WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY: Running Nightwick Abbey 02

I have just completed DMing my fifth session of Nightwick Abbey, an OSE megadungeon authored by Miranda Elkins and illustrated by Chris Huth. These posts will be a continuing effort to document this campaign I dubbed Where Hell Comes To Prey. I might try to keep the subsequent summaries to just highlights instead of following my usual pattern of room-to-room player reports.

WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY

Our Sunday Congregation:

Miriam M1
Adum F1
Froggie Fr1
Callus C1
Asterion F1

Session 5 FEB 18 Highlights: 

• Evil Still Prowls: In Nightwick Village, graves continue to be upturned and woodsmen killed; two hirelings are taken on by the party; off to the Abbey
  
  
• YOU ARE PREY!: Discussions with amalgams of animal and human are held; PC attempt to build sympathy and trust but instead are betrayed and led to a pit-trap; one hireling dies and Miriam is grievously wounded; a fight ensues and Froggie is mortally wounded but quick action to bind wounds save him from death; several pieces of jewelry are collected
  
  
• Holy Water, Holy $*%^&!: After dropping Froggy off at the church, the party returns with a new magician, an astrologer, and student of Saffory’s Principles of Arcane Dueling; they decide to drop into the pit to explore some hallways; their exploration leads them to a room full of dead all bowed in silent prayer– broken by the cleric’s attempt to turn them; at failure, the dead swordmen’s draw their weapons and charge; holy water, baptizing fire, and some mighty hammer swings; however the Abbey takes its due with a vicious sword through the gut of one of the fighters (DM note: Nat 20 for 6 damage)

POST-MORTEM

Communing With The Abbey: It was around session 03 that I finally was able to dial in the feel that I wanted out of Nightwick. For example in Session 03, I had restocked the West Tower Entrance with 9 Blind Dead since the room also has a statue, I had the players open a door to some sorta of ceremony interrupted. I gave the players a space to negotiate and they bluffed their way into one character being possessed. This encounter contains the eeriness and danger that as a player I've always felt the Abbey has- a lot of high-risk possibilities that drive tense action.

Perfect Timing (With Adjustments): And speaking of tense action, I think the 100 minutes continues to be a good format. It plays quick and I don't feel overly exhausted at the end of it. I do think however, I might need to start caping players out at a table of 4-6 players. Because I am trying to keep to a brisk 100-minute period, it does help to go more times around the table, more rooms are explored, and more encounters can be had. When the table is 7,8, or 9 players, you can't squeeze as much decision-making in the same time-period.

Session Worksheet: I hope to post a little later, but I do have a session worksheet that I have figured out works to keep me on track. The front is devoted to the following

• Downtime- list the downtime options available
• Village Happenings- how gossip about the PCs and about factions moving in the background
• Hirelings- a few hirelings that are available
• Any additional item

On the back, I write the players' names and just use it to take notes as the session progresses, including jotting down enemy HP totals and treasure gained. I am thinking about adapting Gus L's Tomb Robbers of the Crystal Frontier Expedition Sheet which includes a marching order tracker, turn tracker, and treasure gained.

Downtime in Zyan:  Sticking to the motto of using what I already own, I leafed through this 'zine to understand what I could employ when a player wanted to invest in Rupert vanToad's trading company. I decided to treat as a sorta institution:

• Tier 1: A greater number of basic goods
• Tier 2: +1 additional suits of armor
• Tier 3: Can be treated as a "city" in terms of types of weapons/armor/equipment found there

Nightwick is still a fantastic dungeon to run and I can't wait to get to it! If you are interested, Miranda is running her new Vance-meets-Dunsany crawl Cuccanga over on Start Playing

WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY: Running Nightwick Abbey 03

 

I have just completed DMing my 10th session of Nightwick Abbey, an OSE megadungeon authored by Miranda Elkins and illustrated by Chris Huth. These posts will be a continuing effort to document this campaign I dubbed Where Hell Comes To Prey. If these horrid halls of Nightwick Abbey call to you, then please join Miranda Elkins' Patreon!

WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY

Our Sunday Congregation:

Miriam Cleric 2
Froggie Frogling 1
Shiva Rogue 1
Grog Fighter 1

Hirelings: Hyme (barber)

Session 10 APRIL 28 Highlights: 

A DUEL!: The cleric Miriam was challenged by a fellow seminary student who believed he was wronged in the past. Miriam chose Grog as his second who then proceeded to kill the challenger in one blow.

HARTS WITH HEARTS: Down in the dungeon, a trio of deermen offered, for inexplicable reasons, a bowl of still-beating hearts and encouraged the PCs to eat them like apples. Scattered hearts and scattered deer heads resulted.

A TERRIBLE END IN EITHER DIRECTION: The probing of a dead body causes the irruption of gas which seems to paralyze Grog. As Miriam watches over the fallen fighter, Shiva and Froggie travel south until they stumble into a dining hall. They quickly leave as an impossibly large bulk squeezes itself into the hall. The party travels north and stumbles upon a room whose floor is covered in paper. Froggie leaps in to grab a few pages and also earns wounds as if some terrible invisible claws ranked his leg. 

POST-MORTEM

At session 10, how do I still feel about Nightwick? Love it! A player asked me if I still enjoy DMing it after playing in ~90+ sessions as a PC- (again) love it. It is fun to be on the other side of the screen and to be the master of the maligned forces.

Here is what I think I am doing right:

"100 Minutes of Megadungeon Madness": When I started this series, I discussed how I was going to attempt a 120-minute setup by starting 10 minutes after the hour, run 50 minutes, break 10 minutes, and run a final 50 minutes. Around sessions 7 and 8, I started doubting about this format. I wondered if I was cramming a megadungeon into too short of a time period mainly because the players were not covering much distance in the dungeon. If they had an encounter at the beginning of the session, it was possible to have a chunk of time gone. I mulled over if I needed to change combat or allow all weapons to do average damage or if I should shortcut (undercut) some part of the BX D&D system. 

But in the end, after playing 90+ sessions of Nightwick, I know the BX chassis and the dungeon crawling aspect works. There is no need to change that, but I did wonder if I could change some other aspects of how I run the game. Plus the players were having fun.

Pre-gen PCs/Hirelings: Gotta keep doing this. When I have new players join, rolling up characters takes the most time, especially since there are some delightfully unique takes on the character classes in Nightwick. Plus, pre-gen PCs help players that die due to vampire bats or blood puddings get back into the game quickly.

Treasure Maps: These maps are actually a staple of classic play. As evidenced by the presence of treasure maps in OD&D and under Scrolls in BX D&D (B46). These maps will help enhance exploration but will come at (1) a resource cost and/or (2) require some deciphering either because they will have incomplete information or perhaps some riddles.

Light Variation: Recently, I started to use the light rule found in DURF. In short, basically, the PC roller a pool of light dice, "1"s are removed, and if all dice are removed then an encounter happens in the dark. I like it. It actually touched off a meaningful discussion about light. If the pool is equal to or larger than the number of party members, they win initiative ties in the dungeon.

Here is what I think I can improve on:

Use The 5 Senses: I really need to bring more of these into play in Nightwick. Just to add a little bit more to the world that I'm painting. And often in horror, you know something is wrong before you see "it". Like realizing the yellow rush matts on the floor are woven out of human hair or that the sound of water trickling is accompanied by the smell of blood.

Combat Variety and Objectives: I have written two particularly good posts on how to vary bands of enemies and also on objectives in combat. I need to be better about implementing them in the Abbey. In terms of bands of enemies, variety not only keeps it interesting for me the DM, but also provides a tactical opportunity for the PCs as well. I kinda think back to Darkest Dungeon- it would be fun to have something that vomits on players. Variety can also act as a way to further describe the Abbey instead of skeletons with swords, cultists with...swords, or beastmen with...swor...axes! For instance, deermen could be something like:

• (1-2 hp) Range x Special Deerman Caller Its piercing shrieks disorient enemies; the initiative die is a d4   
• (3-5 hp) Range x Dmg Deerman Hunter Uses a bow
• (6-7 hp) Melee x Dmg Deerman Stalker  Uses a battleaxe
• (8 hp) Melee x Special Crown-o-Horn Charges into battle with head heavy with a tangle of antlers & tusks    

While the Abbey is murderous, in my mind it's also interested in capture, corruption, and contamination. All these things might require a target to be alive. I'd like to force myself to slow down and give each group of enemies an objective. And actually, since starting this post, I've actually run Session 11 of Nightwick and it worked great- I had horrible rat things go after the nearest NPC and a group of Devilmen demanded the cleric hand over their holy symbol to leave the Abbey. Interesting the cleric wouldn't do that, so the devilmen ended up slaying one NPC and breaking several bones of a PC-- then they handed over the holy symbol.

"Quests": While megadungeons are eternal, my time and my player's time is not so I'd like to avoid the campaign just having to stop dead in its tracks like a tv show that gets canceled mid-season. 

After seeking some advice from other DMs and consulting the blogs, the best solution is just to declare a set period of play. Since my players so far have really dug the little "quests" that organically pop-up, I decided to make some more. 

Nightwick Abbey has a lot of blank space where elements are present but not completely defined. This provides an excellent opportunity for the DM to carve some personalization out of the module. A case in point is the tome the players "decapitated" from its lectern, then spent the next few sessions trying to find a body to reattach it to by the request of Halfdan the Necromancer. Players loved it! And now it earns them rumors.

Again since starting this post, during Session 11, I had a shadowy group approach the group to recover several more pages from a particularly violent area of the Abbey for a reward 100sp per person if at least 3 pages were recovered. A great opportunity for role-play, negotiation, and the PC to get a sense that they could have a first crack at understanding the knowledge.

In all, the players are still really engaged and are enthusiastically plunging head-first into each delve, so that is the best feedback a DM can have!

WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY: Running Nightwick Abbey 01

 

ill: Fernando FJL

Ill-met and hell-wrecked are these haunted halls of Nightwick Abbey. And now after years of wandering its menagerie of hubris, I too sit in one of its many seats of power and govern the machinations of the denizens and dead within.

In other words, with Miranda's blessing, I've started DM-ing Nightwick Abbey now that Levels 1-3 are out on Patreon and I have sufficiently delved into those levels enough that I won't spoil anything for myself.

To differentiate these posts from the Weeknights in Nightwick, I am going to try to concentrate a little on the prep of Nightwick. Try to provide insight on how I run a megadungeon campaign and more specifically how I am going to do that 100 minutes at a time at my local FLAGS.

Also, I have decided to dub this campaign Where Hell Comes To Prey in a similar vein to different runs of Spiderman or how anime series have different offshoots.

CAMPAIGN PREP

Campaign Binder: The first thing I did was prepare a 3-ring bind split into three sections: character generation, The Dark Country, Nightwick Abbey, and a separate denizens section. I threw in a copy of my DMing pamphlet to help with the running of the game- which I will hopefully markup in response to the particular needs of this campaign.

Campaign Format:  It is typical to think of a D&D campaign as being an 8-hour per-game affair that demands/requires everyone to show up for every game. This doesn't have to be the case. I think megadungeons in particular lend themselves to open-table games and I want to show that off.  In particular Nightwick Abbey, unlike Arden Vul and even well-known dungeons like Barrowmaze and Forbidden Caverns of Archia, is written and laid out with high DM-utility in mind. 

So I settled on running a "100-minute game"- really 120 minutes because of two 10-minute breaks. My aspirational goal is to make a regular habit of showing up at my game store on Sundays at 2:00 PM and run if 3 players will participate. Furthermore using BX D&D will help reduce some of the overhead.

Pre-generated Characters: Since I will be running a more brisk game, I wanted to get to the playing of D&D ASAP and to do that I turned to pre-generated characters. What is interesting about this is that its actually a bit of advice from OD&D: 

"Prior to the character selection by players it is necessary for the referee to roll three six-sided dice in order to rate each as to various abilities, and thus aid them

in selecting a role." 

Miranda has some pretty great classes in the Nightwick Abbey package. Notable to me are froglings and changlings which are this setting's "elves" but are humans stolen at birth by the fay. Miranda also has given the fighter some enhancements like cleave and ODDs two attacks with ranged weapons if the fighter has not moved. A couple of classes also have "half-class" extras if you roll properly.

So here were my starting 8 PCs: Graverobber, Magician, Fighter x2, Frogling, Cleric, Changling (Fair), and a Rogue.

What I Should Have Prepped: Jumping ahead. Okay given that I have been playing for two years now in the Miranda's Nightwick game and I thought I had a lot of the lore down, but I felt like when I ran the game I didn't quite give the start the "oomph" it required. But we were down in the Abbey soon enough.

WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY

Our Sunday Congregation: 

Steve, Graverobber

Colin, Cleric +follower

JP, Rogue

Down in the Abbey: Through the Fogbound Forest, the party treks deeper and deeper until the trees close in and the light wains further. Each Bogdani they pass instantly knows the direction they are heading and makes a small sign of protection.

BEHOLD! Nightwick Abbey!: When the treeline breaks, the party is confronted by an expanse of erry purple vine blanketing the ground around two ruined towers- the only visible portion of the dread abbey's ruined upper works.

West Tower then East Tower: After investigating the two towers, the party flips a coin and attempts entry through the West Tower trap door. Stuck. After a couple of futile attempts, they break their shovel off wedging the West trap door shut. East door it is!

The Toll of the Great Goblin Kingdom: The party turns southeast and after creeping through the dark hallway are hailed by two sets of luminous eyes in the dark: "50 silver to pass this way!" The party, having about 30 silver between them, is reluctant to empty their pockets. Negotiations end with the party promising to return with the proper and amount and creatures requiring an additional 10%.

(DM NOTE: The barracde is actually somewhere else and I transposed it here, but no worries with little slip ups like this because by its fictional nature, the Abbey can shift)

Sweet Leaf Room: The party doubles back and enters a northwestern door into a ransacked, sour-smelling room: Sweet Leaf was smoked here. The party turns north.

Hunting Wolves: In the flicking torchlight, this columned hall appears to show riders on horseback hunting women who run screaming in the woods. The party moves east and as they draw close hear piercing cries of what sound like deer. The party's graverobber and thief slip up on either side of the archway. The cleric and follower take cover behind two columns and call out a challenge to the accursed creatures. With the snort 3 deermen charge into the room! 

ill: Huth

With nice planning the PCs are able to backstab two deermen and the cleric + follower take down the third! Their effort is answered with arrows fired from the dark, one striking the cleric deep in his side. The players decide to beat a hasty retreat south with a deerman head.

Sweet Leaf Room: Back in the musty room, the party turns east and enters a room burned beyond recognition with two charred corpses lying in the middle of the floor. As the party steps close, the corpses jerk up as if pulled by marionette strings, and burned lips emit a wet cackle!

ill: Huth

The party is almost caught off guard, but the cleric is quick to brandish the holy symbol of the God of Law... to no avail! The floating corpses laugh in mockery. Swords and knives gain no purchase either given the unnatural movements of the foul foes. In response, one corpse lashes out at the cleric with preternatural speed and removes the poor soul's throat! (DM NOTE: Nat 20 & 6 for damage vs 4 HP). Horror turns to resolve as the devout follower follows up with a smiting blow of her own and the combined efforts of the rogue and graverobber bring down the other mockery of life. 

For their efforts, the party finds a mysterious vial of power and a jade rosary with lurid iconography.

Hasty Retreat & Return: Having survived two encounters, the party decides to retreat from this cursed place. The body of the cleric is left behind...

They figure Halfdan the Black would be interested in the two items and is rewarded with 300sp for their efforts. 

POST-MORTEM

Nightwick Abbey is a pleasure to run. As Nova pointed out in this nice review, what one might lose in description is made up for in high utility. Especially in a dungeon that is made to shift. And with 3 levels at my disposal I know (through experience) it will be enough to keep going.

Love the Cause of Death Stamp

Total exploration was 6-7 rooms and 3 encounters which included 2 combats. One character died out of 3 which matches the death rate of the Abbey overall. Two of the players were folks I have gamed with before, but 1 individual was someone who just looked over at what we were doing and decided to join-- no prior experience with BX D&D but they easily slide right into the game.

The pre-gens really helped and I'm gonna stick with that. It allows me to ensure folks are starting with viable characters and into play quickly. I like to think this was also aided by a half-page character sheet I designed to reduce the feeling this is going to be a complicated experience. Honestly, if I could reduce a character to a monster-style stateline I think that would be ideal for an online generator.

The 100-minute format worked too. Now on the whole 2 hours might be short. It does require people to be focused as you can go stretches without finding treasure. But the exchange is that its a time that works for me and I (hope) will encourage more spontaneous sit-downs and returns. Well see.

If these horrid halls of Nightwick Abbey call to you, then please join Miranda Elkins' Patreon!

WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY: Running Nightwick Abbey 05

 

TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELL!

Session 17 of Where Hell Comes To Prey is my weekly (roughly) experience DMing Miranda Elkins' Nightwick Abbey. The last time I blogged about the campaign was here. 

Session 17 Congregants: Grog (F1), Froggi (Fr1), Shiva (R2), Kyte (F1), Maylay (Ch1)

Quiet in Nightwick Village as the party rests, but Grog attempts to get some holy water from Brother Rodrick who expresses dismay that Grog can delve deep in the Abbey but not so deep in his pockets to pay for holy water. Then off to the Abbey they go! (DM NOTE: I am a little ill as I write this so apologies if its scattered)

• PCs decide on hitting up the East Tower and encountering nothing decides to head SW through the door and stumble upon a bizarre choreographed battle between eye-less dead dressed in the Sword Bothers and Realmish Livery. One on each side wears a crown, but the PCs withdraw hitting up instead another room off to the side filled with rusty discarded swords- they collect a lot of silver but potentially at a price as two PC noticed knicks and cuts on their hands.

• 

  The Silent Dance

  The PCs turn northward and get the drop on an ash and fire mockery of a child playing quietly until Shiva backstabs the child and the rest pile in for a beat-down!
• Turning north, the PCs are surprised to find the Abbey has shifted! Just in time for a group of cultists swinging incense to come down the hall. Maylee calls out that they mean no harm and one cultist pushes forward and pulls their hood back– Gertrude! (DM NOTE: The PCs saved her from execution in Nightwick village in Session 16).
• The cultists invite them to dinner prepared by Nightwick’s most famous chef!
• Grog, Froggi, and Kyte choose neither to eat the meat or drink the milky wine of the Abbey and instead endure the cajoling of the cultists who snap at them like hungry dogs
• Eventually, the Chef brings out the meal which consists of a disturbing number of unidentified meats
• Shiva and Maylee agree to dine with Gertrude which nets them +1 HP however it contributes to both of their POSSESSION status effects
• The whole exchange was one of the more RPG-focused sessions and I was pretty pleased with it overall as I kept trying to up the tension by seeing if the PCs who participate in bad things in the Abbey. 
• Eventually, dinner is completed with Shiva and Maylee looking at their blood-soaked hands wondering what they have done. PCs explore a little more but ultimately leave the Abbey much richer!

TENDING TO THE FLOCK

Alright, so 17 sessions into the campaign which is a solid run. I always feel anything over 10 sessions means your campaign is reaching a stable point and your PCs are invested

100 Minutes Of Megadungeon Madness: Two-hour sessions are still a great length. This is still really working for the group. It seems to fit with everyone's schedules and we seem to have a very consistent group being able to join. Sometimes we go a little extra if we get started late but roughly 120 minutes works! 

Time For Exploration Still Short: However, the 120-minute sessions come at a price that is shorter overall exploration and opportunity for XP. In my other Nightwick game, by session 17 we had 2-3 PCs who were level 2 (thieves and 1 wizard) so I might need to change some things:

• Use OD&Ds 100xp/HD of monster defeated: Currently its about 50xp/HD defeated. Now given that combat in Nightwick tends to be both deadly and take up time (by nature of the ruleset) it is a good payoff. Unlike 5e, the players are not going to pick fights in the Abbey because they still are deadly.
  
  
• Passout Completed Geomorphs: When the PCs have fully explored a geomorph, I might need to just give them that geomorph. Nightwick can shift, so they still won't have 100% complete information. And it will cut down on frustration once they have mapped. The ur-goal here is playing the game (by which I mean making impactful choices), so given the compressed time-- let's lean into that.

Expanding Cast Of Characters: By 17 sessions, we've built up quite a large number of NPCs and it was suggested that I provide the players with a list of them and what they want/need-- I'll add that to the player doc.

What's A Good Frogling To Do!?: With two characters involved in cults or the Abbey's nefarious powers it clear what can happen if you do evil acts, but where is the "good"? I think I'll work on highlighting options for the "righteous".... hmm maybe even whip up a sorta half-class.

Downtime in Zyan: Finally, in an effort not to remake tools, I'll try to make a one-sheet that outlines the downtime activities Ben L. laid out in this good pamphlet. That way players have a rough feel of the rules for downtime and what is possible.

WHERE HELL COMES TO PREY 04: Running Nightwick Abbey 04

 

HAVE YOU SEEN THE (PURPLE) SIGN?

After 13 (!) sessions of Where Hell Comes To Prey, my campaign in Miranda Elkin’s Nightwick Abbey, a character has finally gone and gotten themselves inducted into one of the Abbey’s cults. How did that happen? Certainly not by DM planning, but instead as a result of the emergent play old-school games and megadungeons are famous for.I thought I would blog about this emergent result because while emergent play is often referenced, usually little is done to describe how it arises (other than “from play”) nor, IMO, how it is carried forward in subsequent sessions.

With that in mind, in the below blog post I will (1) review how we got to this point in the game and (2) show my DM notes on how I will be proceeding forward with incorporating this player’s choices into the greater game world.

PART I: NEOPHYTE NIGHT

This “neat” moment arose through the use of the multiple utilitarian mechanisms that spin under the hood of old-school games: random restocking, random treasure, encounter reaction roll, and finally hireling loyalty. Often by modern play standards, each is a vistigal organ of an earlier form of the game- quaint, but more likely to cause problems than provide solutions like wisdom teeth. Extraction is often best. However, I find this is not an apt description, so let me explain why and perhaps convince you to add these mechanisms back in your own D&D games.

Restocking Creates Opportunity: Cleared rooms don’t stay that way for long in megadungeons and Nightwick Abbey is no different. While stocking a room with features related to the Baroness, I ended up rolling “monster with treasure” and then “2d6 cultists”- I rolled an “8”. Okay so looking at the entry for cultists, it is noted that for cults related to the baroness, 6+ cultist are lead by a berserker. Great! Now we have the seed of an interesting encounter.

Random Treasure Creates Character: So what does this big group have? Cultist are listed as treasure type “U” and upon rolling I get “1200gp jewelry”. Hmm. Since we have a leader, why not signify that leader with the jewelry? But what kind of jewelry would stand out? Since we are prepping a sorta blood cult, how about a shroud-like executioner’s hood of garnet & ruby blood drops shaped like an executioner’s hood. Sorta like below, but with more red gleaming gems. That’s eye-catching!

Random Reaction Roll Creates Choice: Now that I have a shallow but serviceable group of cultists, the last bit is determining how they are going to act. Now certainly for four level 1 to 2 PCs a fight against these cultists would mean maybe 1 PC death, but worth it for the 1200xp treasure. However, the encounter reaction roll yielded “extort” which is my own house rules entry for a negative, but not combat, reaction that initiates a negotiation with the players. The leader, in a red-gem encrusted shroud, announces to the room that those who have arrived at the foral gate of the Baroness (Level 2) must have come “seeking admission into the cult and have brought sacrifices to bless their holy union to the Baroness!”

Random Hireling Roll Creates Action: As in most megadungeons, Nightwick Abbey has rules for hireling recruitment. Most are woodsmen and peasants, but few can be special. For this outing the PCs agreed to hire one of the special ones: a hooked-handed religious fantatic. So when this individual is confronted with the cult and their bargain I decided to test the loyalty of the hireling to remain in rank-and-file with the party or charge ahead. 

That check roll over their loyalty score, and the fanatic rushed before the party to stutter out a response! And this is where a great PC choice was made, one of the changelings, Maylay, brought down an ax to the back of the fanatic killing them in one blow! “This is our offering” the changeling stated with eerie calm and then proceeded to share in some of the flesh with the cult.

INTERLUDE: NOW WHAT?

I have an exciting climax to an adventure session with the players making very deliberate choices in unexpected ways. So how do I carry through this excitement?

The first thing that I wanted was the player to see a tangible change. They committed a terrible act inside a cursed abbey. So thinking back to my PSYCHOLOGICAL WEIGHT IN SLOT_BASED ENCUMBRANCE post, I had the player write “SIN” in capital letters in one of their open encumbrance slots.

Now thinking from the player’s point of view: so what? What does this act mean for the player? And what do I want this to mean for the Abbey/campaign? 

Helpfully Nightwick Abbey provides a section on “The Cult of the Baroness” which lists the cult's goals and compositions of their forces: berserkers, bats, and blood-cultist. Its a cult of blood, personality, and a “false” Mary-type.

But what does it mean to invest more into the cult? There are rules for “possession” which occur in 3 stages with the final one being a PC is completely taken over by the Abbey. I like the 3 stage approach, but I would like there to be continual “boons” at each stage of cult advancement that might tempt the player to continue forward, this will help naturalize the choices of the character in-game– that balance of power with ruin. If its all negative, then no one would ever try to be in a cult. I want to players to understand what the Abbey offers. Why would humans, raised in an environment that venerates LAW, start dealing with a well-known monument to hubris run by forces of the Pit.

So to that end, let’s create digetic cult advancement by linking boons to things the character has to do in the game world. And as a bonus, lets create a table to spice up blood cult encounters known that they are a more known faction to the PCs (see also: STRAIGHT UP VILLIAN)

PART II: CULT_URE

The Mark of The Beast

For each SIN collected fill an inventory slot

First Sin: You have eaten the flesh of man and it has changed you: cast Fear 1/day 

Transgression: Eat with a Berserker or eat at the Butcher’s table, but now NPCs generally do not like you or trust you, but can’t explain why

Second Sin: All are but lambs to the slaughter and you the wolf: cast Hold Person 1/day

Transgression: Remove your face and wear only one of those you have killed outside the Abbey or a wolf, all children of Law will shun you, hunt you and even “evil” beings feel uneasy in your presence

Third SIN: There is no other except HER: permanent Growth potion effect
Transgression: You must find the Baroness, survive the encounter, and lay with her as a lover and take from her as a babe; anytime you attempt to leave the Abbey make a save vs. spells if you fail you are POSESSED (as per Nightwick rules).

The Cult of the Baroness

I do think creating some variability in groups of enemies is a fun thing to do especially when those enemies are 1/2HD to 1HD. We can take the generic cultists found in Nightwick Abbey and add the flavoring suggested by the Cult of the Baroness write-up. I previously discussed a way to divide gang/mob/group forces by melee/range vs damage/special in the Grendel Mendal post, so let try to use some of that advice here too:

1-2 hp    Starved Wretches (melee, special) AC 9 collared and caged humans who’ve lost their minds and will scramble toward PCs with a manic zeal attempting to weight them down; bite for 1d4 dmg; on a hit, PC movement slows to 10’

3-4 hp Cult Nightkin (range, special) AC 10 cowled in white robes; a swarm of bats cling to their bare chests underneath their robes; they swarm around MU and clerics in particular; otherwise cultis attack with short swords

5-6 hp Blood Cultists (melee, dmg) AC 10 cowled with blood-streaked white robes; attack with a short sword 1d6 dmg

7-8 hp Berserkers (melee, dmg) AC 12 covered in leather of human skin; ferocious attack (+2 to-hit) with an axe 1d8 dmg (Only 1 per every 5 cultists)

How this works: So lets say a random encounter is for 2d6 cultists in a room/on a level with the Baroness’ cult. I roll 2d6 and get a “6”. So then I roll 1d8 for each HD and get “1, 2, 1, 1, 7, 4”. So our cultist band contains 4 starved wretches, 1 cult nightkin, and 1 berserker. May narrate as such:

The party turns the corner an see four pitiful naked people groveling on the ground before a fifth hooded figure prodding them with a barbed spear and tugging rope tied around each one’s neck. The hooded figure shouts an alarm, drops the leads, and raises its arms! At that moment a shadow, two heads taller than the “hounds-master” looms up… roll initiative as the four crazed emaciated human figures run toward you on four limbs!

SUNDAY SERVICE

We now have a PC neophyte cultist, a 3 step process to damnation, and a stronger cult identity. This should get us the next couple of sessions of play. For future play, I might should think of asks of the Baroness’ cult. What do they want and why should the PCs give it to them?

PRAISE THE DRAGON OF THE PIT: Building An Encounter On The Fly

The shrine as seen by the players

This past weekend I ran session 27th of Where Hell Comes to Prey, my home campaign set in Miranda Elkin's Nightwick Abbey. This "100-minute megadungeon" session centered on the party attempting to destroy a rumored profane shrine that had appeared in the Fog-bound Forest. I want to talk about building this encounter to cement this procedure in my head, but also because I think there is a paucity of posts demonstrating how to tie it all together when DMing. How does one use all the tips and tricks in concert like a conductor to create an adventure symphony? 

This post covers: (1) random events as a seed, (2A) variation on basic enemies, (2B) set piece and adding a "clock" to a challenge, and (3) shrine as NPC or how to extend utility beyond destroy this "bad thing".

1. RANDOM EVENTS AS A SEED: The Shrine

I've started using a regional events table as method of making the world breathe and walk independently of the players' actions. The big yearly event was "volcano" and for this month it resulted in changes in the Abbey as a new demon emerged (Session 26). For this month "shrine" was rolled.

Aside: At this point, the game is on in 20 minutes and I've gotten little done on the shrine portion after reviewing session 26, generating hirelings, writing down other rumors, and restocking.

Okay, so I've done shrines before, but I wanted not to make this one passive. Let's make it an active threat instead and connect it to the emerging new cult in Nightwick. So "shrine" has become "a shrine to the Dragon of the Pit" with the themes of never-ending hunger, fire, sacrifice, and domination. I wanted the shrine to represent the new cult's rapid reach to the outside world, especially with the still active volcano in the Nameless Mountains. What’s the connection between dragons and hell? From inplacesdeep:

The Infinite Layers of the Pit are made of the different chambers of the Dragon of Hell's infernal gut. Most chambers have their own individual lord of hell, with some chambers or even whole organs belonging to a great prince or president. The chambers tend to be themed, but beyond these broad strokes it is difficult to describe the Pit as it is the essence of chaos contained

2A. VARIATION ON BASIC ENEMIES 

To "active" in this case, means something that is a threat to the players versus a "passive" shrine which would just be offering a sacrifice and gaining a boon/bane. The easiest way to make a shrine "active" might simply be to have it surrounded by crazed cultists. Meh. The PCs certainly encountered that before. The players have seen that before. If there is not a cult to defend the shrine, why has it hung around? Why hasn't the local population of woodsmen not destroyed it yet. 

I decided that was because the shrine itself was alive and could defend itself with the bodies of its sacrificial victims.

Aside: By this time the game was already in motion. Players were starting to focus on the shrine instead of their previous attempt to infiltrate the Abbey and deal with an undead judge.

To make the shrine a "monster" I used a combination of three different previous posts covering reskinning, layering, and "punnett squares". Since the shrine's elements are charred skeletal sacrifices and fire, its easy enough to borrow from Nightwick's Blind Dead and Children of Stone.

The Blind Dead are an average of 5hp, damage as weapon (1d8), and have typical skeletal immunities from slashing and piercing. While the Children of Stone have an interesting breath weapon. Perfect, let's just smush these two together:

Shrine to the Dragon of the Pit: A profane totem carved in the shape of a phallic wurm sitting on top of a pyre and glowing with an internal fire that seemingly causes knots in the wood to blink and flare as if living eyes; around the base are chained 3 charred skeletal figures.

Shrine Sacrifices: Those sacrificed or who die in the presence of the shrine become its guardians; AC 12, HD 1+1, HP 5, Atk 1 breath of embers (15' cone), Dmg 1d6 save for half; Sacrifices must stay within 30ft of the shrine itself.

The shrine as seen by the players

When the party arrived at the shine itself. They spent a couple of turns investigating the shrine leading to the death of a hireling who was supposed to throw some holy water on it, but missed, awoke the shrine, and immediately got a face full of hot embers. But they learned something!

It was after this investigation turn, I decided that the guardians of the shrine were contained to a 30ft radius area around the shrine. Why? (1) Because I didn't want it to feel like a zombie spawn point. And I wanted to potentially be able to convert the shrine into a usable location should PC perhaps want to align with the shrine or use it for some purpose. (2) Related to this is that "Hell Always Wants to Make a Deal" and so has to be present to do so. If the shrine becomes too regionally aggressive it certainly is a target for attack and destruction. We have a set piece with a radius. 

Why don't the players just stand right outside the range and plink away at it? It's a good strategy and exactly what my players decided to do, however, they were slightly under-prepared and tried to throw rocks and use slings to destroy the skeletons. If given infinite time this would be successful. But that is boring.

The coursing fire inside the shrine flares tearing the top off in a gout of flame and smoke, in your ash-stung eyes, visions of thundering hooves of skeletal horses appear, but as you frantically clear your vision no sign of the corpse cavalier appears- yet...

So, I decided to add a "clock" to this encounter. Why? Entering into steady-state situations where success is possible if the party only waits long enough is boring. It is not what characterizes good adventure to me which is more composed of cunning plans, stunning victories, and harrowing escapes. 

The visions of the dire horseman presented a gamble to the players: can your "safe" plan work quick enough before this horseman arrives? The players' answer was "hell no" and they bounced after destroying a few skeletons of risen companions.

3 SHRINE AS NPC OR EXTENDING UTILITY BEYOND DESTROYING THIS "BAD THING"

At one point, the players decided to use an extra PC to try and talk with the shrine. Unfortunately, this PC was killed by the shrine because they had not come with an offering and the 2d6 reaction roll was quite poor. However, this action did make me thing about what is the shrine giving to the people that built it.

I needed a "give" to help the shrine become more like an NPC. Why? If the shrine can be fought, talked to, and plays a continuing role in the region when left alone turns an encounter thrown together in ~20 mins into a potentially long-lived piece of worldbuilding. That is a fantastic creative economy. And its creates a dimensionality to the “thing” and enhances its believability because it doesn’t or no longer exists simply as a PC obstacle. Multidimensional existence is important for creating a realistic, fantastical world instead of a colorful video game setting.

The Give: On first offering, gain 1 "sin" (takes up 1 equipment slot)

• Daily Prayer: Hot Temper as Resist Cold
• Silver Offering (200sp): Eye of Avarice as Locate Object
• Flesh Offering (1 heart): Stomach of Fire as Magic Missle  

So there you have it. How I threw together a set piece encounter in ~20 minutes using existing stat blocks that has expanded to become a notable piece of world-building that ties back to the setting and factions.