Way of the Wicked

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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 adventurer 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 seeks its destruction. 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 mighty Thorn is, he can't hope to survive if the entire might of Talingarde is unleashed upon him and so he operates from the shadows, recruiting agents to act in his place.

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 understaffed and falling apart, and the remaining guards poorly motivated, often drunk on duty or distracted by gambling amongst themselves. Seeing this Thorn sees ample opportunity to gain four new recruits and arranges for an agent to pass them a magic veil containing all the items they need to escape and form Thorn's "Ninth Knot" of agents.

Tropes used in Way of the Wicked include:

• And Now for Someone Completely Different: Book seven introduces a series of optional games called Minon Quest where the players take the role of the otherwise faceless, nameless minions of their normal player characters.
• Bloodsport: Gladiator fights against monsters exist as underground entertainment. Once the PCs take over Talingarde, they can make the games legal and public. Slave contestants are optional, but preferred.
• Deal With the Devil: As an evil campaign there are a few opportunities to make such a deal.
• 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 the only character to remain an ally to the PCs for all 6 books.
• Death by Childbirth: Used to explain the lack of a queen in Talingarde this is actually a lie told to the public. The princess is actually a bastard the king had with a dragon.
• 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.
• Gory Discretion Shot: Another problem with evil campaigns the book notes is that player characters will eventually get into acts that the other players are disgusted by. To avoid this the GM is recommended to make such acts occur off screen.
• 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.
• Pimped-Out Dress: The princess owns an entire wardrobe of these. Unfortunately all marked with her seal and not really sellable though the players soon take over the kingdom, so it might be worth hanging on to them.
• 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.
• You All Meet in a Cell