Friday Fantasy: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos

There is no denying the ambition of Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos. It plucks the Player Characters out of their ordinary adventuring lives and places them on a cosmic stage before the Lords of Chaos, forces them to enter their service and hunt for a lost artefact, and whilst promising rich rewards, dangles in front of them the possibility of betrayal at the hands of their own—and this not in a scenario for Eighth or Ninth Level Player Characters, but First Level Player Characters! Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos opens in strong fashion, with an emphasis on roleplaying. Yes, it is something of a deus ex machina, but it hooks the players and their characters immediately. It also sets up the Player Characters to distrust each other and not only is that intentional, the scenario gives great advice on how to do this. What happens is that each of the Player Characters is approached privately by one of the Lords of Chaos and asked to hand over the lost artefact to them individually in return for greater reward. To handle this, as you would expect, the Judge is advised to take each of the players aside and play this approach by a Lord of Chaos in private. So far, so good, but the advice goes one step further by suggesting that the Judge take aside the player with the least trusted character and talk to him, but not have one of the Lords of Chaos approach his character. This is the equivalent of a ‘chef’s kiss’, because it sows distrust even further and for once, the least trusted Player Character will be innocent despite what his fellow adventurers might believe. To ensure that this has the desired effect, it is also suggested that the scenario be run with Player Characters who have bonded in a Character Funnel.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at theCourt of Chaos ais scenario published by Goodman Games for use with the Dungeon Crawl Classics Roleplaying Game. It begins with the Player Characters being drawn to the Court of Chaos and given a fait accompli by the Lords of Chaos—find the Yokeless Egg, an artefact infused with the First Chaos, which has been kept locked away for eons and forgotten about on the Plane of Law. The Player Characters are given a chance to discuss the situation and even partake of some hospitality in their own guest rooms, which is when each of the Lords of Chaos (and other individuals) approaches one of the Player Characters. Each of the Lords of Chaos will approach a different type of Player Character, as determined by Race, Class, or gender, before they are all brought back together the following morning. The individual, one-on-one scenes between the Lords of Chaos and the Player Characters are enhanced by handouts that individual depict all five. One is a heavily armoured, three armed warrior wearing a cloak of dead persons’ faces, another is a giant eyeball walking on chicken legs, and yet another is a hooded and cloaked figure whose face appears to be pair of elephantine trunks that end in dead hands! These are not pleasant encounters despite their honeyed words!

Of course, the Player Characters will accept the task allotted to them. They are then transported to the Plane of Law. The Yokeless Egg is actually easy to find, the Player Characters being dropped more or less on its doorstep, or at least, the cataphract it is contained in. Which it turns out, because this is the Plane of Law, is a giant flawless diamond. Inside, the Player Characters find five doors behind which there is room containing a trial of some kind. The trials are themed ‘Creation, ‘Construction’, ‘Enlightenment’, ‘Sacrifice’, and ‘Judgement’, and most of them consist of quite straightforward, even obvious—though obviousness would suite the Plane of Law—puzzles. The players and their characters will quickly work their way through them. That said, the most fun trial suggests that the Game Master place a piece of modelling clay in front of the players and have them work it into an object that will potentially solve the puzzle. It is a pity that the other trials are not as inventive as this. Unfortunately, the final scene on the Plane of Law involves the Player Characters facing off against better reflections of themselves, which is a cliché.

Once the Player Characters have the Yokeless Egg, they can return to the Plane of Chaos and stand before the Lords of Chaos. It is here that pandemonium can reign, depending upon the decisions of the players and their characters. If they have collectively decided to give the Yokeless Egg to the Lords of Chaos as a whole, then they will all receive a reward. However, if one or more of the Player Characters has decided to give it to just the one Lord of Chaos (or someone else), then there is the possibility that the other Player Characters could get left behind, stranded on the Plane of Law, that a fight begins between the Lords of Chaos and their minions, and the betrayer having earned the ire of his fellow Player Characters. The scenario covers a variety of outcomes, depending upon whom the Player Characters actually give the Yokeless Egg.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos is joyously different to other scenarios for the roleplaying game. There is scope for roleplaying and room for intrigue, as well as inherent intra-party conflict and betrayal. Which may well mean that the scenario is not suitable for every group of players, but still, it is very well handled in this scenario. It is neither overplayed or not underdone, instead, simply setting it up so that the players and their characters make the choice and thus determine in part how the scenario will end. Nor is it necessarily game-ending and the consequences are fully explored—at least within the scope of the scenario. What lets the scenario down slightly is the middle act, the scenes on the Plane of Law which lean towards the prosaic. They are not terrible, or even bad, but rather are simply not as fun or as exciting as the scenes involving the Lords of Chaos, whether for the Judge or the players. Especially for the Judge though, who is given a great cast of NPCs to portray with their capricious natures and malicious motives.

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Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos also includes a second scenario, ‘War Pit of the Chaos-Wizards: A Savage Spectacle, Starring Your 2nd Level Adventurers!’. This can be run as a thematic sequel to the main scenario, since it since it starts with the Player Characters being plucked from wherever they are and being asked to serve a servant of Chaos. This time though, it is not one of the Lords of Chaos, but a member of the Xeno-Coven, a loose confederation of ultra-powerful, chaotic sorcerers who aim to conquer or subjugate the multiverse in the name of the Chaos-gods.

This is Akhen-Am-Set, Scion of the Seventh Ritual of ‘Death, The Devourer’, an Adept of ancient, pre-Punjaran necromancy, who walks around on a carpet of insects so it looks like she floats. The Xeno-Coven holds irregular ‘Shadow-Meets’ at which its members work out agreements as to how they will work together and who will hold the Proctorship and be its leader. To avoid losses amongst their numbers, they field forces in an arena, the winner being declared the Proctor. This time, Akhen-Am-Set has decided that the Player Characters will be her proxies. There is, though, a catch.

The Player Characters have to die first. Which is not the bad bit. The bad bit is that Akhen-Am-Set raises them as undead and has them fight in the arena. Which has various consequences—especially for any Cleric. However, she does not just raise them as undead, she specifically raises them as ‘ento-morlocks’, or insect-ghoul hybrids, complete with features from the insect in question. Which can be Scarab Beetle, Scorpion, Wasp, Ant, or Mantis. Mandibles, insect eyes, acid-spitting, multiple legs, stingers, and more. Which is cool. All of which raises the Player Characters from Second Level to Third Level. Which is also cool. The scenario also details the forces fielded by Akhen-Am-Set’s rivals, including fey-like hyenas, reptilian metal golems, a cone-shaped humanoid demon with flesh of hardened lava, and Zeta Rettaxans from the planet Romulac.

Ultimately, ‘War Pit of the Chaos-Wizards’ is a big battle fought over several rounds in a star-shaped with eight points, which the Player Characters must study if they are to take advantage of its various environmental effects. It takes a little set-up as the Judge will need to copy and prepare new character sheets for the players and lastly, whilst the scenario is a fun fight-fest with a creepy moment to two here and there (such as when the Player Characters are transformed in ‘ento-morlocks’), it does have a sting in the tail…

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Physically, Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos is as well presented as you would expect for a scenario from Goodman Games. The artwork is good throughout with the illustrations of the Lords of Chaos on the handouts really standing out. The cartography is also as good as you would expect.

Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos is not perfect. The scenes on the Plane of Law are underwhelming in comparison to those on the Plane of Chaos. This is because the scenes on the Plane of Chaos really are fun and the potential for intra-party feuding and betrayal is intelligently handled. Dungeon Crawl Classics #80: Intrigue at the Court of Chaos lives up to its ambition and delivers something just a bit special and really memorable for First Level Player Characters.