Adventure Overview

[back to Table of Contents]

The Cloven Lands is divided into three parts. It is a milestone-based campaign with cues for when to allow your players to level up. The following summary offers you the broad strokes of each plot point. Full details about each of these plot arcs are provided in subsequent chapters.

Part One: Prologues

This campaign is unique in that you can start it with any of three different prologue adventures. These adventures get the heroes involved with particular factions in the world, giving them personalized incentives to pursue certain goals as they progress through the campaign. The Faction Goals section below offers ideas about how you might track these incentives.

A Complicated WorldThe Cloven Lands is a campaign that involves a significant amount of political intrigue and international relations. In these situations, all sides have a point, and no side is without fault. While you can play The Cloven Lands as a more traditional campaign where all of the adventurers are clearly on the same side, it is designed to be more nuanced than that. Various adventurers may find their sympathies with Nalathesh, Kendaria, Bridgemoor, or another nation or political entity as the campaign unfolds, and their allegiances may shift from one faction to another over the events of the campaign. This is to be encouraged. While player-vs-player (PvP) combat should not occur unless all players agree to this in Session Zero, the adventurers getting into intense disagreements with one another is expected during this campaign. In order to facilitate this layer of complexity, consider introducing the adventurers by running multiple adventure prologues that focus on different heroes from different regions. There are a few different ways you might handle this, discussed in greater length in Chapter 1.

Prologue A: Merchants of Nalathesh

In this prologue, the adventurers are merchants, traders, or hired guards traveling to Bridgemoor. On the way to Bridgemoor, a well-organized group of bandits assail the party. These bandits are part of a larger, well-organized crime syndicate. After the heroes arrive in Bridgemoor, proceed to the Underbridge Cult section.

Prologue B: Diplomats of Kendaria

Approaching Bridgemoor from the opposite side, heroes in this prologue might be diplomats, merchants, or hired guards. Kendaria is in an economically strong position, and diplomats hope to leverage this into more favorable trade deals with their neighbors. Kendaria is enduring an unusually dry summer, and hungry beasts harry the group. En route to the city-state, the heroes have an encounter with some fae, which can be resolved peaceably or through combat.

After the heroes arrive in Bridgemoor, proceed to the Underbridge Cult section.

Prologue C: The Chasm Mines

The heroes are miners, common laborers, or supervisors overseeing the extraction of valuable Avadri artifacts from underneath Bridgemoor. After the heroes uncover a particularly dramatic artifact, an organized group of bandits steal the load of treasure that includes that artifact. A heist up the side of the Chasm ensues, resulting in a battle with strange creatures. The party may recover some of the treasure, but the bandits are able to abscond with the prize artifact. After the heroes recover as much  treasure as possible, proceed to the Underbridge Cult section.

The Heartstone of Vedrathis If you have The Heartstone of Vedrathis, you can use this adventure as another prologue to get your heroes into the action. This prologue, unlike the other three, brings the heroes directly to part 2 of the campaign.

The Underbridge Cult

Through each of their respective prologues, adventurers from Nalathesh, Kendaria, and the mines beneath Bridgemoor arrive in the splendid city-state. In Bridgemoor, they can pursue their own goals for a time. A cave-in occurs in the mines, and rumors circulate that blame occult activity. When cultic symbols begin appearing on doorways, panic spreads through the city. Circumstances force the heroes together as they look for the cult leaders and try to stop things from getting out of hand.

Part Two: Regional Heroes

The heroes that stop the Underbridge Cult quickly gain celebrity among the people of Bridgemoor, and earn the gratitude of the Meritocrats that run the city. Meanwhile, heroes that completed the Heartstone of Vedrathis quest arrive in Bridgemoor looking for a Meritocrat named Magellus Black.

Even with the immediate threat of the cultists negated, Bridgemoor, Nalathesh, and Kendaria all have regional problems that need tended to. Tensions between Nalathesh and Kendaria boil higher and higher. The Nalatheshi accuse the Kendarians of thieving from their merchants; a short time later, when a Kendarian diplomat is found murdered, they blame the Nalatheshi. Magellus and the other Meritocrats recruit the heroes into tending to regional affairs in an effort to calm the tensions felt in the countryside around Bridgemoor.

In the ensuing chaos, various Meritocrats and influential politicians from Bridgemoor, Kendaria, and Nalathesh will each approach the heroes. The heroes may become embroiled in the politics of the nations. They may take some of these jobs in an effort to restore stability to the region around Bridgemoor. They may do a combination of politicking and adventuring, trying to help calm the situation on multiple fronts. Or, rather than acting as agents of stability, the heroes may find themselves siding strongly with one faction or another and pursue goals that help propel that faction into greater power. Whatever their decisions, the heroes’ actions will have dramatic ramifications.

The heroes will not be able to prevent the situation from devolving into eventual warfare over the coming months, but their actions can help the situation improve in other ways. The consequences of their actions will be seen in several events that occur in Part 3 of the campaign.

The subsections within Part 2 can be done in any order, and they do not all need to be done before Part 3. In fact, it would be strange if the party were able to complete all of the quests in Part 2, as some of these quests make other quests in this section less feasible.

Tensions Simmer

A Nalatheshi caravan experiences thefts of valuable goods, and they blame the Kendarians given recent arguments. The captain of the Bridge Knights, Ser Kellion Blacksky, recruits more city guards and cracks down on crime. The party might be recruited to prove or disprove Kendaria’s involvement in the thefts, but during this time, a Kendarian diplomat is murdered. The Kendarians blame Nalathesh, throwing the heroes’ investigation into chaos.

Nalatheshi Bandits

Bandits in the deserts of Nalathesh are making it difficult for merchant caravans to facilitate trade with Bridgemoor and Lesmishan. Nalatheshi merchants approach the heroes and ask them to root out the bandits and resecure the trade routes.

While in Nalathesh, the heroes may find evidence to suggest that the bandits were funded by Kendarian nobles. They might also go on multiple side quests that will improve their reputation in Nalathesh, including a brief foray into the Mystery Flesh Pit.

Bridgemoor’s Mines

The mines beneath Bridgemoor need to be reopened in order to get Bridgemoor’s economy flowing again. The heroes might be recruited to clear out cave-ins, fight strange beasts, and discover new valuable artifacts deep in the caves of the Great Chasm. Doing so will likely bring them into conflict with Davra, an insane, monstrous creature that they may have interacted with in the Heartstone of Vedrathis prologue.

Working in Bridgemoor’s mines will also bring the heroes into repeated contact with a large crime syndicate that they may have dealt with before in Prologue A, Prologue C, or the Heartstone of Vedrathis.

Kendarian Trade Relations

As Kendarian representatives in Bridgemoor feel threatened by Nalathesh’s ongoing presence, diplomats and regional governors throughout Kendaria begin looking to other nations to establish stronger economic ties. The heroes might be recruited as emissaries to neighboring nations, such as Constel or Kess.

While spending time in Kendaria, the heroes might also enhance their reputation by completing various side quests for the local officials. They might also find evidence that spies in the Kendarian courts are reporting to Nalathesh.

Tensions Boil

Picking up on the threads from the Tensions Simmer section, as weeks pass, the animosity between Nalathesh and Kendaria grows greater. During this time, the heroes may have been pursuing other quests in Nalathesh, Kendaria, or Bridgemoor’s mines, or they may have focused exclusively on sorting out the political tensions. Ideally, they will have pursued at least two different courses of action.

The Meritocrats of Bridgemoor face increasing pressure from both Nalathesh and Kendaria to sanction the other one. At this point, the heroes might try to calm both sides down, or they might be convinced to side with one nation and put pressure on the other.

Part Three: War

Eventually, animosity between Nalathesh and Kendaria grows so strong that war is declared. At this point, the MC will need to consider what the heroes have done thus far in both nations and how this might impact the nations’ perspectives on one another. While the heroes cannot prevent this war outright, their influence can tilt the scales dramatically in favor of one side or the other. Likewise, if the heroes have notable influence in both Nalathesh and Kendaria, they may be able to contain the war to a few skirmishes and minimize overall casualties.

Bridgemoor itself will do one of three things at this point, again influenced by the heroes’ actions over the course of the campaign. Bridgemoor may side with Kendaria or Nalathesh, allowing that nation sanctuary and helping that nation’s military pass across Bridgemoor to attack the other nation. Alternatively, Bridgemoor may feel that it is in a strong enough political position to sanction both of its neighbors. Ser Kellion Blacksky of the Bridge Knights gains wartime executive powers in this scenario, immediately turning Bridgemoor into an autocracy.

Battles between Nalathesh and Kendaria may occur in the Great Chasm or in the nations themselves depending on whether Bridgemoor allows one military to pass across into enemy territory. The heroes may be asked to help attack or defend strongholds as relevant, based on their political affiliations.

The war will last long enough for one side to be the decisive victor or for the heroes to broker a tentative peace between the two sides. Attempts to negotiate a peace will be difficult, as it becomes increasingly apparent that a third party is demagoguing both sides in an effort to drag out the war as long as possible.

Lord of the Cloven Lands

Once both sides are sufficiently weakened and it seems that peace may be imminent, Ser Kellion Blacksky launches his coup de grace. Leveraging all resources that he still has at his disposal, he launches surprise attacks on both Kendaria and Nalathesh, exploiting their weakened conditions to quickly take large chunks of their territory. His own army equipped with powerful artifacts from Bridgemoor’s mines, Blacksky’s smaller fighting force is nonetheless a deadly and effective army.

The heroes must leverage all political and military alliances that they have made over the course of the campaign. They may rely only on Nalathesh or Kendaria, or they may be able to get both nations to work together to stop this greater threat. Regardless, as the heroes’ political allies attempt to contain Blacksky’s army, the heroes must confront Commander Blacksky himself, deposing him and returning control of Bridgemoor to more peaceful hands.

Conclusion

Once Commander Blacksky is defeated, be sure to follow up with what the remaining heroes do next. Some of them may retire from adventuring. Others might enter into a life of politics full-time, working to restore the damaged relationship between Nalathesh, Kendaria, and Bridgemoor.

At this point, while The Cloven Lands comes to a conclusion, you may wish to design your own campaign that follows the same adventurers as they level up from levels 16 to 30! Or you might decide to let these heroes live out their post-adventuring lives in peace, and turn to a new chapter, a new region, and new heroes for your next MythCraft campaign.

In the near future, another MythCraft campaign module, Veil of the Eternal Night, will also offer an option to serve as a sequel to The Cloven Lands. Your heroes may come out of retirement in their old age for one final quest, or their children or grandchildren may take up the mantle and venture forth to stop new evils from rising.

MC Notepad

As the MC, it is always important to take notes during or after each session so that you can remind yourself of events that have transpired. When running a politically complicated campaign, this is even more important. Here are a few tips and tools that you might implement while taking notes about your sessions of The Cloven Lands.

Session Notes

Whether you take notes during or after each of your sessions (or both), it is especially prudent to keep track of the different political factions relevant to your story, and how your heroes are viewed by these factions. Using Goodwill tracking sheets, and political affiliation variants of such sheets, will greatly assist you in this matter.

You may find that you have a personal system that works better for you than the sheets provided here, but these will provide you with a great starting point.

The first sheet is intended to track your heroes’ Goodwill across the seven occupational categories. Note that the first sheet also has a blank heading that you can label, allowing you to track your heroes’ reputations across various locations.

The second sheet tracks your heroes’ Goodwill among notable political factions in this campaign. Generally, the higher their Goodwill with one faction, the lower their Goodwill with another faction. (As a less complicated alternative to this sheet, consider creating -5 to +5 sliding scales, with each extreme representing different factions that are most strongly opposed to one another. A -5 might mean that you are viewed very favorably by Nalathesh, but loathed by Kendaria, for example.)

Finally, the third sheet is designed to help you track a nation’s overall strength. You will not change the information in this sheet after each session, but only after major milestones. Refer to this sheet when you need to recall any recent developments in a nation’s power. Only share with your players when you feel that they need to know such information and their characters would have reasonable access to discovering it.

Goodwill Tracker

Heroes' Goodwill in: _____
	Academic	Aristocratic	Mercantile	Militant	Religious	Social	Underworld
Player 1:
Player 2:
Player 3:
Player 4:
Player 5:
Player 6:

Political Affiliation Tracker

Political Affiliation	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6
The Bridge Knights
Bridgemoor Meritocrats
Bridgemoor Traders
The Ironheart Gang
The Underbridge Cult
Kendarian Monarchy
Kendarian Commoners
Kendarian Traders/Merchants
Kendarian Religious Orders
Nalatheshi Commoners
Nalatheshi Monarchy/Religious Orders
Nalatheshi Traders/Merchants

International Strength Tracker

	Academic	Aristocratic	Mercantile	Militant	Religious	Social	Underworld
Bridgemoor
Kendaria
Nalathesh
Constel
Hadla
Husk
Kess
Lesmishan
Nevna
Vadan