Final Part: Castle Crashers
On average, the PCs gained about 1 level per act (using Pathfinder’s Medium Progression). At the end of Act 3, they’re 4th level. This last chapter, the epic siege of Balentyne, should see them rise to 6th level. Quite a jump, there!
After killing Odenkirk, the PCs make their way to the small town of Aldencross, a short travel from the fortress of Balentyne. This is the first real town the PCs come to in the adventure, giving them plenty of opportunity to sell their ill-gotten loot and rest up. The PCs’ plan is to sabotage the fortress, lower the drawbridge, fire off the rocket signal for the Fire-axe’s forces, and then contact Thorn after the battle’s end.
This is not a simple “win or lose” scenario. PCs accumulate Victory Points to determine by how much they won or lost by sabotaging siege weaponry and traps, weakening and killing off guards, dispatching military leaders and the like. A maximum of 61 Victory Points can be gained.
They monstrous horde could get
defeated and the Fire-Axe dies, leading to a non-standard Game Over for our villains; the horde gets
routed and suffers casualties, but has one last chance to fight if the PCs further sabotage the place; a
hard-fought victory with many casualties and 1d6 days of delay before pushing through; a
well-won victory with few casualties and a 1 day delay; and a one-sided
slaughter where the Fire-axe’s forces suffer hardly any casualties and no delay.
A slaughter is incredibly difficult to gain (51 or more Victory Points). In order to do this, the PCs would have to sabotage everything, kill all of the important NPCs, and take out at least half of the guards in the complex to reach this number.
There is no singular plan provided to the PCs to infiltrate this complex. The adventure mentions several ways of entry, and allows the players to come up with their own plan of attack and sabotage. This Act is the most open-ended of them all, in that that it has a lot of leeway for both planning and results. Provided by town rumors or good old-fashioned player ingenuity, a few possible scenarios include a secret passageway into the fortress’ storeroom in the town inn (which was formerly a brothel noblemen discreetly visited via the path); ambushing an outdoors patrol; impersonating a traveling theatre troupe scheduled to perform in Balentyne’s grand hall; and discovering Captain Edderly’s affair with Captain Mott’s wife via love letters (which leads to the murder of one and the arrest of another)! A potential month of sinister scheming is definitely the highlight of the adventure.
The Watchwall itself is located on the edge of a rocky cliff, spanning a vast ravine. Going around it on foot is simply not an option, and the main entryways are heavily guarded. In addition to 100 combat-ready soldiers (30 on-duty), there are several traps designed for handling invading groups (such as cauldrons of scalding sand poured over the walls), and quite a few powerful NPCs. Most of the named ones (the captains and 2 spellcasters) are 6th-7th level, while the Paladin commander Lord Havelyn is 9th level (2 are in Aristocrat). And if anybody notices murdered people in the fortress, Balentyne goes on lockdown. In addition to the large numbers of soldiers, this sounds overkill for a party of 4th-level PCs.
Well, the author foresaw this problem and the potential tedium of fighting dozens of NPCs, so he encouraged the DM to only keep track of the major NPCs , while the ‘nobodies’ (guards, servants, etc) are only present in rooms which the adventure says they’re in. When faced with intruders, nobodies flee to summon their respective leaders: guards to get their captain, acolytes to Father Donnagin the cleric, the siege engineers seek out Barnabus. Most of the guards are inexperienced teenagers who are slow to rally without the oversight of a leader. This seems uncharacteristic of a military base designed to repel bugbears, but the PCs have enough on their plate already. Due to the difficulty of some of the fights, I find this satisfactory.
Granted, there are some problem areas I spotted in Balentyne. One room, the barracks, is home to 70 sleeping guards at night with 3 guards posted outside. Each bed is separated by 5 feet on the map, and guards snore loudly to make sneaking easy. If the party can take out the guards outside fast enough, or with clever use of spells, they can diligently make their way through the room coup-de-gracing each guard as they sleep. This leaves the complex with only 30 living guards and nets 14 Victory Points right there! If I ran the adventure, I’d put each of the 3 outside guards outside the doors (which are spread far enough to not fall to Silence or AoE spells) to make bypassing them a little difficult.
The other problem area is the Choir Hall, where the PCs can come across what can only be described as Lantern Archon Voltron. These celestials are bound to this one room, but they cast Detect Evil on any newcomers and order evildoers to leave and repent. If they refuse or try any shenanigans, the nine archons fuse into a CR 8 monstrosity known as a Lantern Archon Gestalt. This bad boy has a ton of hit points (117), an awesome fly speed of 100 feet, and can shoot 2 holy beams a round as a +14 ranged touch attack with 2d6 damage! Oh, and it can greater teleport within the hall at will. If your party lacks good damaging ranged attacks, this encounter can become a very long battle or a TPK.
Fortunately for us, our own PCs are pretty good at stealth. Rachel and Emberscribe have ranks in relevant scouting skills, Wayland’s Eidolon spent her Evolution Points on mobility (the Summon Monsters are used for tanking), and the message cantrip can be cast at will by Emberscribe and Wayland. Only poor Pung (“I’m tired of all this sneaking around!”) is unsuited to stealth, as it’s a cross-class skill for him.
It is dusk in the border town of Aldencross. The Knots’ arrival in town was good for trade, as the many smiths and soldiers gladly parted with their hard-earned gold for their respectable stock of spare weapons and other loot. They blended right in with the crowd at the Lord’s Dalliance Inn, the only inn in town and favorite gathering spot of adventurers, merchants, and other transients. Pung, disguised as a gruff human, plays cards with a group of boisterous dwarves while Emberscribe buys local soldiers a round of drinks. Meanwhile, Rachel and Wayland are out in the market, the former appraising a magic bow for sale, the latter buying up a large quantity of arsenic to “deal with a troublesome rat infestation.”
The Knot reserved a room upstairs to go over possible plans. Emberscribe looks the group over, eager to hear their perceptions and contributions. “So, what did you find out?”
“Captain Varning regularly patrols far with an assortment of soldiers,” Rachel said. “He should be not far from here. A good opportunity to take out one of the senior soldiers.
“Those blasted dwarves have been keeping me up all night!” Wayland said, rubbing his temples. “I hear they’re engineers for Balentyne, they might know something useful.”
“Careful around them,” Pung added. “They’re smarter than they look. They beat me at poker. Every time.”
“Quite the accomplishment,” Emberscribe said. “This is all very useful information. But I have found a way we can infiltrate the vaunted Watchwall most easily!”
He produced a sheaf of paper onto the table, illustrating a dashing man onstage at a theatre house. The famous Bard of Barrington and his Merrie Men to visit Aldencross! Will conduct the famous play The Fall of Amberlyne in the vaunted Watchwall of Balentyne! Exclusive to the brave soldiers who defend fair Talingarde from the northern hordes, and for them free admission!
“Very clever,” Rachel said. “It will make a fine distraction.”
“Oh no no no!” Emberscribe retorted. “We’re going to be the stars! We’ll so impress them with a sublime performance that they’ll want us to stay!”
“No, I don’t like this plan!” Rachel protested. “Too high-profile!”
“We’ll be granted more freedoms as esteemed actors than unknown persons fumbling in the dark. Besides, the majority of guards will be watching the play, leaving the rest of the complex open for sabotage.”
Rachel folded her arms. “Alright, as long as I don’t get to be the leading role.”
“Good, good! And may I ask what you did with all that arsenic, Wayland?”
“The audience will be eleven dwarves short,” he said. “And while Rachel was serving them drinks, Ellen broke into their rooms upstairs and got me this interesting gift.”
He produced a large paper to roll out on the table. It was a blueprint of the watchtower in its entirety.
The bard creased his fingers and smiled wickedly, new ideas into his head like an artist’s flash of revelation. “I just love it when a plan comes together!”
Out of all the ideas of intrusion, the play’s my favorite in that it allows for interesting role-playing and expands on some interesting setting details. Father Donnigan arranged for the play to cheer up the grim and dour Lord Havelyn, although unbeknownst to him the female lead in this doomed romance shares the same name of the Lord’s deceased wife. Also, the fact that female actors play female roles is of great controversy in Talingarde (it’s always been men. “Another list of unforgiveable grievances against the arts,” as Emberscribe would say). Despite her great protests, Rachel is made to play the lead role of Bronwyn, and Emberscribe spices up the ‘creatively tasteless’ play with more violence and sexual innuendos. Despite the consternation of conservative Mitraites and Father Donnigan, the play is a rousing success and the Knot is invited to a private dinner with Lord Havelyn. It is there the Asmodeans gain the jump on them and take out a spell-less, unarmored contingent of captains and sneak through the complex!
Regardless of how your own Knot does it, a signal rocket fired gives the bugbear army an hour to attack. This of course will put the soldiers on alert and a patrol is sent to investigate the rocket’s source. If they can escape or hold out, they’ll notice a horde several thousand strong advancing upon Balentyne! Bugbears, goblins, ogres, even a hill giant or two number among the Fire-Axe’s horde!
If the PCs successfully kill Lord Havelyn, his armor will transform into black full-plate with Asmodean symbols (probably the one worn by the girl on the front cover) as a reward from the Lord of Hell himself! Too bad nobody in our party is proficient with it!
If the siege is successfully performed and the PCs use the seal to report this, Tiadora teleports to the group with words of congratulation and 5,000 gp worth of platinum (she double-checks with Sakkarot Fire-Axe to confirm the authenticity of the report). She’ll also remark that the Seventh Knot was successful in slowing down the response of reinforcements.
“Still, this will not be enough. Balentyne may be broken but Talingarde is yet strong. Soon word will reach the south. The Heartland and the great cities of the Cambrian Bay will marshal their armies. They will meet Sakkarot on the field and it will be far too close to a fair fight. We must do something about that.
“Come, my lords, your ship awaits. Try not to burn this one.”
Lords. She called you lords. And lords you are. Lords of death and destruction. Lords of evil. Do you remember Branderscar? Do you remember being held down and branded like animals? How far you have come and how long yet the journey before you. Tiadora is right. This is only your first steps along the way of the wicked.
And so this adventure ends on a cliffhanger, with Tiadora taking the PCs to a barge for yet another mission from Thorne as they leave Balentyne and Aldencross to the mercies of the Fire-Axe’s army.
I’d like to note that the adventure makes a note that Thorn has a “Plan B” in case the Fire-Axe’s army is defeated or disbanded in Book Two, although this is nowhere to be found in the product. The adventure path makes the assumption that the horde breached Balentyne and that Fire-Axe is alive. Granted, the PCs would have to majorly fuck up for this to not happen (such as firing off the rocket when the fortress is mostly intact, or if Lord Havelyn and the Wizard are still alive)
Concluding Thoughts: Way of the Wicked is overall a good adventure. It sets up a rationale for the PCs to hate Talingarde and the Church of Mitra, its premise as Asmodean fifth columnists is interesting, and its “Story Awards” for uncovering useful information and bypassing threats without violence make it very suitable for groups who prefer a more scheming form of evil. The major problems are the adventure’s linearity (although it’s a necessity), and that the PCs can screw themselves over majorly at several points. The screw-ups are more due to incompetence/stubbornness on the players’ part than anything (like not telling Fire-Axe that Thorn sent them, or refusing to join the Knot), but it’s something to keep in mind if you plan on running it. The lack of specific punishment for violating the Loyalties in Thorn’s contract is another weak point, too.
The advice section and character creation have good ideas for potential evil campaigns and presents ways to keep them together, and an elite team of Asmodeus-worshiping agent provocateurs definitely sets up the kind of ‘evil’ you’re looking for to your players. Not crazy stupid evil, or recklessness insanity, but a well-coordinated and disciplined group with a shared hatred of the nation which has forsaken them.
The verdict: Innocent. There was plenty of thought put into this work for how to run an evil campaign, and the plot is interesting enough to provide incentive to see it through. But there are several ways things can fall apart, although most of them involve the PCs going against the preconstructed social contract or majorly screw up. I can really see a group successfully playing this adventure with the advice. With group agreement, one can use this adventure to run a successful evil campaign!
Edit: Changed the verdict from
acquitted to
innocent.
