SESSION 26C: THE RIDDLE OF ILTUMAR

August 24th, 2008
The 14th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

THE KING’S ROAD

They headed back to the Ghostly Minstrel. In the lobby, they met Elestra on her way out, quickly filled her in on the details of the deal they had made, and gave her the platinum she was due.

“Where are you going now?” Tee asked.

“I’m just going out to the listen to the Spirit of the City,” Elestra said. “See what I can find out. Maybe ask around about the Brotherhood.”

“I don’t think you should,” Tee said. “I don’t want us drawing the kind of attention that asking those type of questions might bring. I don’t want to wake up with Wuntad in my room. I already did that with the Balacazars and I didn’t like it.”

“Okay,” Elestra said. “That’s probably true.”

While they were discussing their options, they were joined by the others. Ranthir returned to an idea that had occurred to them during the “meeting of all things” on the 11^th – that the prophecy referring to the “street of kings” could be a reference to King’s Road in the Nobles’ Quarter.

Feeling that they otherwise had a dearth of solid leads – and reflecting on the fact that Elestra had probably had a very close encounter with certain death when she had attempted to follow a similar lead on Brandywine Street by herself – they decided to head up to King’s Road together.

When they arrived, however, they realized they really had no idea what they were looking for.  The prophecy said: Arrived too late, the act has been done. The wind was against them, letters intercepted on their way. The conspirators were fourteen of a party. By the street of kings shall these enterprises by undertaken.

“Arrived too late?” Elestra said. “Does that mean we already missed it?”

Tee frowned. “Maybe. But even if we haven’t, it sounds like this is something that’s going to happen here. So unless we just happen to be here at the right time, I’m not sure what we’re going to see.”

In the Nobles’ Quarter, there were two major thoroughfares running away from the Dalenguard – Crown Street to the south and King’s Road to the north. Near the Dalenguard, King’s Road was filled with a variety of expensive shops, restaurants, and other storefronts dedicated to serving the rich and decadent tastes of the major merchant houses: Moleshan’s, The Jewel, Buckingham’s, The Dry Easel, and the like.

Further to the north, however, King’s Road ran past a number of merchant estates maintained by the major merchant house – Dallimothan, Nagel, and Rau – along with a number of other mansions, including Castle Shard.

Their particular attention was drawn to the Crown Theater – far enough to the north not to be lost in the sea of businesses near the Dalenguard, yet something more than enigmatic, luxurious, and inaccessible estate.

Making inquiries at the theater’s box office, they learned that the current production was The Merchant Warlord – a lavish opera telling the historical tale of Nulara Aretari, the warlord who married into the Aretari merchant family and served as the original First Commander of the nascent Mercenary Army during the Battle of Salesia, helping to create the modern nation of Arathia. Tickets were 25 gold crowns, a staggering sum that left Tee gaping.

A few minutes after they left the Crown Theater, the group was approached by a pair of city guardsmen. Upon reflection, they realized that they looked rather out of place among the pervading opulence of the Nobles’ Quarter, and that wandering openly up and down the length of King’s Road had probably attracted the wrong sorts of attention.

Tee flirtatiously talked the guards off them – weaving some tale about wanting to see a show at the Crown Theater – but the group decided that, since they didn’t seem to be accomplishing anything any way, it was probably time for them to leave. They returned to Midtown and then split up to go their separate ways.

TOR’S MORNING

Tor returned to the Bull and Bear Armory, where he found Iltumar manning the shop. After exchanging a few pleasantries, he asked Iltumar if Hirus was about.

“He’s upstairs tending to Sholum,” Iltumar said. “I’ll go get him. Can you keep an eye on things?”

Before Tor really had a chance to respond, Iltumar had bounded through the door in the back of the shop. Tor could hear him running up the stairs.

The shop was empty when Iltumar left, but a few moments later a young, blond-haired woman came in through the door. Tor suddenly felt himself to be bearing a responsibility he wasn’t sure how to discharge. He awkwardly explained to the woman that the shopkeep had just stepped out, but would be back in just a moment.

The woman nodded and began casually perusing the various weapons hanging along one wall. Tor kept a wary eye on her, but she didn’t seem to be doing anything suspicious. A few minutes later, Hirus and Iltumar came downstairs.

Iltumar moved to assist the woman who had been waiting, while Tor and Hirus stepped outside to have a private word. Tor ascertained that Iltumar had duties around the shop until midday, but after that would be free. Tor offered to take Iltumar riding with him after he’d finished his duties, if that would be all right with Hirus.

Hirus smiled. He thought that Iltumar would like that a great deal. Tor told him to let Iltumar know, and that he would be back at noon to pick him up.

Hirus went back into the Bull and Bear. Tor grabbed a carriage at the mouth of Delver’s Square and rode it to the alley off Yarrow Street where they had met with the enigmatic information broker known as Shim. Within mere moments of walking down the alley, he was rewarded with the sight of Shim slipping between the cracks of the wall.

“Master Tor,” Shim said with the sound of an unseen smile in his voice. “A pleasure to see you again. What can I help you with?”

For a minimal fee, Tor arranged for one of Shim’s men – whoever they might be – to keep an eye on him for the next few hours.

“You want me to keep an eye on… you?” Shim said, slightly bemused.

“That’s right,” Tor said. Although he didn’t tell Shim his exact suspicions, he suspected that the Brotherhood might be keeping Iltumar under observation. If they were, he wanted to know about it.

Leaving Shim’s alley, Tor returned to the Bull and Bear. Iltumar was waiting for him with an excited grin on his face.

“Have you ever jousted before?” Tor asked him as they stepped back out into the square.

Iltumar shook his head.

“Do you have a horse?”

Iltumar shook his head.

“Have you ever ridden before?”

Iltumar shook his head.

“Okay,” Tor said. “Let’s start by getting you a horse.”

They went to the stables behind the Ghostly Minstrel. Tor said hello to Blue and patted him on the nose, and then made some quick arrangements to rent a horse for Iltumar.

As they rode north along Lower God Row – Tor easing into the comfortable familiarity of the saddle and Iltumar awkwardly trying to stay on his mount – Tor gently tried to broach Iltumar’s thoughts.

“How have you been?”

Iltumar shrugged.

“Hirus has been worried about you.”

Iltumar’s whole body tightened. “Is that why you asked me to ride with you?”

Tor backed off. Iltumar obviously wasn’t going to respond to direct inquiries about whatever was going on, so he would just have to reach out and leave his hand there in the hope that Iltumar would take it.

They rode out of the city through the North Gate and spent a little over three hours just riding through the open prairies around the city. Tor slowly coached the lad into a greater sense of confidence in the saddle, all the while trying to convince him – without saying as much – that, if Iltumar wanted adventure, all he had to do was ask.

When they were done, Tor returned to the Bull and Bear with a very sore – but very happy – Iltumar. He made arrangements, if Iltumar would like, to meet him again in a couple of days.

Once Iltumar had said his farewells, Tor rode Blue back to Shim’s alley.

“You were right,” Shim said. “You were followed.”

“By who?”

“A blond woman dressed in the robes of an Imperial priestess.”

“An Imperial priestess?” Tor frowned. “Where did she go?”

“She followed you to North Gate and then waited in the area until you returned. Then she trailed you back to Delver’s Square. After you left the kid, she hung around outside the Bull and Bear.”

Tor paid Shim and left.

ELESTRA’S MORNING

Elestra decided that she wanted to ask around town about the Brotherhood after all. “I’ll just be careful,” she said to herself.

And she was. Poking her nose into all the right places and asking discreet questions, she learned that an organization calling itself the Brotherhood of Ptolus was quietly recruiting young men and women with idealistic-sounding jingo. She ran into a couple of walls, but eventually made contact with Jamill – a member of the Brotherhood with strange tattoos, numerous scars, long black hair, and the sunken eyes of a shivvel addict.

Elestra voiced interest in joining the Brotherhood, but Jamill wasn’t willing to talk about it until they were in “a more private place”. They agreed to meet at a tavern called the Onyx Spider on Tavern Row at two o’clock.

To kill the time, Elestra grabbed some newssheets and started asking around about recent events in the city. After spending several days in Ghul’s Labyrinth, she was still feeling a little disconnected.

On the 12^th, a man named Doonhin – a salt merchant in the South Market – was accused of killing his wife by throwing her off the Stormwrought Campanile (a freestanding belltower in the Temple District that’s said to be a sanctuary from bad omens, ill luck, storms, and evil magic). Doonhin has been pleading his innocence, claiming to have been magically charmed by a sorcerer.

On the 13^th, there had been another Flayed Man killing. This one had taken place in the Guildsman’s District, suggesting that the killer might be moving out of the Warrens.

And only a few hours earlier, around noon, the Rat’s Nest – a pub on Tavern Row – had been vandalized.

DOMINIC’S MORNING

Dominic spent the morning shopping. He bought Tee a bouquet of flowers and a charming necklace for her birthday, delivering them to her room at the Ghostly Minstrel. The gifts brought a huge smile to Tee’s face, and she thanked him profusely.

Dominic also stopped by Myraeth’s Oddities and bought a scroll describing a magical ritual which could be used to deliver short messages over long distances. He hoped that Ranthir might be able to learn the ritual and improve the group’s ability to communicate during times of separation. After delivering Tee’s birthday presents, he crossed the hall and knocked on Ranthir’s door.

“I have a present for you, Ranthir!”

Ranthir quirked an eyebrow. “You know it’s not my birthday, right?”

NEXT:
Running the Campaign: Background to Foreground – Campaign Journal: Session 26D
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 26B: A Disposition of Treasure

There were three main problems to overcome: The sheer weight of the arcane equipment and precious metals. The pit of chaos warping the hallway. And the difficulty of lifting the material out of the basement here at Greyson House.

Out of everything, the “Drill of the Banewarrens” was going to prove the most difficult: Everything else could be mostly parceled up into smaller bundles, but the drill was both bulky and weighed several thousand pounds all by itself.

“Could we just sell the location of the drill to somebody?” Elestra asked.

“Like House Erthuo?” Tee said. “I doubt they’d be all that interested considering what just happened.”

“How can you make encumbrance fun?”

You can’t.

But you also can’t make hit points fun, and for much the same reason.

Hit points are just a number: It goes up. It goes down. At a certain value you might suffer penalties. At another you fall unconscious.

So, too, with encumbrance: The number goes up. The number goes down. At a certain value you suffer penalties. At another you can’t carry any more.

Hit points and encumbrance are simple gauges, and you can’t make them “fun” for the same reason you can’t make the gas gauge on your car fun.

But driving a car? That can be fun. And so is combat in D&D and a lot of other roleplaying games that use hit points.

The gauge isn’t fun. It’s just a gauge. But the system in which that gauge is used – for which, in fact, that gauge may be an essential part – can be all kinds of fun.

So the better question is:

“Why do we want to track encumbrance?”

Encumbrance is often most useful in expedition-based play: You put together the resources for an expedition, then expend those resources on the expedition to maximize your returns.

Encumbrance is, in large part, a budget. Without a budget, the solution is always “bring everything,” which is kind of like playing 52-card draw poker: Without limited resources, there is no challenge.

(Tangentially, one interesting facet of such play in 1974 D&D, because it had a system for resolving characters fleeing from combat, is jettisoning equipment in order to pick up speed in flight-pursuit situations. It became a unique way for bulk resource management to impact combat-based play.)

This kind of gameplay does become obfuscated if the encumbrance system is unwieldy and difficult or fiddly to use. (Imagine if hit points, for example, could only be tracked by keeping an exhaustive list of forty or fifty different individual entries on your character sheet. Combat would almost certainly become a slog.) Unfortunately, a lot of encumbrance systems are unwieldy and difficult to use, with the result that many groups simply ignore it (either decisively or by default through “close enough” fudging).

What you want, of course, is an encumbrance system that’s easy to use so that encumbrance-based play will effortlessly integrate into your play. Correctly designed slot-based systems, like Encumbrance By Stone, for example, can make tracking nitty gritty encumbrance as easy as writing down your equipment list.

THE OTHER HALF OF THE EXPEDITION

Prepping the resource pool for an expedition and then expending those resources efficiently in order to maximize your success is the front half of an adventure.

The other half of the adventure is returning home with what you’ve gained, which, in the case of D&D, is usually treasure.

We’ve talked about this a bit before, but creating bulky, difficult-to-transport treasure (and/or putting it in places where it’s difficult to extract it) can create its own unique challenges. We’ve seen the players here come up with a creative solution for disposing of the orrery, and now they’re being challenged once again with the Drill of the Banewarrens and some of the other treasure.

(And this stuff is all just a few hundred feet under a major city. Stick it in the middle of a jungle and watch what happens!)

“But, Justin, challenge isn’t really a big focus for my group! We’re much more interested in narrative, storytelling, and roleplaying!”

Drama is born of adversity.

And I don’t mean that you’re wrong or that you should value challenge-based gameplay more, I mean that in expedition-type stories encumbrance-based challenges are a fundamental part of the drama you’re looking for. (Look at, say, Indiana Jones trying to get the Ark of the Covenant out of Egypt.)

For example, a scene in which the players are roleplaying through the crushing guilt their characters are feeling because their decisions resulted in the deaths of innocent people that they feel responsible for? Grappling with the difficult dilemmas created by balancing expediency of liquidating their treasure against the responsibility of who’s benefiting from that treasure? This stuff is pure gold for dramatic play!

NEXT:
Campaign Journal: Session 26C – Running the Campaign: Running With Background Events
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 26B: A DISPOSITION OF TREASURE

August 24th, 2008
The 13th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

The bodies of Faeliel and the other Erthuo scholars were gone, and the Erthuo mercenaries had gone with them. Reconvening in the dilapidated living room of Greyson House, there was an involved discussion revolving around how they could go about getting the rest of the bulky valuables out of the complex below.

There were three main problems to overcome: The sheer weight of the arcane equipment and precious metals. The pit of chaos warping the hallway. And the difficulty of lifting the material out of the basement here at Greyson House.

Out of everything, the “Drill of the Banewarrens” was going to prove the most difficult: Everything else could be mostly parceled up into smaller bundles, but the drill was both bulky and weighed several thousand pounds all by itself.

“Could we just sell the location of the drill to somebody?” Elestra asked.

“Like House Erthuo?” Tee said. “I doubt they’d be all that interested considering what just happened.”

In the end, they decided on a complex scheme involving fifteen hired laborers to move the drill; an architect to design the supports and ramps necessary to get it up into Greyson House; and then spells from Dominic and Elestra to quickly create the structure itself.

It was going to take some time to pull all of that together. Plus, they still had to get rid of the chaositech items. (“And the sooner the better,” Tee said.)

So Agnarr headed back down into Ghul’s Labyrinth to keep an eye on things. Dominic and Elestra headed back to the Ghostly Minstrel to rest up and prepare the proper spells.

THE HALLOWED VAULT

Tee and Ranthir headed towards the location in the Temple District they had been given by Aoska when they had asked for a secure place to store the tainted items.

They found the address wedged into a narrow gap on the Street of a Million Gods. The door opened to reveal a small, largely unadorned room with little more than a door draped with a beaded curtain. An elderly man sat in a worn-looking chair.

They were momentarily confused, but once they had identified themselves to the elderly man they were led through the beaded curtain and down a narrow flight of stone stairs.

At the bottom of the stairs they emerged into a long chamber lit with a pale blue light. A shallow pool of holy water ran the length of the room. The walls were covered in niches of various shapes and sizes, all of them obscured by sheens of silvery energy… except for one, towards which the elderly man pointed.

Taking her cue, Tee approached the niche and placed within it the tainted items she carried. As she drew back her hands, the niche quickly sealed itself with the same silvery energy as the others.

Tee turned to the man. “Thank you.”

He smiled, nodded, and led them back out onto the street.

THE TROUBLE WITH ILTUMAR

Tor returned to the Ghostly Minstrel. As he came through the door, Tellith called him over to the front desk. Apparently Hirus Feek, one of the owners of the Bull and Bear Armory next door, had stopped by and asked if Tee or Elestra or any of their companions could spare a few minutes to meet with him.

Tor turned around and headed back out into Delver’s Square. As he entered the Bull and Bear, Hirus – a skinny, balding man with a thin gray hair – smiled at him.

Tor quickly explained that Tee and Elestra weren’t with him, but he had been the first to return to the Ghostly Minstrel and he wasn’t sure when the others might return.

“That’s all right,” Hirus said. “I just needed to speak with one of you about Iltumar.”

“About Iltumar?” Tor said. “Is everything all right?”

“I’m not sure,” Hirus said, frowning. “He’s been hanging out with some shady people. Ruffians. I don’t like it. I was hoping one of you might be able to speak with him. Straighten him out. He looks up to you.”

“Any idea who they are, exactly?” Tor asked.

Hirus shook his head. “Not really. But I heard Ilutmar say something about ‘the Brotherhood’ the other day. For some reason, I didn’t like the sound of that.”

“Is Iltumar here now?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“When will he back?”

“He’s supposed to be back here by 10 o’clock.”

Tor agreed to come back then and try to talk with Iltumar. Then he headed back towards the Ghostly Minstrel.

Coming out of the Bull and Bear, however, he spotted Elestra and Dominic coming across the square. He called out to them and, as they headed into the Ghostly Minstrel together, quickly filled them in on the Iltumar situation.

Tee arrived as they were grabbing some food and drink from the bar. She told them that she had sent messengers to Castle Shard, Jevicca (as a representative of the Dreaming Apothecary), House Erthuo, and even a place called Avery’s Armory with details on the drill, construct parts, and adamantine – basically every place she thought might be interested in them.

As Tee was finishing up her explanation, Iltumar entered the inn. Elestra, seizing the opportunity called him over.

“What are you doing?” Tee hissed to her while giving Iltumar a friendly smile and wave.

Elestra waved her off. “Trust me, I’ll explain later.”

“Tee! Elestra!” Iltumar grinned. “Master Tor!”

“How are you doing, Iltumar?” Elestra asked.

“Very well!” he said. “Very well indeed.”

“That’s good.”

Tee decided to make the best of it. “I’ve got an answer for your riddle.”

“Really?” Iltumar said. “Already?”

“I couldn’t help thinking about it,” Tee said. “Is the answer a fish and the ocean?”

Iltumar pursed his lips. “That’s… close.”

“Huh,” Tee said. “Then it must be a fish and the river.”

“That’s right!” Iltumar clapped his hands. “Do you have a riddle for me?”

Tee shook her head. And then her eyes widened. As Iltumar had raised his hands to clap, she’d spotted a new ring on his finger: A ring marked with the symbol of a broken square.

She had a ring just like that in her bag of holding. They had found it in Pythoness House as part of a cache of artifacts belonging to the chaos cultists. Tee glanced over towards Elestra, and she could tell that she’d seen it, too.

Thinking quickly, Tee smiled broadly. “Oh! That’s a nice ring! Where did you get it?”

Iltumar suddenly seemed very nervous. “What? Oh, this ring? Just… around.”

“Really? I’d love to have a ring like that!” Tee was putting everything she had into a flirtatious voice. “Do you think I could have it?”

“No,” Iltumar said sharply. “I can’t.”

“Oh…” Tee suddenly got very sad.

“It’s just… Somebody gave it to me.”

“Oh,” Tee said, brightening slightly. “Another girl?”

But it wasn’t working. Iltumar babbled slightly and then clammed up. Tee was left promising to come up with a new riddle for him soon, and then he went off to get a drink.

Seizing the opportunity, the others quickly filled Tee in on what Hirus had told him.

“Do we think there’s a connection between the ‘Brotherhood’ and the chaos cultists?” Elestra asked.

“There must be,” Tee said.

“What should be do?”

“I don’t think there’s anything we can do,” Tee said. “At least not right now. We’ll let Tor talk to him later.”

MAKING THE SALE

Tor and Dominic headed back to Greyson House to rejoin Agnarr. Tor was uncomfortable with letting entirely unknown workers handle the material directly (they might steal stuff). So, taking crates from the basement of Greyson House, he started packing up as much of the loose material as he could.

Tee, meanwhile, received a letter from Avery’s Armory, informing her that he was always interested in sources of adamantine and would be willing to pay market value for anything she might have (which she estimated to be worth a few thousand gold).

Later that evening, Tee was able to track Jevicca down in the common room of the Ghostly Minstrel. When she showed her the schematics of the Drill of the Banewarrens, Jevicca became very interested and immediately offered 10,000 gold pieces on behalf of the Inverted Pyramid.

Tee thought that was a decent offer, but told Jevicca she would need to check with the others first (since they all had equal stakes in the matter).

It was perhaps well that she did, because a few minutes later a letter from Castle Shard arrived. In response, Tee caught a carriage.

It turned out that Lord Zavere was also primarily interested in the drill. He offered to not only purchase both the drill and the construct parts for a total of 13,000 gold pieces, but to take care of transporting all of it, as well. Plus, he would deliver the adamantine directly to Avery’s Armory for them.

It was an offer that significantly simplified things for them. (And saved them a large chunk of money.) Tee accepted it on the spot.

After leaving Castle Shard, Tee sent a messenger to Jevicca to inform her that she had accepted a different offer. Then she stopped by Avery’s Armory personally to confirm the deal with him. Once that was done, she headed back to Greyson House and told Tor to stop prepping crates: It had all been taken care of.

KADMUS AND THE GATE

(09/14/790)

The night passed quietly.

The next morning, a gate appeared in the middle of the corridor. Kadmus stepped through the portal, greeted them cordially, and, with one hand, lifted the impossibly heavy adamantine drill.

They were universally taken aback by this prodigious display of strength.

“Remind me never to pick a fight with him,” Tor said.

It took Kadmus about fifteen minutes to move everything through the gate. When he was finished, Zavere stepped through himself. Handing Tee a pouch filled with platinum, he promised to have the adamantine delivered to Avery by noon at the latest.

Zavere stepped back through the gate. A moment later, it disappeared.

NEXT:
Running the Campaign: Treasure Logistics – Campaign Journal: Session 26C
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 26A: Tor’s Training

After several mournful minutes in which little was said, they quickly decided that someone needed to return to the surface and notify House Erthuo of the death of Faeliel and the others.

Dominic and Ranthir took that heavy task on themselves. Tor left with them, needing to keep an appointment later in the morning.

The walk back to the surface took a little more than twenty minutes. Then they took carriages in opposite directions: Tor back towards Midtown; Ranthir and Dominic towards the Nobles’ Quarter.

In The Art of Pacing, I explain running an RPG for a split party is basically the easy mode for handling pacing as a GM: Because you no longer need to wait for the end of a scene before cutting back and forth between the groups, you not only have a whole bunch of new pacing techniques you can use, you’re also freed up from needing to honor the structure of the current scene (since you’ll be cutting back to it later).

In Random GM Tip: Splitting the Party, I delve a bit deeper into the practical side of splitting the party and share some basic best practices.

But if splitting the party is the easy mode for pacing, then splitting the party in an urban environment is the easy mode for splitting the party.

First, in my experience it’s much easier to convince groups to split up in the first place in an urban environment. Even groups that adamantly profess, “Never split the party!” will often still be comfortable doing it in an urban environment where (a) the risk seems minimal and (b) typical tasks so readily lend themselves to multitasking. (“You sell those mage-touched swords we took from the bandits and I’ll arrange for our rooms while the wizard gets his reagents. We can meet at the Onyx Spider afterwards.”)

WHO FIRST?

When the group splits up, whose scene should you frame first?

In general, what you’re looking for is the group whose scene is most likely to be interrupted the fastest. This might be:

• A complicated decision.
• A skill check.
• Some sort of logistical calculation.
• A dramatically appropriate moment.
• An unexpected rules look-up.

And so forth. Basically, any of the reasons you’d normally cut from one scene to another.

The reason for this is pretty straightforward: You’re dipping your toes in the first scene, and then as quickly as possible cutting away to another group. Not only does this keep everyone engaged, but you’re getting to the time-saving advantage of multitasking as quickly possible (with Group 1 continuing to resolve stuff in their scene while you’ve turned your attention to Group 2).

The slightly more advanced technique here is to first check for effective crossovers (those moments when elements or outcomes from one scene have an impact on another scene) and make sure you line them up.

For example, in this session I knew that the House Erthuo guards were likely going to stumble onto Tee, Agnarr, and Elestra with the corpses of the Erthuo researchers. This suggested a natural sequence in which:

• Ranthir and Dominic arrived at House Erthuo.
• Tee, Agnarr, and Elestra are discovered by the House Erthuo guards, resulting in a cliffhanger.
• Cut away from the cliffhanger back to House Erthuo, where Cordelia arrives and explains what the guards are doing there.
• Cut back to Ghul’s Labyrinth, to finish resolving the confrontation.

HOW LONG?

As you start juggling multiple scenes playing out across a city, you’ll need to answer the question of how all these scenes relate to each other in terms of time.

First, remember that you don’t have to keep time perfectly synced between the groups. In fact, you’ll almost always want to NOT do that.

For example, maybe the Erthuo guards showed up 30 minutes before Ranthir and Dominic arrived at House Erthuo and the whole interaction between the guards and the dungeon group “actually” played out before anything of interest happened with Ranthir and Dominic. But that would have been dramatically far less interesting. And, even more importantly, you want to scale time to balance table time.

The key thing is not to push this so far that PCs can’t respond to things they reasonably should be able to respond to. (For example, if Ranthir and Dominic would have been able to warn the other PCs that the Erthuo guards were coming, it wouldn’t have been fair to frame things in a sequence that would prevent them from doing that.) But, generally speaking, you’ve got a fairly large fudge factor and the players will generally support you by not deliberately doing anything that violates established causality.

(And if something does go askew, a minor retcon is rarely going to hurt anything.)

Speaking of the fudge factor, you’re usually going to find it easier to juggle multiple groups doing stuff at the same time if you “chunk” time. You can kinda think of this as establishing ad hoc turns, with each discrete group usually being able to do one thing per “turn.”

I usually think in terms of:

• the hour,
• the watch (4 hours), or
• the half day (morning/afternoon)

Which mental construct I find most useful depends on how “meaty” the PCs’ planned actions are. If someone is planning to gather information down at the Docks, I might think to myself, “That’ll take about half a day.” And so the active question becomes: What is everyone else doing with that half day?

Once you’ve collected those declarations, it’s not hard to become sequencing how things should resolve.

Here’s my final tip: If the group has fractured into three or four or more groups (often in the form of individuals scattering to the winds), write down their declarations. Just jot them down in your notebook. You don’t have to get fancy or specific with this, just a quick one or two word reminder:

• Tee/Agnarr/Elestra: packing
• Tor: training
• R/D: Erthuo

Just enough that you can re-orient yourself with a glance at he end of each scene.

NEXT:
Campaign Journal: Session 26B – Running the Campaign: Treasure Logistics
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

SESSION 26A: TOR’S TRAINING

August 24th, 2008
The 13th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

After several mournful minutes in which little was said, they quickly decided that someone needed to return to the surface and notify House Erthuo of the death of Faeliel and the others.

Dominic and Ranthir took that heavy task on themselves. Tor left with them, needing to keep an appointment later in the morning.

The walk back to the surface took a little more than twenty minutes. Then they took carriages in opposite directions: Tor back towards Midtown; Ranthir and Dominic towards the Nobles’ Quarter.

When Ranthir and Dominic arrived at the estate of House Erthuo, they still weren’t sure what they were going to stay. Clambering out of the carriage they approached the two guards on duty at the gate.

“What’s your business here?” The guard had an edgy suspicion in his voice. It wasn’t until that moment that they realized what a dismal sight they must present – dusty and bloody from their delving.

“We bring news for Cordelia Erthuo.”

“News of what?”

“Of Erthuo workers who were retrieving an orrery. She’ll know what we mean.”

The guard nodded to his comrade, who left through the gate. They stood in uneasy silence for several minutes before Cordelia came rushing up.

MEANWHILE…

Tee, Agnarr, and Elestra had remained behind in the bloodwight complex to watch over the bodies.

Agnarr and Tee took the time to go back to the hall where the ghulworg had stacked the more cumbersome treasures from the Laboratory of the Beast, confirming that nothing had been taken by Ribok or the other servants of the Surgeon in the Shadows. Nothing was missing, although it was clear that the items had been rifled through.

The bluesteel door had been smashed open, proving that they were not completely impassable. But in the process, the door had also been rendered useless. There was nothing preventing the Surgeon’s men – or other intruders – from returning to these tunnels. So Tee made the decision to gather up the few remaining items of taint and chaositech from the obsidian temple, intending to take them to the safety of the facility Aoska had mentioned to them on the 12^th. They also took the time to strip the adamantine from the ghulworg’s skeleton, stacking it with the other items in the hall.

A little over forty minutes had passed by the time they returned to where Elestra had been waiting. As they were walking up, Elestra suddenly heard footsteps approaching from the direction of Greyson House.

It was still much too soon for Ranthir or Dominic to be returning, so they quickly moved into defensive positions: Tee kept a watchful eye focused in the opposite direction, while Elestra, Agnarr, and Seeaeti flanked the passage from which the footsteps were approaching.

“Do you want to send your dog down to the stuff we gathered?” Elestra asked. “You know, to guard it?”

Agnarr looked flatly at her. “No. I don’t.”

And then they fell silent, awaiting the approach of whoever – or whatever – was coming…

… they were House Erthuo’s men. Six of them, dressed in the livery of the house mercenaries.

MEANWHILE AT HOUSE ERTHUO…

Cordelia came rushing up. “Master Ranthir! Master Dominic! You’ve come from Greyson House?”

They nodded. “Yes,” Ranthir said.

Cordelia couldn’t help noticing their melancholy. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m afraid… Your men are dead.”

Cordelia gasped. “All of them? What happened? Even the guards I just sent?”

“Yes— Wait… the guards you just sent?”

After several moments of confusion, they quickly realized that they must have crossed paths with the House Erthuo guards. Cordelia had sent them after Faeliel failed to report in.

“Oh dear,” Ranthir said. “I hope nothing unfortunate happens.”

Cordelia asked them to return to the orrery site and help with the recovery of the dead bodies so that they could be given proper rites.

“Of course.”

MEANWHILE AT THE ORRERY SITE…

“What happened here?” The House Erthuo mercenaries, taking in the sight of their dead housemates, were clearly suspicious – if not outright hostile.

Agnarr – his sword still raised above his head – opened his mouth to respond, but Tee quickly stepped forward. “They were killed by a man named Ribok who worked for the Surgeon in the Shadows.”

“Who?”

“He works for the Balacazars.”

They clearly recognized that name. “Why would they want to kill scholars?”

“They were just innocent bystanders,” Tee said.

“We think they were looking for chaositech!” Elestra blurted.

“Back that way,” Tee said. “Beyond a bluesteel door. That’s where we met them.”

“And who are you? What are you doing down here?”

“My name’s Tee,” she said. “This is Agnarr and Elestra. We were the ones who sold the location of the orrery to Cordelia.”

At that, the Erthuo mercenaries finally relaxed and lowered their weapons. Agnarr followed suit.

“What happened to the murderers?”

“We killed most of them,” Agnarr said.

“Except Ribok,” Tee said. “He escaped.”

The Erthuo mercenary grimaced. “Not for long, if I have anything to say about it.”

The three companions helped the Erthuo men gather up the bodies. Ranthir and Dominic arrived during this morbid work. It wasn’t long before the dead were being carried up the passage towards Greyson House.

TOR’S TRAINING

Instead of taking his carriage into Midtown, Tor had it turn aside on Golden Elm Way and pass into the Temple District. When he arrived at the Cathedral, he quickly headed to Sir Kabel’s office.

After a warm and cheerful greeting, Sir Kabel took him back across the Cathedral’s courtyard and up the Godswalk towards the Godskeep.

 “The Godskeep serves as the headquarters and training facilities for the Order of the Dawn,” Kabel explained. “In truth, it is a set of twin keeps which have been joined by the upper towers.” He pointed up to the colossal statue of Crissa atop the western keep and the matching statue of Athor atop the eastern keep, both looking north.

Crossing through the Godskeep gateyard, Kabel led Tor out the far side of the keep. There stood the Statues of the Six Gods – Itor, Itehl, Sarathyn, Sayl, Bahl, and Tohlen. Smaller than the colossi atop the keeps, these statues were nonetheless impressive, standing three times as high as Tor.

“These are the heart of our order, Tor. Only Vehthyl has no statue here at Godskeep, but that should not be considered any slight. We are all sworn to serve the Nine Gods.”

Sir Kabel then led Tor into the Godskeep itself, and began recounting the oral history of the Order.

TOR’S PRIMER – RELIGION IN BARUND

Tor was born in 757 YD at the height of the Twenty Year War between Seyrun and Barund. Among other things, the Twenty Year War triggered a religious schism within the Imperial Church. After Seyrun invaded Barund, the king of Barund refused to acknowledge the Edicts of the Novarch (as those edicts were closely associated with imperial power in Seyrun). An outright refutation of the Novarch, however, would have put the king on somewhat shaky ground: For six centuries, the Line of Kings had been recognized and legitimized as a divine bloodright dating back to the Holy Coronation performed by the Novarch in 127 YD.

So the king declared that the Novarch, while still the Living Voice of the Nine Gods, had no secular or religious authority over the lands controlled by the divine bloodright of the Barundian royal family.

The supreme leader of the Church in Barund had always been the Prelate of Barund. The Prelate of Barund had been appointed by the Novarch and had authority over the regional prelates of the church throughout Barund. Following the religious schism, however, the king of Barund – on the authority of his divine bloodright – promptly appointed his own Prelate of Barund.

Following the end of the Twenty Year War, the schism was at least partly repaired. However, even today, there are still two Prelates of Barund: One appointed by the King and the other appointed by the Novarch.

This is all to say that Tor was born into and grew up during the height of this religious tension.

TOR’S PRIMER – ORDERS OF KNIGHTHOOD

Any order of knighthood has three things in common:

1. They follow the Code of Law as laid down in the Book of Athor.
2. They adhere to the Martial Code as laid down in the Book of Itor.
3. They honor the Seven Compassions as laid down in the Book of Crissa.

The Code of Law is your bedrock “thou shalt not” stuff: Don’t murder, steal, enslave your brother, and so forth.

The Martial Code is essentially your standard chivalric ideal: Face your opponent fairly and honorably.

The Seven Compassions are a bit more philosophically complex, and are also referred to in some commentaries as the Seven Cares. The compassions are of the self, the companion, the stranger, the task, the thought, the memory, and the true. In other words, care for yourself, for your companions, and for strangers. Take care with what you do, what you think, and it shall be remembered. And if you can do all that, then you will know true compassion. (For most people, the Seven Compassions boil down to “be nice to people” and “think before you act”.)

Collectively these are also known as the Way of Knighthood.

TOR’S PRIMER – THE DEEDS OF HONOR

Although not an official part of the Way of Knighthood, the Deeds of Honor are intimately tied to the popular conception of “what it means to be a knight”.

The Deeds of Honor, as written in the Book of Itor, are a collection of legendary tales of valor, honor, bravery, and faith. In some ways they serve as a kind of “scorecard” or exemplar of heroic actions. “He lives his life by the deeds of honor” is a common saying.

TOR’S PRIMER – THE ORDER OF THE DAWN

The modern city of Ptolus was founded by a man named Shay Orridar, the head of the Orridar merchant family (now defunct). It is said that the inspiration of the city was based on the research of the loremaster Gerris Hin, who was studying the ruins of an ancient city built on the same location.

As a result of Hin’s researches, Ptolus also became one of the early centers for the rejuvenation of Pantheon worship. The Knights of the Golden Cross, founded by Hin on the basis of his research into the old traditions which predated modern history, championed the cause of the Nine Gods.

The Knights of the Dawn were founded perhaps a quarter of a century after the Knights of the Golden Cross. The Knights of the Dawn, like the Knights of the Golden Cross, were dedicated to the Pantheon. The two groups became rivals of a sort, but the Knights of the Dawn became ascendant when they became the official protectors and guardians of the Imperial Church in Ptolus – an official Order of the Church.

The Order of the Dawn is now primarily a defensive knighthood, there to protect the temples, holdings, and interests of the Church. Only occasionally are they sent on quests, and then only with the direct blessing of the Silver Fatar.

The current leader of the order is Sir Kabel Dathim, who answers directly to the Silver Fatar of Athor.

NEXT:
Running the Campaign: Urban Splits – Campaign Journal: Session 26B
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index