOR GUARDS

The White House doesn’t want a bunch of armed guards harshing the vibe on the gambling room floor, but they wait here where they can respond quickly through the secret door.

• One-way mirrors look out onto the public gambling hall (Area 2).
• There are comfortable chairs for the guards to sit in while others walk up and down the length of the wall looking through the windows into gambling halls (Area 2 and Area 5).

SECRET DOORS: DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check. DC 20 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) to pick the lock.

AREA 5 – PRIVATE GAMBLING HALL

A private gambling room for VIPS, who are brought in through the secret doors in Area 4.

MONEY CAGE (A): Contains 9,000 gp in various coinage.

AREA 6 – PRIVATE LOUNGE

“Companions” or a concierge will bring high-rollers back here. There are a dozen or so prostitutes/exotic dancers lounging or performing here.

AREA 7 – EMPLOYEE-ONLY DOOR

There’s always a guard standing on duty here. Only employees are allowed into the rear of the building.

AREA 8 – GUARD’S LOUNGE

A few chairs and a cot.

Most of the guards are NOT aware of the secret door leading to Aggah-Shan’s office (Area 9); only the Guard Captain and Advanced Guards.

SECRET DOORS: DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check. DC 20 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) to pick the lock.

AREA 9 – AGGAH-SHAN’S OFFICE

A huge, lavish office.

• An imposing, dark-stained oak desk.
• A plush rug that your feet sink luxuriously into.
• A series of weapons hanging on the paneled walls.

RUG TRAP: Anyone approaching within 5 feet of the desk who doesn’t say the current verbal passphrase must make a DC 20 Dexterity saving throw or be restrained by the rug, which becomes sticky and also starts drawing trapped characters down into it. (You’re literally sinking into the rug!) Restrained characters have 1d4 rounds to succeed at a DC 16 Strength saving throw to free themselves. If they don’t, they vanish completely into the rug and begin to suffocate. In addition, they suffer 1d6 points of damage per round from constriction. Once fully “submerged,” they can still escape with a DC 20 Strength saving throw.

• Magical trap
• DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check or DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check to note the subtle prehensile movement of the rug (in an activated area).
• DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) to identify the nature of the trap.
• A dispel magic spell will suppress the trap for 2d6 rounds (also freeing anyone trapped inside the rug).

Aggah-Shan and the Guard Captain also know a set of command words which can activate the trap in any section of the rug, or the entire floor. (Or, alternatively, end the effect.)

DESK: The desk is surprisingly sparse, containing no written matter at all. It does have a secret drawer (DC 16 Intelligence (Investigation) check to find) which contains a stolen Balacazar ledger and a key to the lockbox in Area 20.

Balacazar Ledger: Details payments, transactions, shipments, and other information that implicates the Balacazar crime bosses in Midtown, South Market, and North Market.

WEAPONS: Inspecting the weapons hanging on the walls notes that each one has dried blood on its blade.

SECRET DOORS: DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check. DC 20 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) to pick the lock.

AREA 10 – TO AGGAH-SHAN’S LAIR

These stairs lead down to Area 1 of Aggah-Shan’s Catacombs.

AREA 11 – VAULT GUARD ROOM

This is the antechamber to the White House’s vault.

HALL DOOR (Steel-Cored): AC 19, 40 hp, DC 18 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools)

VAULT DOOR (10-in. iron): AC 19, 300 hp, DC 24 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools)

AREA 12 – VAULT

The vault itself is teleport-indicted. (You cannot teleport in or out.)

COIN: Coffers of copper, silver, and gold collected from the gambling floors.

• 19,400 cp
• 25,800 sp
• 6,000 gp

JEWELS: 24,000 gp. 14,000 spread across 65 incredibly rare jewels; the rest in small diamonds, rubies, and pearls.

ART: 50,000 gp in rare art.

Design Note: The expectation here is that if the PCs liberally loot the vault, Aggah-Shan will track them down and make them pay for it for the rest of their (likely very short lives). He’s also, at least for the moment, a legal business owner — so he’ll simultaneously send the City Watch after them. Removing the bulky wealth, particularly the art, should also be non-trivial (and fencing it even moreso).

AREA 13 – MRATHRACH CONSTRUCTION AREA

Several long workbenches run down the length of this room, each covered in bizarre equipment of a vaguely biological nature.

Half-completed Mrathrach tables lean up against the far wall.

WORKBENCHES: The workbenches have several chaositech modules under construction, as well as a variety of papers including the Modified Mrathrach Tower Plans and Chaositech Module Shipping Manifest.

• DM Note: The “warehouse off Flamemoth Way” belongs to the Surgeon in the Shadows (see Night of Dissolution, p. 39). The Modified Mrathrach Tower Plans reveal that Aggah-Shan is planning to betray his cultist allies and seize control of the Mrathrach Machine.

CHAOSITECH MODULE SHIPPING MANIFEST

This final delivery completely our supply of 25 bones of steel in paired, syncrotic modules customized to your requested specifications.

Deliver the payment of 5,000 platinum coins to the warehouse off Flamemoth Way.

MODIFIED MRATHRACH TOWER PLANS

Aggah-Shan–

I have enclosed the plans necessary for modifying the Mrathrach receptor modules within the Tower. The partial overlaying of your cerebral patterns onto the final matrix should reward you with the control you desire.

I am destroying my copies of these records, so that any potential leaks down here won’t get back to the Tolling Bell.

Caldor

AREA 14 – TAINT VICTIM

A victim of chaositech taint is strapped to the bed. Flesh of the nose has rotted away. There’s bleeding from the eyes and fingernails. A greasy, yellow sweat. The victim is incoherent and semi-conscious (moaning softly).

• DM Note: This room is normally use das a prostitution suite (see Area 15).

WHITE HOUSE HEALER’S REPORT: Located on the bedside table.

• DM Note: Mala Cathord can be tracked down with a DC 12 Charisma (Investigation) check asking around Ptolus. She’s working on the case quietly because her brother owes a great deal of money to Aggah-Shan.

WHITE HOUSE HEALER’S REPORT

Notes taken by Mala Cathord, Healer of the Sacred Heat.

Patient’s Name: Haffe Brin

Patient collapsed while serving as an operator at the White House.

Symptoms are resisting treatment.

There is a fundamental corruption of the flesh; none of my efforts are having any effect. The corruption seems to be feeding upon itself.

Fingernails are chalky and weak. Sweat is beginning to manifest the inner corruption.

AREA 15 – PROSTITUTION SUITE

A private room for use by the White House “companions.” They take their johns back here (through or from Area 6).

The larger chamber keyed as Area 15 is a lavish suite. The others are fairly basic affairs with a simple bed.

50% chance that any given room is currently occupied.

AREA 16 – THURMAN REES’ OFFICE

Thurman Rees is the day-to-day manager of the White House. He has keys to all doors in the White House, as well as the lockbox in Area 20.

AREA 17 – PRIVY

Pretty much what you’d expect.

AREA 18 – FAKE OFFICE

This appears to be an office, but it’s actually maintained as a fake front to disguise the presence of the emergency bolt hole (Area 19).

A DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) check notices an unusual coating of dust and other signs that the office isn’t actually used.

SECRET DOOR: DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check to find, DC 18 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) to unlock.

AREA 19 – EMERGENCY EXIT

A short hallway, mostly undecorated.

The secret doors are obvious from inside this hall.

BOLT DOORS: DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check to find, DC 18 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) to unlock.

AREA 20 – GAMBLING RECORDS

A relatively bare office. There’s a large, double-locked box sitting on a table.

BOX: DC 20 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools), contains the Gambling Records. (It takes some time to piece out the details revealed by these records.)

• GM Note: Lomwell’s refers to Lomwell’s Office (Ptolus, p. 209). The other locations are detailed in the Mrathrach Table Raids.

GAMBLING RECORDS

These records detail massive payments to Aggah-Shan from various gambling establishments around town, including:

• Cock Pit (in South Market)
• Urdoch’s “Mrathrach Holes” in the Warrens (some sort of collective operation)
• Temple of the One-Eyed God
• Broken Spine (in the Docks)
• Hell’s Door (in Midtown)
• Lomwell’s (in Midtown)

Business is brisk and healthy, with one exception: Most or all of Aggah-Shan’s establishments are accepting large losses on Mrathrach games.

There’s also a complaint from a local boss about his dealers falling ill and the difficulty of finding replacements. “Figure this out. We’re sick of it down here.”

Go to Part 2: Aggah-Shan’s Catacombs

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DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 27D: The Maw Opens

Tee read: “The Saint of Chaos shall return and the Banewarrens shall ope their maw. And the name of doom shall be Tavan Zith.”

“What does that mean?” Elestra asked.

“I don’t know,” Tee said. “Let’s ask him.”

She pulled Zith out of her bag of holding. Tor bound him securely. Tee blindfolded him. And Dominic healed him.

As soon as Tavan Zith awoke, however, they all felt a sickening, bursting feeling erupting in their chests. Agnarr instinctively smashed the pommel of his sword into the dark elf’s nose, breaking it and sending him plunging back into unconsciousness.

In a previous Running the Campaign column, at the beginning of Act II, I discussed the fact that I designed the second act to be triggered using two external events — events that originated from outside the domain of the PCs experience and, therefore, could not be anticipated or prevented. (Or, at least, were extremely unlikely to be anticipated or prevented.)

The first of these events was the letter from Shim that arrived in Session 18, informing the PCs that (a) they had hired him during their period of lost memories to find a magical artifact and (b) he’d found it. The second, of course, happens in this session, when Tavan Zith, the Saint of Chaos, appears on the street.

The first trigger is designed to hook the PCs into the Night of Dissolution campaign, which revolves around the cults of chaos and was designed for 4^th to 9^th level characters by Monte Cook.

Similarly, the second trigger leads to the Banewarrens, another campaign created by Monte Cook, this time designed for 6^th to 10^th level characters.

As I’ve described previously, it was my desire to run the Banewarrens that was the primary impetus for the entire campaign. But when I read Night of Dissolution, I was fascinated by it. Which campaign should I run? Could we wrap Banewarrens and then run another Ptolus campaign featuring the Night of Dissolution?

Then I realized that I could just run both of them at the same time!

And although I significantly expanded both of them, these two campaigns remain the primary spine(s) of Act II.

Taking published adventures like this, combining them, and adapting them to the PCs is something I discuss in more detail in The Campaign Stitch. Often when I’m doing work like this, I will be looking for opportunities to create crossovers between the adventures — to tie them together and make them a single, unified whole.

For example, there are a number of factions in Ptolus interested in the Banewarrens and how they can be exploited. It would be perfectly natural for the chaos cults — another powerful faction active in Ptolus — to also become involved in the intrigues around the Banewarrens.

But I actually made a specific decision to NOT do that.

Instead, I used a different technique: The Second Track.

I knew that both the Banewarrens and the Night of Dissolution would be big, complicated conspiracies that the PCs would have to work to unravel. If I fully crossed the streams and truly merged the conspiracies, there was a real risk of the whole thing collapsing under its own Byzantine complexity. It would be hopelessly confusing.

But I knew I didn’t actually have to do that in order to get the same effect! When the PCs first started interacting with the two conspiracies, the players wouldn’t have the information necessary to distinguish them. So, from their perspective, the conspiracies WOULD be merged together, and they’d be utterly overwhelmed.

This meant that:

• I, as the DM, didn’t need to deal with the complexity. (Because I could clearly distinguish between the two conspiracies and wouldn’t’ get confused.)
• Once the players figured out how to distinguish the conspiracies, they would ALSO no longer be confused. The complexity would fall away and the disparate mysteries would cleanly resolve themselves.

That’s the beauty of the Second Track.

With that being said, however, I didn’t want these two halves of the campaign to be completely siloed from each other. That would feel pretty artificial. So I looked for some subtle crossovers (which I knew would also seed the players’ initial confusion between the two threads).

I came up with two.

First, as we saw in Session 20, the PCs discovered the Prophecy of the Saint of Chaos in Pythoness House (a site associated with the chaos cults):

The Saint of Chaos shall return and the Banewarrens shall ope their maw. And the name of doom shall be Tavan Zith.

Tavan Zith wasn’t a big focus point for the chaos cults, but given his unique curse, the idea of him being an avatar of chaos made perfect sense. (And if the PCs did end up tipping Tavan Zith’s arrival to Wuntad or the other chaos cultists, they could easily interpret it as a sign that their time had come and the Night of Dissolution was foreordained.)

Second, I identified the Pactlords of the Quaan as a faction who could potentially intersect with both the chaos cults and the Banewarrens. (We haven’t met them yet, but they’ll be showing up shortly.) The short version is that they were big enough that I could have one wing of the Pactlords tangentially involved with the chaos cults and a completely different set of Pactlords focused on the Banewarrens. Just enough crossover that the PCs would find references to the Pactlords in both places and assume a connection, but distinct enough that they wouldn’t cause the two threads to collide with each other.

This division between Chaos Cults and Banewarrens, I should note, is quite explicit in my own notes: There’s a binder of chaos cult-related adventures and a completely separate binder of Banewarrens-related adventures. A really clear example of how you can have absolute clarity in your own perception of the campaign, while nonetheless miring the players in delightful enigma.

NEXT:
Campaign Journal: Session 28A – Running the Campaign: One Job, Multiple Patrons
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 27D: THE MAW OPENS

September 7th, 2008
The 15th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

AT THE CITADEL OF MIGHT

Dominic and Agnarr, however, had continued on to the Citadel of Might. At first glance the Citadel appeared to be a rather intimidating fortress, but a closer inspection as they drew near revealed most of the apparent fortifications to be nothing more than a façade.

Entering the building they found a rather confusing scene: Various pieces of furniture had been broken and a half dozen or so unconscious bodies had been leaned up against the nearest wall.

Agnarr grabbed the nearest upright person. “What happened?”

The man shrugged. “They just went crazy. We had to knock ‘em out.” He finished propping up the last of them. “Now, what brings you to the Order?”

“I received a letter. I’m here to confirm that I’m still alive.”

“That’s definitely better than being dead,” the man grinned. “What’s your name?”

“Agnarr.”

“Ah. Right. I remember sending that letter this morning.”

“What was the last job I got here?”

“You having problems getting paid?”

Agnarr shook his head. “I’m just curious.”

“You don’t remember? Did you take one too many blows to the head?” the man laughed. Agnarr laughed with him.

The man checked the guild’s records. “Actually, it looks like you never took a job here. But you’re all paid up. And your locker’s squared away. And you’re alive. So you’re good to go.”

“Locker?”

The man showed Agnarr to a locker in a small side room. Agnarr waited until he left and then smashed the cheap lock.

The first thing that caught Agnarr’s attention was his original greatsword – the blade that had been given to him by the people of his clan. He lifted it with a grin, feeling the familiar weight settle comfortably into his hand.

Putting the sword aside for a moment he looked through the rest of the locker’s contents. There was a suit of padded armor (suitable for practice sessions), a sheaf of blank parchment, and several charcoal sticks suitable for writing. These latter items seemed to confirm that Agnarr had been literate during their period of lost memories.

“You know,” Dominic said. “If you learned it once, you could probably learn it again.”

Agnarr grunted noncommittally. He put the padded armor on and found it to be a perfect fit. And since he’d already put on the armor, he decided to go sparring for a bit. But this left him vaguely unsatisfied as he easily gained the upper hand against the cheap hired muscle making up most of the crowd there.

After an hour he put the armor away, secured the greatsword in his bag of holding, and then returned to the front desk.

“The lock on my locker’s broken. Can you get that fixed?”

“Huh. It must have gotten busted up during the brawl. We’ll get that fixed right up for you.”

THE SHORTEST INTERROGATION

Once Dominic and Agnarr returned to the Ghostly Minstrel, Tee gathered all of them – except for Elestra who was still out prowling the streets somewhere – in her room. Once there, she and Agnarr revealed the identity of the dark elf and reminded the others of the prophecy they had seen in Pythoness House:

The Saint of Chaos shall return and the Banewarrens shall ope their maw. And the name of doom shall be Tavan Zith.

“What does that mean?” Elestra asked.

“I don’t know,” Tee said. “Let’s ask him.”

She pulled Zith out of her bag of holding. Tor bound him securely. Tee blindfolded him. And Dominic healed him.

As soon as Tavan Zith awoke, however, they all felt a sickening, bursting feeling erupting in their chests. Agnarr instinctively smashed the pommel of his sword into the dark elf’s nose, breaking it and sending him plunging back into unconsciousness.

But it was already too late. Dominic’s skin was toughening into a thick, fibrous, sickly grey substance. Tee, meanwhile, suffered a quivering pulsation starting somewhere in her ribs – she felt uncontrollable power surging through her limbs, trying to tear its way out of her.

Then, suddenly, she felt Tor’s hands on her shoulders. “Fight it, Tee! You can fight it!” His voice was strong and reassuring. They were an anchor. She found herself focusing on those words and pulling away from whatever was fighting to tear itself loose from inside of her.

The moment passed.

Agnarr looked at Dominic. “Is that another sign of Vehthyl?”

Ranthir examined Dominic and determined that the effect wouldn’t persist for more than an hour or so.

But now they weren’t sure what to do. Zith was clearly dangerous. And he seemed to bring with him grim tidings. (“Although our saint did kick their saint’s ass,” Agnarr said, patting Dominic on the shoulder.) But they didn’t have any way to control him. Or even to question him, apparently.

The best idea they could come up with was to perhaps toss the entire thing into Lord Zavere’s lap, although Tor pointed out that they had often done that before. Perhaps too often.

While they were mulling the issue over, however, a knock came at the door. Tee quickly gestured for Tor and Agnarr to get Zith’s body hidden out of sight behind her bed.

They opened the door cautiously… and found Tellith standing on the other side.

“Jevicca Nor is waiting downstairs. She’s asked to speak with you. She says its urgent.”

“We’ll be right down,” Tee promised.

Agnarr looked down at his acid-stained clothes and panicked. He couldn’t let Jevicca see him like this. He headed to his room to change. Tor and Dominic stayed in Tee’s room to watch over Zith. Which left Tee and Ranthir to head downstairs and meet with Jevicca.

As they came down the stairs into the lobby, however, they were taken by surprise at the sight of her. Jevicca looked imperious and stood taller than they had ever seen her before. There was a palpable difference between this Jevicca and the Jevicca who came to enjoy the camaraderie of the common room.

“What is it?” Tee asked.

“I’m here on behalf of the Inverted Pyramid. We should speak in private,” Jevicca said.

They took her back up to Ranthir’s room. Agnarr joined them on the way. Once the door was safely shut behind them, Jevicca began to speak…

… AND THE BANEWARRENS SHALL OPE THEIR MAW

“Those who know the true history of the world speak of five ages: The Age of Stars, the Age of Gods, the Age of Sorcerers, the Age of Dragons, and the Age of Man.

“In the dawning years of the Age of Sorcerers – countless millennia ago and long before any written history you have ever read – the Great Sorcerer Ptolus founded the first city of Ptolus. Little is now known of the sorcerer Ptolus, but Ptolus had an apprentice named Danar.

“In time, Danar eventually became a Great Sorcerer in his own right and near the city of his master he built a fortress named Mosul Pearl. The world was troubled then, and Danar became distressed at the great evil that seemed to be growing in its strength. And so Danar sought to rid the world of its corruption. He studied the secrets of  evil artifacts, objects of dark power, trapped essences of vanquished fiends, demonic relics, and even the last vestiges of particularly horrible diseases. He named these “banes”, and he began to gather them from all corners of the world.

“Danar did not seek to destroy them, however. He believed that, if destroyed, the evil of the banes would be released back into the world and manifest again in some other form. Destroying banes would only begat new banes.

“Instead, Danar constructed a vast catacomb beneath the fortress of Mosul Pearl. He named this place Tremoc Korin – the Banewarrens. Within its well-warded vaults he sealed the banes, locking them away from the world for all time.

“But Danar’s goal was folly. Concentrating so much raw hatred and despite – so much darkness and evil power – in a single place was a terrible mistake. The earth itself, no longer able to tolerate the concentrated evil that the banes represented, thrust Tremoc Korin away from itself – creating a tall, impossibly high and narrow spire atop which Mosul Pearl still stood.

“Danar, however, was undeterred. And, in time, the evil he had gathered seeped into his soul. Danar was corrupted himself and his soul turned to darkness. He became the Banelord, transforming his castle to the dark keep of Jabel Shammar, and using the banes he once strove to keep out of evil hands to spread his own evil across the land.

“Ptolus and his city were destroyed by the Banelord. And then, having succored his strength, the Banelord attacked the civilized lands for thousands of leagues in every direction, raining destruction down upon the world and all its inhabitants. In the end he was defeated by an alliance of Great Sorcerers and god-touched heroes who were marked by the Sigils of the Pantheon. From this alliance the First Conclave of the Sorcerer-Kings was born.

“But the Spire remains. Jabel Shammar remains. And it has been long believed that the Banewarrens remained… sealed and impregnable beneath the surface of the earth, but still filled with ancient evils. Many – including Ghul himself – have come to Ptolus seeking a way into the Banewarrens so that they might claim that power for themselves. But they have always failed. The terrors of the Banewarren have remained lost.

“Now, however, we believe that has changed. We detected the surge of wild magic you encountered in Oldtown earlier today and our subsequent divinations reveal that a path has been opened into the Banewarrens. We don’t know how and we don’t why, but we desperately need to find out what’s happening. And we’d like you to do it for us.”

Running the Campaign: Trigger & Stitch – Campaign Journal: Session 28A
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

Go to Running the Hexcrawl

The Thracian Hexcrawl was an open table I ran using the original 1974 edition of D&D. The example below is an abbreviated, annotated record of actual play from that campaign, which I’ve adapted slightly to be consistent with the mechanics and procedures detailed in 5E Hexcrawls.

BEGINNING THE SESSION

As the players arrive, I pull their character sheets out of the appropriate folder. Since this is an open table, the players may be choosing which of their active PCs they’re going to be playing. (After which, I’ll return the other characters to the folder.)

In my Thracian Hexcrawl, two things happen at this point:

1. I make a rumor check for each primary PC (not for hirelings; although it’s possible for a hireling to be the vector by which a PC hears the rumor). There’s a 1 in 3 chance for each PC that they’ll receive a rumor. If they do, I roll on the rumor table.
2. I make a morale check for each hireling employed by the active PCs. On a success, the hireling continues adventuring with their employer. On a failure, I use a system based on the OD&D reaction table to determine the hireling’s action: They might automatically leave the PC’s service or demand an additional bonus of some variable amount. (Usually nothing happens, because the players have learned to keep the morale of their hirelings high.)
3. I make a check to potentially generate new hirelings who are available for hire in the home base.

Based on these checks, and their outcomes, I update the campaign status sheet appropriately.

While I’m doing this, the players are generally getting prepared for the adventure. This may be creating new characters if they’re needed. For established characters, it includes:

1. Discussing what their expedition is going to be.
2. Buying equipment.
3. Hiring hirelings.
4. Any other business they might need to attend to while in town.

The players may, of course, have questions for me while they’re doing this. It’s generally pretty easy to juggle their requests while simultaneously taking care of my bookkeeping.

STARTING OUT

While the players are wrapping things up, I’ll grab my 6d8 and roll them. This represents a full day’s worth of encounter checks (since there are six watches in a day). By reading the dice left-to-right as they fall, I can rapidly determine which watches in the day have an encounter. Since I don’t know yet where the PCs will be on those days, I can’t generate the specific encounters (which are region-dependent), but I can use my worksheet to jot down the Day/Watch when encounters will be happening. By generating three or four days worth of encounter checks up front, I can simplify my workflow once the PCs hit the road.

Note: If I do, in fact, know that the PCs are going to be heading in a particular direction and will likely be traveling through a given region for a lengthy period of time, I can also go ahead and generate full encounters at this point.

In this case, the PCs are in the city of Maernath, located in Hex O6. Maernath is an old city-state in the setting. It was here long before the Duchy of Thracia began pushing east in recent years (establishing the Keep on the Borderlands and the logging village of Caerdheim to the south) and the City Fathers occasionally chaff against the “authority” of the newcomers. Although the early adventures of the PCs were based primarily out of Caerdheim (which was near the Caverns of Thracia), an increase in interest in the Palace of Red Death to the north led to an increased number of expeditions being mounted from Maernath. Those expeditions resulted in various PCs gaining a lot of lore about the area surrounding Maernath and that, in turn, spurred even more expeditions there.

The PCs leave town along the road heading south. They choose to travel at normal pace. Because they’re following a Road/Trail through Plains hex, their movement modifier is x1, which means they move at their normal expedition speed of 12 miles per watch. (We’re not using the advanced rules for determining expedition speed based on the speed of the expedition’s slowest member.)

Maernath’s position in Hex O6 is biased, so it only takes 4 progress to exit the hex in this direction. They’re aiming for the river, which is on the road right at the border of the hex (so they obviously have no difficulty finding it).

Their goal is to follow the river into the Old Forest (Hex P7), so now I’m going to look ahead: Their course along the river takes them through the near side of the hex (6 miles away) into Hex P6 and, from there, they will then pass through another near side into Hex P7 (another 6 miles). Although they’ve left the road, they’re still traveling through Plains and the river provides enough of a track that they’re still traveling at 12 miles per watch. Total it up:

4 miles (Maernath to River/Hex O7) + 6 miles (O7 to P6) + 6 miles (P6 to P7) = 16 miles

Which means they’ll arrive at the edge of the Old Forest a little over an hour into their second watch. This is notable because, looking at my worksheet, I can see that the second watch of the day has a wandering encounter (I rolled 1 on the 1d8 when making the encounter check). I can determine the time in a watch by rolling 1d8. The result is a 3, which basically means the encounter is scheduled to take place just as they’re reaching the edge of the Old Forest.

This is a border hex, and I’ve listed a 50% chance of border encounters for the Old Forest. So even though we’re still in the Plains, there’s a 50% chance that I’ll roll an Old Forest encounter instead.

1. I roll a 13, so that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
2. I flip to the Old Forest encounter table and roll. The result I get is “Slimes,” which has a sub-table which generates Gray Ooze.
3. Gray Ooze has a 25% chance of being a Tracks encounter, but I roll 46 (so it’s not).

They have no chance of being a Lair encounter, so I can skip that step.

Given the confluence of factors involved, I’m going to have the Gray Oozes appear just as the river passes beneath the boughs of the Old Forest. They’ll be draped across the tree branches above the river like some kind of horrific Spanish moss.

INTO THE OLD FOREST

After the PCs have dealt with (or avoided) the Gray Oozes, they’ll be able to continue along the river. It’s a Medium Forest and the trail has disappeared, so their speed is going to drop by ½. They had 8 miles of movement left in their second watch, so they’ll be able to gain 4 progress through Hex P7.

Three miles along the river, however, they come to a tree on the south bank of the river with the Dwarven letter “mu” carved into its trunk. They’re familiar with it. In fact, one of the PCs left it here as a marker: Gordur, a powerful orc stronghold, lies several miles due south from this spot.

This, however, is not their goal. They continue along the river for another mile and then make camp for the night. The next day, they continue another two miles until they find a similar tree with the Dwarven letter “thod” carved into it. This marker was place due north of the Crypt of Luan Phien. The crypt is their ultimate goal, so now they turn south, away from the clear navigational landmark of the river, and into the depths of the Old Forest.

At this point, they need to start making navigation checks. Epicaste, a hireling rescued by the dwarf Aeng from a thousand-year slumber in the Caverns of Thracia, is the group’s navigator, so she steps forward and takes point.

1. It’s a Medium Forest, so the Navigation DC is 16.
2. Epicaste blows the check. (Possibly because Delmhurst, another hireling, keeps second-guessing her.) I roll 1d10 to determine the group’s veer. With a roll of 8, I determine that they’re veering to the right. Instead of heading due south into Hex P8 (which is where they want to go), they’re going to end up southwest in Hex O8.

LOST IN THE OLD FOREST

When does that actually happen? Well, they entered Hex P7 from due north. Whether they’re leaving into Hex P8 or Hex O8, they’re still existing through the far side of the hex. So they need to rack up 12 progress to exit the hex.

• They’d gained 4 progress in the hex during their second watch. They don’t want to do a forced march, so they stop traveling after the second watch.
• During the first watch of the next day (their third watch of travel overall), they’ll gain another 6 progress. That’s a total of 10 progress, which is not quite enough.
• Therefore, they’ll enter Hex O8 about midway through the second watch of their second day of travel.

Checking my worksheet, I can see that I generated a location encounter for the second watch of the second day, so once again I generate a random time and determine that they’ll encounter the hex’s keyed location AFTER they’ve entered Hex O8. (If the encounter had happened earlier, it would have been with the keyed location in Hex P7.)

I flip to the key for Hex O8:

Me: Towards the waning hours of the day, you enter a small clearing. Criss-crossing branches grow into what appear to be houses with walls of woven moss.

Aeng: I don’t remember this.

Delmhurst: I think the thousand-year dummy has gotten us lost again.

It turns out the strange houses are empty and abandoned. It’s getting late in the day, so the PCs decide to make camp here for the night. They’ll try to backtrack the trail the next day and figure out where they made the wrong turn.

And that’s basically all there is to it. With a strong key and a clean procedure, the hexcrawl will flow naturally in response to the explorations of the PCs, drawing them deeper and deeper into the mysteries of the wilderness.

Next: Example of Play – Avernian Hexcrawl