AW Adventure
Foreword
The overwhelming majority of D&D published material is useless to a DM, filled with copypasted material from free sources, poorly written, and very evidently little more than a grift. This document is not likely to be any better.
Introduction
Starsworn: Autumn Wind is my fourth and final short adventure for D&D. It's the only adventure for which I have constructed any amount of written material for. Doing so is not to provide a comprehensive guide to the adventure, or to provide any major technical detail on how it was constructed. This document is simply a supplement to the video series. Certain parts of my documentation, such as my statblocks, will not be included so undesired third parties don't have access to the most valuable information. I will, however, explain certain mechanisms and design goals as well as balancing strategies.
I do basically everything contrary to the advice in the DMG because the advice in the DMG is for the most part destructive and prohibitive, and I ignore most of the things I've been told about or read about in regards to DMing because for the most part those things don't make for fun games and are too restrictive. I also do a lot of experimental things and test out new and unknown concepts extensively. This means about 80% of this game is improvised. This document is the result of my improvization. If the adventure was to be run a second time (it won't be), this content would still be considered nebulous and further changed according to the demands of that new game.
All in all, this isn't a document for someone looking to run a D&D game. It's a document for someone to see how I ran a SS game.
Adventure Introduction
Autumn Wind is a zero-barrier entry-level game for a group of 5 level 15 players. It is designed with 5 bodies in mind - any fewer and many parts of the game must be dramatically redesigned for balance reasons. I'll point out those specific parts when we reach them.
Although AW takes place in the SS universe it has virtually no relationship to the rest of the world since it takes place in the Three Kingdoms setting. The History document and SS Errata is virtually all one requires to make a PC.
As a DM, it's impportant to design your game world around your party to some extent. For example, if your party brings the Teleport or Teleportation Circle spell, you'll need to have assets prepared to deal with parts of the game world not covered in this document, such as Haladrya's court, the Beastkin domains, the Atrium, etc. My party thankfully didn't bring this so I didn't have to account for them teleporting everywhere before the Time Phase.
My party brought with them several strong grapplers and one very specific grappling-oriented hero. Grappling wasn't common in SS or Albion other than NPCs, so grappling-related attributes weren't written for most of the units because it wasn't deemed as important. Rulesets had to be conjured for several units in response to the presence of the grappler for balance and logic. For example, the Scorpicore Golem is a unit you couldn't realistically grapple, but RAW didn't state that because it wasn't something that was expected to come up. When I realized it would come up, I fleshed out that part of its ruleset. Most units were adjusted in some manner at runtime for balance reasons, but core concepts remained the same.
The goal with adjustments is to make the game more challenging but also less frustrating. After experiencing the sting of poorly-designed and badly-balanced encounters in the past, and having dealt with shitty games like those from Blizzard and Platinum, I had a strong idea what kind of interactions I wanted to avoid. Translating those experiences and thus their solutions to VTT was difficult, but AW would prove to be even more difficult than expected, because of the unique way my party ended up getting put together. The party was high on utility but their damage was largely focused on physical burst, and their sustain manifest through two Rages and three members capable of moderate to minor amounts of healing. All but one character had Second Wind, there were three Action Surges, etc. However, certain encounters stood to cause this specific configuration a lot of grief, so I adjusted them accordingly.
That said, AW is a game where TPK is possible early into session 1. It's a fairly open-ended game with multiple zones structured in a somewhat non-linear manner and the majority of encounters are ultimately optional.
Story Introduction
The party is summoned by the King of Haladrya to a farflung town on the edge of civilization called Brightdale. The PC's need to write the King into their background and also why they didn't get drafted into the Alliance army. In my case that meant I got a lot of edgy party members who were isolationists and no one knew each other despite their legendary status. This works fine for the game.
Legendary Inheritances
As part of the Character Creation, I gave players the opportunity to create an item or signature ability that was within reason. The items were equivalent to Tier 2 items in SS. I tend to avoid flat bonuses, so more powerful items usually had additional damage dice instead of flat bonuses where applicable, and a handful of utility oriented things. Schwa took a shield that can be used as a weapon and has bonus AC, while Mucky designed a long rest AoE tager dive bomb ability that could knock enemies prone and deal damage in two phases.
Legendary Inheritances have so much potential exploitation and power creep that they absolutely must be dealt with on a case by case basis with tier 2 SS items being a guideline at most.
Allies / NPC Party Members
The largest difference between my design and the DMG is how NPC party members are handled.
The DMG advises you to split experience and loot with NPC party members, construct their relationship into a tiered friendship system of sorts, and always ensure they are never as strong as party members or know anything players don't. In short, the DMG falls into the exact same pitfalls digital game design falls into - making allies a burden rather than a benefit.
I see potential party members as a progression mechanism and AW and SS both have extremely powerful potential allies to acquire. As such, the game is actually balanced around acquiring these allies. Failure to do so will likely mean the players screwed up somewhere, ignored or failed to discover certain game elements, or the NPC in question died somehow. All of these are perfectly acceptable outs and the net result is perfectly acceptable as well. Much like SS, though, most NPC's aren't willing to lay their lives on the line for you without significant effort on your behalf to earn their loyalty. Some of them can actually make the game more difficult, especially if they do end up fighting.
When constructing AW I intentionally limited how many "pro-alliance" NPC's there would be - NPC's whom the party had a high chance of kidnapping and allying with. Originally, this was going to be nu-Kherrei and the Storyteller and that was it. However, as the game evolved and nu-Kherrei concept was abandoned in favor of Yllyvere and the arc for Jotunheimr was fleshed out, Storyteller became Fenrir and considerations were made for the background NPC's introduced via party backgrounds - such as Yjorgol and Grylde. Leaving threads untied is the worst feeling in such a game, so I wanted the party to have the opportunity to find and resolve these figures in their history and potentially save them. It was only when the game started did I realize certain other NPC's, namely Vincent, might become party members as well, because my brain was addled and I forgot the party isn't murderhobos (yet).
When treating the power of NPC's, I treat them as similar to quest objectives or PC power levels. NPC's very, very rarely follow PC resource systems because it's too much to track alongside everything else. However, their stats are typically based on PC stats and then weighted based on their canonicity. That means some NPC's, especially ones in SS like Ares, can have absurdly strong stats and innate abilities. They sometimes see a change in their stats when they enter the party, like Vincent, but this shouldn't always be the case. If there is, the party should have some avenue to helping them restore their ability if they want to.
Helping others grow strong is a part of a leader's responsibility and even if the party is at odds with an NPC in terms of personality or goals, helpng them become stronger should always be a viable strategy to changing the game world. In the case of Vincent, his axe is necessary for his spellcraft, though this feature doesn't pass to players the stats of the axe are desirable for everyone who can use it. Giving him back his axe is the strongest way to win his trust. For Yllyvere, her power level is directly related to how many Seeds of Yggdrasil you collected prior to awakening her, and awakening her is only possible with the four Horseman's weapons and a deadly adventure through the water citadel and its lower levels - and, of course, beatintg the devil out of her afterwards.
Yllyvere is the siongle largest optional arc in Autumn Wind, so it's expected if you can earn her trust and have her help you she would be game changing. Due to the non-linearity of the game, this means she has the potential to trivialize some areas if they've skipped them until they get her. To help alleviate this, I placed one of the ingredients to getting to her inside one of those earlier areas. But, in the end, it's alright if they work hard to get her assistance first and use her to smash some of the weaker encounters afterwards.
If the party doesn't win the assistance of any of these NPC's, or if they die, the difficulty of areas designed after them doesn't change much except for certain scalars like Wolfstaff's Wooly Wolves. This is simply the consequences of their actions at play. Allowing Storyteller or Yllyvere to die is seen as a huge "bad ending" for the game, so the struggle to survive after the fact should be sufficiently difficult.
When designing the abilities of NPC party members, I generally try to make them support players or do something the players can't or have difficulty doing. I try to avoid overlap, though it isn't always possible. A general rule of thumb is the NPC shouldn't have more utility than the party, but can excel in something they don't possess in abundance. For example, Vincent has extremely potent physical burst, but only has some lightning damage he can use once a short rest. Storyteller has huge AoE abilities, but they're mostly support and have days-long cooldowns at the worst.
In other words, party dynamic with other forces in the world, weak or strong, is seen as part of the game and not a punishment mechanism like the DMG treats it. Getting new allies is a momentous triumph in AW and should result in huge shifts in how the game is perceived and played.
Game Introduction
The game starts in Autumn and the PC's are introduced to the first map, East Wilderness, coming along the path as they arrive to meet Balric, the King's aid, after a splash screen and narration is used to help set immersion. A dice is rolled to determine who first appears in accordance with their position in GM layer. Those party members spawn on the east road and are told they hear a harmonica on the wind to the west if they have a reasonable Passive Perception or are woodsman in design. If they ask, the road is isolated and the path to the area was loose woodland trails at the most, making this area unusual. Most aspects of this game, as opposed to Albion, require the players to ask about them to be brought up, since it is expected to be a longer and freely roaming adventure. Large swaths of the game henceforth may never be discovered, including elements on this map.
Present on the map, but not immediately visible, are around a dozen wolves. The wolves are scattered north and south, with the closest behind trees south of the road. This wolf inches closer as time passes on until it's visible to the party from the other side of the river, across from Balric. Balric will point out the wolf if, or when, the conversion comes to the subject. Doing so can lead to an early Wolfstaff encounter. Wolfstaff is currently located to north in Ozzoz Plains, so the East Wilderness is within engagement range. Engagement is possible if the party chases the wolves or kills every single wolf before it can escape, or if significant magic usage occurs. It's also possible for the party to wander north and succeed the Survival check necessary to find Ozzoz plains from this location, which will also prompt a Wolfstaff encounter, though Balric will advise them against wandering.
Balric's key topics is note that the party is late by a significant margin of time - around a week to two weeks, and that he was wondering if they'd ever show up, unless they dictate some exchange happened between the time of being contacted and now, upon which case this is accounted for in his dialogue as a part of Chronos' Observational Data. Balric will shrug off any further inquiry on the subject, and any insight checks will yield that he in fact is telling the truth - as far as he can possibly know, they are very late.
Balric leads the party across the Eastern Checkpoint into Brightdale. He'll point out the Nightwatch and important buildings, such as the Hostel. If he's aware of any specific connections with players and NPCs, such as Halstrom, he'll note those NPC's are in their respective starting locations accordingly. Balric is fairly jovial but terse, so he doesn't stop during his walk unless the party lags behind as a body. Upon introducing them to the King at the Tavern, Balric will take up his position as bodyguard and won't leave the Tavern except during night or as necessity demands it.
Brightdale and Domain
Brightdale is a small town surrounded by several locations divided by potential hotposts. Additional assets may be necessary to handle travel encounters.
An Arcana of 20 or higher will sense that a strong foreign presence has sunk into the terrain. 25 or higher can sense movement. 30 or higher can sense it originates from the sky. This is the influence of Jormungandr strengthening as stars move away from Artorias, but it's not possible to suss out any specific origin of the presence until Age of Dammerung at the earliest. Attempting to do so will only yield that the entire realm seems to becoming effected.
Most plantlife is dying or dead in the realm, but strong survival checks can find living plant matter for purposes such as brewing alcohol or eating. Some locations, specifically the Sinkhole and the Marsh, have harvestable Plump Helmets, which are edible mushrooms. Virtually all wild game is hunted to exinction either by Wolfstaff or by Shuggan. The smaller wolves and Shugganites are edible, as are the bugs, though considerable preparation is necessary to make them palatable for nobles and those with distinguished tastes.
Prior to the Time Phase, players can access any camps or mounts they left behind on the road to the realm, they can teleport to any location except for the Beastkin realm, and they can use Sending and other such spells without issue. Once Time Phase activates, this realm becomes isolated and such things are no longer possible. Chronos will not activate Time Phase with a PC outside of the activation zone, which hypothetically could be used to unknowingly game the activation conditions.
By the time the players arrive at Brightdale, the Atrium has been destroyed. However, some spells, such as Teleportation Circle, can plausibly take them back to the Beastkin realm since the Bifrost still technically connects the two realms. If such is the case, it should be ensured the players have the ability to return to Brightdale by having Balric or Clara telling them a teleportation circle is prepared for their use (probably outside of town). If no one has the spell, this teleportation circle doesn't exist and is never brought up.
Chapter 1 - Prince Marth
The King will introduce the party to the main hook which will likely be at least somewhat OOC obvious by this point - he needs them to find the Prince. The King will outline what he knows; that Vincent, leader of a bandit gang, kidnapped the Prince during an undocumented expedition the Prince was performing he only heard about a month or so ago. During this period, the players will probably start to think that the King sure moved quickly to get a small army into Brightdale and then encounter Vincent on top of them allegedly being late to arrive. This is, again, due to Chronos influencing the minds of the people in the town, but it's a subtle thing to pick up on. Balric's mechanical arm is from Vincent taking his real one in a confrontation when the King arrived, so the evident threat of the bandits is real and their demands are too crazy to possibly give in to.
The party is pointed west, to the marsh, which is where many townsfolk believe the Prince last went. See the Characters appendix for Brightdale townsfolk and their various details for the town.
At this point it will be late afternoon and the party should be warned to some extent about the distance to the marsh and that night is somewhat dangerous. They'll be tired after their long journey and told lodgings were prepared for them in the tavern and they should begin their search the following day. Nothing explicitly forbids them from exploring, but an early Night Dweller encounter is entirely possible. If they caught Wolfstaff's attention and it decided to move to the East Wilderness, a dual encounter is also possible at this point. However, Wolfstaff won't normally run wander resolutions until its very first Wolf Attack is defeated.
Chapter 1a - Wolves of Brightdale
Throughout their tenure at Brightdale and, especially if they talk to Dale or James, the party will be made aware of Brightdale's seemingly endless wolf problems. The wolfs are spawns of Wolfstaff, whom can create around 10 to 40 wolves a day depending on the stage the game is at (later days see more wolves). If the party was spotted by the wolves at the East Bridge but did not fight them, the wolves double back and group up into a sizable force around 25-30 strong, consisting of Timber and Lumber wolves, and move to the West Wilderness and attempt to ambush the party. If the wolves are not engaged, they'll attack the town in a Raid Engagement on the first night instead.
Wolf resolutions have several phases.
Initial Strength - d20 - I roll a d20 to determine how big of an attack the Wolves will commit. High numbers here mean a higher willingness overall to commit large numbers and a greatly likelihood of damage being inflicted on the town. It's a scalar for the following resolutions.
Engagement Strength - d20 - This tells me how committed the wolves are to an attack. 10 or higher is a willingness to fight. 15 or higher means they'll commit even with losses. 19 is a full-on siege. 20 is a battle to the death.
Diversion Strength - d20 - This tells me what secondary attacks may occur. A high roll here determines that the wolves successful divert attention with the first attack and perform a pincer maneuver. In this case, high numbers result in serious casualties unless the party is there to intervene or specific NPCs are present.
Raid Strength - d20 - If this is 10 or higher, the wolves have a third group that attacks a building. This is almost always going to be the warehouse. High numbers here are direct damage do\ne to the town's stores of ale, hops, rations and drinkable water. The town can sustain two high strength attacks before they run out of resources and intervention is necessary for it to operate independently of the party again.
A finite number of Nightwatch and Knights exist. Each one that dies influences the physical numbers defending the town. This is important, since if Chapter 1 prolongs for a long period of time the town will almost certainly be treated as a bunker. Party members engaged in the combat invoke an actual combat encounter, which is more dangerous depending on the situation. Usually, wolf attacks happen so fast that even if party members are roused by the guard they won't come in time to fight unless it's a very large-scale resolution.
Failed attacks on the town don't provoke Wolfstaff, but engagments outside of the town do.
Chapter 1b - Wolfstaff
Wolfstaff is an optional miniboss encounter that roams the area surrounding Brightdale. Wolfstaff has close to 500 hp and 18 AC and has a multitude of highly damaging cleave and aoe abilities, rage, and a long-distant teleport ability. As such, an encounter with Wolfstaff is sure death for any lone PC or any group of NPCs with the exception of those whom have spells to avoid it such as Samson.
However, Wolfstaff can be sensed with a strong arcana as a concentration of the influence that surrounds Brightdale's realm. A high Arcana check can sense Wolfstaff from virtually any distance and, when paired with a high Perception check, can somewhat track his movements.
Wolfstaff is a semi-intelligent creature driven mad by Jormungandr's influence. It will know the party arrived, but specifics are determined by what the wolves see and hear, which it senses through a loose hive mind. Wolfstaff always knows when wolves die, so killing many wolves at once draws attention to that area. Wolfstaff is slow to roam and usually defers to chilling out at Ozzoz Plains, drawn to the presence of the Seeds of Yggdrasil which are within Udgard. However, defeating wolf packs outside of Brightdale will cause it to roam to that location. Wolfstaff roams at a distance of 2 zones every 8 or so hours, with speed depending on the time of day (Day = slower, Night = faster) and any complications in the attack. E.g., if every wolf dies and none escape a huge fight, Wolfstaff will move more slowly and scout the area with additional wolves.
Wolfstaff won't move into the Marsh, Old Agnir Fort, or into Udgard or its various precincts. Wolfstaff will attack the town eventually, particularly at night in a double resolution, but has a limit of 3 days until such resolutions become possible. After 3 days, a resolution of a natural 20 on a d10 (double resolution) for a night encounter will spark a Wolfstaff encounter. Wolfstaff, however, won't hard engage unless player characters are present. Instead, a second d20 will determine the strength of Wolfstaff's skirmish. 15 or higher will result in at least one building, usually the blacksmith or warehouse, being destroyed, and 5 or more guards being killed. When paired with a strong Wolf Resolution, such an attack can be devastating to the town and kill many important NPC's.
Characters
The various characters of the game's world and their general disposition. This is how they first spawn in the game world - the disposition can change, and major factors will be listed alongside to offer direction how that is decided.