#BladesAgainstDarkness
Quick update for those interested. B.A.D is proceeding nicely. I’ve gotten the playbooks massaged into something resembling completion. Playtests are helping me track down what needs altered from the core rules to fit Dungeon Crawling.
In the meantime here’s a bit of a series pitch to (hopefully) get you and your players excited.
Ironwood is city of adventure from top to bottom. Every guild, clan, religion and hungry freebooter is competing for fortune and glory. They swarm over the bones of a dead civilization and scheme and struggle for the choicest cuts. The winners at famed and feted. Most simply die in obscurity.
The life of most adventurers come to our city is a short and brutal affair. Most arrive, either out of desperation or bravado, proclaiming their inevitable rise to fame and fortune. They will be the ones to return from the depths of Agartha with some legendary artifact. They will retire on the spoils and the stories they tell will ensure they never have to buy their own drinks again.
Most who go down below into the caverns of that dead city are not seen again. Of those that do return, many quickly lose their taste for the life. They disappear in the night leaving unfulfilled boasts and unpaid debts behind them.
Those that survive and stay on can be easily recognized. They are a hard, practical lot. They live to swap stories and burn their coin on their chosen poisons. They are tellers of impossible tales. Liars. Gamblers. Unpredictable. Mercurial. They will laugh at a pick-pocket who steals their purse and murder a stranger for a perceived insult.
Most will simply disappear one day. Their luck will turn. Some monster will get the drop on them. A rope will break. A map will prove false and they will be lost. No small few will simply succumb to their chosen vice. They will be consumed and wither and die from either want or excess.
But you’re different. You will be one of the storied few. You are a legend just waiting to be told. You will be remembered as one who rose above the desperation, hunger, and greed. A shining paragon of bravery, prudence, and iron will. You will amass such great wealth, respect and arcane power that you and your line will lead this poor, harrowed, corpse of a city to greatness.
Doubtless.
Now, if you’d care to get started, I happen to have recently come into possession of this map to a particularly rich find. Just the thing to start you on your pathway to greatness. Practically littered with treasure. Small Shrieker infestation, but nothing you can’t handle. A pittance at 20 coin. No, no Hevlan trade chits, thank you. I won’t be buying from the company store. This is my last exchange in this city. I’m headed home.
What? No. No one else knows of this particular claim. Well, no one has returned at least.
Into it