Way of the Wicked: Difference between revisions
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''Way of the Wicked'' is a six part adventure module, with a seventh book dedicated to adding content to the prior 6 books, intended for use with ''[[Pathfinder]]''. Created by Gary McBride and Michael Clarke (with contributions by Jason Bulmahn to the 5th and 7th books) of Fire Mountain Games and released 2011-2014, ''Way of the Wicked'' differs from every other published adventure for a ''[[Dungeons & Dragons]]'' derivative in existence at the time of its publication (at least as far as the authors could find), by not only supporting evil characters (which many modules have done, to varying degrees of effort) but was made for them primarily and exclusively.
Talingarde is a large island (The books use England as an approximate size) where society flourishes under the wise noble House of Darius who a guided by the selfless church of the sun god Mithra. Corruption is exceedingly rare, the church ensures disease is contained, the people are united by their faith and bans on the faiths of the evil gods has rendered their worship virtually non-existant. That just can't do and one of the few remaining worshipers of the banned powers seeks the destruction of Talingarde's current government. Cardinal Adrastus Thorn, High Priest of Asmodeus in Talingarde has spent decades gathering supplies and forces to one day take over Talingarde and instill a puppet on its throne. However
One day a group of hardened criminals is sent to Branderscar prison, well known as the most secure prison in the realm, and branded to await their execution (or be made to labor in the salt mines till they drop dead from the work). Thankfully for these prisoners, Branderscar was never particularly active and has gotten by on reputation alone for a long time. Lately the security is lax. With the lack of real threats the warden has not been particularly active in the day to day management of the prison; In the warden's place the corrupt Sergeant Tomas Blackerly has quietly toned down the number of guards and skimped on maintenance to embezzle the prison's funds for his own use. The prison is currently
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* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: Grumblejack, a fiendish ogre and the only other prisoner when the player characters arrive at Branderscar, was intended as a [[Crutch Character]] of an ally for the initial jailbreak. The character quickly proved popular with players and was given expanded roles in each future book. Grumblejack winds up {{spoiler|the ''only'' character to remain an ally to the PCs for all 6 books}}.
* [[Even Evil Has Loved Ones]]: {{spoiler|This proves to be Thorn's undoing as he can't bring himself to kill the blood of the woman he loved despite his Paladinhood and tries (much to the detriment of his plan), not very successfully, to corrupt him instead. This harms his plan enough for the powers of hell to strip him of his title of high priest, meaning the PCs no longer have to worry about their contract to "do no harm" to "he who is called Cardinal Adrastus Thorn, High Priest of Asmodeus in Talingarde" as he no longer bears that title.}}
* [[Death by Childbirth]]: Used to explain the lack of a queen in Talingarde. {{spoiler|
* [[Evil Is Cool]]: If it wasn't cool, why would you play this?
* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: Described as one problem even the most successful evil campaigns fall into and as such the book takes care to primarily pit the PCs against good aligned enemies. That is not however to say that there are no fights against evil aligned foes within the adventure.
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* [[Leave No Survivors]]: An order to the player character for their mission in book 3. {{spoiler|Given the presence of teleporting outsiders, the odds of success are so poor the climax of the book assumes they failed at this and have to flee an oncoming army}}.
* [[Magically-Binding Contract]]: The contract that forms the Ninth Knot (and presumably the other knots) that forces them to co-operate with each other and Thorn. {{spoiler|Finding a loophole in it becomes important when your former boss turns against you}}.
* [[Mark of Shame]]: The player characters imprinted with a branding iron upon arrival at Branderscar, marking them as forsaken of Mithra. This complicates early infiltration missions. The brand is not unremovable however (indeed, it is perfectly mundane) and sufficently powerful healing magic can fix it, which the books assume any PC that wants to will have done.
* [[Mary Suetopia]]: Talingarde is this to emphasis the PCs evilness for destroying it.
* [[No Campaign for the Wicked]]: Averting this is the primary reason this adventure even exists.
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* [[Supervillain Lair]]: The PCs manage one for the duration of the second book.
* [[Villain Protagonist]]: The entire point.
* [[We Buy Anything]]: The adventure uses the player character's status as wanted criminals fighting the government to avert this. The PCs frequently come across valuable items marked as personal or government property and thus impossible sell (most of the time) regardless of their disguise. Some of these items, such as the arms and armor of Branderscar's guards, still have their obvious uses even if they can't be sold.
* [[What Are You in For?]]: Encouraged in the opening to start characterization of the players and have them get to know one another.
* [[You All Meet in a Cell]]
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