DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 28A: The Maw Beckons

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.”

But they would practically be getting paid twice for the same job. There was no reason to pass that up.

Scenario hooks are the methods by which PCs become aware that an adventure exists, are enticed to engage the adventure, and/or are forced to engage the adventure.

If you’re prepping a plot, then you’ll usually only have a single scenario hook which will also tell the PCs what they’re supposed to do (in order to set the predetermined plot in motion). If, on the other hand, you don’t prep plots and, instead, prep situations, you’ll find that you have A LOT more flexibility in the scenario hooks you set up.

One particularly powerful technique is, in fact, to have multiple scenario hooks pointing at the same scenario. You may do this for purely practical reasons (fulfilling the Three Clue Rule, for example), but it can also be deployed to great effect.

One of my favorite techniques, actually, is to have two different patrons offer to hire the PCs for the same job; or, more accurately, for jobs involving the same scenario. This setup creates the context for framing tough dilemmas. (“Do we chase after the assassin to claim the bounty or do we save the Jewel of Erthasard from the river of lava?”) In fact, you can do this from the moment the job offer comes in: If Patron A asks them to murder the CEO of Abletek and Patron B asks them to work as the CEO’s security detail during an upcoming business conference, you’re immediately forcing the players to really think about the scenario they’re being hooked into: What do they want to have happen to the CEO? They can’t just sit back and passively do whatever they’re told to do. They’re going to have make a decision.

And, once they’re thinking about the situation and making choices for themselves, they may end up deciding they want something completely different from either patron.

Another technique I enjoy using as surprising scenario hooks: It’s easy to have a hook tell the PCs exactly what’s happening. “There are goblins in the Old Tower and they’ve been raiding the local farms.” But it can often be more effective to not do that: Maybe the villagers think there are goblins at the Old Tower, but it’s actually an infestation of imps. Or the goblins in the tower are actually just orphans, and they’re not the ones responsible for the recent raids.

A surprising scenario hook, as the name suggests, sets things up for the players to be surprised later in the scenario. And there are, of course, all kinds of ways for you to use this surprise, whether for dramatic or strategic effect.

In this session, I’m combining both of these techniques while hooking the PCs into the Banewarrens. Not only are they being simultaneously approached by two patrons with different objectives related to the Banewarrens, but the true nature of those objectives are not immediately apparent to the players.

In this case, this also means that the PCs can initially believe that there’s no conflict between the two commissions. The surprising reversal will come when they discover the truth and realize their twin masters cannot, in fact, be satisfied simultaneously.

We have another name for that: Conflict.

Delicious, delightful conflict.

The other subtlety here is Tavan Zith. In the original Banewarrens book, Zith does not actually function as a scenario hook. (There’s no way for the PCs to backtrack from Zith to the Banewarrens.) The encounter with Zith, however, functions as a justification: The PCs interacting with Zith is used to justify the Inverted Pyramid (and, in my version, the Church) deciding to hire the PCs for this job.

I had also, knowing these hooks for the Banewarrens were coming, made a point of laying groundwork with both Jevicca Nor and the Imperial Church earlier in the campaign. I wasn’t sure exactly how this earlier involvement with these factions would play out, but really any involvement would either (a) help justify the PCs getting approached for this gig and/or (b) create tension that could be similarly paid off in the Banewarrens. In practice, this turned out even better than I could have ever anticipated:

“We live in a time of prophecy,” Rehobath said. “And you seem to have a habit of finding yourselves in the middle of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The extraordinary events in Oldtown today — in which I have been told you were involved — are the beginning of what will be a new chapter in history. Tavan Zith has returned to this world, and if the prophecies are true that means that the Banewarrens have been opened.”

I actually did take the further step of making Tavan Zith an actual scenario hook: The PCs could have either backtracked his path by canvassing Oldtown (they didn’t do this) or interrogated him (they tried this, but failed their rolls). This is what I refer to as a curiosity hook (i.e., no one tells the PCs to go check out where Zith came from; but Zith’s presence and extraordinary actions make them aware of the scenario, and they can pursue it and/or get involved with it if their curiosity so inclines them).

You may be thinking: “A die roll for the scenario hook? But what if they failed the check?!”

Well… they did fail. But I had three more hooks lined up, so that’s okay.

Of far more concern would be if the players ended up simply not being interested in the Banewarrens at all. What should we do about that?

First, I’ve spent some time priming the pump here by layering in a bunch of foreshadowing about the Banewarrens. For example, the “Drill of the Banewarrens” in Session 16A. By the time we go to Act II, the players were already intrigued by the Banewarrens, which made them eager to jump at clear hooks pointing them in that direction.

Second, another advantage of using multiple hooks is that it gives the players multiple reasons to be interested in the scenario: Do you want to make allies with the Inverted Pyramid? Pursue your relationship with the Imperial Church? Get close to one or the other so that you can screw them over later? Pursue the powerful magical treasures within? Figure out how to put an end to the threat posed by Tavan Zith?

If I just used one hook, the reaction to that hook might be negative: “We’d like to help, but we don’t have time,” or, “We don’t trust the Church, so we’re not going to tangled up with them.” But with multiple hooks in play, it actually becomes exponentially more likely that the players will see a reason why they want to get involved. (And, again, not just the ones you package up for them. They’re very likely to come up with their own reasons.)

Third, even if turns out that the players aren’t interested in this scenario, the fact that I’ve already set things up so that there are multiple factions involved with interests that directly compete with each other will make it super easy for me to figure out what would happen next even in the absence of the PCs. In this case, the Banewarrens would drop into the campaign’s background events. From that position, they would continue to affect the campaign world, and likely things that the players ARE interested in. It’s extremely plausible that this would generate additional hooks in the future, which may or may not pull the PCs in after all. (Albeit into a scenario that may have already been radically transformed by their earlier decision not to get involved.)

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

SESSION 28A: THE MAW BECKONS

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

Jevicca offered them 1,000 gold pieces each for a preliminary investigation of the Banewarrens and identified a mansion on Nibeck Street in Oldtown where the Inverted Pyramid had first detected the surges of wild magic.

They looked at each other, clearly uncertain. Tee asked Jevicca if they might have a few moments alone to discuss the matter. Jevicca agreed and headed downstairs.

They quickly discussed what they had just learned. It wasn’t the first time they’d heard of the Banewarrens. They had discovered the “Drill of the Banewarrens” in the laboratories of Ghul’s Labyrinth, and now they could guess at the impregnable walls that the Skull-King had been seeking to penetrate. And, of course, there was also the prophecy of the coming of Tavan Zith that they had discovered in Pythoness House – a prophecy which now seemed to be coming true.

“There’s something else,” Tee said. She pulled out a thick bundle of papers representing the various fruits of their investigations. Among them was the sheet of astronomical-based prophecies they had discovered in the house of Helmut Itlestein. “Listen to this.”

The warrens are opened. Great evil pours forth.
No seal may be found while the heart remains untouched.

“I thought it was talking about the Warrens, but it didn’t make any sense. Maybe it’s actually talking about the Banewarrens.”

There was more than a little trepidation in the room. It was easy to feel overwhelmed in the face of such portentous history and riddling prophecy. The Banewarrens seemed like an insurmountable problem.

“But it’s not a problem we have to solve,” Ranthir pointed out. “She just wants us to investigate.”

“It’s easy money,” Agnarr said. “We don’t even have to go in. She said preliminary.”

(Dominic looked at him. “Where did you learn that word?” Agnarr grunted.)

Tee frowned. “I don’t think it’ll be that easy.”

“It’s never that easy,” Tor said.

But they decided to take the job. Tee headed downstairs to tell Jevicca. As she arrived in the entryway, however, Elestra walked in off the street. Tee sent her up to talk to the others.

Jevicca was glad that they were willing to conduct the investigation. While discussing the exact parameters of what the Inverted Pyramid was looking for (which turned out to be fairly vague), Tee dropped the name of Tavan Zith to see if Jevicca would know it. She didn’t.

Tee explained Zith’s identity and gave Jevicca copies of the two prophecies they had discovered. Jevicca promised to look into them.

A PARANOIA OF CASTLE SHARD

Tee headed back upstairs. By the time she got there, Elestra had already been filled in by the others. She agreed with Agnarr. It sounded like easy money.

After discussing it, they decided not to go up to the Nibeck Street mansion until the next morning. Many of them were exhausted from the ordeals they had suffered earlier in the streets of Oldtown and there were only a few hours left before Tee needed to go back undercover to the Brotherhood of Venom’s project site.

Dominic, however, raised the possibility of trying to question Tavan Zith again. “I know it’s dangerous, but we could try talking to him somewhere without any people around. Like a ceme— Like a field. A big, empty field.”

“We need some way of talking to him without triggering his power,” Tee said.

Ranthir pondered this for a moment. “The effect triggers a latent connection to sorcerous powers. It’s possible that an antimagic field should suppress it. If nothing else, it would suppress the powers released in others.”

“Can you make one of those?” Dominic asked.

Ranthir shook his head. “It’s beyond my skill.”

“We could talk to Lord Zavere,” Tee suggested.

“I don’t know if I trust Zavere any more,” Ranthir said. “We sold him the Drill of the Banewarrens yesterday and today someone breaks into the Banewarrens.”

Agnarr promptly proposed ambushing.

Elestra laughed nervously. “Okay, who here doesn’t want to ambush the most powerful wizard in the city?”

Hands were raised.

“Jevicca was interested in it, too,” Tee pointed out.

“So what you’re saying is that we can’t trust anybody?” Tor asked.

“Right,” Tee said. “Business as usual.”

There was a knock on the door.

THE SECOND INQUIRY

It was Brother Fabitor, the priest from the Chapel of St. Gustav. They let him. He seemed very nervous.

“Is this about Phon?” Tee asked. “We heard what happened to her.”

“What? Oh, no,” Fabitor said. “That was a terrible tragedy. But no, I have a message for Dominic.”

Now it was Dominic who seemed very nervous. “What is it?”

“A friend of mine has gone missing,” Fabitor explained. “A member of the Church. Earlier this evening I went to the Cathedral to report his absence. I was spoken to by the Novarch himself. I was honored. He asked me to come here. He requests an audience with Dominic.”

“When?”

“He said as soon as possible. It seemed quite urgent.”

“Then I guess we should hurry,” Tee said.

They ushered him out of the room and rapidly made preparations. Tor removed the signet ring of the Order of the Dawn. Dominic put back on the purple prelate robes that Rehobath had given him

They took a carriage to the Temple District. When they arrived at the Cathedral they were quickly escorted to Rehobath’s private office. He was waiting for them there, seeming to bathe in the light cast from his godwood desk.

Rehobath was being attended by three others: A middle-aged, brown-haired woman wearing Crissa’s ankh. A muscular, fit, middle-aged man with a shaved head wearing Athor’s cross. And a young, dark-haired man with angular features and a tall frame wearing the winged serpent of Vehthyl.

The woman introduced herself as Sister Mara von Witten, a member of the Sisterhood of Crissa. The younger man – Brother Thad – eagerly shook their hands. He gushed enthusiastically over Dominic, repeating over and over again what a great honor it was to meet him. Dominic squirmed.

Finally the other man was forced to interrupt him. “I think that’s enough. We should get down to business.”

“Yes, I agree,” Rehobath said. “This is Brother Heth Neferul, my friend and advisor.”

“How can we be of service to you, Novarch?” Dominic asked with a meekness born from feigned humility and nervous fear.

“We live in a time of prophecy,” Rehobath said. “And you seem to have a habit of finding yourselves in the middle of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“The extraordinary events in Oldtown today – in which I have been told you were involved – are the beginning of what will be a new chapter in history. Tavan Zith has returned to this world, and if the prophecies are true that means that the Banewarrens have been opened. Tobias, if you would…”

Thad nodded and took up the thread. “I tend to the Archive of the Church as a member of the Order of the Silver God. There are many secrets recorded there that have been forgotten by other men. Among the legends recorded there is the tale of the Sword of Justice – a blade once wielded by the goddess Crissa herself.

“The sword was lost. But it was said to have been used by a man of great evil to create a place known as the Banewarrens. It is written that the Banewarrens were sealed by the gods themselves as an affront to the natural order of the world… but the Sword of Crissa remained inside.”

“If the Banewarrens have been opened,” Sister Mara said. “Then we have a unique opportunity to regain one of the lost artifacts of the Church.”

“If the sword is within our grasp,” Rehobath said, “It would be a powerful talisman in our cause to purify the Church. I have been told of your role in the return of Tavan Zith. And when the Chosen of Vehthyl is found in such a place… well, it seems to me that the gods have spoken.”

“Of course,” Brother Heth Neferul said, “We understand that such investigations will have certain expenses associated with them. And to that end we would be more than happy to supply you with a fund of 2,000 gold pieces for your trouble.”

They would practically be getting paid twice for the same job. There was no reason to pass that up. They agreed to the commission.

“Excuse me,” Tee said. “You said that Tavan Zith was mentioned in your books. Who is he?”

“We don’t properly know,” Brother Thad said. “But in some texts he’s referred to as a ‘saint’, so I’d assume he was working on behalf of the gods – although I have no idea which of them he may have served.”

“I see,” Tee said. “Thank you.”

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

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

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 27C: The Saint of Chaos

Now that the half-orc was more of a curiosity than a threat, the crowd that had been scattering in a rapid retreat instead began to draw closer. But just as it seemed as if they had successfully calmed the situation, another man suddenly grabbed at his eyes. Bolts of blue lightning shot out of them, striking several people in the crowd. The thick stench of ozone filled the air. At least a half dozen people collapsed.

Panic erupted once again. In the midst of it, Tee was suddenly struck by the sight of a dark-cloaked man striding boldly down the street and seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him…

Crowds.

In an urban campaign, you find them cropping up all the time:

• on the street
• in a busy market
• at the local tavern
• storming the necromancer’s castle with pitchforks

Handling dozens or hundreds (or thousands) of NPCs individually would, obviously, be a hilariously bad idea. So you generally want to figure out some way of handling the entire crowd as a single entity.

Often, of course, a crowd is just part of the set dressing: You’re in a shopping mall and it’s filled with people. That’s pretty straightforward. At most you’ll want to think about what effect the crowd might have on the actions of the PCs and significant NPCs in the scene. (For example, the PCs might need to make a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to race through a thick crowd; on a failure, the crowd is treated as difficult terrain for them.)

But sometimes the Green Goblin comes swooping in on his glider and starts throwing pumpkin bombs around. Now combat has broken out and the crowd is panicked.

What often seems to happen is that the crowd is described as running and shouting (while having little or no effect on how things play out), and then they completely clear out as quickly as possible to simplify things even more.

But where’s the fun in that?

When I was preparing the riot scene in Session 4 of the campaign, I prepped a full set of rules for handling crowds and mobs in D&D 3^rd Edition. After some refinements from playtesting them, I posted them here on the Alexandrian way back in 2007.

Those rules are useful (with advanced options that help when the crowd is the focal point of the scene), and you could use them as a basic structure for fashioning similar rules in other games:

• What is the effect of moving through a crowd? (A moving crowd?)
• What happens when a crowd panics?
• How can the PCs manipulate crowds?
• What happens when the crowd turns into a mob? (i.e., a crowd that can take focused violent action, whether directed or random)

If you want to keep it simpler, though, I have a few quick rules of thumb for handling crowds.

First, give the crowd some basic characteristics so that it “exists” in the scene. I recommend:

• Making the crowd difficult terrain (or whatever the local equivalent is in your current RPG). As mentioned above, let the PCs make an Acrobatics check as part of movement to ignore this (by deftly weaving through the crowd).
• Having the crowd offer cover to anyone in it.

Design Note: These two factors have a nice balancing effect — the cover encourages a character to move into a crowd; the difficult terrain imposes a cost for doing so.

Second, put the crowd on your initiative list. In D&D, I like putting them at initiative count 10 (so that PCs might go before or after the crowd, depending on their initiative check). This is, if nothing else, a great way to make sure you don’t forget to include the crowd in the scene.

Whenever the crowd’s initiative count comes up, the crowd does something. This might be:

• Just a colorful description (which will help make sure that the crowd is a consistent part of the scene and doesn’t get forgotten about or glossed over).
• A bystander in the crowd being placed in jeopardy.
• A random character needs to make a saving throw or take damage.
• Make a saving throw or get knocked down.
• The crowd moves.

And so forth.

Make sure to have the crowd affect (or potentially affect) both NPCs and PCs.

Third, create a short list of crowd actions. These work like legendary actions in D&D 5^th Edition: The crowd has actions or reactions they take after another character’s action, and they can take X of them per round. (Let’s say three, by default.) The things they can do will be similar:

• Knocking people down
• Interfering with attacks (the jostle the archer’s arm, inflicting disadvantage on the attack roll)
• Making an attack against a character
• Moving

Et cetera.

Keep in mind that the crowd is not a bad guy, so these actions are a choice you’re making as the GM to model the crowd’s behavior. This also means that some crowd actions might actually be detrimental to the crowd. For example, a crowd reaction might be “1d6 bystanders get caught in the crossfire.”

NEXT:
Campaign Journal: Session 27D – Running the Campaign: Trigger & Stitch
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index