Friday Fantasy: Fate’s Fell Hand

Out in the lost dimensions there is an island vale floating on a sea of storm-tossed, roiling phlogiston. It is home—or rather, it has become home—to three of the greatest magi of their age, the wizard Darjr, the enchantress Erodiade, and the accursed scribe Al-Hazred, trapped behind a wall of regenerative magic, friendship turned to rivalry turned to hate, and perfectly balanced conflict. Once together, they sought the relic known as the Deck of Fates, and in that they were successful. For they found a dozen of the ivory plaques painted with strange personages and icons, but none could agree as who could possess the Deck of Fates. Their fate was decided after a three-way spell duel that tore their manor, the original vale where it stood, and their vassals out of reality and tossed it onto the sea of phlogiston. They were trapped, each condemned to direct their vassals to find all twelve cards from the Deck of Fates that were once in their possession so that they could gain mastery over the pocket realm they found themselves in, defeat their rivals, and so escape their prison, even as they devoted their energies to holding back the seas that scoured the edges of the vale. And if only it were that is easy, one of them would have achieved this by now, but the vicissitudes of their imprisonment mean that every day, the clock resets, the fealties of their vassals of the day before are likely to change, and they have to start all over again. If only there was factor which might sway the perfectly imbalanced situation to one magi or another?

This is the set-up to Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand, a scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It is designed for a party of four to eight Second Level Player Characters with an easy set-up, but is far more complex than the typical adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. In fact, ‘complex’ is not really fair or accurate, so it would be better to describe the scenario as being more sophisticated than the typical adventure for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. This is because although it is does involve combat and exploration as you would expect for a scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game, it emphasises roleplaying and interaction as much as it does those other elements of play. Further, despite the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game being renowned for drawing upon the works of the authors listed in ‘Appendix N’ of the Dungeon Master’s Guide for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition for their inspiration, Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand draws more deeply and more obviously than most. Especially from the works of Clark Ashton Smith and Edgar Allen Poe, as it has dream-like, baroque quality to it.

There are hooks for Player Characters of all Classes that the Judge can use to pull them into the scenario and eventually, they will find themselves in the vale, overlooking a run down and dilapidated manor house standing amidst trampled fields marked with signs of slaughter and battle. The house is most obviously inhabited by an overbearing raptorial priest, a drunken warrior captain, a trio of simpering Ladies-in-Waiting, and a quartet of skeletal warriors. Of the magi, there is no sign, initially, but perhaps the Player Characters may dig around for them as they explore the manor? In addition, a Matron sees to the well-being of the Ladies-in-Waiting, whilst a Fool capers in the background. The Priest will sermonise on the benefits of merciful release from the suffering of existence and will seek one of the Player Characters to set a good example; the warrior captain will spoil for a fight in the hope that one of their number proves a worthy foe; and the Ladies-in-Waiting will individually entreat one Player Character or another to be her champion, each attempting to outdo her sisters in highlighting and debating the advantages and disadvantages of one potential champion over another. Meanwhile, the warriors go about their duties in the service their master, one or more of the three Magi. Then at dawn, it changes…

Not where the Player Characters are. Not who the overbearing raptorial priest, the drunken warrior captain, the trio of simpering Ladies-in-Waiting, and quartet of skeletal warriors are and what their manners are, but who they owe their allegiances to, reflected by the colour of the clothing they wear. It is always to one of the three Magi. Yesterday, it was to one of the Magi. Today it is to the same Magi or a different one. Tomorrow, it might be to the same Magi, the Magi from the previous day, or the third Magi. Who can tell?

What is happening is that Deck of Fates—or at least the cards from the deck within the vale—are being reshuffled and dealt back out at each new dawn, randomly shifting allegiances in the process. In the scenario, this is done behind the scenes, but in the play of Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand, it is done by the Judge. This is facilitated by a set of handouts, each representing a single card. The Judge is expected to copy or cut these out and construct her own mini-Deck of Fates and at start of each day in the scenario, collect up all of the cards, reshuffle them, and then deal them out between the three Magi. And then do the same the next day, and so on, and so on, resetting the balance of power between the three Magi in their attempts to gain complete control of the Deck of Fates. So far, and despite their best efforts, all three have failed. Enter the Player Characters.

The Player Characters are the deciding factor, for they do not owe allegiance to any of the three Magi. As free agents, they can choose to ally themselves with one Magi or none at all. They may simply decide to search for a way out or the truly ambitious might even decide to campaign to do what the Magi have been unable to do and that is to collect all of the cards from the Deck of Fates themselves and take control of them. If they manage to pull this off, it will be a truly magnificent achievement, but of course, it is fraught with danger and even the process of trying to tune the Deck of Fates might kill such an ambitious Player Character. Ideally, this should be a Wizard, of course. As difficult as the process is, the Player Characters do have an advantage over the Magi. When they manage to obtain cards from the Deck of Fate, the Player Characters keep them. They are not lost with the dawn reshuffle and as they gain more cards, the Magi have fewer allies to control… However, finding some of the cards is really challenging.

This is an incredibly juicy set-up of shifting allegiances and strings being pulled from behind the scenes against the backdrop of a decaying manse and against the clock. The latter, because unfortunately, in bringing the Player Characters to the vale, the Magi have doomed its existence. In just a few short days, the phlogiston seas will swallow the island and remove the one point of stability in the endless waters it floats on. However, thus will not be readily apparent to the Player Characters as they interact with the inhabitants of the manor, realise the next day (and if not the next, then definitely the day after that) that something even stranger is going on in the vale, and that they really need to work on what is going on.

All of which makes it a much more challenging than the average scenario for the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. Although there are dungeon-like elements in the scenario, Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand is not a classic dungeon, but a puzzle or a mystery to be solved. It is also challenging to run, since it involves multiple NPCs whose allegiances can shift that the Judge has to roleplay. The author even acknowledges how different this scenario is by including ‘Tips for Running the Adventure’ in the first of its two appendices. This boils down to the need for the players and their characters to be proactive, since they are up against the clock, as well as giving advice for the Judge on portraying the various NPCs in the scenario.

Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand is decently presented. The writing is good, the artwork is excellent, and the handouts are nicely done, even having been updated to colour since the original publication of the scenario.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand is a tough adventure for Player Characters of Second Level and probably even those of a higher Level, so is best suited to the experienced player and Judge. It rewards good roleplaying as well as exploration, and its emphasis on these two are a pleasing change of pace. It is also a good adventure for a Wizard Player Character given the potential rewards, whilst its arcane, even arch nature mean that it could easily be run using the Dungeon Crawl Classics Lankhmar Boxed Set and Dungeon Crawl Classics Dying Earth without any difficulty. Dungeon Crawl Classics #78: Fate’s Fell Hand is a really good, really well written adventure strongly inspired by the Appendix N awaiting the nimble fingers of a good Judge in whose hands the players and their characters are going to have a ball of time playing.

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Dungeon Crawl Classics #77.5: The Tower Out of Time was the previous scenario • The next scenario is Dungeon Crawl Classics #79: Frozen in Time.