Premade Campaign 29: The Thieves’ Game
The Thieves’ Game is intended for Heroic Level Characters.
The party members are approached and asked for help retrieving a lost sword, which is rumored to have been stolen by thieves operating out of a neighboring city. They are asked to sign a contract, and are given an upfront payment of ten gold pieces each as a forward on their fifty gold payment. After leaving the town they are ambushed by several kobolds dressed in dark, sleek armors, trying to assassinate them. On the kobold’s bodies they find daggers imbued with a dark rune.
Once they see the rune, they realize that other objects across the world have similar markings, including their own hands. Upon investigating they find that the sword they are trying to find is actually a powerful magical artifact called “The Thieves’ Sword” and is part of “The Thieves’ Game,” a competition of sorts between rivals Thieves Guilds across the entire world. Their signature on the contract has entered them as official members of the thousand-year tradition, and they have some very important decisions to make.
The party is now a part of a massive underground game, intended only for thieves, murderers, and brigands. They can decide to either embrace their newfound positions, jumping into the seedy underworld and trying to claim the glory of The Thieves Sword, or try and break free of their newfound obligation. Here are some hurdles that might be met as they progress:
- They will likely try to find the people who gave them the contract, but they have already left town. Searching for them reveals them to be people who were in the same situation as they were, and felt that sucking more people into the game might free them of their obligation. It didn’t work, and they are currently trying to find other ways to escape.
- As they move from town to town they will see other people with the dark rune on their hand, signifying their participation in the game. Others might have different markings; showing that they are judges in the game, and whose job it is to lend information on the current holders of the sword. They are powerful beings, and confrontation with them is very avoidable.
- From time to time, the sword will change holders. Every session works for this, and if they don’t try to make a move there’s a chance the sword might be stolen from the current holder.
- The thieves are usually high-level, and require more than brute strength to deal with, so simply breaking in and grabbing it isn’t the best option.
- There are some cool, optional elements as well. One such option is making the party immortal while in the game, with their death ending in resurrection after the battle is over. They could exploit this, but it would lend an interesting gameplay mechanic to the campaign.
With a focus on combat the players could wield the sword, and the longer they hold it the more powerful they become. With a focus on research they can learn that the only way to end the game is to carve the rune out of their hands using the blade. There are plenty of ways to take this campaign, and a huge amount of customization for DMs with ideas.
Brent P. Newhall says:
Wow! I love the requirement of cutting out the rune from their hands using the blade. ::shivers::
September 12th, 2008 at 6:00 pm