In the far north, in the blasted wastes now known as the Mournelands, once stood the mighty empire of Xibalba. Also, if you are going to use an opening crawl, centre it. I think cutting it down and removing some of the redundancies would make it flow much better. How the party discovers it is up to the GM, but below are some provided hooksĪ grand opening crawl can add real weight to an adventure and infuse it with, as Melan said, gloomy pomp, but there is a fine line to walk. However, a recent discovery by enterprising explorers has revealed the location of this undisturbed tomb, ripe for plundering. But this entire paragraph is not strictly necessary for the adventure overview, which is summarized succinctly below it.Ĭhagatai, a sorcerer-king of old Meresh, a vassal state of Xibalba, lies interred in the north, his tomb lying silent beneath the remains of the Broken Mountain.
Perhaps as warning to men as they are now, perhaps an oversight, or even the truth that some things lie even beyond the power of the gods to destroy, the remains of the dark deeds of Xibalba linger on, their hoarded wealth and magic knowledge a tantalizing prize for those of a mind to claim it… Yet for all the wrath and sacrifice, something of Xibalba remains. So it was with a heavy heart that the gods descended and smote this empire of man and all its lands, turning it into the blasted, irradiated crater that now stands as warning even eons later.
Wreathed in mighty sorcery and implacable in strength of arm, this Empire fell to decadence and degeneracy, spurning the worship of the Gods and turning to the great beasts of darkness, the Void Princes, those wicked Demon Lords who offered greater power and strength to match that of the deities Man once worshipped. In the far north in the blasted wastes now known as the Mournelands, ages past a mighty empire of Man, dubbed Xibalba, once stood, great and terrible. If you are aware of the tendency you can break it. I highlight the repeated adjectives because I used to make this mistake often and even Palace still has a few instances. “ Vicious beastmen in warpaint of ash and powdered obsidian, these creatures bear armor of rough stitched hide, decorated with charms and fetishes of bone and colored glass and carry spears tipped with the vicious claws and fangs of Mourneland beasts.” Highlighting some of it or at least separating it into different paragraphs would be a godsend.
There is too much text and critical information is often buried in paragraphs. As a repeat abuser of the substance myself I well know its power and potential, but it requires a light touch or else risk the wrath of the beleaguered GM, who must parse through the turgid mire of baroque adjectives in search of the ludological nuggets that empower his jeu de l’imaginaire. Let’s get things out of the way This adventure indulges in purple prose. Various incentives, from a discovered treasure map to the behest of the Historian Lord Nigel Hubert Humphrey Cummerbottom III ‘an effeminate fop of a man’ you don’t say… Near the site of a vanquished empire of evil sorcerers lies the Tomb of Chagatai, sorcerer-king of Old Meresh, vassal of the mighty sorcerer empire of Xibalba. However, the adventure as written can be converted on the fly and all the stats are book monsters so this works. The one departure from the original system that aggravates somewhat is the barbaric vandalization of the XP system, which retains Gold for XP only as an abstracted concept. Worlds Without Number is Kevin Crawford’s dying earth sandbox system still clearly derived from Basic DnD, then endowed with a point based skill/weapon proficiency system and Thief seems to have used the system’s elaborate monster generation system to lovingly recreate, as best as one can, the creatures of the MM. I feel as if the author took some inspiration from Palace and my handful of Age of Dusk posts, which is always flattering.Ī note on the system. The result is atmospheric and has some good shit though it is not without some problems.
Thief of Whispers, a longtime reader and friend of the blog, has concocted a treasure delve into the tomb of a barbarian chieftain, allied to a vanquished empire that faced the wrath of the gods themselves. The lightweights have been judged and thus we make our way into the middle-heavyweight category of the listings.