Primal/Within Chronicles: The Crypt of the Thief-Prince, Part 1

This is a recounting of my new homebrewed D&D 4e campaign called Primal/Within.  I describe what my players did and I pepper it with some DM/Designer insights.  The PCs are level 7.  They are usually multi-parters as I try to keep each post under 1500 words. Enjoy!

Yesterday, three of my friends from my usual play group: Yan, Franky and Mike came over during the afternoon to play a special D&D game.  Last week, Franky had missed the game and he was really disappointed about that.   In order to make it up for him, I offered to host a special game with whomever was available.

As I mentioned two days ago, I wrote an adventure set in our new campaign setting: The Primal Dungeon and the City Within.  The adventure was to be both a prequel to the campaign and a model for adventures to come.

As the players arrived at my place, we sat down and discussed PC back stories.

I was amazed to see how motivated the players were to create rich backgrounds, which was a testimonial to how interested they were about the new game.  Here’s a summary of each.

Franky’s PC

Korg, Dwarven Shaman of the Bear.  He comes from a little dwarven mining and agricultural settlement living at the interface of the surface world and their ancestral mountains.  His clan has developed a symbiotic relationship with the numerous Kodiak Bears that live on the mountain and started venerating their Protective Spirit.

A few months ago, the Bear Spirit spoke to the settlement’s council of three Shamans that Korg belongs to.  It told the dwarves that the World-Serpent was dying because something was eating it from inside.  Without hesitation, Korg offered to to help and left to go deep underground and reach the City Within.

Mike’s PC

Usul, Elven Invoker of Kord. Usul was visited by the Storm God of Battle earlier in his life and was made the direct instrument of Kord’s will.  Charged with seeking the enemies of this world and smite them, Usul has traveled to the City Within at the behest of his deity.

Foiling the plan of the imprisoned Primordial is Usul’s divine-inspired quest.

Yan’s PC

Jaiel (Jaw-yell, or for you Speech Language Pathologists: /Za.iEl/), Deva Avenger.  An agent of Erathis, goddess of civilization, she’s been involved in the fight against the Primal Dungeon since before the foundation of the City.  She was the one to take the words of the Erathian Prophecies to paper and to influence the ancient dwarven clans to decipher the prophecies and go forth in the Dungeon to create the City Within.

While she died and was reincarnated many times in various occupations, the only constant has been that she does everything she can to fight the Dungeon’s spread.  Her latest incarnation as a Divine Avenger means that she now takes a very active part in that fight.  She’s the one that brought the party together.

Of Players and Backgrounds

Since Yan is co-creating the campaign’s setting, focusing on the City and its various faction, making a Deva character who’s been involved since before the City’s foundation was a natural decision.   Plus, since she has access to the Erathian Prophecies, we can explain how she could single out the campaign’s PCs as the heroes  heralded in those sacred texts.

Thus, all three players meshed into a cohesive party within minutes and we were ready to start our game.

Oh yeah and while discussing this, we worked out how Devas re-incarnate!  As soon as they die, they reappear somewhere else, naked and crouching, in the middle of a crater, Terminator style!

Now that’s epic World Building right there folks!:D

Crash Course in Setting Immersion

So we started the game with Korg and Usul being welcomed to the City Within by Jaiel upon their arrival.  She identified herself as a friend and indicated that she had some knowledge about how they were sent to the City Within.

That’s where I mentioned that the City’s true name was  “The City we built Within the dungeon” in Dwarven as the pragmatic race was wont to do with everything they created.  It has since them been renamed “The City Within” by the citizens.

As they arrived in the city, I described how its center was multi-tiered and built within an immense cavern.  Strong enchantments made the Cavern brightly lit 12 hours a day and dimly lit during the city’s Nightcycle.  We do not have a map of the city yet and we don’t plan to have one, building the city burg by birg, as we see fit, depending on the role it plays in the campaign.

We hand waived the PCs first few days in the City, with Korg trying to get a feel of the city by meeting and being friendly with various families of citizens.  I painted the city as being a sort of Aristocratic Democracy whose restricted voting rights (only the high members of guilds and factions had the right of vote) and extensive bureaucracy made sure no-one was starving but also that services were slow and inefficient.

Once the city’s flavour was established, the PCs went to meet with a functionary of The Builders faction.  The Builders are the city’s most influential faction, responsible of clearing parts of the Dungeon and building the new burgs.

The builders hires skilled adventurers to make forays in specific parts of the Dungeons to clear out its denizens and ‘purify’ it of the dungeon’s taint.  The ‘taint’ usually being some sort of Nexus point that extended the Dungeon’s influence (and perception as a living organism) to the region.  Clearing an area for good always required identifying the Nexus and nullify it.

Thus, the PCs were ready to get their first assignment.

Gathering Quests, New School style!

An abandoned Mithril Mine at the outskirts of the City was to be converted into a new Burg of the City.  During pre-construction work, a passage to an ancient corridor of the dungeon was re-discovered near the bottom of the mine. A sealed Crypt was found nearby.

The Builders wanted the Crypt opened and, if necessary, cleared.  The 3 PCs were hired to do it. They were given a teleporting key (Made of 3 miniature god pickaxes, joined by their Shaft, Triskelion style) and were instructed to use it from one of The Builder’s cargo Teleportals to reach the Mine’s Construction site.

World-Building aside: I really like how setting elements build themselves one idea at the time while writing adventures set in it.  Using suggestions from readers from that post, I created the concept of  the Dungeon Nexus/Focus points and the idea of teleportals to transport materials from the City to the various constructions sites in the Outskirts.  That’s a perfect example of Bottom up design, which I love doing.

While the teleportal key was being attuned to Jaiel ( to prevent monsters from grabbing one from a dead citizen and invade the City’s centre), Korg and Usul wandered outside the Builder’s headquarters.  There, they were accosted by a Tiefling named Kurt who introduced himself as being a member of The Voice of the City.

In the City’s typical way of ‘It shouldn’t work but it does’, The Voice of the City is both the judicial arm of the city AND the city’s Free Press!  Kurt was from the Press and wanted to buy the PCs exclusive report of their job if they agreed.  They told the reporter what mission they were on and Kurt looked in his notes and explained to the PCs that the crypt they were to ‘clear’ housed the remains of an exiled Dwarven noble whose history was sketchy at best.

Kurt offered a substantial amount of money if the PCs could uncover the noble’s story and bring it to him before they told the Builders anything.

Adventure Design aside: I find that potentially conflicting quests gives PCs a feel of control on the world since it gives them significant choices as to where they want the story to go. The consequences of such decisions will shape future adventures.

Finally, as Yan was a member of a secretive benevolent organization called ‘The Foundation’, I told him about a third mission regarding the crypt.  The Foundation believed that the crypt was under a curse that made it into a nexus of the Dungeon’s conscience.  They thought that the curse was related to an event preceding the existence of the city and that breaking it was necessary to “purify” the crypt of the dungeon’s influence.

Thus armed with these 3 quests (which they decided to share openly with each other), the PCs were ready to head out into the dungeon.

By that time, I could see on the faces of my players that they were truly hooked to the story and that We would have a great session.

In part 2: Trouble in the Bloodied Mines!

Image Credit : Players Handbook 2, Wizards of the Coast.