Leader of the Cult

Credit: Bozhko Dimitrov

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Today, in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston, published in 1988 by TSR, Inc., we'll be discussing Master Villain.

Any decent adventure should have a master villain, and to flesh out the master villain before you sit down with your players is a big help when incorporating their characters' backstories.  When someone says, Master Villain, I automatically think one of the villains from James Bond.  Nowadays, at the time of this writing, one of the most notable master villains is Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  These people have always tried to bring about plans that would bring harm to the known world.  However,  as written by Christopher Vogler, "Every villain is a hero of his or her own story."  We could probably apply this to Thanos, considering he tried to "save" the universe by blinking half of the population into oblivion.

Continuing on our campaign adventure, Ruins of Azamar, that won't be the case.  In this high fantasy adventure, the villain is going to be down-right evil.  The book lists a few villains you could use, like The Conquerer, The God of Chance, or The Ravager.  In this case, our generator chose the Advance Agent:

"This villain is the vanguard of some sort of invasion; often, he is trying to open up a portal to a dimension full of trapped demons and evil gods. He is best used for horror or espionage adventures.

"Character level and Abilities:  Experience level significantly higher than player-characters' average; often a magic-user or cleric."

Although chosen randomly, I love when certain things fall into place, and this is one of those moments.  The Advance Agent is a perfect villain for our adventure.  We've already established that he or she would be performing a ritual to open a portal and bring forth Ithaqua.  But... what if the portal brings forth other creatures?  Kind of like a byproduct of opening the portal.  Unbeknownst to the cult leader, this would indeed bring about the end of the world.

Although, we would like to see it happen, let chaos reign free, this adventure is designed to have the heroes thwart this monstrous plan; after all, they are heroes.  But that doesn't mean we couldn't have the heroes fail and then have to clean up the mess.

There could be a lot more details we could discuss about the Master Villain, but for this article, I wanted to keep it somewhat vague.  Let your imagination run wild!

Next week, we'll discuss the minor villains, because what's a master villain with his minions?

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.

The Retired Archaeologist

Credit: Peter Nijenhuis

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Today, referencing the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston, published in 1988 by TSR, Inc., we'll be discussing allies and neutrals.  In Book III: Adventure Cookbook, Johnson and Allston mention:

"One of the most entertaining parts of dungeon-mastering is the opportunity to portray some interesting NPC - in effect, to chew up the scenery with some entertaining character, both to spice up the game and to challenge the players to play their own characters more vigorously.  Here are several such ALLIES and NEUTRALS which can be part of your adventure."

And they go on to list a handful of NPCs one could use for such a challenge.  My random generator chose the Crusty Old Professional.  The book describes this person as follows:

"The heroes need an expert in a certain field - this time a craft or art, such as blacksmithing, engineering, horse-training, or whatever.

"The only or best professional they can find is an aged expert.  He's crusty, cranky, and sharp-tongued; he constantly complains about the food, the weather, his companions, the decline in skill of his co-workers since he was a young man, the road conditions, his working conditions, the rotten pay he's receiving, and so on.  You can have him actually possess a heart of gold or be just as nasty as he sounds.

"Character level and Abilities:  Experience level just below characters' party average."

I like the idea of an old, retired archaeologist that had explored the Ruins of Azamar long before the Cult of Ithaqua moved in.  He would be long lived, a little too long lived, in his most venerable years; very forgetful, and on the verge of senility.

Since they live a long time, and my setting is high fantasy, I would be tempted to use an elf.  But elves are sharp-minded, and sometimes arrogant, so full of themselves.  Somehow, an elf would not make a good fit for a crusty professional.

Dwarves are crusty enough, especially when they get up in age.  But, the gruff old dwarf is a bit cliché.

I was thinking a gnome could fit the bill.  They can live up to 500 years, and some of them could get rather brusque.

But what would be fun is an elderly halfling.  They can live up to 200 years, and even that is pushing it.

The party's ally:  A female halfling by the name of Sylula Earthdance.  She was Azamar's renown explorer and recoverer of ancient artifacts.  Now retired, she lives in a village destroyed by the aberrant, cultish monsters.  When the heroes find her, she is living in ignorant bliss as if nothing has happened.  She has a lot of stories of the past, especially stories of her time within the Ruins.  Sylula knows all the nooks and crannies of the derelict structures, which should seem promising to the heroes.

When the heroes encounter her, Sylula would try to convince them she would be the best asset they could have, like a living map.  Reliving her glory days, she wants to return to the Ruins, and she could lead them within, find all the traps, and skirt the baddies.  At least, that's what she would tell them.  Obviously, we, as the adventure designers, know that Sylula Earthdance is whacked out of her mind.

If the party decides to let her join their journey, that's when the complaints kick in.  And then, when they arrive at the Ruins, she gets turned around and confused.  But she's not completely useless.  After all, she is a professional, and all that archaeological knowledge is at the forefront of her memory.  She could be used to notice differences in rock formations, subtle disturbances in the dirt, or maybe she has some latent, magical power that makes her a fantasy metal detector.  This NPC could go a long way.

But that's my take on the Crusty Old Professional.  In the book, they describe many other allies you could use for your adventure.

Next week, we'll discuss the one behind all the chaos in the kingdom of Azamar, the one based out of the Ruins of Azamar; the Master Villain.

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.

Inside the Ruins

Credit: Streamline Studios

Hello and welcome to my world building blog!

Today, we'll be referring to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston, published in 1988 by TSR, Inc.  Book III: Adventure Cookbook has a formula for picking your settings.  We already know our major setting is going to be the Ruins of Azamar; I mean, it's in the name.  But the book gives us options that will make this adventure interesting.

The first part of the formula is the General setting:

"The adventure's General Setting is the broad area where most of the adventure takes place."

The Adventure Cookbook has a list of settings ranging from Alternate Plane and Exotic Distant Land, to Here's Home Town and Under the Sea.

Referring to my random generator, the General setting for the Ruins is "Torturous Terrain".

"The adventure takes place in some sort of unsettled, uncivilized, dangerous terrain; in action stories, the desert and the jungle work best; choose one of those two or decide on a setting that is similarly dangerous and exotic.

"In this setting, the heroes have to contend with their villainous foes, yes, but they also have to deal with the inhabitants of the region, the monsters of the region, and the effort of just staying alive in a dangerous or unfamiliar climate."

Even though we already know our setting is the Ruins of Azamar, the above description gives us a general idea and a little more insight into what the Ruins are going to be like.  It gives me the vision of crumbly, craggy ruins, of walls ready to collapse at any moment, and unsteady floors that could fall into the level far below.  There could be death traps set by the Cult of Ithaqua against adventurers.  Conjured, monstrous creatures at every turn.  And Cult guards patrolling the halls of the Ruins.

The general idea here is make your players work for it.  It's not going to be an easy journey to the cult leader, who is preparing the ritual to summon the Death-Walker!

The next part of the setting formula is the Specific setting.  According to the book, "...you can choose specific locales for scenes in your adventure.  You can choose as many of these as you want; usually two is best."

I programmed my generator to choose two, and we got Temple/Church and Demi-human Community.

"Temple/Church.  This can be either the church of some lofty and good deity, or the dark and grisly temple of some horrid deity (doubtless filled with evil soldiers and monsters), or even the temple that the madman villain has dedicated to himself for when he becomes a god."

This one is a gimme, and fits too well with our General setting.  Within the Ruins lies a temple occupied by the Cult, and could be the finale scene where the adventurers find the Cult leader performing the ritual.  They'll have to act fast!

"Demi-human Community.  In wilderness areas, this will be a large community of demi-humans - elves, dwarves, halflings, whatever - or intelligent nonhumans such as orcs.  If your action is taking place in a city, this could be a hidden community (such as a secret underground dwarf community) or a section of the city inhabited mostly by demi-humans."

Considering the above entry is taken from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons supplement published in 1988, the word "demi-human" actually stems back from the Basic book, which came out in 1974.  Any playable character that was not human, back then, was considered a demi-human, which included elves, dwarves, and halflings.  Nowadays, with the popularity of 5e, Pathfinder, Call of Cthulhu, and other role-playing systems, I think the word demi-human could be a reference to any non-human playable character.

Since the Ruins of Azamar takes place in a high fantasy setting, the demi-human community settled in the territory of the Cult is probably one that the religious zealots haven't found, yet.  Could it be that the adventurers arrive at this place as the Cult is invading them with their conjured creatures?

Oh!  So many stories to tell and adventures to be had.  Sorry, sometimes I get a little giddy when developing an adventure.

So, when developing your adventure, the book does state that you can pick as many settings as you want your adventurers to find.  I think I'm going to keep it down to just the two Specific settings, and call it a day.

Next week, we'll take a look at Allies and Neutrals for our adventure because, you know, everyone needs allies.

I hope you enjoyed the read, and until next time, thanks for reading.