Under the City presents opportunities to add new layers to your urban adventuring…

Canneries, chamber pots, knacker yards, latrines, slaughterhouses, and tanneries—all that waste has to go somewhere. The resulting foulness is captured, transported, and processed by urban sewage systems that vary in design and complexity.

Individual structures, both domestic and commercial, likely rely upon a moveable outhouse latrine centered over a simple pit. Larger settlements, such as villages and towns, have more waste to handle and may require a purposeful system of open or covered trenches to channel waste toward a natural waterway or leaching field. Cities tend to employ substantial sewer infrastructure to process larger volumes of waste. Though designed with purely utilitarian intent, sewer works may also reflect the art and culture of the builders. Such reflections can include vaulted chambers with elaborate archways, decorated and scrolled ironwork, and embellished tilework and masonry.

Treat and Dispose

Waste enters a sewer by pipes made of clay, metal, or hollowed wooden logs. These pipes branch off from larger trenches or tunnels that, in some instances, are large enough to accommodate a boat or a cart. When there is a walkway or cartway in a sewer tunnel, waste travels alongside in an open or covered floor trench. When volumes are low, passages remain unobstructed. However, when volumes are high or during heavy rains, sewage can flood the system or back it up.

Sewage systems rely primarily on gravity to move waste, though unique circumstances may demand mechanical or magical means. Elaborate engineering works have been observed, such as self-contained screw lifts, giant bellow pumps, and clockwork control valves and sluice gates. Fresh or grey water is used to dilute sewage flows, and settling ponds allow for manual disposal of heavy waste.

Ideally, sewage is steered toward a discharge point, preferably a natural waterway with a strong current. Otherwise, it must be processed. Processing can include by ingestion—creatures feeding upon the dung, offal, and other urban waste—or septic drain fields where holding tanks flow into distribution boxes that feed perforated pipes embedded in gravel or crushed stone, supporting large colonies of bacteria. Another rarer solution is waste destruction by magic. At least one fortress tower is known to deliver waste to a controlled sphere of annihilation.

Sewer works require regular maintenance and can easily become overrun by rats, insects, or worse in the wake of improper or lax care. A city’s sanitation department gladly keeps technicians on the payroll as well as bug and vermin exterminators. Such careers favor races of smaller stature, though just about anybody that can tolerate the filthy, noxious, pitch-black environment of the sewer is immediately qualified for hire. Cities might require the services of more capable adventurers on occasion, especially when infestations present a greater challenge or are of an irregular nature.

Pee-You

Sewer gas comprises a variety of gasses and in various mixtures—toxic, nontoxic, and flammable—that is produced either by the break down of organic material or by substances dumped into the sewer. It’s heavier than air, often forming dense fogs or colored clouds, and can concentrate in the confines of a sewer system. When sewer gas is flammable, the threat of fire or explosion may preclude use of torches or lanterns, which makes the pitch-black caverns and tunnels all the more challenging to navigate and maintain. It’s worth noting that, invariably, the most difficult obstacle for newly employed sanitation crewmembers is learning to handle their tasks by feel. Though water-sealed gas traps and ventilation ducts can control the vapors, it remains a consistent threat to anyone in the sewer environment.

Sewage carries disease-causing germs that can infect not just by contact but by respiration. If sewers are not properly maintained and if blockages, damage, broken equipment, and worn parts are not promptly tended to, bacteria proliferate and cause virulent maladies (like sewer plague) that can readily culminate in death. Parasites of all sizes and potencies thrive in the city sewage as well. Some cause blindness, others are vampiric, but most just attach themselves in the most inconvenient of places. The worst of the parasites has a nasty habit of boring into an armpit and attaching itself directly to the host’s beating heart. In the sewers, there can be other dangers too, such as those supernatural: there is one city that has a wailing ghost in its pipes and another with a frightening jester that appears in street drains.

Under the city, a sewer system reduces pollution levels, eliminates the odor of open drains, and helps prevent disease outbreaks. Expensive and dependent on a water source for proper function, a sewer system’s sophistication is related to a city’s wealth and its builder’s culture. Sewers are also a source of danger. Mechanical systems breakdown, tunnels collapse, and dangerous creatures take up residence in the pitch-black. The rotting slush carries disease and parasites, and the rats are cat-sized. Endless opportunities for adventure!

Cardivore (Parasite)

The cardivore (or “flathelm”) is a burrowing parasite that thrives in sewers. A toothed flatworm, the cardivore larva may attach itself to any exposed flesh. It infiltrates a vein over the course of 2 rounds. At this point, the larva may be removed with an action to dig it out with a sharp object or burn it off with fire, dealing 1 point of piercing damage or fire damage to the victim, respectively. Once the cardivore has entered the bloodstream, it wriggles its way to the host’s heart and attaches, tapping cardiac blood. A tendril grows toward the spinal column, poking between vertebrae and piercing the spinal cord. The cardivore gains access to the unwitting host’s senses and motor control, using the body to feed, grow, and reproduce.

Cardivore (Controlling a Host)

Tiny beast (plus host type), unaligned
Armor Class 5
Hit Points 1 (1d4 − 3)
Speed 0 ft.

Senses passive Perception 8
Languages —
Challenge 0 (0 XP)

Infesting. The cardivore has total cover from all attacks and spells while inside its host. In addition, it gains the host’s statistics, except it retains its Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores and its alignment, but it does not gain any spellcasting features of the host.

Temperature sensitive. The cardivore needs a stable temperature to incubate its eggs, and when its host takes fire or cold damage, the cardivore becomes frightened for 1 minute and must spend its turns trying to move as far away from the source of the damage as it can. It also can’t take reactions. For its action, it can use only the Dash action or try to escape from an effect that prevents it from moving. If there’s nowhere to move, the cardivore will attempt to fight its way out.

Variant: Fully Gestated

The cardivore gains the following action:

Burst. The cardivore and its host drop to 0 hit points, and all other creatures with exposed skin in a 15-foot cone in front of the cardivore must make a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw, becoming infested by cardivore larvae on a failure.

Template: Cardivore Host

A host to a cardivore retains its statistics and alignment, except that it cannot take actions other than speaking or casting spells with only verbal components.

<<PREVIOUSLY

“Are you sure you didn’t just make these up, sluglet?”
“Lie to you? Never, master!”

Continuing our encounters with more peculiar (and some frankly improbable) NPCs, here are 25 more strange or odd characters your PCs may pass in the street, have a conversation with, or have to interact with to gain some vital clue on their way to the Purple Temple of the Fiendishly Plotting Gas Spores. As ever, use them like seasoning in your tales or when you have need of a quick random person in an adventure.

1. Kogg dislikes hard work and is always hiding in muckheaps to avoid it
2. Kugg seems to have a papier-mâché moon and planets hovering around his head and is dressed as an enormous piece of cheese
3. Melli and Jab walk past, not speaking as usual
4. Mother Habbin, on her way to beat the village cormorant with a mop
5. Natwim has a permanent look that something smelling bad is underneath is nose, perhaps it’s his vast walrus moustache hung with tiny voles
6. Noddy Nodge, with his huge eyes and his chimney sweeps’ brushes, he is covered head to foot in soot every minute of the day
7. Not Nice Megry has the foulest tongue in the kingdom, has had it ever since here eleven children ran away exactly thirty five years ago next Tuesday
8. Obry has just found out his wife has run off with his brother and is looking for them with a meat cleaver
9. Ockle Frinn paints his head black to look like he has hair, he hates rain
10. Pickle is a hateful little girl who likes pulling the wings off moths and wasps
11. Portly Prodd always has a half-eaten pie in his hands and talks with his mouth full, he’s secretly in love with his neighbour’s duck
12. Pron is terrified of birds and dashes from doorway to doorway on her way to church
13. Qigg the Sweetmeat Man is on the prowl, looking for ladies to use his inconsiderable charms upon
14. Tab wears the back part of the pantomime horse costume night and day and no one knows why
15. Tell-tale Widge, the annoying local lad who hangs around strangers to find out what they’re up to
16. That Gertrude has a cloak of living crows is merely the beginning of her many peculiarities  
17. The Scarecrow Man—the local village idiot—shakes his musical scythe at strangers and demands they pay a toll for his thoughts
18. They call him Turnip on account of his peculiarly bloated round head
19. Today Gupprin has dressed up as a troll to frighten his beloved nieces and nephews
20. Trabbwimlington Hisp has an eight foot tall hat that is home to a dozen white mice dressed as nuns
21. Udd runs by, trying to catch his escaped peacock with a pathetically small shrimping net
22. Why does Raggy Snard dress like a magpie? No one knows…
23. Why Howling Fibb spends all day howling is anybody’s guess
24. Yap runs past, spinning his hoop and singing songs about variously hued-oozes
25. Young Hogg’s hair is ginger yet his beard is dark

<<PREVIOUSLY

The Elves abandoned Midgard for other realms many ages ago. However, many of their mysterious, epic enchantments remained behind. Their unique artifacts and puissant magic items are still hidden deep in ancient forests and in timeless ruins for the intrepid (or foolhardy) adventurer to discover and claim.

Armours of the Cavalier

Armor, very rare, requires attunement

This +2 silvered plate mail is immune to all types of rust and magical rust attacks and spells. While wearing the armor, the character gains double proficiency on all riding-related checks and gains advantage on all attack rolls while charging on a mount.

Crystal Ship of the Aerie Courts

Wondrous item, legendary, requires attunement

This crystalline sailing ship is technically an elven construct but functions as a magic item, and it requires attunement. It weighs 100 pounds and is self-propelled. Once attuned and onboard, the owner can command the ship to move up to 60 feet per round while concentrating. The crystal ship can travel full speed against strong currents and winds, even safely navigate up vertical waterfalls. The ship can carry up to 6 Medium sized passengers or up to 2,400 pounds of cargo. Each passenger reduces the cargo capacity by 400 pounds. The crystal ship has a weak dome of force energy over its body that protects passengers and cargo from inclement non-magical weather and winds, which also grants disadvantage to non-magical ranged attacks against the passengers (arrows, crossbow bolts, and such). The ship is AC 23 and has 100 hit points. With the successful use of a legend lore spell or similarly powerful magic, characters can recover the rituals and command words to make the ship fly at 30 feet per round, enabling them to visit far Cathay, Hyperborea, the far side of Midgard’s disc, or even the Cosmic Courts of the Star Elves, far beyond Midgard’s watery rim.

Leaf-Bladed Sword

Sword, very rare, requires attunement

This thin, curved mithril blade has a bell guard shaped like a curled, golden leaf. It gains advantage on attack rolls when used in melee against aberrations and constructs. Three times per day, the wielder can use an action and expend one charge to cast barkskin on themselves for ten rounds. It holds 3 charges and regains 1d3 charges daily at dawn.

Palimpsest of the Gentry

Wondrous Item, legendary, requires attunement by a spellcaster

This spellbook can be opened once per day, revealing a random spell from the spellcaster’s known spell list. The spell or ritual can be cast from the book without material or somatic components by being read aloud from the page, effectively giving the spellcaster one extra spell slot per day. Spells cannot be copied out of the palimpsest. If anyone tries, the page goes blank, the book slams shut and cannot be reopened until the dawn of the third day.

Psychopomp of the Elven Courts

Wondrous Item, legendary, requires attunement

This blue, glowing crystal is said to contain the arcane half of an ancient elf wizard’s soul. Any spellcaster that casts a legend lore spell while holding the psychopomp does not require any spell components, and gains twice as much detail as they would normally acquire from the spell.

Walking Carriage

Construct/Wondrous Item, very rare, requires attunement

This magic wagon is technically a construct, but functions as a magic item, and requires attunement. Constructed for ancient elf merchants by goblin and kobold smiths, walking carriages weigh 1200 pounds, have six mechanical legs made of cold iron, and are self-propelled (no draft animals required). Once attuned, the owner can command their carriage to move up to 30 feet per round indefinitely, so long as they remain within 30 feet of the carriage. Twice per day, the owner may command the carriage to “sprint” at double speed (60 feet per round) for up to 15 minutes. Afterward, the carriage can only move at half speed (15 feet per round) for 60 minutes. The carriage can mount any slope up to a 45-degree angle and ignores difficult terrain but cannot climb or surmount vertical walls or cliffs. Any creature trampled by the carriage takes 2d12 bludgeoning damage, 4d12 if the carriage is sprinting. If the owner moves more than 30 feet away from the carriage, it stops and remains where it is until the owner moves back within range or the carriage is reattuned to a new owner. The carriage can carry up to 8 Medium sized passengers, or up to 3,200 pounds of cargo. Each passenger reduces the cargo capacity by 400 pounds. The carriage has a weak dome of force energy over the body of the carriage that protects passengers and cargo from inclement non-magical weather and winds, which also grants disadvantage to non-magical ranged attacks against the passengers (arrows, crossbow bolts, and such). The carriage is AC 19 and has 50 hit points.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Dear Osvaud,

This is Osvaud. Let’s say you’ve put time and effort into erecting the perfect deathtrap. The protagonists run through your maze of horrors like well-armed rats, finding you within the center. You let loose a villainous laugh and throw the big switch on a gigantic technomagical gizmo with tons of cool special effects. You start monologuing about how it’s going to simultaneously make you a thousand feet tall and turn a god into an inside-out starfish.

Then, readying for the climatic fight, you notice exactly how confused your audience looks.

Crap. You forgot to foreshadow.

There are two big aspects to foreshadowing, and I’ll handle this as a two-parter.

The first is establishing early-on to poor-attention span protagonists that you are the Big Bad. Amateur villains might leave a bunch of notes, murals, and terrified witnesses around… all testifying to how awesome they are with melodramatic exposition. The problem with these approaches (beyond the obvious) is it makes your coolness a detached and theoretical thing.

Like any good service-industry professional, it is always way better to connect on a personal level.

My favorite is letting them fight a minion who “seems” crazy scary. Like, they don’t need to actually be anything special, and anyone can feign impressiveness for a few minutes with the right preparatory spells or mystical one-shot doodad. The good guys will eventually triumph but only with a cautious sigh of relief.

Then you show up, throw out a line like, “You’ve failed me for the last time!” and incinerate the disposable henchperson in some brutally effortless manner. This works great because it establishes you in perspective against the chump who gave them a run for their money (and also makes you seem super evil).

Now you occasionally get a bunch of bards yammering about tropes instead of appreciating the effort required to deliver a classic, solely for their benefit. You hear these jerks coming a mile away because they ache for excuses to complain while you’re doing all the heavy lifting. You can use the same general idea but need to cloak it in a little mysteriousness.

Don’t seem to show up and start murdering. Instead, make yourself every bit the distantly epic villain. Be invisible with a huge illusion of yourself overhead. It can be all ominous and speechifying while you surreptitiously melt the minion’s face off.

Maybe dominate this fall guy minion of yours, but don’t take over until they are hosed. Step in, and act out a “struggle for the body.” Then speak in a super-deep and scary voice about how you’ve “devoured their soul” as the price of failure. Don’t forget to name drop yourself. Consider talking in the third person if you can’t casually slip it into normal conversation.

Or… stick with the classic, but make the murder so memorably awful with cold-hearted dialogue sufficiently tight—it doesn’t matter how often they’ve seen a similar scenario. Like, temporal stasis the monster in a brutal moment of agony and say, “Your suffering shall continue long after the last star darkens.”

This one is especially nifty because it’s not like you can’t thaw them out an hour later or something.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Encounters have consequences. Every slain bandit has friends who will want revenge, and every devil banished back to the Eleven Hells reports its failure to its Dark Lord. What happens when the PCs’ daring deeds come back to bite them?

Muttering Madness

The following encounter chains are more than just random encounters. Each conflict flows organically into the next, sometimes without even giving the PCs a chance to catch their collective breath. Each subsequent link in the chain ups the stakes, giving the PCs the sense of falling out of the frying pan… and into the fire.

Encounter 1: Into the Quagmire

Recommended party level: 5-6

Few tread too far off the Floating Road. Even aside from the danger, the area is so remote that the value of any treasure to be found pales in comparison with the effort needed to retrieve it. So goes the common refrain. But whether part of a lost trade caravan heading out from Tolmezo or for some other reason, the PCs find themselves in the dank marshes.

Your travel pace is abysmally slow. The path is long gone behind you, and repeated attempts to find it again have met with maddening failure; even your most skilled navigators have failed to return you to your intended path. Dusk is approaching fast and with it the braying of coyotes, the eerie stridulation of giant scorpions, and worse. Up ahead, you see flickering lights.  

The flickering comes from a group of witchlights (Tome of Beasts). The marsh is under a curse, making its dense and monotonous nature even harder to navigate. In addition to being difficult terrain, characters traveling in the marsh have disadvantage on Wisdom (Nature) checks and all checks to determine direction. The witchlights are about 100 feet away when they are first spotted but seem much closer.

A character who succeeds on a DC 18 Intelligence check while watching the flickering lights realizes that the flickering is not random and does not resemble any natural phenomenon. A character who succeeds on a DC 23 Intelligence (Arcana) check determines that the flickering is a method of communication and represents creatures having a conversation.

The witchlights are the bait to a trap, intended to lure travelers into a pit (15-feet deep and 20-feet in diameter), which contains three gibbering mouthers. Once they come within 10 feet of the pit’s edge, PCs are subject to the creatures’ Gibbering ability. Once the PCs are in the pit with the gibbering mouthers, the witchlights flee to their master’s cave.

Developments. PCs who succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check notice the remains of many bodies—perhaps as many as several dozen—in various stages of decomposition at the mouthers’ remains. If the PCs follow the witchlights, proceed to Encounter 2. If the PCs remain in the pit for more than 15 minutes, proceed to Encounter 3.

Encounter 2: In the Cavern of Madness

The witchlights proceed to the cave in which their master lives. The cave entrance is a short distance from the mouther pit; it opens to a 100-foot-long tunnel ending at a single 30-foot-diameter chamber. The cave entrance is guarded by a shambling mound surrounded by a swarm of tiny lizards that emit electrical shocks (treat as a swarm of rats that deal electricity damage instead of piercing damage). The shocker lizards keep the shambling mound at maximum hit points (increasing its challenge rating to 7) and grant it regeneration 5 until the swarm is destroyed.

In the cave is a mage named Talan Csalo, who is not hostile. He explains that he is mourning the death of his lover, who was killed by the gibbering mouthers in the pit. He says he has developed a ritual to restore his lover from the pit and asks the party to accompany him there and assist in performing it.

In truth, Csalo is trying to sacrifice as many innocents as possible in the pit and believes that, once he has facilitated the necessary amount of death, his lover return from the dead. He is the one who summoned and keeps the gibbering mothers in the pit, instructing the witchlights to lead unwary travelers to their doom there. He wears a ring of mind shielding, which he keeps invisible, to aid him in his deceptions.

Developments. The cavern includes a hidden crevice that can be discovered by a successful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) or DC 18 Intelligence (Investigation) check. The crevice contains the accoutrements of a sage, including a moldering ledger that contains the ritual Talan Csalo believes will return his lover to him. The ledger will reveal Csalo’s deceit and his true intentions.

If the PCs decide to assist Csalo, proceed to Encounter 3.

Encounter 3: Love’s Light Lacking

If the gibbering mouthers are killed, after 20 minutes their remains congeal into a rubbery film at the bottom of the pit. This film has the same effects as a grease spell and can only be removed by casting bless, remove curse, hallow, or a similar spell upon the pit.

If any PC took any amount of damage while in the pit, the ritual is completed and the mage’s lost love returns—as a chained angel (Tome of Beasts). Any creature who attempts to cast a spell with the chained angel as a single target must succeed on a DC 15 Charisma saving throw or suffer one short term madness effect for 1 minute.

If the party returns to the pit with Csalo, he attempts to push one PC into the pit using mage hand (Csalo makes an Intelligence check opposed by the PC’s Strength check). A PC who falls in this manner takes 1d6 damage and completes the ritual. Once the chained angel rises, Csalo is incapacitated as he looks on in horrified wonder.

Developments. Once the chained angel is defeated, Csalo flees and the curse is lifted from the marsh, and the PCs can navigate as usual using Nature skill checks.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Way back when time began, I started gaming with Basic Dungeons & Dragons and moved quickly to AD&D. For the next few years, I was into anything TSR put out—Top Secret, Gamma World, Gangbusters, Star Frontiers, Boot Hill—and then I discovered Call of Cthulhu. But my group mostly stopped gaming when we started driving. There were brief returns—I lived in London after college and bought a lot of Call of Cthulhu at Forbidden Planet, and I came home for a year during which I was heavily into James Bond 007, but other than that, I didn’t game much.

Then several years ago, I decided I wanted to introduce my children to role playing games. We’ve got nothing against video games in this house (at all, believe me, I’m probably 300 hours into Skyrim now), but I wanted something more social, more interactive, less railroady, and where violence wasn’t the only answer to a problem (though violence is fun too!). I started them with the wonderful Fate Core System from Evil Hat (now one of my favorite all-time systems), and we played that for about two years. It was tremendous—I’m a children’s book author, and we gamed in the world of my Thrones & Bones books, even running a year-long campaign that took place in one of the cities from and set right after the events of my novel Nightborn. But after two years of Fate, my players (which now included two of my nephews and some of my son’s peers from school) were getting hungry for more crunch. Plus, I was tired of them asking me how much gold they could get and what kind of magic weapons they could find (neither of which is very important in Fate, or at least it’s handled very differently).

Enter the new 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. So around December of 2016, we dove into “The Lost Mines of Phandelver,” and they absolutely ate it up. But there was a parallel development happening with me, which is that before I returned to gaming, I was already collecting campaign books as inspiration for my fantasy novels (and just because they’re, you know, really cool). And while I love the world of Golarion, Eberron, and Golantha, it was Kobold Press’s Midgard that intrigued me the most. So I started buying a lot of Kobold Press products, even though I wasn’t gaming in their world.

Then, this past Winter, one of my players took a two-week trip to the Galapagos Islands. Very nice for them, but we had planned to game for most of the holiday break! We also had a new player who wanted to join our D&D games. So these circumstances presented an opportunity to try something new. I started looking at Midgard adventures that could be played in a session or two, and Cat and Mouse came to my attention because, while it was not designed with children in mind, it was being touted as “child friendly.” My group at the time included a then-8 year old, two 12 year olds, a 14 year old, and a 21 year old. I needed something that could hold an adult or a young adult’s attention without being inappropriate for a child.

And at this point, I want to just throw in an important aside. There are several very good games that are created with children in mind, and that is wonderful and necessary and great, but I want to draw the distinction between “children’s games” and “child-friendly games.” Often times, I think people designing specifically for children get too hung up on the level of violence in RPGs. Have you watched any cartoons lately? Played any video games? It’s usually not the level of violence that’s a problem for younger kids. It’s the level of sex, the level of suspense, or the level of horror and gore. Nothing needs to be dumbed down or played tongue-in-cheek or made cutesy. A kid-appropriate game can have monsters, fights, mayhem, mystery, murder, and everything that makes a good game while still being written in such a way as to hold an adult’s interest. If you’re looking for an example, Cat and Mouse absolutely fits the bill.

We dove right in. For those who haven’t checked it out, the adventure takes place in Midgard’s Southlands in a city called Per-Bastet, which is very much modeled on Cairo if it had districts run by vampires, kobolds and gnolls as part of the citizenry, a mystical river of sand running into its walls and pouring down a mysterious vortex, and a cat-headed goddess occasionally walking the streets. The adventure involved the hunt for a missing artifact that had disappeared into the seedy Perfume District of the city and which has at least three parties pursuing it. Cat and Mouse proved to be great because, while it was possible to fight your way through the entire adventure, nearly every encounter could be roleplayed to a resolution too. It allowed the players to fight or talk as much as they wanted—and my players like to do a lot of both.

It took us two sessions to run, at the end of which they had emerged victorious but with two potential rivals to plague them in the future and several friends among the common folk and temple acolytes of the streets of the Perfume District. And I only had one problem: my players didn’t want to go back to Phandelver! They’ve never been high on long dungeon crawls, and they love intrigue, roleplay, social and political complications, mystery, and the open sandbox freedom of a large metropolis. They also really dug the non-European setting. So we abandoned Faerûn for a while.

Between the end of Cat and Mouse and our next session, I picked up Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, and we found that the expanded downtime rules worked really, really well with Kobold Press’s suggestions for the passage of time between games. Kobold says one day of real life downtime equals two game days. We kept it at one-to-one though because we only game once a month on average. My characters spent their time carousing in the Perfume District, working, pit fighting, and performing in their band (one of them is a dragonborn bard). When they made contacts and rivals, I started pulling them from upcoming Southlands adventures to seed those adventures.

We returned to run Tomb of Tiberesh, which is a more traditional dungeon crawl except that it takes place in a pyramid. Unfortunately, we found out that my youngest player has a fear of pyramids and mummies, so she dropped out, which somewhat hampered the party as she was the rogue! Meanwhile, I was afraid the shift to a dungeon crawl would bore them, but they loved the traps, and (very minor spoiler) the way the history of Tiberesh unfolds in hieroglyphics on the walls really intrigued my oldest player, who is himself studying linguistics.

The game ended with them fleeing upon (spoiler) Tiberesh’s second resurrection, though they barricaded him in his tomb. Now (big spoiler), Tomb of Tiberesh has more than one possible ending. The standard ending is that the company that hired them, Golden Falcon Antiquities, are actually members of the cult. This didn’t sit well with me in that there isn’t anything written to suggest a credible reaction to the players when they come out of the pyramid having presumably destroyed their god. GFA just wants to confiscate the magic items and doesn’t seem upset by the outcome otherwise, but I wanted some direction as to what else they’d do. Fortunately, the adventure actually has four suggested alternative endings, one of which is that GFA is a secret society dedicated to keeping dangerous magical artifacts out of the wrong hands. I love this. (I’m a sucker for these sorts of secret societies; I’ve got one in my aforementioned book Nightborn.) So I decided to split the difference. In my game, GFA is a mostly benevolent secret society, but the second in command is a secret cultist of Tiberesh. My players outed him, whereupon the head of GFA enlisted them to help weed out spies in the organization. After all, if the second in command was a cultist, he has no way of knowing how deep the infiltration goes, and a group of adventurers who have just rendered GFA a service are trusted outsiders who can be enlisted to help clean house. Meanwhile, expeditions back into the pyramid found no sign of Tiberesh, who has mysteriously vanished, presumably licking his wounds and plotting a more successful return.

The plan was to run Grimalkin next, the official sequel to Cat and Mouse. Now if I can take another, related aside—unlike Cat and Mouse, Grimalkin isn’t kid appropriate in that it deals with cannibalism and other, ahem, unpalatable subjects. It looks like its going to be great fun, but I do wish there wasn’t a tonal shift between the first adventure and its sequel. I’m just saying…

But as it turned out, two things happened before we could run Grimalkin. School let out and one of my players left for three weeks in France, and meanwhile Warlock Lairs put out The Scorpion’s Shadow, a prequel to Tomb of Tiberesh. It’s too good not to use somehow, especially since I already had plans to introduce the Cult of Selket (from Demon Cults & Secret Societies) in our campaign. But it’s an introductory adventure for four to five 1st-level characters and, as I said, a prequel to something I already ran. So here’s what I’m going to do (spoilers). I’m going to run an adventure for just two of my players (both 3rd level). The head of Golden Falcon Antiquities is going to contact them and say that after he reported a version of events to a sympathetic city official, the dig has been halted, but other officials, greedy for gold, want to hand the excavation contract over to rival archaeologists. His friend is set to make a speech to the officials on the importance of not doing so. Then the adventure, which starts when said city official is murdered by a cultist assassin, can play out as written (the murder being done to restart the dig). In the adventure, the cult of Tiberesh and Selket are in an alliance, so I’ll say that the Tiberesh devotees have asked for help in shoring up Tiberesh’s power after he was sadly shaken by being killed (once) by my players.

After this adventure, when everyone is back, we’ll run “Den of the Rotten Kings” from the Book of Lairs. This adventure sees a gang of wererats blackmailing a city by threatening to poison their water supply. It’s setting agnostic, but since I’m porting it into Per-Bastet, we’ll say that it’s not the whole city, just the Perfume District, and the Kings aren’t blackmailing the city officials, just the local merchants who ply their trade there. In fact, I’ll pull a rival from Cat and Mouse as the one who comes to them with the job (the gnoll merchant Hakaan-al-Khareen Zmirr Nill Mo Chatooor, who is a blast to run as an NPC). Then it will be off to Grimalkin and then Last Gasp. Eventually, this will all culminate in a final showdown of my own devising with the cults of Tiberesh and Selket both. Or at least that’s the plan. Who knows what amazing stories for the Southlands Kobold Press might introduce before we get there! And there are a few more high-level Southlands adventures in Eldritch Lairs. And that’s what I love about Midgard. We can literally go anywhere and do anything. Also, for a setting that touts how “dark” it is, there is a surprising number of opportunities for humor.

If there’s a point to my meanderings, it’s just that the rich, layered, and nuanced world of Midgard’s Southlands is an amazing place, unlike any setting I’ve ever gamed in, and the variety of adventures Kobold Press releases, together with the plot hooks baked into the setting, make it really easy for a DM to string together a campaign out of what they offer and what they leave for you to invent. I would also urge everyone designing adventures (Kobolds included) to consider my distinction between children’s games and child-acceptable games, and I vote for more of the latter. But if your DMing games and you haven’t checked out the Southlands yet, what are you waiting for? You really need to dive in. Meanwhile, fear not, we did return to Phandelver, though we haven’t finished it yet, and we will be starting a third campaign centered around Zobeck soon (and involving dark elves and the Shadowrealm because why the heck not?), but we’ve got plenty more to do in and around Per-Bastet to satisfy the curiosity of any cat.

Lou Anders is the author of Frostborn, Nightborn, and Skyborn, the Thrones & Bones series of fantasy adventure novels, as well as the upcoming Star Wars: Pirate’s Price. Each of the Thrones & Bones books, in addition to being exciting stories full of heroes and monsters that both children and adults enjoy, contains rules for an original board game that Anders created. He is also the recipient of a Hugo Award for editing and a Chesley Award for art direction, and he was named a Thurber House Children’s Writer-in-Residence in 2016. Anders lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his family and a Golden Doodle named Hadley. You can visit him online at louanders.com, on Facebook, on Tumblr, and on Twitter at @Louanders.

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Heroes Handbook…]

RANGER: ZOBECKER SCOUT

The Free City of Zobeck is a crossroads of trade and a haven for the resourceful. Some rangers heed the call of opportunity and follow the urban ranger archetype of the Zobecker Scout. The majority of such rangers are kobolds, but a few tall-folk also possess the necessary cunning.

PULSE OF THE CROSSROADS

When you choose this archetype at 3rd level, you add “city” to your list of known favored terrains. Additionally, you have advantage on Charisma (Deception and Persuasion) checks made against your favored enemies.

MARKET AWARENESS

Also at 3rd level, when you use Primeval Awareness, you can choose one type of item or commodity. This can be a general category such as “poison” or “spices,” or a more specific category such as “wyvern poison” or “saffron.” If you have seen a specific item within 30 feet, you can choose it. If the category or item you choose is present within 1 mile or within the bounds of a city you currently occupy, you are aware of its presence in addition to any creatures revealed by Primeval Awareness.

ZOBECKER SCOUT MAGIC

Starting at 3rd level, you learn an additional spell when you reach certain levels in this class, as shown below. The spell counts as a ranger spell for you, but it doesn’t count against the number of ranger spells you know.

ZOBECKER SPELLS

ALCHEMICAL TALENT

Starting at 7th level, you gain proficiency with alchemist’s supplies. With 1 hour of work and 50 gp worth of materials, you can create a minor alchemical device. The device ceases to function when you use an action to dismantle it or after 24 hours unless you spend 1 hour maintaining the device. If you dismantle the device, you can reclaim and reuse its materials. You can maintain one such device at a time. The number of alchemical devices you can maintain increases by one at 11th level (two devices) and again at 15th level (three devices).

Any creature proficient with alchemist’s supplies can use its action to activate one of your devices.

When you create a device, choose one of the following options.

Caustic Alkali. This vial of chemicals is activated by applying it to a surface or an object within reach. At the end of that turn, the surface or object takes 11 (2d10) acid damage and a cloud of poisonous fumes fills a sphere with a 10-foot radius around the application point. This area is heavily obscured. A creature that ends its turn in the cloud or enters it for the first time on a turn becomes poisoned for 1 hour unless it makes a successful Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. The cloud lasts 1 minute.

Volatile Alkali. This flask of alchemical liquid has a smaller glass vial suspended inside. It’s activated either by placing it somewhere within reach or by throwing it as far as 20 feet away. Once activated, it explodes at the end of that turn. Creatures within 15 feet of the explosion take 27 (6d8) bludgeoning damage and are knocked prone, or take half damage and aren’t knocked prone with a successful Dexterity saving throw against your spell save DC.

Sustained Reaction. These two small vials of paste can be combined to start a reaction that gives off energy. Choose one of these energy types when you create the device: acid, cold, fire, or lightning. The device is activated when the paste is applied to one melee weapon or 20 pieces of ammunition. For the next hour, the treated weapon or ammo does an additional 1d6 damage of the chosen energy type on every successful hit.

EVASION

At 11th level, when you are subjected to an effect that allows a Dexterity saving throw to take half damage (such as a dragon’s breath attack or a lightning bolt), you instead take no damage if your saving throw succeeds and half damage if you fail.

QUICK TRIGGER

When you reach 15th level, you can use a bonus action to activate devices created with your Alchemical Talent or to take the Use an Object action.

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Those that call Midgard home are many and varied, and adventure awaits them all. This series presents some potential player races that you might not have considered.

Aridni

Description: Aridni are small, ashen-grey creatures, standing no more than three feet in height. They have thin, agile bodies and weigh no more than thirty pounds. And of course, they have moth-like wings, allowing for quick maneuvering to avoid danger and escape foes.

Origin Story: Long ago, the aridni were brought to the mortal world with their masters from the Elflands. Much later, when their masters returned to their homeworld, many aridni were abandoned or chose to stay behind. Regardless of why, they were now on their own in the mortal world and had to find a way to adapt. Many sought refuge with wizards, becoming their servants, while others found a new life discovering new passions. Many aridni, though, returned to their old habits—raiding, thieving, and sneaking about “acquiring” items of wealth, especially from humans and dwarves.

Social Distrust: Aridni have a hard time trusting other races. They tend to sneer and jest during social interactions, especially with humans and dwarves. Their distrust of these races stems from the elves’ struggles with them in the past, and it’s not easily shed, but some Aridni have embraced others and now thrive in their new home and pass on their excitement to their kin. There’s a new generation coming that can more fully appreciate such a world full of wonder.

Aridni Traits

Ability Score Increase: Your Dexterity score increases by 2, and your Charisma score increases by 1.

Age: You reach maturity by the age of 60. Your average life span is expected to be around 250–300 years. However, some aridni have been known to live longer due to their magical nature.

Alignment: Your people have been around for centuries, fostering a mischievous and chaotic nature that still persists. You have come to enjoy your freedom in this new world and will do anything to protect it. Your desire to be free has led you to seek a life of adventure, fortune, and glory. Though you might still hold deep resentment toward others, due to your past, you might instead view those old grudges as unnecessary and choose a life full of new friendships.

Size: You are 2–3 feet tall and weigh no more than 30 pounds. Your size is small.

Speed: You have a walking speed of 20 feet. Your speed is 40 feet.

Tradecraft: You are a small fey and learned early on how to utilize your size and speed to your advantage as well as how to use your ability to manipulate others when the need arises. You are proficient in Stealth and Deception.

“One’s origin does not determine their journey.”—Stril the Quick

Airborne: You were born with wings, and your fly speed is 40 feet.

Blood of Your Ancestors: You are a magical creature, and your fey blood gives you special innate abilities. Over time, you learn new spells, which only add to your mischievous nature. You have an innate spellcasting ability, and these spells are in addition to any other spells offered by your class and do not count toward your maximum known spells.

• First Level: You may cast detect magic once per long rest.
• Third Level: You may cast charm person once per long rest.
• Fifth Level: You may cast invisibility once per long rest.

Combat Preference: You are a small creature and prefer not to engage in melee unless forced. You are proficient with dagger and shortbow.

Darkvision: You are used to dim light and darkness. You can see in dim light within 60 feet of you as if it were bright light and in darkness as if it were dim light. You cannot discern color in darkness, only shades of grey.

Flight of the Aridni: You may use your reaction to impose disadvantage on an opportunity attack against you this turn.

Quick Witted: You have advantage on Intelligence and Charisma saving throws.

What a wonderful turnout of photos for the DM Selfie contest! You really made me want to get my game on. It’s always so much fun to see how different yet how similar everyone’s game is—to see all the ways that gaming happens.

And you certainly didn’t make the judges’ task easy. But the dice have been rolled, so to speak. Congratulations to the winners—who should be expecting fabulous prizes winging their way soon—and thank you so much to all who entered. Here are the winning photos…

Honorable Mentions

Marshall Mills

Dane Jessen

Andrew Dag

Second Place

Tyler McConnell

Grand Prize

Jonathan Miley

The genies of the Elemental Planes keep slaves, but they also need servants—individuals powerful enough to run their petty citadels and elemental empires but not rise to become rivals to their power. These are the jann, beings made of multiple primal elements. A beautiful people of striking appearance and demeanor, they suffer the egos of their masters and keep such great metropolises as the City of Brass in some sense of order.

Made of Many Elements. While the genies represent a purity of their elemental types, the jann are the grand sultan’s middlemen:

• The House of Ooze is made up of those jann for whom primordial water and earth are dominant. Its people have oily, supple skin and tend toward green eyes. They rarely speak in certitudes and serve as the dealers, healers, and alchemists for their genie masters.
• The House of Smoke is made up of those jann for whom primordial fire and air are dominant. Its members have dry skin and hair, which breaks up as a cloud behind them. They tend toward grey eyes, and their changeable nature makes them excellent diplomats and entertainers.
• The House of Magma is made up of those jann for whom primordial fire and earth are dominant. They have red eyes and often a shock of red hair among the dark strands. They are the soldiers and raiders of domains, such as the City of Brass, and often venture into the Prime Material with slave-catching parties.
• The House of Ice is made up of those jann for whom primordial water and air are dominant. They have blue eyes and white hair, sometimes only a few strands but often their entire head is covered with ivory locks. They are considered patient and serve as guards, jailors, and collectors.

A Para-Elemental Parliament. The jann within the City of Brass and in other great genie domains operate as a second government, a bureaucracy that keeps matters on an even keel and keeps any one faction or personality from upsetting the status quo and demanding the attention of the great sultan—may his people always prosper. This Para-Elemental Parliament does not seek power for itself but will balance one group against the others to keep the peace.

Free People of the Desert. Not all jann are pleased with the serving of more powerful genies, and some flee to form their own societies in the barren and arid places of the world. Gathering mortals in their wake, they form large caravans and dominate desert oases with their opulent tent cities. Some go further, encouraging rebellion against their former masters and freeing slaves that have been unjustly captured. Their ability to shift among the elemental planes makes them hard to catch, and their relationship (familial or social) with members of the Para-Elemental Parliament makes the city-bound jann sympathetic to their cause.

Jann

Medium elemental, neutral
Armor Class 16 (natural armor)
Hit Points 95 (10d8 + 50)
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.

Saving Throws Int +5 Wis +5 Cha +7
Condition Immunities See Para-elemental Nature below.
Senses Darkvision 120 ft, passive Perception 13
Languages Aquan, Auran, Ignan, Terran
Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Breathless. Jann have no need to breathe, though do so out of courtesy or in order to speak. They cannot drown or be victims of poisonous gas or other attacks that require breathing.

Elemental Demise. If the jann dies, their body disintegrates into its elemental parts (a puddle of ooze, a wisp of smoke, the embers of magma, or melting shards of ice), leaving behind only the equipment the jann was wearing or carrying.

Innate Spellcasting. The jann’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16, + 8 to hit with spell attacks). They can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

• 3/day: invisibility
• 2/day each: enlarge/reduce, speak with animals
• 1/day each: create food/water, etherealness, planeshift (Material and Elemental Planes only)

Para-elemental Nature. Jann are made of a mixture of all primordial elements but fall into one of four houses or kingdoms, each with differing abilities:

• House of Ooze—Damage resistance to piercing weapons.
• House of Smoke—Damage resistance to slashing weapons.
• House of Magma—Immunity to fire.
• House of Ice—Immunity to cold.

ACTIONS

Multiattack. The jann makes two great scimitar attacks or two longbow attacks. If armed with two scimitars, they may make two scimitar attacks and one bonus scimitar attack.

Great Scimitar (Treat as Greatsword). Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 damage (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.

Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 damage (1d6 + 4) slashing damage. The bonus attack, if it hits, deals only 3 (1d6) slashing damage.

Longbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, range 150/600 ft., one target. Hit: 7 damage (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.

REACTION

Parry. The jann adds +3 to their AC against one melee attack that would hit them. To do so, the jann must see the attacker and be wielding a melee weapon.

Read more on the jann and the City of Brass—and read other great articles—in Warlock, only on Patreon!

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Heroes Handbook…]

BEER DOMAIN

The heady brew of fortitude, courage, and companionship is your nectar, and you share its blessings with those who need it.

BEER DOMAIN SPELLS

DISCIPLE OF THE DRAUGHT

At 1st level, you learn the message cantrip. You also gain proficiency in either Insight or Medicine (your choice), and you gain proficiency with brewer’s supplies. Your proficiency bonus is doubled for any ability check you make that uses those supplies.

CHANNEL DIVINITY: BLESSED BREW

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to transform a container of nonmagical liquid into blessed brew; the number of doses equals 3 + your Wisdom modifier. Any special attributes the liquid previously had are negated. Anyone who imbibes one dose of this brew can choose one of the following benefits: advantage on Charisma-based skill checks, a +1 bonus to AC, or a +1 increase to the DC of saving throws against their castings of enchantment spells. This bonus lasts for 1 hour, leaving a warm buzz behind when it fades. A creature can benefit from only one dose of blessed brew between rests. An hour after creating blessed brew, the liquid turns into tasty, but mundane, beer.

CHANNEL DIVINITY: BOOT AND RALLY

Starting at 6th level, you can use your Channel Divinity to aid and rally your allies. All friendly creatures within 30 feet of you who are frightened, paralyzed, poisoned, or stunned gain an immediate saving throw with advantage to remove the effect. Creatures that succeed on the saving throw also heal 2d6 hit points.

DIVINE STRIKE

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with radiant energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 radiant damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

FIRE IN THE BELLY

At 17th level, you gain resistance to cold, poison, and psychic damage.

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Well met and well-traveled, friend. Introductions are certainly in order. I am Phileus J. Abbertale—explorer, naturalist, and scholar. Neophytes refer to me as a guide, but I personally find the term lacking, considering the breadth of knowledge I impart to those willing to listen. Indeed, the title Journey Facilitator best captures the range of services I provide to my clients. In my mind, formality conveys importance, and nothing is more critical than knowing and understanding your surroundings. Over the next few months, we will put my expertise to the test when I take you and your colleagues to select locales in Midgard. My travelogue predominately focuses on the natural wonders and monstrous beings awaiting adventurers who set foot in these perilous lands. Pay attention, brave travelers. The advice contained in these weathered pages may one day save your life.

Entry One—Fields of Doom

Our first excursion takes us onto the sprawling Rothenian Plain, which stretches across a vast swath of our world. First off, it is important to note the term “plain” describes the land’s geography rather than its biome. In this regard, plain refers to a flat, featureless landscape. Rothenian Grasslands would be the proper terminology, though the colloquial designation suffices for our purposes. In addition, almost the entirety of the Rothenian Plain can be further classified as a steppe, which is a cool, semi-arid environment where short grasses dominate the firm soil. The lack of dense vegetation and solid ground provide ideal stomping grounds for the Khazzaki riders and centaurs galloping across the level terrain. With no natural obstacles to impede the terrifying sound, the thundering hoofbeats reverberate far and wide, heralding their impending arrival.

Such impressive displays are hard to miss, causing many newcomers to wrongly underestimate the dangers lurking in the grasslands. In my youth, my naivety also led me toward the same conclusion, though I fortunately gathered my wits in time to survive the ordeal and salvage the terrible situation. While traveling along the outskirts of Dorograd, I happened upon a large, curious patch of grass with bluish flecks attached to the blades’ tips. The unusual coloration caused some consternation, yet being an inexperienced outdoorsman, I dismissed the oddity as a harmless anomaly. However, nature taught me a valuable lesson on that fateful day.

As I blissfully traipsed through the seemingly ordinary vegetation, each step disturbed the grasses underfoot, kicking the blue particles into the air. After walking twenty feet into the treacherous patch, garbled thoughts and disorientation filled my befuddled mind. The sudden uncertainty overcoming me triggered my instinctual response to immediately retreat. With every last bit of strength and coordination, I stumbled back from whence I came and collapsed to the ground. When the mental fog lifted, I relayed my experience to a local resident, who marveled at my experience. He told me very few live to tell the tale of an encounter with the dreaded syvgrass. (See my footnote on the bottom of this journal entry for details about this natural hazard.)

The latter portion of my journey through these lands proved more fruitful despite the inauspicious beginning. During this leg of my trek, I came across a ravenfolk doom croaker bellowing its dirges in an incomprehensible language. Although the words and their meaning eluded me, my fascination with prophecy and runic magic piqued my interest in the enigmatic creature. After a tenuous opening repartee with the insightful being, followed by the puzzling disappearance of several valuable personal effects, I earned the avian being’s respect during our conversations about the preceding subjects. After sharing the road together for several weeks, we parted company but not before he left me with a token of his appreciation for my wisdom and knowledge. His pronunciation of the object’s name twisted my tongue into frenetic knots. Therefore, I was content to call it a vision stone. (Its description appears in the footnote at the bottom of this journal entry.)

Of course, these are not the only dangers and boons awaiting adventurers trekking through the Rothenian Plain on their way to greater glory. As a final word of advice, always inspect the grass before allowing your mounts and livestock to graze upon it. May your paths remain safe and your company close at hand. Farewell until our next encounter.

SYVGRASS

Feared by hikers and riders alike, syvgrass is a rare yet terrifying menace slowly spreading across the Rothenian Plain. These toxic fungal spores settle atop vegetation, primarily grass, where they wait to germinate. Syvgrass releases its spores when disturbed by winds in excess of 25 miles per hour or after coming into contact with a creature or object. When this occurs, the spores instantly fill a 10-ft.-radius area centered on the point of contact. A living creature who inhales or ingests the syvgrass spores must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 28 (8d6) psychic damage and is poisoned for 8 hours. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage and isn’t poisoned. If a creature’s saving throw is successful or the poisoned effect ends for it, the creature is immune to syvgrass for the next 24 hours. It takes a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Nature) check to identify syvgrass and its hazardous properties.

VISION STONE

Wondrous item, uncommon

Intricate runes adorn the entire surface of a small, translucent agate. While touching it, you can use an action to receive momentary insight about events that might take place within the next minute. During that minute, you can use your reaction to gain advantage on one saving throw or impose disadvantage on one attack roll made against you. You must be able to see the creature attacking you to impose disadvantage on its attack roll. The vision stone can’t be used this way again until the next dawn.

The adventurers were in trouble, and Val knew it was his fault. Standing before a group of guards, Val, Tyrash, Azreal, and Strass watched as a portly shop owner squinted at each of them. As the merchant’s eyes fell on Val, the stolen bread in his sleeve seemed easily noticeable. Val closed his eyes as he watched the merchant slowly point at him. He was caught. First day in a new city, and he was going to prison. Then there was an explosion.

Welcome to the table! This week, the adventurers settled into a brand new region, discovering new problems in their midst. Facing off with a new villain, the heroes find themselves dealing with more than just a new face—some of the party have begun to sympathize with the villain’s motives. Today, let’s talk about conflicts and villains.

What makes compelling villainy and exciting conflict? How could GMs incorporate this into their own game? What are common pitfalls?

Racing through the crowd, the adventurers followed the shouts and cries of the city watch. After a short spring, Strass and his companions emerged onto a small plaza amid the winding city streets. Standing before them was a man dressed in long flowing robes of crimson. In one hand, he held a staff of pure ice, and with his other hand, he helped support a frail, elderly man. Noticing the adventurers he sneered in disdain.

Compelling villainy comes three-fold. First, the villain needs to be believable. When creating a villain, start with their background, their motivations and their flaws. For my villain, Inkwell, he was once a student who was mentored by radical revolutionaries. After encountering the northlands, Inkwell swore to see their systemic control of magic shattered. Beginning with a villain’s motivations will help cement the character into the world and help provide you with guidance when roleplaying this character at the table.

Tyrash and Azreal watched as the city watch slowly inched closer to the red wizard. The captain, noticing the adventurers, shouted to them, “That man is Inkwell the Red, a known criminal. Help us capture him, and you will be rewarded.” Tyrash noted Inkwell’s grim determination and the elderly man, which he had seen begging on the street the day before. The scene seemed wrong. As Tyrash hesitated, Inkwell shouted toward the adventurers, “I’ve saved this man from wrongful imprisonment. It is me who needs help, not the city watch.”

After establishing your villain’s background, focus on how your villain will act as a mirror or foil for the players. In nearly every story, the hero faces off with a villain that is either a mirror or foil. In Batman, the dark knight stands for justice and order while the Joker acts as his foil, representing anarchy and chaos. A compelling villain reveals a problem in the hero that the hero must resolve. For Inkwell, I wanted to present a character that was sympathetic and morally ambiguous. He was someone the characters could understand, he mirrored some of the character’s beliefs, and above all he was willing to do what the characters would not.

By creating a villain with these traits, the players are forced to create a justification for why they should fight him, rather than simply stating that he is the “bad guy.” Furthermore, some of the players found themselves admiring the villain’s actions, and more than once, I heard, “we should do that,” in response to the players learning the villain’s plans. Inkwell’s presence in the narrative becomes more than just a boss at the end of a few sessions, instead being an enemy or a potential ally based upon the player’s decisions.

For a long moment, Tyrash stood surveying the scene, taking in the lack of danger Inkwell appeared to present. The soft whispers of the elderly man landed in Tyrash’s ear, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.” The man’s face was buried in Inkwells robes. Tyrash turned, looking to his companions, and each of them shared a knowing glance. Drawing his sword, Tyrash prepared himself for action.

Creating a compelling villain requires believability and relatability. Yet the final piece for creating one appears in how conflict with that villain is presented. For instance, when presenting Inkwell, I could introduce an NPC who says, “There is the villain. Go defeat them.” Yet this style of conflict introduction cannot do a villain justice. Presenting a villain in this manner informs the players that the justification, “They are the bad person, so let’s kill them,” is reasonable. Introducing a villain needs to go a step further. In my game, I also worked to present Inkwell’s goal as a conflict for the players—which in this case, was presenting the city watch as possible villains too.

By doing this, a villain becomes more than just the big bad evil guy (BBEG), and the players must reconcile which conflict they would like to resolve: the villain’s plot or the reasons motivating the villain’s decisions. The first method of introducing a villain minimizes the importance of a villain while the second helps to inform the players of the villain’s goals and desires.

One of the most common pitfalls I see GM’s succumb to, myself included, is presenting shallow, undefined villains and conflict in their games. There have been numerous times when villains I’ve presented fell flat when put under player scrutiny. When this happens, don’t worry about it, make a note, keep the game moving, and come back to that villain or conflict later. Often what feels like a glaring mistake for a GM is barely noticed by the players.

The fight was long and arduous. The members of the city watch had proved themselves to be capable combatants. Surrounded by unconscious guards, Val and his companions turned toward the red mage who was leaning heavily on his staff. “You’ve done a great thing today,” Inkwell’s voice was strong and confident. “I shall have to repay you someday, but for now, I will punish those who sought to capture me.” With that, Inkwell raised his hands and streams of fire leapt forward, consuming the unconscious guards. Tyrash gaped in surprise at the ruthless destruction, and a feeling of dread turned in his stomach. In the light of the flames, the adventurers watched as Inkwell vanished with the elderly man.

Let’s sum up:

• The best villains are those that are believable and relatable. Memorable villains are those that leave you wondering if they were right all along.
• Presenting a conflict or villain can indicate to the players how they are to think. Keep in mind how you are presenting your conflicts, keeping it varied as much as possible.
• When you screw up, own it, make a note, and move on. There is always room for more villains and exciting conflicts.

See you at the table!

<<PREVIOUSLY

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Worldbook]

Grandmother Baba Yaga

Many tales feature the bony-legged fey witch Baba Yaga, and most of them contradict each other. It’s hard to get a sense of Baba Yaga, and many suspect that’s exactly what she wants. Indeed, little happens anywhere that isn’t exactly as she desires. As convoluted and dark a mystery as Baba Yaga is, bits of her story rise to the surface and provide more truth than the rest, like foam on a bubbling stew.

Baba Yaga is a trader of secrets. It’s said there’s nothing she does not know. The brave, the desperate, and the stupid make pilgrimages to seek her wisdom, but she is rarely found when she doesn’t want to be. Those who find her regret it when she attempts to force them into her service—as a beast of burden or common tool—or eats them, having developed a taste for mortal flesh. Rarely, she seeks out those in most need of her assistance, when it serves her purposes as well.

For those who can trick her out of her impossible secrets and escape her whims, all knowledge is within reach. Grandmother makes it her business to know everything: the last thoughts of the dying star Tovaya while in its death throes; the directions to Buyan, the mystical island of the dead; the life and times of the Forgotten Queen and why she was erased from history; the Words of Unfounding that can never be unspoken and that would unseat the gods; the true names of every creature never born; the secret network of byways that cross reality; and the circumstances that bring an end to the world.

For a dangerously high price, Grandmother will part with her knowledge. The price might be a first kiss, a final breath, a forgotten artifact, or an impossible wager that forces the seeker to attempt a task with no real possibility of success. Those rare individuals who make their way past these trials and gain her secrets survive in tales. Those with knowledge she desires have a rare sway over her, since she will offer much to obtain it—though it’s still best not to push her too far, since she’s not one to ever forget a slight. Grandmother does not stoop to haggling.

All the mortal kings, the lords of heaven and hell, and the gods themselves leave Grandmother alone out of fear. Her secrets could unravel the skein of the world—or so she claims, and it is in her interest to make others believe it. She is content with all her knowledge, but she gladly demolishes those foolish enough to test her. Many have been erased from history for their wasted efforts to best her. She is the consummate schemer, a hundred steps ahead of the opposition with contingencies in place for even the most outlandish of possibilities. The wise let her be. The foolish seek out her hut.

Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga

Grandmother and her daughters live in remarkable dwellings that appear as small log huts with stone chimneys—and enormous chicken legs. Grandmother’s hut is the largest of these, said to contain 20 or 40 rooms, an entire mansion of kitchens, cages, and kettles to please the crone’s vile heart. Her hut is incredibly difficult to find for those who don’t know how to look, and it constantly shifts its location. It permits entry only to those who address it politely. Though incapable of actual flight, Grandmother’s hut can make mile-long leaps several times a day; the sight of her hut leaping across the horizon is a good reason to hasten indoors.

Her daughters’ huts are newer and smaller, their legs only the height of a horse. Even they contain a halfdozen rooms and comfortable lodgings for the winter or summer, complete with a cellar and feather beds.

The dancing huts travel when commanded by their owners, down from the Cloudwall Mountain valleys, across the Rothenian Plain, though the deepest glades of the Margreve, or along the banks of the River Tanais. The huts have even been sighted in the North, among the Riphean Mountains near the halls of the frost giants.

The huts are not combatants, though they deliver hard kicks in retaliation to attacks. Most are enchanted with wards and alarms that trigger when the hut is threatened. They move swiftly (50 ft. base speed) across the land, ignoring most terrain-based hindrances, and swimming across churning rivers without effort.

The Inconstant and Timeless Witch

No living being can comprehend Baba Yaga’s motives. Her actions and disposition are inconstant, unpredictable, and extremely dangerous. Even her most devoted mystics cannot predict what Grandmother will do next. The stories about Baba Yaga are one part dire warning, and one part nonsense. Scribes writing about the great witch occasionally find their writing vanished the next day, while others find their words have turned into earthworms writhing in their scroll cases. A painting of the witch commissioned by a duke transformed itself into a window to the Outer Realms. The duke and his family went mad after gazing through it. The painting was set to be destroyed but before the torch was lit, it sprouted two legs and fled into a river.

The witch enjoys company when the bold come calling. Those who quest to find her hut are often rewarded with a meal. Survivors of these audiences say Baba Yaga is so filled with secrets and knowledge, she maintains two distinct topics of conversation in one utterance. It is up to the guests to decipher which thread is which in her overflowing speech. Her hut is filled with the souls of those who failed her. Transformed into common household items or domestic animals, these sad beings retain all their memories and sentience. Take care when choosing your seat at Grandmother’s table— you might find yourself sitting on forgotten kings! Smart heroes in danger from the witch would do well to recruit the aid of these shapeshifted victims; their rage and sadness might be harnessed against the crone.

Grandmother appears to have the power to be in several places at once. Some scholars suggest she has numerous twin sisters, all of whom are named Baba Yaga, and all of whom do her bidding. Many believe the witch is free from the tyranny of time and wanders from moment to moment as she pleases. Her sojourns across the timelines create an endless stream of echoes, each her and yet not her. The truth lies somewhere between; after all, the sheer volume of knowledge acquired by Grandmother Yaga requires multiple minds to store it.

It could be that her sisters ensure her immortality. Like wooden dolls set inside one another, so too are the iterations of the great witch unified and endless…

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

An arcane college offers endless opportunities to its students with its centuries of intellect suffused into its foundation and fortifying an arsenal of knowledge. But unlike most universities, this arcane college houses information not only above ground but also below in the depths of the under-city in a parallel institution with more sinister intent. The most salient differences between those who study within the college and those below it are simply how the students obtain their information and for what end.

Inside the college libraries, well-meaning students flock to towering shelves that line the walls from floor to ceiling, encompassing endless tomes in every subject from alchemy to ancient literature. Pensive learners thumb gently through well-worn texts in dappled sunlight, seeking greater insights of the world around them. For some students, however, this is simply not enough; too many questions arise and go unanswered in the confines of outdated texts and long seminars. Instead, they seek higher ground by travelling beneath the college and attempt to satiate their curiosity with Professor Mysh in his Salon of Higher Studies.

Mysh’s house of study sits directly beneath the library, housing a mockery of his neighbors above in a rotting cavity beneath the city as elusive as it is exclusive. Only those with truer ambitions are welcome in his lair: those who are eager to know how to sharpen psychological weapons, analyze ascensions to godhood, or divine new ways of suffering are privileged with his mastery. Unlike the neighboring master who teaches only by demonstration, Mysh’s pedagogy demands his students engage in endless research alongside him but doesn’t guarantee their success.

He hoards mountains of molding books that tower precariously over the students, deadly should they fall. Rat-chewed papers scatter the ground among the half-eaten rats caught in the act, and the half-living shells of Mysh’s students who subsist on such lucky catches lay among them. Furnished with only a squat table to house the depository for Mysh’s endless research, his entourage huddles around in dying candlelight; his best students bear skin as yellow as the pages they read and as thinly stretched as the leather bindings.

In the center of his Salon hangs an intricate but poorly kept incense lantern that pours a scarlet smoke over the floor of the room that lures his students toward it as they breathe in the irresistible power of fox’s cunning. It bears the same color as a dying rose and a sickly, bittersweet smell that only slightly masks the odors of long-neglected hygiene and decaying students whose scattered corpses lie unnoticed among their similar-looking counterparts. The enchanted smoke is the only invention in Mysh’s name that is truly his own. The drug possesses a mind-altering enchantment that enhances his students’ perceptive and intellectual abilities beyond human constraints. Instantaneous understanding of the most difficult concepts seep into his more advanced students as seamlessly as smoke, and they can read with as little effort as it takes them to breathe. He harvests their intellect from the comfort of his private den at the edge of his Salon, separated from his withering students by black lace hangings that guard his secrets.

Some, of course, are weaker to the drug; the withdrawals induce a suffocating paranoia of being trapped in a mind too small (among other tortures), and the depths of the addiction are far more crippling. Whether a student is weak from overexposure or inability to continue, the wise professor has just the antidote: he simply extracts their working mind and their memories from their bodies like a strand of spider’s web, which he tucks away in a petite vial he stores on an apothecary shelf in his veiled den behind his salon, and imbues a small piece of his own consciousness that he can control with just a glimmer of thought in his new assistant. With so many consciousnesses to keep track of, the white-haired mouse of a man speaks to himself in a hundred different hushed voices, some of which occasionally engage in visceral arguments that result in any array of tantrums or screams (which largely go unnoticed by his students). With another hit of his own cunning, he rises above the torture of his own intellect and resumes his work.

These assistants have some minor structural troubles, predominantly regarding physiological control. Where our subconscious restricts our tensile strength when we grip or bite into something, their loose consciousness strips away such inhibitions. So if the professor hands them an arm of a poorly performing student and says “bite,” then they, being well-behaved, proper aides, sink their teeth to the marrow without question or restraint. As such, the assistants are readily susceptible to breakage, resulting in a high turnover for this unwitting position. Once Mysh has depleted their useful life (or grows tired of them), he’ll grant them a new life as an experiment of the master or store them in his crypt, dead or alive, behind the black curtains in the salon for his own studious gain.

His current assistants, Sana and Graeme, are more nimble than his previous stock; though young in years spent on earth, their gaunt, yellow faces and dismal grey hair give them the appearance of living corpses from ages past, countered only by the swirling scarlet in their irises. And if you’re not careful, the professor may just send them to study you…

Professor Mysh

Small humanoid (gnome), neutral evil
Armor Class 12 (15 with mage armor)
Hit Points 40 (9d6 + 9)
Speed 25 ft.

Saving Throws Int +7, Wis +4
Skills Arcana +7, History +7
Senses darkvision 60ft., passive Perception 11
Languages Common, Gnomish
Challenge 7 (2,900 XP)

Gnome Cunning. Professor Mysh has advantage on all Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saving throws against magic.

Spellcasting. Professor Mysh is a 9th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). He has the following wizard spells prepared:

• Cantrips: dancing lights, minor illusion, prestidigitation, ray of frost
• 1st level (4 slots): mage armor, magic missile, shield, sleep
• 2nd level (3 slots): misty step, suggestion
• 3rd level (3 slots): counterspell, hypnotic pattern, lightning bolt
• 4th level (3 slots): dimension door, fire shield
• 5th level (1 slot): dominate person

Actions

Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage.

Hollowmind Apprentice

Medium humanoid (any race), unaligned
Armor Class 11 (14 with mage armor)
Hit Points 26 (4d6 + 8)
Speed 30 ft.

Skills Arcana +4, History +4
Senses passive Perception 5
Languages Common
Challenge 2 (450 XP)

Hollow mind. The hollowmind apprentice has advantage on saving throws against bring charmed or frightened, but disadvantage on Perception checks.

Spellcasting. The apprentice is a 4th-level spellcaster. Its spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks).The apprentice has the following wizard spells prepared:

• Cantrips: dancing lights, mage hand, prestidigitation, ray of frost
• 1st level (4 slots): mage armor, magic missile, shield, thunderwave
• 2nd level (3 slots): hold person, misty step

Actions

Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage.

<<PREVIOUSLY

“Master, we have a visitor.”
“Good, I’ve been expecting her. I have a little gentle pilfering to commission. Fetch my finest absinthe and then bring me the bottled imps. I’m not entirely sure I can trust this guest…”

Crooked Characters are detailed NPCs to slip into your adventures however you wish. Free from class and statistics, they can be used in any fantasy gaming system. Each comes with a detailed description and character motivation for you to use in your campaign—perhaps as a mere passer-by, rumor, confidante or maybe the motivation behind a whole adventure.

Despite her best efforts to look plain, there is steel and confidence in this young woman, though her eyes betray a little sadness. Her hair is shaved quite short, which merely accentuates her strong feminine features; there is almost a feeling of her trying to hide her looks behind roughness that sits uncomfortably upon her. She’s maybe thirty, perhaps a little older, and on the gaunt side of thin and the ragged side of tidy, not that it troubles her. Her hair’s a little ruffled; her hands and arms have a few nicks and marks. She’s lived, perhaps a little toughly.

Emilia Bittersweet has many names. In fact, remembering which name she’s using for a given job has caused her to suffer more than one awkward scrape. She a thief at heart but a damnably subtle one; her specialization is in disguise and the con although she can crack a lock, use a rapier, and climb a high gable if needs be. Emilia, aka the Scarlet Shadow, Lady Emilia Kemp, Divine Sister Ingratia, and so on, uses her calculating charms to good effect, which sadly makes her enemies. Mention her name around the thieves’ guilds of the city and you’ll find it followed by a spit—she’s not popular. Talented thieves rarely are among other thieves, and there are plenty of roughs in town who would pay a pretty penny to have her in their grip. She’s also unpopular among the nobles of this fair settlement. She’s swindled and robbed too many not to be; there’s a pretty price on her head and at least one group of dandy noble knights, if such ineffectual slobs are worthy of the name, called the Brothers of Sin who have let it be known that they would be happy to pay the very highest price for her—intact.

Emilia can be encountered in any place, from the low taverns of the slums and ghettos where she frequently stays with friends—did we mention that Emilia has this appalling notion of robbing from the rich and giving some of her profits to the poor?—to playing the part of a maid in waiting or a serving wench in some aristocratic kitchen, always with a plan. Emilia plans everything she does meticulously, and her notes on her present jobs, which can number anywhere up to a score, are hidden with paranoid efficiency in her home high in the city rooftops.

Emilia has a great secret and driving force that motivates her and whose potential discovery gives her sleepless nights: she has a ghoul daughter hidden away in her high attic garret. Her daughter—Rebekka—is her joy and penance, and Emilia is bloated with guilt about her sickness, something she was inadvertently responsible for when she crossed that damned rogue ghoul the Loping Man. He traced her back home after she’d robbed him and his foul cult of all their wealth and emptied their larders of victims who fled into the warren of the city back to their wives and husbands and families. She knew she should have killed him, but the damned undead was too quick for her and then traced her back home. Damn him. He infected her daughter before she could finally destroy him, and now Emilia lurches from one hope to the next searching for a cure. Now her beloved daughter raves in her cage, her screaming for blood answered only by bland tasteless animal meat while her hunger craves for warm human flesh to feast upon. Yet Emilia sees glimpses of her daughter in the thing she has become and prays every night that she can undo her greatest mistake…

<<PREVIOUSLY

Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Worldbook]

Lands of the Dragoncoil

The lands of the Dragoncoil Mountains and its lowlands along the Middle Sea are another world compared to the fertile forests and mountains of the North. They are rich in trade, ancient in magic, and dominated by a vast draconic empire—and by the god-kings of Nuria and the grasping priests of Ishadia before that. Their strange magic and their control of valuable trade routes makes the dragonfolk rich and powerful, and their schools of learning are in many ways more advanced than those of the Seven Cities or the Crossroads.

In the parched lands of the east, the thralls and subjects of the Mharoti Empire cheer the annual march of the sultan’s dragon-mounted legions, even as they fear its assassins and ruthless tax collectors. Once a year, the sultan’s decree urges the nobility to put aside its endless feuding to conquer new lands under the banners of the Fire Monks and Wind Priests of the Four Elemental Temples. The various lords, lordlings, and emirs ride mighty wyrms and drakes to war supported by fearsome fire giants, the tusked ogrekin of Kaa’nesh, and eunuch sorcerers of the Eastern Rites of Azuran. The hunger of their draconic patrons never ceases, and their greed drives never-ending campaigns to gather slaves, wealth, and new lands. Worship of dark gods such as Mammon and Vardesain is a constant, since dragons are surely as prone to corruption and temptation as humans.

All this striving has led to wealth and power growing as inevitably as an avalanche in the high passes. Gold and silver trickle through the empire like rivers. The Mharoti Empire’s cities and tent towns host magnificent bazaars, crowded with thieves and criminals. Caravans connect the kobold folk with the markets of the Southlands, and ambassadors of a hundred nations seek the sultan’s blessings in the courts of Harkesh.

The empire’s people are proud, and yet they show hints of hubris, religious zealotry, and even signs of faltering bloodlines and decay. Debauched cultists beholden to strange gods kidnap unwary travelers to sacrifice to great fiery Baal, or to local cults such as V’ashra the Tormentor or Forty-Fingered Nakresh. The cults of Nuria seep across its borders, and the peculiar gods of the East are present in the empire as well, particularly four-faced Azuran. Paladins, monks, and sects of every kind breed preach loudly, beg quietly, and fight in the streets. Unrest among the priesthood has toppled more than one sultan. Baal’s mouth is ever hungry, seeking sacrifices and taxes for the empire’s further glory.

So visit the thousand stalls in the Grand Bazaar of Harkesh, raid the caravans stuffed with gold, carpets, and fragrant spices, or leave the empire to climb the Sky Stairs of Beldestan—ten thousand mysteries of mountain and desert abound in the Dragon Empire and its surrounding lands!

ORIGINS OF THE MHAROTI EMPIRE

The lands of the Dragoncoil Mountains have always been infested with drakes, wyrms, and wyverns—they give the mountains their name. But about 400 years ago, one especially cunning red dragon by the name of Mharot decided he was tired of working so hard to steal golden treasures from humans and dwarves, and then being forced to continually guard those treasures. He proposed a pact to neighboring dragons, and he accepted the standing offers from kobold tribes to give their whole-hearted allegiance to the dragons in exchange for protection. With the patronage of the dragon gods and the aid of its elemental sorcery, the empire has grown great indeed.

It is difficult to adequately describe the depth and exotic confusion of the Mharoti Empire. Many of its cities are more populous than entire nations in the North, and they display great ambitions and contradictions. The Dragon Empire seeks to expand, to garner tribute from subject nations, and to bring the word of its elemental gods to a wider world. It has expanded quickly in a few centuries, backed by dragon fire and claws.

The Mharoti Empire is one of the few places where humans and their kin are distinctly second-class citizens. The dragons’ vanity was such that they could never agree on a dragon ruler, so they gave the job to a clearly inferior human or dragonkin instead. Until quite recently, the Dragon Empire was ruled by a human man or woman who loosely held the reins of power. Five years ago, one of the dragonkin declared that the human ruler’s corruption led to the empire’s battlefield failures—and took the reins of power for himself and his family.

Recent History of the Empire

Seven year ago, the armies of the Dragon Empire conquered the mountains and valleys of Illyria, annexing it as the empire’s newest province, Rumela. In addition, the swift-flying Mharoti legions killed King Stephanos of the Magdar Kingdom and his eldest son at the Battle of Marroc’s Field, where the northern Knights of the Undying Sun almost cut the imperial army in two. Much glory went to the war wyverns that tore apart the battle wagons of the Magdar, though others claim kobold alchemy filled the field with choking mists (both are likely true).

With the conquest secured, the Mharoti are patiently rooting out all opposition and have brought tens of thousands of kobold settlers to turn the land to productive use. Digesting such a large swath of terrain takes time, but the dragonkin have time aplenty, and many nimble claws to work the land, pile high stones, and improve the roads over the passes. Their work is steady, honorable, and seemingly endless.

Six years ago, the Mharoti Admiral of the Western Fleet, Tolga Serkhan al-Harkeshi, lost his entire Mharoti fleet in a huge naval engagement against Triolo, Kyprion, and their allies. Worse news followed a year later, where the dragonkin lost a major engagement with Ishadia and Khandiria. During the Battle of Wheeling Angels, a powerful celestial summoner rained holy fire on several true dragons, knocking them from the sky while vast number of Khandirian oliphaunts and juggernauts overran the Mharoti gnolls, edjet, and kobold levies.

When word came in of the battle on the heels of the Battle of Seggotan’s Tears (which the Triolans call the Battle of the Golden Wave), the empire convulsed with the news of the death of tens of thousands and the annihilation of an entire dragon legion in the east. Moving quickly, three army generals staged a coup against Sultana Azrabahir. The sultana’s elite palace guards—the Order of the Wyvern— fell quickly in line, not questioning her usurpation, and the sultana barely escaped the coup. She fled on dragonback to Marea, where friends helped her bolt to exile in the Republic of Valera in the Seven Cities. There she sought shelter with young Emperor Loki, who surprisingly took her in. Her replacement as ruler was for the first time one of the dragonborn, a ruthless schemer named Ozmir Al‑Stragul—or as he prefers to style himself, the Dread Sultan. His two co-conspirators disappeared.

The new sultan is a break with the past: a dragonborn “new prince” has claimed divine sanction for his coronation, and a new Age of Scales. So far, Nuria has not taken action against the Mharoti, but it is probably not a bad time for the god-kings to consider it. Nuria is expanding its trade with Capleon, and priests of Thoth-Hermes are in the forefront of forging these new connections. At the same time, the Emerald Order (see Demon Cults & Secret Societies) is expanding its influence in the Seven Cities, sending scouts to the Magdar Kingdom, and making overtures in Zobeck.

Even the empire’s victory in Rumela is not unopposed. Triolo’s minotaur corsairs battle against the Dread Sultan’s fleets as red-sailed pirates, while the bandits of the White Mountain Marches and the ghost folk of the mysterious White Goddess raid deep into Rumela.

With long borders to defend and many enemies, the dragons may have reached the boundaries of their power— though few would bet against them. Somehow the Dragon Empire fights against the Magdar Kingdom, Ishadia, and Nuria Natal while at the same time grappling with the enormous Empire of Khandiria to the east. Having dragons among its legions is a great advantage, surely, but perhaps its claws seek to sweep too many treasures into its grasp. The Mharoti people—from its tiniest kobolds and most ragged humans to the mightiest gem-encrusted vizier and sagest dragon-prince—all believe in the legends of their greatness, and in their kinship with Veles the World-Serpent, the Maker of All Things. Surely the dragons who rule are made in his image, and they are fated to rule the world? Such confidence is infectious, and the Mharoti legions fight harder and march faster knowing that the blessings of the dragon gods shine on them and their cause.

The sultan plans to strike back hard. The good-hearted dragonkin of Capleon have been driven out or killed by a jambuka mob, and the temple and priesthood of Seggotan were torn apart or banished—and the sultan finds this an intolerable insult. He invaded the island of Kyprion and holds a single town taken from the minotaurs, but the great empire simply lacks the ships for a larger invasion and conquest. For now, the empire has a wide choice of enemies and prepares its next strike…

___

But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

<<PREVIOUSLY

It takes very little to become a criminal. A highway bandit needs nothing more than a club, and a pickpocket needs even less. However, the greatest of criminals, be they noble rebels or the most sinister of murderers, use all tools available to them. They scour the world for whatever magics might aid in their quests, often spending great sums and risking daring heists to acquire especially useful pieces. Spies, assassins, and thieves of legends know that every advantage gives them a greater chance at achieving whatever victory it is they seek. 

Dastardly Quill and Parchment

Wondrous item, very rare

In truth, this magic “item” is a pair of items: a magical quill with a powerful link to a sheet of magical parchment. Failing to know the location of either item dramatically reduces the usefulness of both. So long as both items remain on the same plane of existence, whenever the quill is used to write on any surface, the writing also appears on the magical parchment down to the exact detail. The parchment is about nine inches wide and thirteen inches tall, but should the amount or styling of the text written with the quill ever exceed the space available on the parchment, it will immediately clear itself of writing so that it can again clearly depict what text is written with its linked quill. If not cleared in this way, the text on the parchment will always fade within 24 hours. This quill and parchment are frequently used for long range communication as they allow one to rapidly send a one-way message, but the items have also been known to be used by spies, who might place the quill somewhere it will be used to write valuable secrets.

Mouse of Ash

Wondrous item, very rare, requires attunement

This small, light grey bag contains a very fine magical ash. As an action, this ash can be scattered, magically forming into a tiny ash mouse anywhere within 30 feet of the scatterer’s choice. This mouse is mechanically identical to a rat, except that it is a construct rather than a beast and has an intelligence score of 7. The creature understands its owner’s native language but cannot speak it. The mouse is wholly loyal to whoever is attuned to it and obeys the attuned’s orders to the best of its understanding and ability. The mouse lasts 1 hour before losing its form. To be used again, the bag must be filled with ash of any kind. After one week of being filled with ash, it may again be used to summon a mouse construct.

Pouch of Rusted Plenty

Wondrous item, rare, requires attunement

This unassuming pouch always jingles with the sound of only a few coins regardless of how full it might be and is a favorite among rogues and cheats. As an action, a person attuned to the pouch may choose to make any non-magical item within this pouch appear as either a copper or gold coin. Gems can be disguised as cheap copper coins and simple pebbles as valuable gold. Additionally, when an item enchanted by the pouch in such a way is removed, it maintains its form for 1d4 hours. Until the effect fades, these false coins’ true nature are only apparent through the use of magic. Detect magic detects an illusion has been cast on them, and spells such as identify and true seeing immediately reveal the “coins” true nature. The pouch can hold about 1/6 cubic foot or 5 pounds of gear. Its effect can be used five times per day, disguising a single item each use.

The Mask of Many

Wondrous item, Uncommon, requires attunement

This strange magical mask appears to be made of burlap and through illusion alters an attuned wearer’s physical appearance and the appearance of their clothing to that of the persona now widely known as “The Thief of Many,” a likely non-existent (or at least long dead) human man of around thirty years of age. The persona wears a burlap mask, obscuring almost the entirety of the illusion’s face. The Thief of Many’s blue eyes are all that can be seen through the mask, and he is dressed in the cheap burlap clothes of a peasant. This item’s value originally came in its wide availability with hundreds of crimes associated with the fictional thief rather than the many true culprits but as its use widened so did knowledge of the deception. Observers of the disguise can use their action to make a DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check to notice the character is magically disguised. More problematically, anyone observing the wearer can make a DC 15 Intelligence (History) check to immediately recognize the persona, thus rendering the deception immediately obvious. Touching the wearer of the mask likewise negates the illusion. It should be noted that often the disguised person is taken as a thief immediately, even if the illusion is not detected, on account of the cheap rough clothing and frightening burlap mask.

This mask’s magic works strangely on creatures that are not Medium sized. The persona gets distorted and does not significantly alter the wearer’s height and width. The proportions of the illusion are thrown askew, giving them an appearance like a skin stretched onto a body too large for it (or likewise bunched up onto a body too small). While still obscuring one’s identity, the magic of the disguise is obvious on these sorts of creatures and often deeply unsettling to look at.

<<PREVIOUSLY

Dear Osvaud,

This is Osvaud. Last time we touched on the first half of foreshadowing, which is making sure you establish at least the smallest hint of how amazing you are. This is important because it grants your appearance the appropriate gravitas. It’s also always really funny making fighters stain their mithral full plate with a few week’s worth of backed-up trail rations.

The other important aspect to foreshadowing is your Epic Villain Plot. The reason for effort and the typical pitfalls are similar. You don’t want to take valuable time at the 11th hour explaining the intricacies of your overly elaborate, years-long scheme to banish all angels to the Demiplane of Death Metal.

Not only is it tedious in the moment, but any plan sounds awful if you actually explain it.  

Most newb badguys handle this with clue-breadcrumbs strewn behind them—there’s a minion for the (totally not-evil) protagonists to use “enhanced interrogation techniques” on or a forgotten diary with enough plot points for even the densest lout to absorb with a quick skim.

And yes, future-me, I get the irony in writing that here. Shut up.

The ideal is for them to see evidence of what’s possible but on a significantly smaller-scale than the eventual goal. Then, you continually blow their minds as you ratchet up the actual ramifications over a few stages.

For example, if the rough plan is to infect every hypocritical religious leader with a hedonistic alien hive-mind, you start small. Like, let them run into a too-happy hippie cult that gets real creepy real quick. Then, maybe infect whichever toxically masculine, giant-sword-wielding testosterone factory makes one-too-many offscreen brothel excursions. The point is to let them discover the core principles on their own and have time to accept even the zaniest proposal. When they get a brief telepathic glimpse into the papacy’s bedchambers, it helps them internalize the ostensibly insane fact you are trying to take over the world with an extraterrestrial STD.

If you do your job right, with the patience any scheme deserves, they show up with an assumed understanding of the situation. But you never want them to know everything. Always keep the biggest reveal in reserve for you to personally drop at a pivotal moment. Like, maybe they show up thinking the plan is to spread the love to all the world’s prudish priests with teleporting glitter bombs. However, it’s really always been to corrupt the gods through their most powerful clergy. Suddenly, they’ve got to wonder exactly what it might mean if half the deities start knocking boots with reckless interstellar abandon.

Now, this example was exceptionally silly and purposefully so to underscore the thesis. Truth is though, almost every epic plot I’ve ever had or heard is utterly insane if you only take two seconds to think about it. Strangely, they all become way easier to swallow if contemplated for at least a few years.

If you’re still a bit worried… it also never hurts to conceal any plan’s absurdity with a dash of eeriness.

Like, even the above craziness would play well with orifice-burrowing alien parasites. To be fair, I bet that applies to about any plan though. Mortals and their orifices, right?

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Welcome, friend, to the world of Midgard. Maybe you’re brand new to this world. Or maybe you’ve been around since the beginning. Either way, stay—all are welcome! Please, sit and listen to the tales. You see, the world has been changing, and oh, the sights to see. It’s a living, evolving realm where things happen after all. So why shouldn’t it have a life all it’s own? Where to start…

[From the Midgard Worldbook]

Nuria Natal

The River Kingdom is a tranquil oasis of ancient knowledge. It is a festering cesspit of corruption. It is a well-governed and harmonious land with a special place in the world—and its shadows are filled with ancient terrors.

As a land of opposites and millennial histories, Nuria Natal is difficult to pigeonhole. Its people are powerful and its priests and wizards especially so. Despite a dozen major attempts at conquest, the people of Nuria Natal have turned back the draconic tide, in some cases with ease, in others with a narrow margin and major losses. Its defenses are robust, and the people’s pride in their knowledge and achievements gives them a confidence that others mistake for arrogance.

The defenses of Nuria Natal are based on the nation’s close relationship with its gods. Aten, Horus, and Bastet are not figures worshipped from afar; they walk the earth when called, and their power has thrown the Mharoti dragons back in confusion several times.

However, the gods are fickle, and on many occasions they have refused to answer the entreaties of mortals. In these cases, the people resurrected some of their ancient kings, powerful heroes whose bodies had lain under the sands and in step-pyramid tombs for ages. These restored rulers led several brilliant defenses of Nuria Natal against the dragons. Afterward, though, the reborn rulers chose to stay and reassert themselves in Nurian politics. This has been awkward, to say the least, for the current king.

Nuria Natal is the home of the Southern Tongue, which seems especially suited for use in magic. Some spells and incantations known in the south are somehow never translated into Common, Northern, or Draconic speech.

Government

The current god-king, Thutmoses XXIII, is a somewhat besieged and worried man of middle years, with a prominent nose, shaved head, and a glorious beard woven with gold and mithral. Seven of his kingly ancestors have been awoken from their tombs to defend the land against the Mharoti dragon-armies, and his own power has been eroded. One of the kings returned to his tomb beneath the great step pyramid, two were slain in battle with the dragon lords, and four still wander the kingdom: Queen‑Goddess Meskhenit, God-King Set-Amun, God‑Wizard Kuluma‑Siris, and God-King Sut‑Akhaman. The most obvious sign of this erosion is the increasing independence of Per-Xor and Per-Bastet, both of which still render tribute and troops to Nuria, but with increasingly loud complaints and a sense that perhaps the current god-king does not measure up to the standards of his illustrious ancestors.

Whatever the grumbling of the provinces and other major cities, though, the people of Nuria Natal are entirely united in their defiance of foreign invasion, and their loyalty to Thutmoses is great. The other god-kings and queens might also be popular, but when the time comes to fend off great dangers, the current living king still holds his people’s hearts. The fact that he also controls the vast machinery of grain production, bread-making, and the loyalty of the matron-goddess Ninkash is surely also helpful to the king’s peace of mind. Ley Lines, Red Portals, and Catslide Alleys

Magic is everywhere in Nuria Natal. Powerful ley lines course through the land, allowing geomancers and wielders of hieroglyphic magic to harness and manipulate their arcane energy. Other wizards have mastered the mysterious Red Portals, using them to travel to other places, dimensions, and times, while the unpredictable catslide alleys provide the means to journey swiftly from one cat-friendly city to another. Ley Lines The story of Nuria Natal is inextricably bound to the mighty ley lines that run through the kingdom. Five thousand years ago, when the seven founding human families gathered on the banks of the River Nuria at the end of their long journey, the wizard Senewosret sensed the powerful arcane energy flowing through it. Realizing he could tap into the ley line that ran along the river’s entire length, Senewosret ordered a new city to be built on its banks. For the next five millennia, the wizard-kings and sorcerer-queens of Nuria experimented with the ley lines and the magical waters of the river, using them to extend and prolong their lives until they unlocked a sort of semidivinity and were able to develop rituals through which they could be awakened from the slumber of death to aid their descendants.

The titanic ley line running the length of the River Nuria is known as the Angel’s Road. When it reaches the Middle Sea, it turns east to Efisis in the Dragon Empire, before heading southeast into Ishadia. Numerous strong and weak ley lines branch off it. The legendary Oasis of Figs drifts along these lines, appearing at a different location in the desert with each sunset. Ruled by Sultan Hajani the Benevolent from his colorful marble palace, time passes strangely at the oasis and visitors who eat the sultan’s iridescent figs often find themselves unable to leave. West of Nuria Natal, the Howler’s Road runs from the Pyramid of Khensu through the Crescent Desert to Saph-Saph, Roshgazi, and Cindass, all the way to Bemmea in the Magocracy of Allain, while the Leviathan’s Road runs south from Bemmea and passes through the Isle of Morphoi before reaching Mardas Vhula-gai in the Chelamite Mountains.

Red Portals

Centuries ago, a group of Nurian wizards determined how to open mystic portals at various points along the ley lines. Dubbing them the Red Portals, these mages set about mastering their use. Today, the Honorable Society of Portal Wizards still exists in Per-Anu and remains devoted to studying and manipulating the portals. See the Rules Appendixes for a selection of spells created by the portal wizards.

The Red Portals connect not only to the shadow roads, but also other planes, dimensions, and times, allowing the GM to create side campaigns and mysterious adventure sites without having to build an entire world. The idea is, of course, to suggest whole realms of bizarre, wondrous, magical, or horrifying alternate realities. This is a touch of world-tripping, whether Princes in Amber-style or just plane-hopping. Make it epic by playing up the bizarre, and make it clear that it is Another Time, A Distant Place through crazy accents, flashback music, a shift in lighting, or other cues that the game has moved into Other Realms.

Some Red Portals are anchored to an archway, door, or other opening; others are invisible or exist only as a slight shimmering in the air. To activate a portal, PCs need to visualize themselves traveling along the shadow road just before they step through it.

The Red Portals go to a hundred different destinations (if one believes the lore) or just to one (if you have a particular destination in mind). To randomly determine where a given Red Portal goes, roll on the Destinations Table below. Portals can be one-way or two-way.

Catslide Alleys

Magical portals known as catslide alleys link those cities where cats and other feline creatures are held in high regard. Per-Bastet holds a dozen or so of these alleys—mostly in the District of the Cat—but they exist throughout Midgard. Anyone following a cat into a catslide alley is likely to be transported to another cat-friendly place, perhaps the merchant-city of Triolo, an emperor’s palace in Far Cathay, or much stranger feline realms on the Plateau of Leng or among hellcats in the Eleven Hells. Like cats themselves, the alleys are unpredictable. Their workings are left to the GM’s capriciousness, but they serve as an excellent means to transport unsuspecting PCs from one adventure to the next…

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But this is where we must stop for now, my friend. My mind, it wanders so at times. Do come see me again, though, for more of the wonders and surprises of Midgard.

You can continue on this adventure in the Midgard Worldbook and Midgard Heroes Handbook.

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