Adventures

Adventures features six investigations — both in London and across the countryside of Tudor England. The adventure is available in All Rolled Up’s web store now in both print and PDF, and will see face-to-face release at Dragonmeet.

Ex Libris — Written by Paul Baldowski, Illustrated by Evlyn Moreau, Cartography by Paul Baldowski

In 1593, the Agents of Dee set out to Deptford in search of a lost remnant from the sacking of Mortlake, Dee’s home. The paper trail indicates the owner of a home in Deptford village received an annotated copy of The Book of Dead Names, and Dee wants it back.

The problem? He isn’t the only one who wants it.

Window of the Soul — Writing, Illustration and Cartography by Paul Baldowski

While there’s nothing like Southwark for an evening of entertainments in the drinking holes, brothels and bear-baiting pits, the Agents of Dee find their evening interrupted by a brawl in the street that takes a disturbing turn.

There’s more afoot than drunken revelry, it would seem, but can the Agents uncover the threat before it escalates beyond their control.

The Gong Scourer’s Baby — Written by Paul Baldowski, Cartography by Dyson Logos

The Queen has taken ill and departed London, along with Dee, on the advice of her close counsel. Before he departs, Dee requests that the Agents investigate a miracle baby, born to a Gong Scourer in Southwark. While the babe might be a hoax, the trail leads into a darker place and an unholy plot.

The Monk’s Cowl — Written by Paul Baldowski

Henry Denny, the leaseholder of Waltham manor, sends word of a monstrous threat harrowing travellers passing through Waltham Forest. John Dee sends the Agents to the market town of Waltham Abbey to investigate. As one of the favoured hunting grounds of the Queen, the Agents must resolve the matter with haste—who would dare to disappoint Her Majesty?

The Harrowing of Harlow Hall — Written by Richard August, Cartography by Paul Baldowski

“A former agent hath shewn himself to be in league with ruinous powers. Investigate and deal with him, as thou deem most fit.” Doctor Dee sends the Agents to investigate the grounds and owner of Harlow Hall.

In Fertile Soil — Written by Paul Baldowski

Charged with investigating a potential target for recruitment into the Sanction, the Agents travel to the tiny village of Soulgrave where a woman stands accused of killing a newborn through an act of witchcraft. But did she? The Agents must determine the truth of the matter even as the villagers gather kindling and sticks for the pyre…

The book includes a range of maps and hand-outs, as well as a short section on using the adventures as the basis of a campaign.

Abaddon’s Puppet

Which, as it happens, is something that this third-party licenced adventure — Abaddon’s Puppet — does, too. Written by Steve Hatherley, the adventure outlines a heinous plot that can become part of a campaign and include some of the existing investigations. Steve has written about his process with running The Dee Sanction on his blog.

In February 1587, Elizabeth I had Mary Queen of Scots executed, an event that eventually led to the attempted Spanish invasion of Britain in 1588. Before that, however, King Philip of Spain plotted to have Elizabeth overthrown in favour of her Catholic cousin.

This is one of those plots.

If you have already picked up Adventures or the individual investigations available on DriveThruRPG, you will appreciate the terse guidance of this adventure. Distilled into timeline, clues, personalities and locations, it’s a concise frame for adventure.

Available on itch, now.

The Spark

I have absolutely no recollection of what spark led to the development of this adventure, other than some pretty ordinary tropes associated with witchcraft. The adventure has a timeline in the background, which the bad guys aspire to keep—that’s always been true. The player characters have the opportunity to interfere with this timeline if they can. The timeline may be the only bit that has existed from start to finish, though minor changes happened in the last cycle.

As a concept, for me, a timeline works well as the basis for running a game, especially when you plan to improvise up from simple details. That’s always been a handy approach for me. I like to have a set of events, personalities and locations, along with endgame outcomes and goals that should never resolve if the PCs have anything to do with it.

Pacing

In a much earlier article, I referenced the possibility of using a countdown mechanic. However, I think it could be simpler to use a calendar and clarify that if you travel around London looking for vague clues, you can expect to spend a morning or afternoon doing just that.

It compares well with my current GMing of the Delta Green campaign Impossible Landscapes; to acquire some clues, you must invest a swathe of game time in the search. The outcome will be one piece of information. In that time, you will have sorted through ninety-nine pieces of dross to find that one thing. If you want a clue, your agents will need to work for it—what do you want to do?

That research approach also needs clarity on the who and the where, when, and why. For example, do you assign more than one Agent to a search of the docks? Is there any particular street or establishment that you include—or, indeed, anywhere that you exclude? Does the search occur at night when the neighbourhood clientele will be notably different to early morning or mid-afternoon?

Adventure Time

I’m enjoying the process of making the focus and approach of each adventure for The Dee Sanction a little different.

While Ex Libris has a linear path and a map, Window of the Soul had a map with events and no clear direction. Gong Scourer has a hidden course (the timeline) with a web of potential information sources that might be accessible depending on the who, where and when of activity. And, of course, Lost in Translation (in the Core Book) was a mystery site/escape room.

This has also always been true. We’ll see whether I translate other old playtest adventures into new published mysteries and investigations.

Release

This third stretch goal adventure, The Gong Scourer’s Baby, has been released to Kickstarter backers of The Dee Sanction.

It will release to Dweller and higher tier Patreon supporters in a week.

It will release to the public in a couple of weeks through the DriveThruRPG website.

Once all five stretch goal adventures have been gathered together, we’ll see release as a single volume (PDF) on All Rolled Up.