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THE COMMUNITY OF….. THE ENEMY...

IS IN IT’S LAST DAYS. COMES FOR THEM,

INTENDING TO
THERE YOU WILL FIND
IS THE LIEUTENANT
AN IMPERFECT LEADER,
AND IS BEST DESCRIBED AS
THE HIDEBOUND,

THE TREACHEROUS, IS THE GENIUS

THE EMBATTLED, AND INSPIRES BY

AND THE INNOCENT, BUT IS VULNERABLE TO

OPENING POSITIONS WAVE AFTER WAVE CRESCENDO

THE ENEMY ARRIVES THE GOOD FIGHT A FINAL STAND

LOCKING DOWN TENSION WITHIN THE LAST ESCAPE

FALSE GENIUS THE GENIUS MOVES A MAD ATTEMPT

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 THERE’S NO END TO THEM. WE’RE GOING TO DIE HERE. THE UNSTOPPABLE ENEMY
In order to get the right tone, the community must be under attack from a force that
This is a situation-building device, similar to Broken Places, Long Knives, and they actually can not stop. It must be too big, too pervasive, too numberless,
Always Questing. In this case, the situation is a community of people, besieged by an whatever the case may be. This isn’t at all the same as saying that it can’t be held
apparently unstoppable force. Whether the attackers are a living army, as at the fall back for a time, or that small victories can’t be won against this force - those thing
of Troy or the Spartan stand at Thermopylae, or an inhuman one such as the zombies should be very possible indeed. So, give it an identity, and describe it’s horrible
outside the mall, or something altogether different, such as a creeping diabolic taint intentions once it has won total victory.
that has corrupted the source of magic and is destroying the once-wise order of Magi.
THE SINISTER LIEUTENANT
YOU’LL NEED THE PDF The enemy needs a visible leadership figure - one that can be fought, even slain,
The PDF for this article contains the article text (including this paragraph, for no real without ending the confrontation, but a victory regardless. This is the lieutenant. The
reason), but has a fillable, saveable form as it’s first page. By filling in the blanks, lieutenant should put a personal (though not necessarily human) face on the enemy. It
you’ll create the framework for a solid action adventure. You’ll likely also want to is someone the characters can trade words with (possibly just insults), but not the true
prep some game artifacts to run it - combat statistics, encounters, maps, all that jazz. power behind the enemy.

THE PLACE AND THE CAST THE GENIUS

Name your community (usually, this is a place, but not necessarily), and name the The genius is the real power behind the enemy. The genius might be a person, but it
listed figures, along with some explanation of how they got to be the way they are. In also might be a legend, a famine that drives the goblins south, a religious proscription.
what way is the leader imperfect? What tradition does the hidebound cling to? And Person or not, the genius is something that can be defeated, and without which the
so on. For any figures that are groups, you may want to name a representative or a enemy will collapse. The genius will be revealed as time goes on.
leader of some kind, someone the characters can interact with.

THE COMMUNITY OF….. THE ENEMY...

AKKANAR CITY IS IN IT’S LAST DAYS. The army of Dagon without, and the cult within, COMES FOR THEM,

INTENDING TO Sacrifice the city to awaken their hideous god.

THERE YOU WILL FIND
Enkal, who leads the armies outside, IS THE LIEUTENANT
AN IMPERFECT LEADER, King Sula, crippled and ignored.

AND IS BEST DESCRIBED AS A liar, faithless and sane and greedy.

THE HIDEBOUND, Councilors, who maneuver for voice even now.

THE TREACHEROUS, Councilor Subrak, in the pay of Enkal. Dagon, the ancient blasphemy, IS THE GENIUS

THE EMBATTLED, The militia; untrained, poorly armed, and honorable. AND INSPIRES BY A maddening dream-link with the cults.

AND THE INNOCENT, All the peoples of Akkanar. BUT IS VULNERABLE TO Attack, in it’s lair deep beneath the city.
A FUTURE TIMELINE CHAPTER TWO: WAVE AFTER WAVE
In most cases, building a “map of future events” beyond a single step is a poor idea, This chapter might play out pretty quickly, or might be an extended chunk of time,
even with flexible ‘movement’ built in. It’s typically only a good idea when the with various events playing out one after another (or at the same time). Here, you’ll
characters are either under some authority that directs their missions, or when they’re want to place events that show off the battle to hold back the enemy, grinding away at
about to be caught up in some set of events potent enough that while their actions the Embattled, and inflicting itself on others as well (the good fight). In addition, this
might change the outcome of bits, it’s not until right at the end that they can truly is where internal problems within the ‘actors’ of the community can be brought to a
change the outcome. So, what you write here is what happens if the characters stay boil and even near-implosion. Finally, this is where the genius of the enemy should
out of that event. become apparent, whether by pronouncement, questioning the Treacherous, through
research, or other means, and the vulnerability of the genius should begin to become
CHAPTER ONE: OPENING POSITIONS known.
While there may be some degree of prologue, explaining how things came to be this
way, the action of play actually begins here. There are three things are going on in CHAPTER THREE: CRESCENDO
this chapter, and you’ll want to at least touch on them all. Feel free to use, abuse, and Three events often characterize the climax of these situations. First, the final stand,
kill off the ‘actors’ of the community willy-nilly (though keep at least some of “the where the last of the Embattled spit in the eye of the foe, without hope of total victory
Embattled around as cannon fodder right up to the end”; even if the characters aren’t (but possibly, with the hope of forcing negotiations from the enemy). Second, the last
in the fight, someone is). In this chapter, the enemy arrives, and “opening shots” take escape, often occurring at the same time - a desperate plot to get out before it all
place. The community takes up a defensive stance in many ways, often with much comes down. And finally, the mad attempt, the one hope for victory, the attempt to
confusion (some possibly engineered or caused by tradition or leadership). And a defeat the genius itself before all is lost. Often, characters will need to choose which
believed “genius” (sometimes the lieutenant) can be shown, even struck down, to no of these to focus on, but sometimes, more than one actually happen in the same place.
real effect. Characters might want to take part in any or all of these events; let them! After the crescendo, it’s all wrap-up. Bitter, sublime, or tragic, keep it simple and
potent; by now, the players should know that they’ve been in a fight.

OPENING POSITIONS WAVE AFTER WAVE CRESCENDO

THE ENEMY ARRIVES THE GOOD FIGHT A FINAL STAND

In the dead of night, the cult within attacks the gate With ladders, towers, all the usual stuff, the army Enkal dies at the gate, but the army enters,
guards, hoping to let the army in. The army of vast outside looks to get in. Eventually, they get a gate to and the sacrifice of the city begins in fire
numbers arrives at great speed. burn; when it falls, they’ll have an in. Enkal fights. and blood.

LOCKING DOWN TENSION WITHIN THE LAST ESCAPE

Panic! The guards hunt the cult in the streets wile the Subrak’s willingness to surrender and delays are noted; Some of the militia storm the tunnels,
army outside, foiled, keeps arriving and arriving and the militia take the palace, and end up torturing him in seeking a supposed place where they can
arriving. Subrak leads the council in confusion. the palace square until he breaks and tells all. swim, to emerge in the sea. They fail.

FALSE GENIUS THE GENIUS MOVES A MAD ATTEMPT

Subrak tells that Dagon rests beneath the city, and Heroes go to fight the Dagon-spawn below;
Enkal, outside, demands the surrender of the city, and
describes some of the way through the half-submerged slaying sleeping Dagon will burn the minds
challenges the king. The king rides out, fights Enkal,
caverns under the city. of it’s cultists. The spawn devour them.
and dies. The council doesn’t surrender.