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
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. With these event Thorn sees ample opportunity to gain some 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. These criminals are the player characters.
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* [[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 {{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|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.
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* [[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 {{spoiler|though the players soon take over the kingdom, so it might be worth hanging on to them}}.
* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: {{spoiler|While this is certainly possible once the players take over Talingarde, the GM is told to encourage them to the other end of villainy}}.
* [[The Quisling]]: Several appear as allies to the PCs. {{spoiler|This is particularly true when the PCs take over Talingarde and have a court full of them}}.
* [[Shout Out]]: One of the possible projects detailed in the final book {{spoiler|for when the PCs are the rulers of Talingarde}} is to use permanent Teleportation Circle spells to set up trade routes. This is the premise of a famous thread discussing the Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 rules known as the "Tippyverse".
* [[Supervillain Lair]]: The PCs manage one for the duration of the second book.
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