DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 30C: The Two Letters

The next morning Tellith gave Tor two letters that had arrived for him during the night. One of them was from Sir Gemmell of the Order of the Dawn.

The other was from Sir Kabel.

“I think I just wasted two hundred gold pieces,” Tor muttered to himself.

We’ve got a couple of things I’d like to highlight here.

First, the setup.

As we discuss in The Art of Pacing, meaningful choices are the beating heart of a roleplaying game, and as a GM you really want to put the spotlight on those choices by strongly framing scenes around them. In this case, Tor had put himself in the middle of the Order of the Dawn, and now the Order of the Dawn was splitting between two leaders: Sir Kabel, who was remaining loyal to Seyrun, and Sir Gemmell, who was loyal to the self-appointed Novarch Rehobath.

The core question, obviously, is: Who is Tor going to support?

I certainly had my suspicions (and you probably do, too) based on the party’s reaction to how Rehobath had handled Dominic. But the party was also technically working for Rehobath at the moment, so there was absolutely nothing simple about the situation. It was pretty muddy and very complicated, actually, which is precisely what made it such an interesting question.

Having the letters from both Kabel and Gemmell arrive at the same time was, of course, a way of slicing through all that complexity: Kabel. Gemmell. Who do you respond to? How do you respond? What’s your choice?

What Tor actually chose to do blew my mind.

But that will have to wait until our next update.

HONOR CHOICE, BUT USE YOUR PREP

The other factor here was Tor’s choice, earlier in this session, to seek out Shim and hire the information broker to deliver a message to Sir Kabel. I hadn’t anticipated this at all, but it was an inspired bit of gameplay.

(It somehow hadn’t occurred to me at all when I decided to reveal that the PCs had hired Shim during their period of memory loss that they would then continue hiring him for various tasks.)

The problem this created for me, however, can be neatly summed up by what Tor says: “I think I just wasted two hundred gold pieces.”

The logical response to Sir Kabel receiving Tor’s letter, after all, was for Sir Kabel to send him a reply telling him how they could meet… which was, of course, the letter I had already prepped and which was scheduled to be delivered shortly thereafter.

Stuff like this can actually happen quite a bit: You know that something is going to happen. Then the PCs do something completely unexpected, but which logically would result in the same thing happening (with perhaps minor differences). This is just a particularly clear-cut example of it.

And, as a GM, it feels a little weird when this happens. The PCs did something unexpected, so… something unexpected should result, right? But instead the exact same thing happens?

… is that railroading?

Well, sometimes, yes. It is. If you’re forcing things to play out according to your prep, that’s negating player choice and that’s railroading.

But sometimes it’s just a weird coincidence: You are, in fact, honoring their choice. There’s just a weird act of judo where their own momentum throws them right back where they started.

When you find yourself in the position of performing this weird judo, one thing you can do is really focus in on how their choice did make a difference and then think about how that could be significant.

For example, in this case Sir Kabel’s letter was literally identical. (I didn’t rewrite the prop.) But there was a key difference: In the “original” continuity (which never actually existed), Sir Kabel made the decision to reach out to Tor without truly knowing where his loyalties might lie. But in the actual continuity, because of what Tor’s player had done, Sir Kabel sent his letter because Tor had reached out to him; had, in fact, taken great risk to make contact.

That’s actually a huge difference! It meant that Sir Kabel would be far more confident of Tor and far more trusting of their alliance. (Assuming that’s how things played out.)

So even in a moment like this — where the prepared prop of the letter made my player say, “I think I just wasted two hundred gold coins” — I was still able to, a little while later, show them that their actions had been meaningful.

Campaign Journal: Session 30D – Running the Campaign: The Undead Sequel
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 30C: THE TWO LETTERS

September 20th, 2008
The 16th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

THE AFFAIRS OF THE PALE TOWER

Tor left with the intention of returning directly to the Banewarrens, stopping only long enough to collect Blue from the Ghostly Minstrel so that he might ride more quickly.

But as he passed through the doors of the Ghostly Minstrel, Tellith called him over to the front desk. A letter had arrived for “Mistress Tee and her companions”. Tor opened it and read—

Please come to me at the Pale Tower. You have filled my heart with great concern.

Aoska

So instead of riding directly to the mansion on Nibeck Street, Tor stopped first at the Pale Tower.

He was greeted at the doors of the tower by the Graven One, who led him to a small, domed room. There Tor was forced to stoop to step through the doors. The walls and floor were built of blue jade, the surface of which seemed to subtly swirl with whirlwinding eddies of multi-hued colors. In the center of the room nine small idols of the same blue jade – each depicting one of the holy animals of the Nine Gods – formed a circle on the floor. In the circle, Aoska sat in meditation.

“Please sit, Master Tor.”

Tor knelt on the floor, keeping a fair distance from the circle of idols.

Aoska opened her eyes. “We have received the message that Mistress Tee left for us regarding the Great Warrens of Danar. I have summoned you here to tell you that we cannot help you. And to offer our apologies.”

“That’s all right,” Tor said.

“Nonetheless, I think some explanation is deserved. We among the Malkuth have been honored to stand before the Nine Gods themselves. But for that honor we pay a price. Each of us has been sworn not to interfere in the matters of the mortal church. And since the Imperial Church has involved itself with this affair, we can have no part of it.”

“I understand.”

“I offer, too, a warning,” Aoska said. “Be wary of removing anything from that place. The wards which Danar raised suppress the effects of the taint and prevent the Warrens themselves from becoming tainted. But the items are no less dangerous in their use. And if they were to be removed from the Warrens, the full effect of their corruption would be felt.”

“We would like nothing more than to seal that place and never set foot in it again.”

“That would be wise.” Aoska smiled. “I thank you, Sir Tor.”

“Thank you, milady.”

THE TALE OF A CONFESSING KNIGHT

From the Pale Tower it was a short ride to the Nibeck Street mansion. Tor used a door to create a ramp of sorts down the stairs and led Blue all the way to the cusp of the Banewarrens.

When he rejoined the others there were greetings all around.

“What happened?” Elestra asked.

Tor quickly explained what had happened at the Godskeep, at the Cathedral, and at the Pale Tower. He gave the Ranthir the scroll that Thad had given to him… And then he took a deep breath. “There’s something else… I think you should sit down for this.”

Then Tor told them, for the first time, that he had secretly joined the Order of the Dawn.

“Congratulations!” Tee said, a huge beaming smile spreading across her face.

“Don’t congratulate me yet,” Tor said. “I also promised Sir Kabel that I would spy on Dominic.”

Dominic was confused. “What?”

“Oh! I didn’t tell him anything! And it wouldn’t matter if I did. He’s looking for allies.” Tor quickly explained Sir Kabel’s opposition to Rehobath’s claim to be the Novarch. “I hope you still feel like you can trust me.”

“It’s all right,” Tee said. “Of course we do.”

“Thank you,” Tor said. “But what should we do? I don’t know what to do next. I wish I knew why Sir Kabel had tried to assassinate Rehobath.”

They continued discussing the situation. None of them were quite sure what to do, but it became even clearer that none of them trusted Rehobath.

“Then what are we doing down here?” Elestra asked, looking around at the walls of the Banewarrens.

“Working for Jevicca,” Tee said.

“And what happens if we do find the Sword of Crissa?”

“I don’t think we should give it to him,” Tee said. “Not if he’s going to use it the same way he used Dominic.”

Tor grew thoughtful. “So… what would the reaction be if Dominic killed Rehobath?”

None of them had an answer for that. Least of all Dominic.

THE CASTING OF THE LORE SPELL

While they talked, Ranthir had been examining the scroll that Tor had brought. He confirmed that it would do what Brother Thad had told them it would do.

“At least they were telling the truth about that,” Tor said.

“The casting of the spell could take awhile,” Ranthir said. “Maybe as long as an hour.”

They set up a defensive perimeter in the generator room. Each of them guarded one of the upper passages into the chamber while Ranthir began casting from the scroll.

For more than half an hour they kept watch, letting the soft drone of Ranthir’s words wash over them. They had actually begun to suspect that they would be able to finish the casting of the spell without interruption when, out of thin air, a hulking monstrosity of dark, blue-black flesh seemed to step out of thin air next to Elestra.

Before she could even shout a warning, Elestra was slammed up against the wall, torn up badly by the creature’s long, yellow claws. Its yellow eyes glowed with malicious and sinister glee, framed by its lanky black hair.

Dominic, whirling with the others at Elestra’s scream of pain, recognized it as some sort of troll-spawn – common enough in the mountains near his village – but of a variety he’d never seen before.

Agnarr moved quickly to protect Ranthir. Tor, meanwhile, closed with the troll-spawn while Tee circled around it. The creature lashed out at Tee, but the elven maid narrowly avoided the blow by virtue of the enchanted armband she wore (which skittered her slightly through time and space).

Agnarr hurled an axe from where he stood. The blade buried itself in the troll-spawn’s back, but with a shrug of its shoulders the creature shook it free. They could all see that the wound was already closing.

Tor, meanwhile, was struggling. Whenever the creature landed a blow, his thoughts filled with black and terrible things – a void of horror that drew itself across his mind. He could feel it deadening his limbs – threatening to overwhelm him.

While Tee and Tor kept the troll-spawn at bay, Elestra – badly hurt – fell back to where Agnarr was waiting by Ranthir’s side. “I’ll keep an eye on him,” she said. “You go.”

Agnarr raced around the iron catwalk, arriving barely in time. Tor had, at last, been overcome by the rapacious blackness working its way through his mind – his joints seized as his thoughts retreated to the safety of his inner soul. The troll-spawn surged forward, looking to finish Tor off… but then Agnarr’s burning blade struck true, eliciting the first cry of real pain from the creature as it ripped through its chest.

The force of Agnarr’s blow drove the troll-spawn stumbling back, adding to the force of Tee’s blade as she drove a precisely placed blow between its shoulder blades. The tip of Tee’s longsword actually thrust out the front of the creature’s chest. It stumbled forward again, ripping itself off her blade in a gush of blue-black blood.

Elestra, still standing guard by Ranthir on the far side of the catwalk, placed a precise shot from her dragon rifle, nearly ripping the creature’s arm off at the shoulder. It collapsed into a bloody heap…

… but it’s wounds were still healing at a preternatural pace, and before anyone could react it had simply vanished back into thin air. With a howl of frustration, Agnarr smote the floor where it had lain.

… and in that moment, Ranthir turned – his eyes glowing bright – and chanted aloud:

Only the hand of creation can undo the seal which it has wrought.
Those who wish but for a moment can undo the creator’s work,
But those who would be his heirs must first wield his hand.
Into the heart of darkness they must follow him.

Seek the hand in the heart of the shard.
There all paths begin.
Thus all things shall be done or undone.

RETRENCHING THE DEFENSES

Ranthir sagged forward as the magic of the spell left him. A moment later, however, he was scrabbling through his many pouches and bags to find paper and pen. He hastily jotted down the words that he had said.

“Did that make sense to anyone else?” Elestra asked.

“A little,” Tee said, frowning thoughtfully. “But not really.”

There were no clear answers written in the words that Ranthir had spoken. And with Tor still paralyzed, they had no choice but to seek more powerful magical aid. They let the Banewarrens, meeting Kalerecent where he stood guard in the cellar of the mansion.

They quickly explained to the knight what had happened. With Tor strapped to his saddle, Tee led Blue up the stairs (“Ah,” Kalerecent said. “So that’s why the door was there.”) and then mounted himself. Agnarr walked alongside as the three of them headed to the Temple of Asche to receive healing from Mand Scheben.

Ranthir, Elestra, and Dominic, meanwhile, returned with Kalerecent to the excavated cave nearest to the Banewarrens. Kalerecent had hoped to keep his guard in the cellar itself, but the others were concerned that the caverns where they had fought the umber hulk might lead to another exterior access point.

Once they were healed, Tee, Tor, and Agnarr returned to the Banewarrens, as well. After a brief discussion, they agreed that all of them – except for Tor, who had business early the next day – would camp there for the night on a rotating guard shift.

SEEKING SIR KABEL

Tor left the Banewarrens. But instead of heading directly back to the Ghostly Minstrel, he turned south towards the alley where they had met with the mysterious, shadow-like Shim.

Tor  touched the symbol at the alley’s dead end. A few moments later Shim exuded himself from a crack in the wall.

“How can I help you, Master Torland?”

“Can you find Sir Kabel of the Order of the Dawn and deliver to him a letter?”

“I can,” Shim said. “The real question is, ‘Can you pay for it?’”

“How much?”

“Two hundred gold pieces.”

Tor agreed and quickly wrote out a note for Sir Kabel.

Sir—

Please know that you have friends in Ptolus. Vehthyl is not fooled, but it is crucial we know what has occurred.

Send word back if you are able. The safety of the city is in the balance.

Tor very specifically neglected to sign it, hoping that his elided reference to Dominic as the Chosen of Vehthyl would be enough to identify who the letter had come from without betraying him if it should fall into the wrong hands.

Shim took the letter and disappeared back into the wall. Tor left and returned to the Ghostly Minstrel for the night, satisfied that he had done all that he could. If all the might of the Imperial Church and the Order of the Dawn couldn’t find Sir Kabel, it wasn’t likely that wandering randomly around the city would do much good.

A NIGHT IN THE BANEWARRENS

Back in the Banewarrens – or, rather, the small excavated cavern just outside of them – Kalerecent and the rest of the party settled on the order of the watch and bedded down.

A few hours passed and the watch shifted twice without any cause for alarm. But then, about an hour before midnight, Tee’s sharp eyes spotted movement coming along the passage leading to the Banewarrens. She quickly roused the others, whirling back towards the tunnel entrance in time to see the purplish-red wraith they had encountered before floating with sinister serenity into the cavern.

Kalerecent, who had been sharing the watch with her, moved to engage it. The engagement didn’t last long: Kalerecent’s magical blade ripped through its ethereal substance and then, a moment later, a single blast from Tee’s dragon pistol tore it apart.

The others had barely even woken up.

After some mild complaints, Tee and Kalerecent resumed their watch while the others rolled over and went back to sleep.

A few minutes later, however, the wraith returned again. Dominic, rising impatiently from his bedroll, banished it with a burst of divine power, sending it fleeing back down the tunnel.

The group mustered their defenses and waited anxiously for its return… but after a quarter of an hour there was still no sign of it.

Agnarr eventually got tired of waiting and rallied an expedition back into the Banewarrens. They headed straight to the area where they had first encountered the wraith and the gem that spawned it. They found no trace of the wraith itself, but were entirely unsurprised to discover that the gem had somehow reformed itself. Without a second thought, Agnarr smashed it again.

Dominic raised the possibility of taking some of the shards of the gem with them – and thus, perhaps, preventing it from reforming again – but Tee and Elestra were both wary of the idea of carrying around shards from an artifact of clear and potent evil. (Hadn’t they just been warned by Aoska not to risk removing anything from the Banewarrens?)

Ranthir couldn’t even hazard a guess on what might happen (or not happen) if they took pieces of the gem with them. He did briefly ponder the possibility of storing the gem in the stasis box they had recovered from Ghul’s Labyrinth, but he couldn’t guarantee that it would actually stop the gem from reforming.

And so, in the end, they settled for simply shutting the once-warded door leading into the area – hoping, even though the ward had been broken, that this would stop the wraith from escaping.

“Aren’t we just locking the wraith out?” Dominic asked.

“Well, next time we see it we’ll kill it and then it will be trapped,” Agnarr said.

While the others settled back down, Tee left for her guard duty at the “new project” of the chaos cultists. The rest of the night – both at the project site and in the Banewarrens – passed quietly.

THE TWO LETTERS

(09/17/790)

The next morning Tellith gave Tor two letters that had arrived for him during the night.

SIR GEMMELL’S MESSAGE

Master Torland of Barund—

I know that that the recent chaos surrounding the Order must have proven quite distressing to one so recently squired among our ranks. I pray to the Gods that this letter shall find you in good health and that no untoward danger has fallen upon you as a result of the treacherous actions of a handful of discontents.

I wish to assure you, however, that the Godskeep remains secure. I know that you were to receive training this afternoon, and I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to meet with you personally and make the proper arrangements.

My humblest thanks,

Sir Gemmell of the Order of the Dawn

SIR KABEL’S MESSAGE

Tor—

The days are darker than I had imagined. Come tomorrow at dawn to Nadar’s Pub in Rivergate. Ask for Patrim. Bring Dominic if you trust him still.

                                                                                -Sir K.

“I think I just wasted two hundred gold pieces,” Tor muttered to himself.

Running the Campaign: Honor Choice with Judo  – Campaign Journal: Session 30D
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 30B: Golems & Ghouls

As Agnarr leapt into their midst, he could see one of them peeling flesh from its own arm and chewing on it.

“They’re eating themselves?!” Agnarr could hear Elestra’s horrified gasp from behind him, but he paid it little heed as he hacked his way through the ghouls.

For a moment it seemed as if Agnarr would dispatch them all – his flaming blade tore easily through their frail frames. But then the last of them leapt suddenly upon him and got its teeth into him.

This might be a little early to talk about this, but over the rest of this session and the next few sessions you’re going to see a lot of horrific beasties and strange curses get unleashed in the Banewarrens, by both the PCs and NPCs.

Something you’ll notice (albeit not with these ghouls), that most of these banes will either (a) attempt to flee after engaging the PCs or (b) target someone other than the PCs as their first (or subsequent) action. This, of course, creates long-running problems for the PCs, as they deal with the consequences of these ancient evils breaking loose into Ptolus or just wreaking havoc on their allies.

This is, of course, thematically appropriate for the Banewarrens, which were originally built to lock all of these banes away from the world; sealing them in a prison from which they were never meant to escape. Whether you agree with the Banelord’s belief that there’s a Principle of the Conservation of Evil that the universe abides by or not, there’s little question that mucking around down there not only risks releasing a whole bunch of evil stuff, but also a whole armada of ethical questions about your responsibility for having done so.

But this also reflects a broader GMing tenet I believe in: Spray your bullets.

What I mean by this is that when we think about releasing something into our campaign, we have a tendency to think about it strictly in terms of how it might intersect and affect the PCs: There’s a phase-shifting troll loose in the Banewarrens, when will it attack the party?

In other words, we aim it very precisely at the PCs.

This makes a lot of sense, because, of course, the other players are sitting at the table with us. Our entire focus is on continually generating and communicating the fictional game space for them to take their actions in. So there’s an obvious predilection, whenever something might happen in the game world, for us to aim it at the PCs. It’s target fixation.

What I’m suggesting is that, when we shoot stuff into the campaign, we should get a little sloppier with our aim: Don’t just hit the PCs. Start hitting stuff all around them. Their friends, their allies, innocent bystanders, even their enemies. To continue our metaphor, let stuff ricochet around a little bit and see what happens.

The ricochet is actually quite important, though, because if stuff happens and the players never learn about it (or its consequences), then it’s probably wasted prep. So you want to have stuff impact things around the PCs, but then you want the consequences of that to ricochet into the PCs: they read the newspaper headlines, they find the body, their friend calls them for help.

The benefit, of course, is that this makes the game feel more dynamic and believable: The PCs aren’t the only people who exist, moving through a world of shadow puppets. Instead, the world is filled with people who seem to be living lives of their own.

And this will also mean, when the bullets in question are being shot in response to the PCs’ actions, that their choices will become even more meaningful.

Campaign Journal: Session 30C – Running the Campaign: Honor Choice with Judo
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 30B: GOLEMS & GHOULS

September 20th, 2008
The 16th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

The rest of the group returned to the Banewarrens. They had not yet finished exploring the farthest reaches of the complex and, since they had nothing better to do while guarding the door, they decided to finish their sweep.

Opening the last of the unopened doors leading out of the generator room, they looked into a wide hall leading to another of the rune-encrusted and warded doors. In the center of the hall, a 12-foot-tall statue of a helmed warrior, made out of interlocking metal plates, stood like a vigilant guard. Patches of rust could be seen on it here and there.

Fearing that it might be a golem or, failing that, some other sort of trap, Tee entered the hall cautiously. Unfortunately, her caution was in vain. Scarcely had she crossed the threshold before the statue suddenly leapt into motion, charging down the length of the hall and slamming its heavy iron fists into her chest.

Tee was thrown back by the ferocious blow. Her head smashed against the wall and she slid to the ground, slumping into unconsciousness.

In some ways, however, this proved fortunate for her. No sooner had the iron golem delivered its tremendous blow than it was seized with a violent vibration which shuddered through its iron plates. A moment later a pulse of magical force burst from it – catching Agnarr in mid-stride as he rushed towards it with his sword drawn and throwing him backwards with a muscle-rending jolt.

And then it simply fell apart. From the seams of its broken form a strange substance poured like thick syrup, glowing with a strange blue light that seemed to sear the retina.

Dominic, with a rush of concern, dashed to Tee’s side. But she hadn’t been badly hurt. In fact, he was able to rouse her easily.

Agnarr had scrambled back to his feet and backed cautiously away from the oozing heap of misjointed metal. Tee, in frustration, gave the heap a spiteful kick and—

It exploded in a hail of semi-molten metal. Shards of the former golem embedded themselves deeply into the walls of the chamber.

Tee spent the next several minutes with Dominic prying shards of metal from her arms and legs.

THE TALE OF A TRAITOR KNIGHT

“What?” Tor gaped.

“It’s true. Kabel and several other traitorous knights attacked the Cathedral. They were driven back and the Godskeep was shut against them.”

“What happened to Kabel? Was he killed?”

“No. He and several of the other traitors managed to escape. Sir Gemmell is pursuing them now.”

The knights loyal to Rehobath and Sir Gemmell were wearing red sashes to identify themselves. (“Red for the novarch’s robes,” the knight explained.) Kalerecent took one and Tor, keeping his private reservations to himself, did as well.

Kalerecent was uncertain what they should do: The Godskeep had been ordered shut until Sir Gemmell’s return, which meant that Rasnir’s body couldn’t be brought into the chapel. “Nor do I want him to lay here on this common field where his blood might mix with the blood of traitors.”

Tor explained that Rehobath himself was interested in the Banewarrens. He felt that they should report directly to him.

But when they tried to reach him, they found themselves stymied by the bureaucracy of the Cathedral. They were eventually escorted to a small antechamber within the Cathedral by one of the priests and told to wait.

They did so patiently and, in due time, Brother Heth Neferul arrived. Tor and Kalerecent quickly told their tales of the Banewarrens. When Heth was satisfied, he asked them to wait again and turned to leave.

“A moment, please,” Tor said.

Heth turned back to him. “Yes?”

Tor chose his words carefully. “We were told of Sir Kabel’s betrayal. I have reason to believe that he may have been… compelled in this treachery by the recent chaotic events that have been happening throughout Ptolus.”

“You believe he may not have been in his right mind?”

“It’s a possibility,” Tor said. “I have found Kabel to be a loyal and honorable man. There would need to be some reason for him to do what he has done.”

“I see.” Heth nodded. “I will mention this to Sir Gemmell.”

He turned and left them alone.

THE FLESH-FEASTING GHOULS

Tee broke the seal on the door that the malfunctioning golem had been guarding. Then she stepped back and waved Agnarr into position.

Agnarr opened the door. Beyond it he saw a long chamber of dust-ridden stone. Near the center of the chamber, also covered in thick, choking dust, crouched four corpse-like ghouls, their skin blackened with bruises of dead, coagulated blood. At the sudden motion of the door in their ancient prison, the ghouls turned with creaking suddenness – staring hungrily with their black, pulsing eyes; their dry, parched mouths hanging open to reveal countless, needle-like teeth.

The moment hung for an instant, and then the ghouls burst into motion with horrible speed – their ancient limbs casting up clouds of dust as they bounded towards the open door.

Agnarr slammed it in their faces.

They took a moment to gather themselves. Agnarr could hear the ghouls snuffling around on the opposite side of the door, but he waited until he had met the eyes of his companions and made sure that they were ready.

Then he smashed the door open again. The heavy iron caved in the skull of one of the ghouls. As Agnarr leapt into their midst, he could see one of them peeling flesh from its own arm and chewing on it.

“They’re eating themselves?!” Agnarr could hear Elestra’s horrified gasp from behind him, but he paid it little heed as he hacked his way through the ghouls.

For a moment it seemed as if Agnarr would dispatch them all – his flaming blade tore easily through their frail frames. But then the last of them leapt suddenly upon him and got its teeth into him.

The thing’s poison rushed into the barbarian’s veins. Agnarr felt his joints lock almost instantly and he fell with a heavy thud to the floor. The ghoul was upon him in an instant, tearing gouges of flesh out of his back and feasting upon them.

The ghoul was so lost in its blood-lust that it scarcely seemed to notice when Dominic caved in its skull with his mace.

Dominic managed to get Agnarr back on his feet and used his holy powers to purge any remnants of disease from the wounds on his back.

They decided that it would be better to wait for Tor to return before continuing their explorations. There had been a moment of true fear when they had seen Agnarr felled. Having Tor’s blade would make them all feel safer.

They retreated back to the room that Kalerecent had been holed up in, thinking it to be fairly defensible, and settled down to wait.

THE AFFAIRS OF THE CHURCH

Brother Heth Neferul returned with Rehobath, Sister Mara, and Brother Thad.

Thad quickly crossed to Tor and shook his hand enthusiastically. “Master Tor! Such an honor to see you again! Whenever I think of the important work you’re doing… And to travel with the Chosen of Vehthyl! It must be such an hon—“

“Brother Thad.” Rehobath’s cold voice sliced through the young priest’s ebullience. “Sir Kalerecent and Master Tor. I am glad to see you both. Brother Neferul has told me all that you have told him. I am sorry to be so brief with you, but – as you know – there are other affairs demanding my time.”

“Yes, of course,” Tor said.

“Brother Thad believes he may be of some help,” Heth said.

Thad nodded eagerly. “Yes. Of course. While the known lore of the Banewarrens is quite limited – even within the Archives of the Church – and divinations have proven quite limited, now that you have access to the actual contents of at least part of the Banewarrens its possible that certain rituals might prove useful.”

He pulled a scroll from his robes. “This scroll describes an arcane ritual. If Master Ranthir were to perform it in front of the sealed door, it should reveal its secrets. It might even reveal how such a door could be opened.”

“Do we want to open the door?” Tor asked.

“It’s more important than ever that we recover the Sword of Crissa,” Rehobath said. “The troubles of today reveal the deep schism within our faith. With the Sword in our hand we would have a powerful symbol to unify those who have lost faith in the Gods.”

“I’m still worried by these reports of the others seeking to gain access to the Banewarrens,” Sister Mara said. “I think we need to use the Order of the Dawn to secure the entrance.”

“That’s a mistake,” Heth said. “We don’t want to draw undue attention to the site. Besides, Master Tor and his friends have already taken care of those responsible.”

“There may be others.”

“There may be,” Rehobath said. “But in light of our… recent troubles, I think it would be unwise to divide the strength of our Order until certain dangers have been properly dealt with.”

“I will return to that place and stand guard,” Kalerecent said. “I swore an oath by the side of my squire that I would not rest until that evil had been laid to rest. I ask only that I be given an hour to stand vigil by the side of Rasnir’s body. It waits not far from here.”

Rehobath nodded. “So it shall be. And I shall see to it that leave is given for Rasnir’s body to rest in the chapel of the Godskeep.”

Kalerecent knelt and kissed the ring of the novarch.

When the church leaders had left, Tor returned with Kalerecent to the carriage where they had left Rasnir’s body. They carried it to the chapel in the Godskeep and Tor left Kalerecent there, praying over Rasnir’s body.

Running the Campaign: Spray Your Bullets  – Campaign Journal: Session 30C
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 30A: The Breaking of the Dawn

The red-sashed knight approached with his sword drawn. Tor and Kalerecent stood calmly, careful to give no cause for alarm. As the knight drew nearer they raised their hands and displayed their rings. The knight relaxed slightly, but kept his blade on guard.

“What happened here?” Tor asked.

“Sir Kabel attempted to assassinate the Novarch.”

If I could only give one tip to GMs about pacing in RPGs, it would be to do a cliffhanger every single time the opportunity presents itself. It’s virtually impossible to have too many of them.

We’ve previously discussed cliffhangers at the end of sessions, but here we have a cliffhanger happening in the middle of a session. This is made possible by the fact that the players have split the party: If they were all together, I wouldn’t be able to cut away from Tor immediately after delivering the shocking news that Sir Kabel has attempted to assassinate the Novarch.

This is one of the primary reasons why, in The Art of Pacing, I described splitting the party as pacing on easy mode: There are just so many extra tools you have at your disposal as soon as the PCs are no longer all together in the same scene.

The trick, of course, is getting the PCs to split up in the first place, particularly when “don’t split the party” has become such a maxim in RPG fandom.

The key to this is that the PCs need to have multiple desires which cannot be resolved sequentially (i.e., they either have to both be done right now, or they can’t be done or become much more difficult to do). This tends to rather difficult to pull off with a linear adventure, but often happens all the time and with little or no effort with non-linear scenarios that you’re actively playing.

In this case, of course, the PCs want to both help Kalerecent take Rasnir’s body to the Godskeep AND keep the Banewarrens securely guarded. They can’t be in two places at the same time, and so splitting the party becomes inevitable.

CAMPAIGN COLLISION

What happens over the next session and a half is one of my favorite moments form the entire campaign. And the fact that it kicks off with this scene — of two knights of the Order of the Dawn bearing the body of their dead comrade home at the very moment that the Order is breaking in a bloody conflict — is, if I may say so, about as perfect as one could hope for.

Which is why it’s so interesting that I didn’t plan for any of this happen.

Let’s peel back the curtain here and take a closer look at how this played out.

First, as I’ve previously discussed a bit, the schisming of the Imperial Church was intended to play out as a background event. It was intended to add some depth and flavor to the campaign world in a way that was, at best, tangentially related to what the PCs were doing.

But Dominic unexpectedly presented himself to Rehobath as the Chosen of Vehthyl, which allowed Rehobath to move up his timetable and declare himself Novarch several weeks earlier than I’d expected. And then Tor ended up getting squired in the Order of the Dawn, placing two of the PCs at basically ground zero.

The schism was now very much onstage.

Second, I had keyed the Breaking of the Dawn — in which Sir Kabel gathered loyalists within the Order at the tournament field north of Ptolus to arrange the arrest of the “False Novarch,” only to be betrayed by Sir Gemmell — to my campaign status document as a timed event: It was going to take place at a specific date and time.

Third, Tor — completely oblivious to this — made plans to take Iltumar the would-be hero to the tournament field and do some practice swordplay with him in an effort to give his aspirations a path that didn’t lead straight to the chaos cults. By sheer coincidence, Tor scheduled this training excursion with Iltumar at the exact same time Sir Kabel was going to be at the tournament field.

This prompted me to prep the events of the Breaking of the Dawn in much more detail — basically as a mini-scenario, since it now seemed quite likely that Tor would be directly involved. But then the evolving situation with the Banewarrens caused Tor to cancel his plans with Iltumar!

Regardless, the Breaking of the Dawn was still keyed temporally.

The fourth element here, of course, is Kalerecent. Rather than being keyed to a specific time, Kalerecent was keyed in a status quo: Whenever the PCs arrived at the Banewarrens, he would be waiting with Rasnir’s corpse. (A sufficiently long delay in the PCs reaching the Banewarrens, or if they had come to the Banewarrens and then left again before actually meeting Kalerecent, might have changed that. But that’s purely hypothetical since it didn’t play out that way.)

So in my prep notes, these two things — Kalerecent wanting to take Rasnir’s body back to the Godskeep after being assured that the Banewarrens were secure and the Breaking of the Dawn — were completely unrelated to each other. It was entirely coincidental that things played out this way. And, in fact, it’s quite easy to imagine a scenario in which:

• none of the PCs chose to accompany Kalerecent;
• Tor stayed in the Banewarrens (“as a fellow member of the Order, I’ll take up your oath, Kalerecent, until you can return”) while some other group of PCs accompanied Kalerecent;
• the PCs screwed up and the Pactlords killed Kalerecent when they returned to the Banewarrens;

or any number of other possibilities.

That’s really the beauty of prepping scenarios that can be actively played: You never know how all of your disparate toys will come together to create something of astonishing and unexpected beauty.

Campaign Journal: Session 30B – Running the Campaign: Spray Your Bullets
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index