Chapter 2: Prologues
This chapter contains everything you need to run the three prologues that serve as introductions to The Cloven Lands. Each of these prologues end with heroes arriving in Bridgemoor and lead directly into Chapter 3: The Underbridge Cult.
Each of these prologues contain guidance for running combat with any number of players from 1 to 6, as depending on how you structure your campaign some of these prologues may feature only one or two heroes.
| Attribute Checks
These rolls help determine the outcome of a situation in which the resolution is not a foregone conclusion. When someone makes an attribute check, they roll 1d20 and add their relevant attribute. If they roll equal to or greater than the difficulty class (DC) that you determined ahead of time, then they succeed at the task. You might have multiple difficulty thresholds: the character succeeds if they roll 8 or higher, but succeeds in impressive fashion if they roll 16 or higher, for example. When a hero has points in a relevant skill, they can add this bonus on top of their normal attribute bonus. If two heroes are trying to haggle, they would both roll 1d20+CHA. If one of these heroes has +4 Persuading, then they would roll 1d20+CHA+4. It is up to the player to mention when they have a relevant skill, so as the MC, you do not need to keep track of which skills the players might use. |
The Bridgemoor Mines
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.