The Bridgemoor Mines

[back to The Cloven Lands]

Read Aloud: Three dark mineshafts yawn out from the redstone cliffs. A throng of workers buzz around these shafts, like ants on a hill. They scurry in with picks or shovels while others guide carts out laden with gems, iron ore, and mystical Avadrium. Foremen oversee the process and take inventory on sheaves of parchment or boss around their subordinates. The miners themselves, regardless of gender and lineage, tend to be a strong, brooding bunch. Grimy with rock dust and soot from lanterns, muscled from days swinging pickaxes and pushing carts, and sure-footed on the uneven, cliffy terrain, these workers trudge with a sense of resigned duty.

Wooden stalls have sprung up in a semblance of a small town: some are storage units for precious metals, while others serve as stands from which merchants hawk their food, water, and fresh clothes. Throughout the mining site, the sun warms your back and dries your labored sweat. The shade from the city of Bridgemoor, far overhead, offers relief from the sun, but not from the grime. Acrid dust and iron filings sting your breath, and the stench of copper coats your nose and your tongue.

Having set the atmosphere for the region, ask your players to introduce themselves. Ask them to explain how their heroes fit into this scene. Is their character one of the miners? Maybe one of the merchants or a foreman dealing with administrative responsibilities? Perhaps they have some other role in this rough environment. Ask your players to narrate a typical day in the life of their hero. Do they stay in one of the ramshackle inns or encampments just outside the mines overnight, or do they have a home in Bridgemoor, high above?

Mine Workers

When your players narrate a day in their life, incorporate in a few key NPCs that will come up throughout the adventure. You can use these NPCs or come up with your own based on your players’ backstories. You can also simply change these NPCs’ names or tweak their personalities to reflect characters in your heroes’ backstories. Some of these NPCs might even be redundant with your players, in which case you can scrap them and allow your heroes to fill the role that these NPCs would serve.

Be sure that you include at least a couple NPCs that will be involved in causing a cave-in and stealing valuables from the mines, such as Brent Brentson and Chazz Durant. Brent also plays a role in Chapter 3, so if you replace him here, make note to use the same NPC that you created for this chapter in Chapter 3 whenever Brent is mentioned.

Kathy Vanse, the No-Nonsense Foreman. A logical human who values cautious adherence to traditional practices. Stick to what we know works. Kathy wants to make a fortune in the mining business and believes she has the discipline to make that happen.

Florence Pebbles, the Gossippy Tavern Keeper. An emotional, pragmatic halfling whose drive is simply to make a comfortable living. Florence knows all the most recent gossip about any person or event.

Crescentir Henley, the Smarmy Merchant. A risk-taking, disloyal elf who always wears colorful costumes to aid him in peddling his toys and gadgets. Subconsciously, he just wants to be validated. A hero who takes time to do this will get discounted wares.

Brent Brentson, the Disgruntled Coworker. A dwarven miner who is driven by greed. He’s willing to take risks for personal gain and is tired of watching snotty folk like Kathy Vanse make large salaries while he does the grunt work in the mines. For a couple months now, Brent has secretly been a member of the Ironheart Gang and is waiting for the right moment to steal a load of valuables from the mines.

Chazz Durant, the New Hire. A human miner who was hired only a couple days ago. Chazz pragmatically pursues personal gain. His drive is prestige - although he hopes to earn this in the eyes of the Ironheart Gang, not with the other miners. He is a reasonably hard worker but is quiet and doesn’t fraternize with any of the other miners.

Attribute Checks

As your players narrate a typical day in the life of their heroes, look for opportunities to pause their narration and explain how to make attribute checks. Note that the purpose of this exercise is not to punish your heroes for failing any attribute checks, but rather to give them small rewards for succeeding and to introduce your players to how attribute checks work in MythCraft. If you are playing with experienced TTRPG gamers, especially those familiar with MythCraft’s mechanics, you might want to skip this section.

Example attribute checks that could easily come up in the daily life of a mine shaft worker are provided below, but you can also make up your own based on your players’ narrations.

If you use these attribute checks, or if you ask the players for a LUCK check at any point to see if any of them find the medallion, make note of this. The medallion symbolizes affiliation with the Underbridge Cult and may be relevant later on.

Event	Attribute	Suggested DCs/Outcomes
Efficiently managing administrative responsibilities	INT	8. You adequately manage your papers and ensure that your workers are performing at quota. 18. You try an experimental work model that leads to greater efficiency from your workers. You earn a stipend of 1d10+2 sc.
Mining for gold, gems, or Avadrium	STR or END	Less than 8. You are reprimanded for being lazy. 8. You perform adequately throughout the day. 16. You are praised for your hard work and given a bonus of 2d4 sc.
Haggling with a Merchant	CHA or AWR	Less than 10. You are charged 25% extra for a good or service as you haggle poorly. 10. You pay the standard fare for a good or service and part ways with the merchant amicably. 16. You haggle and convince the merchant to sell you the good or service for 75% its normal cost.
Climbing a boulder to help a stuck child or pet	STR or DEX	Less than 7. You are unable to help the stuck creature and call for someone else to help. 7. You climb the boulder and are able to help the creature down. 14. The grateful parent or owner of the child or pet offers you a free meal for your trouble.
Finding an odd trinket someone must have dropped	LUCK	Less than 16. Nothing happens. 16. You find a strange medallion that seems to be made of solid gold. It has a skull and scythe on one side and an indecipherable glyph on the other.

The Cave In

Read Aloud: The day starts like any other: miners line up, get their gear, and trudge into the dark maws where they will break rock into dust in hopes of finding some precious metals or gems. Every miner’s secret hope is that they will find one of the ancient artifacts that predate any written history: artifacts made out of strange Avadrium, a metallic substance with odd, seemingly random properties. Some speculate that these artifacts were created by the gods that made this chasm, while others think that it is simply a relic of a civilization lost to time. Whatever the case, these items are extremely valuable to Bridgemoor; if a miner discovers one, as Falgen Dennis did yesterday, they will receive a year’s wages from Bridgemoor’s Meritocrats.

These hopes, unspoken but known by all, urge the miners forward into the dark shafts, but the day quickly turns from mundanity to tense drama when a rumbling roar emanates from one of the shafts, followed immediately by a puff of great brown dust.

Determine, based on the heroes’ BOP and how they narrated an average day in their lives, whether each of them are outside or inside the cave in. Regardless of where a hero is, they can help solve the crisis through clever use of their skills.

Skill Challenge To resolve the cave in, each hero will be able to make two attribute checks, adding relevant skill bonuses they might have. Note their rolls, and once all rolls are resolved, add together the sum of their rolls. Then subtract this total from a number equal to 30 x the number of players (if you would get a negative number, then count the difference as 0). The difference + 30 is the amount of time, in minutes, that it takes to clear out the cave in. Note how long it takes them to clear the cave in, as this will directly impact the difficulty of the second half of this adventure. For example, if there are three players in this prologue, each player will get to make two attribute checks. Add up these six checks, and subtract that sum from 90 (30 x 3 players). If the players’ skill checks were 22, 16, 4, 19, 9, and 20, then their sum total is 70, so the difference is 20. 20 + 30 = 50, meaning it takes them 50 minutes to clear the debris.

Outside the Mines

Read Aloud: After the roar of the cave in fades, it is replaced by frantic shouting as off-duty miners, supervisors, and merchants all rush to the scene. Pandemonium ensues as supervisors try to take charge and miners begin pulling dirt and rubble away in a disorganized frenzy.

The heroes outside the mine might try to insert chisels into strategic points to assist in loosening the debris. This could be a DEX, AWR, or INT check.

They might try to assume command of the situation, either arguing with or supporting the foremen in overseeing removal of the debris. This would be a CHA check.

Finally, the heroes might pick up some spare shovels or pick axes and go to work directly removing debris from the outside of the cave in, which would best be represented by a STR or END check.

Inside the Mines

Read Aloud: Inside the mines, tensions run high as the miners struggle not to panic. A few of your fellow miners were injured, but it doesn’t seem that anyone was killed in the cave in. Your kerosene lanterns will slowly consume breathable air, so you need to take initiative. The rubble blocking you from the exit looks loose enough to excavate yourself.

Brent Brentson, the disgruntled dwarven miner, isn’t helping matters any. “There’s procedures here,” he grumbles. “We’ll get in trouble wit’ the likes o’ Kathy iffen we try to dig our way out and cause more structural problems, and you know I’m right.”

If the heroes inside the mine disagree with Brent, they can make a CHA skill check to convince the miners to start clearing out the rubble. Heroes who think to extinguish all but one kerosene lantern get a +4 bonus to their roll.

Clearing out the rubble itself can be represented by a STR or END check.

The Chase

Read Aloud: Luckily, the cave in was not tremendously devastating, just quite loud and dusty. The few injured workers are given the day off to tend to their wounds, and local medics quickly assess the damage they sustained.

After a moment, you hear a cry of despair from nearby. The supervisor named Kathy Vanse is clutching her face in dismay! She takes a few seconds to compose herself, then informs you that in the chaos, someone stole a team of mules and a minecart laden with gold and gems.

If the heroes take time to inventory the remaining goods, they will find that a crate of gems was broken into. While most of the gems are still there, it appears that a gem resembling a ruby encrusted with Avadrium was stolen, as well.

If the heroes ask after Chazz Durant, he is nowhere to be seen. If they do not directly ask after him, then they likely do not miss his absence as he was relatively unobtrusive and there are more obvious matters to deal with.

The heroes might act of their own accord, but if they do not, Kathy or another administrator will ask them to chase down the thief and recover the cart of goods. By moving to the edge of the mining outpost, where the road transitions from cobbles to hard packed dirt, the heroes can find tracks that are obviously a cart being pulled by a team of mules.

Assuming that the heroes give chase, you can determine how difficult their pursuit will be based on how long it took them to clear out the cave-in.

Time to Clear	Effect
30 mins	Skip the Giving Chase and Feral Nythix events.
31-60 mins	Skip the Giving Chase event.
61-120 mins	Play through all events.
121+ mins	Play through all events, and run the Final Confrontation with its “Difficult” setup (or deadly, depending on the outcome of Giving Chase).

Giving Chase

Each hero giving chase must make an attribute check to represent their physical capacity to rush after the thieves. They can make a STR, DEX, or END check, adding a skill if relevant. If the heroes are riding horses or other mounts, they can also make an AWR/Animal Handling check with an additional +4 bonus.

The heroes must collectively roll an average score greater than 8. If they do not, then increase the Final Confrontation’s difficulty from “Normal” to “Difficult,” or from “Difficult” to “Deadly” if it took them more than 2 hours to clear the cave in.

Feral Nythix

As the heroes rush to catch up with the thieves, they encounter a feral nythix. Depending on the size of your party, the nythix might have already been injured.

Read Aloud: A nythix glider skitters along the cliff trail. Seeing you, it shuffles its insectoid wings and emits a clattering growl: it appears that this creature has gone feral. It has the size and temperament of an angry bobcat, though its muddy red carapaced body looks more like a beetle or a moth. Time is of the essence if you wish to catch the bandits, so dispatching the beast may be best.

Read Aloud (if fewer than 3 players): Fortunately for you, this angry creature appears to have been injured: one of its wings is crimped.

The creature has the stats of a Nythix Glider (CC p. 137). If you are playing with only 1-2 players, then on each of the Nythix’s turns, it can MOVE and take ONE of its actions, instead of taking TWO of its actions.

If the party feed the nythix at least 1 ration and succeed on a DC 12 AWR check to calm it, they can avoid combat. Otherwise, they must fight it.

Final Confrontation

As your party catches up with the thieves, use the following read aloud text. When narrating how many bandits there are, consult the following table.

Use the Normal difficulty unless the players took more than 2 hours to clear the debris (which increases it by 1 tier) and/or failed the Giving Chase attribute checks (which increases it by 1 additional tier).

Instead of their normal equipment, each of the enemies in this encounter are armed with 2 Throwing Axes. These are STR based weapons that can be thrown 30 ft and deal 2 (1d4) + STR damage on a hit.

The possible enemies in this encounter include Thugs (CC p. 235) and Bandits (CC p. 218). The mules are noncombatants.

Number of Players	Normal	Difficult	Deadly
1	1 Thug	2 Thugs	1 Bandit and 1 Thug
2	1 Bandit	1 Bandit and 1 Thug	1 Bandit and 2 Thugs
3	1 Bandit and 1 Thug	2 Bandits and 1 Thug	2 Bandits and 3 Thugs
4	1 Bandit and 2 Thugs	2 Bandits and 3 Thugs	3 Bandits and 3 Thugs
5	2 Bandits and 1 Thug	3 Bandits and 2 Thugs	3 Bandits and 4 Thugs
6	2 bandits and 2 Thugs	3 Bandits and 3 Thugs	4 Bandits and 4 Thugs

Read Aloud: Near the top of the Great Chasm, finally catch up with the bandits, who frantically lead the mules and the minecart along the canyon trails.  There are [NUMBER] of them, all gruff and grimy and sweaty from their attempted heist. When they see you, they heft small axes and look ready to fight for their prize.

As combat begins, make it apparent that the thieves will stop fighting if they are left alone. If they can complete their heist with impunity, they will do so and leave the heroes on their own. Otherwise, the thieves will fight until ½ of them are dead or incapacitated, then the remaining thieves will flee.

Conclusion

If the heroes are unable to apprehend the thieves, then the thieves escape with their treasure. The heroes receive no reward.

If the heroes do apprehend the thieves and return the gems to their supervisors, then each hero receives 20 sc in compensation and are allowed one jewel of their choice. Such jewels can be kept or sold for 100 sc.

If they interrogate the thieves, they learn that the thieves were working for a dwarven crime lord named Mort Ironheart, the leader of the Ironheart Gang. He has a large encampment in the Nalatheshi badlands a half-day’s travel north of the mines. Make it obvious that this is too large a problem for the heroes to deal with on their own, and the best thing they can do is report it to the authorities and have the Bridge Knights handle it.