Premise
Using The Sword from BW, I developed a brief prelude adventure in which a TB adventuring group makes their approach on the final resting place of the last king seeking to recover the legendary sword buried with the last king. Each has distinct beliefs and goals about acquiring the sword for themselves.
Characters
I made clear to the players this group of adventures has known one another for many years and adventure together frequently, but also, sometimes they split from the group and adventure with others. This adventure, they are together again and agreed to follow the lead to recover the sword of the last king–quietly they all have different motives for this goal.
Warrior: Buck - a veteran of the last war twenty years ago; formerly a commander, and now adventuring into his twilight years. Wields shield and spear, carries a military horn, and generally serves as the muscle of the group.
[beliefs]
Kerrigan, my enemy, will break my kneecaps if I cannot repay my debt; I must recover treasure from this tomb.
Ackshaw, the dwarf mage, must not be trusted; her greed will be our doom. I will withstand her spells.
[instincts]
Never throw the first punch.
Always haggle over price.
Guide: Piggie - a young halfling rambler; works with these adventurers repeatedly, and now has the lead to guide the group to the tomb of the last king. Generally serves as a steward, cook, and glue of the group.
[beliefs]
This adventure was my lead; I promised I could find it. I must be paid for my service.
I can motivate the elf and dwarf to argue with one another; Buck will keep me safe from threats.
[instincts]
Never reveal my plan until it is time to strike.
Always get agreements up front.
Ranger: Ashley - an exiled elf outdoorswoman with exceptional skills in archery, pathfinding, trailblazing, and survival; she generally serves to manage the route to and from adventures.
[beliefs]
The sword of kings was made by my people; I can find the markings to prove my claim and to avoid dispute.
If I return the sword of kings to my people, I will be forgiven and allowed to return from exile and shame.
[instincts]
Never accept an insult.
Always uplift my companions by singing.
Sage: Kelsey - a pilgrim and scholar not best suited for adventuring, but she loves to study history where it happened. She generally serves to keep the group anchored morally and doing right by the old gods as well as the young immortals.
[beliefs]
Companions are a great blessing; I will not allow my traveling companions to
come to harm if I can help them.
The sword of kings has been the object of desire for zealots and cults; I will
eliminate its power over us.
[instincts]
Never take payment for service.
Always tithe what treasures I find.
Mage: Ackshaw - a wandering dwarf spellcaster–skilled with runes and with spells–who needs the support of adventuring companions to get by. She is a potent spellcaster but secretive.
[beliefs]
The sword of kings was the emblem of my peoples’ kingdom; it was stolen; I
must return it to its rightful heir.
Sticks and stones may break bones, but words can hurt forever; my tongue is
sharper than a blade.
[instincts]
Never let a tale be better than my stories.
Always compliment good craftsmanship.
Homebrew
I needed to abridge many of the elements of TB that make it slow down or that take extra player investment. So, the characters are a little homebrewed. I didn’t use the grind, altered the conditions and rewards, and bypassed all the factoring by pre-generating the adventure module with all my notes about Ob and Vs tests. I did seed this adventure with loot, and I tried to ensure the characters would have an opportunity for a fight-or-flight encounter with a troll.
I also used insights from BW’s The Sword to establish the beliefs and instincts, and I decided to hybridize the beliefs and goals in the way of BW.
Additionally, this was planned with the help of a church youth group; I got input from the group on what elements of adventure they wanted to include. I tried to include all that I could within the constraint of about one hour to run the single-shot adventure.
Three elements I got from the youth:
- A Maze
- A Wandering Monster
- A Prank or Red Herring at the end
I did include those in the adventure, but not all were encountered. I might need to reconsider my design process to include their requests better for a future event. There will be another single-shot in the future–there was good feedback from the youth on this one.
Adventure
In brief, the adventure consists of overland travel through the valley of the last war, to the hillside necropolis of crypts and tombs, into a maze to reach the shrine and tomb of the last king, and a descent into the grave of the last king to find the sword and other grave goods.
- Overland travel began with the choice of trekking through an ominous storm or making a hasty camp to wait out the storm
- Arriving at the entrance to the maze, the group needed a surefire way to safely get through to the crypts and tombs at the center
- Coming to the correct shrine and tomb, the group needed to search for the passageway between the shrine aboveground and the grave beneath the shrine
- Once in the grave, the group had to confront one another about the motives, and they needed to decide who gets the sword
Actual Play
Ashley, the elf ranger, garnered agreement from Ackshaw, the dwarf mage, to trek through the storm; Kelsey and Buck disagreed and requested to make camp. Piggie gave the tiebreaking table chatter encouraging everyone to follow Ashley’s lead through the overgrown valley under the heavy cloud cover.
Kelsey offered ritual prayer to aid her companion while Ackshaw scribed a rune of flame to create a light that would not suffer from wind or rain during their travel. Ashley was successful, but exhausted after the effort.
The vision of the maze, and the trepidatious questions about safety, prompted Ackshaw to summon a familiar for advice about a safe route through the maze. Kelsey almost turned back as she imagined there might not be puppies (yeah, that was a weird one). Ackshaw’s owl familiar provided chirps and whistles to guide the group. This ensured they avoided encountering the troll trapped in the labyrinth (who knows what other creatures are trapped within–maybe even puppies are trapped in the maze).
Arriving at the shrine, the group had a hesitant moment in which Buck brokered to go in with Piggie to search the shrine ahead of the other adventurers. Ashley, Kelsey, and Ackshaw remained outside while the pair searched the shrine for an indication of the actual grave. Unfortunately, they triggered a subtle trap of poison gas while pulling up the false floor. While doing so, they missed the loot seeded in the shrine.
From the noise created by pulling up floor tiles, and from the men being sickened by the gas, fellow adventurers rushed into the shrine, and everyone went below the floor into the final resting place of the last king.
This was when everyone realized they might have to argue about who got the sword. Ackshaw spoke up first, “This sword was the gem of my people; it was stolen. I must return it to the rightful heir among the dwarves.” This was accompanied by threats of casting lightning at anyone who disagreed.
Kelsey spoke up in disagreement, describing how they sword must be destroyed to remove its power over people. Ashley abandoned her beliefs and agreed with Kelsey that the sword must be destroyed.
Buck and Piggie also spoke up with their own positions, mostly about getting paid and saving Buck’s kneecaps.
So, we rolled dice. Ackshaw spoke first, so I told her, “You are on the defensive; you are the antagonist. Kelsey and Ashley are the protagonists. Ackshaw rolls first, then Kelsey with Ashley’s help.” As a GM, I was surprised at how easily the players accepted the rule of the dice. I half-expected more table chatter arguments. So, Ackshaw lost and conceded the sword must be destroyed; Kelsey’s persuasive statement won (1s vs 3s).
However, now they needed to resolve Buck’s and Piggie’s position claiming they needed to be paid and have enough treasure to save Buck’s knees. Fortunately, the young women realized there was not a dispute in that case. The group had not found loot yet, but they had not finished searching. So, destroying the sword did not conflict with gathering treasure for Buck and Piggie.
We had to wrap. At this point, we had already gone twenty minutes over time.
Some Thoughts
I need to review the adventure design a bit. I feel badly that the wandering monster and the prank/red herring were missed because of successful rolls. So, I ought to have placed those as beats of the adventure rather than planned those as twists.
The prank/red herring was going to be that once they pulled the sword from the grave, they would find it was deteriorated and cankered with rust–it was already destroyed by the passing of time. However, since Kelsey’s position had won, and the agreement had come to destroying the sword, that final twist would not have meant much.
I didn’t have an actual plan for managing the troll encounter. I was going to enforce a fight-or-flight choice. I wasn’t going to allow, “Let’s be friends and show it the way out of the maze!” But, I knew that Buck, Ashley, Kelsey, and Ackshaw all had some fairly good combat options. They could have responded by fighting the troll, and possibly could have done quite well against it.
I’m glad that the youth found ways to embody their beliefs and to help one another with skills, spells, and gear. But, I was also surprised by how much trash-talk, teasing, and prodding they had against one another as well. It was chaotic–that’s something I expected!
I didn’t mention in the actual play, but Piggie’s player did see and try to leverage openings to cause the elf and dwarf to contend with one another. Buck’s player did tell the group he didn’t trust Ackshaw and why–he played it throughout the game, then announced/read the belief at the end to explain himself.
Ackshaw’s and Kelsey’s players did stand up for their beliefs and rolled dice over it. I’m not faulting Ashley’s player, but I think with time ticking, they realized it would be better to help Kelsey than to argue her own belief.
Also, some other thoughts
I wrote the outline, determined the tests, established the Obs, and seeded the adventure with loot. I invented some background elements that they never really saw or learned. Then, I had AI write loads of flavor text for me! Having some flavor text written quickly and easily with a bit of AI support was pretty helpful. It was campy! It was cliche! But, it was appropriate for the adventure and this group.
So, I did have the youth reading the flavor text. After each test that moved the group from one beat to the next, I had the players behind that character (who rolled) read the flavor text introducing the next scene. In other words, Ashley rolled Pathfinder, then read the flavor text introducing the maze; Ackshaw rolled Arcanist to summon her familiar (homebrewed a bit), then read the flavor text introducing the shrine. Finally, Buck rolled Tracker (aka Scout), then read the flavor text introducing the trap followed by the flavor text introducing the grave.
I customized some rules to allow a reroll–something you know or something you have–and gave everyone two plastic chips (one of each) to attempt rerolling a single traitor. It was used twice–once by Ackshaw to summon a familiar, then by Buck in a failed attempt to search the room without trouble (good effort, but he triggered the trap after all).
Final
I will edit my materials and post on my Patreon later. It will be free to all audience members as a sample adventure with pre-gen sample characters. It will be less homebrew at time of publication than I used in the session, but it might still have some elements of homebrew retained as I deem necessary.
I welcome Q&A or other feedback.