I just ran an adventure for Clan Ignitus. To prep the adventure, I decided I would draw five cards from the system-neutral “NPC Portraits Deck: Coastal Townsfolk” deck I wrote for Inkwell Ideas. I started with three cards, and kicked it up to five to give myself some more to work with. (I expected five or six players, and in Axes and Anvils, that’s a major force!) Also, the adventure would take place in the context of the Treaty of Reefs in Trenna, the background for the Coastal Shadows adventure generator (with or without a single GM).

Here are the cards I drew:

• Hara von Belltorque, human aristocrat and hunter. 22
• Mo Mian, gnome (shifted to hillfolk) merchant and information broker. 25
• Fornel Woxler, human carpenter and woodsman. 26 (He is an elderly man who lost an animated statue, and with it his livelihood, so he’s reduced to begging.)
• Sen Fex, human blacksmith and apprentice. 36
• Wenna Nurala, dragonborn (draconian) weaver and shepherd. 41

Looking over the various secrets, needs, and backgrounds on the cards, an adventure quickly took shape. Woxler once had a stone statue that he lost to a noble. I also had a noble with an estate filled with adventuring trophies, von Belltorque. To involve characters, I could use Mian, an information broker; the background of Clan Ignitus clearly shows the clan’s magic involves animating statues, so they would likely take an interest in an animated statue that wasn’t under dwarven control. Since Fex was a blacksmith, I could see him being a dwarven sympathizer in the sleazy village, giving them a good point of contact. I also needed some extra color or options around the Belltorque estate, and it made sense that Nurala could have been brought home by the nobles at the conclusion of one of their adventures.

Using the Draw

Players can (and should) surprise the GM with how they engage with a situation, so I don’t need to lock in how all these characters will be used. I drew the cards to give ME ideas for setting up situations. For sure, Mian draws them in to buy information. That’s what the clan will send the dwarves to do; pay for information then acquire the statue somehow. For sure, Belltorque has the statue.

The rest of the roles are less certain. For sure, Woxler will ask the characters for alms and be pitiable. Maybe that’s it for him. Or, maybe the characters pay Mian a little more to know who the previous owner was, and revisit Woxler. Maybe they get the story of the animated statue from Woxler himself, between complaints. Or maybe they mistreat him and he gets a chance to get them back at some point, possibly by reporting them to the local crime boss and getting criminals involved in their mission (probably looking past them to their objective for profit).

I like the idea of Fex being stressed out and worried as he tries to care for his ailing mother and his two kids, unappreciated at the forge, behind in his work; breaking his gear adds an opportunity for the dwarves to pitch in and help out, showcasing their skills if they want. Also, if he ends up as an ally to the dwarves, I can make the town too sleazy for safe lodging; any neutral or friendly NPC can recommend they talk to Fex (who reveres dwarves, I decided) to get a better place to stay.

I will hold Nurala in reserve to be a bit of local color, or a possible dup to gain access to the Belltorque Estate or fool the Lady von Belltorque. Or maybe she comes to the aid of her benefactor and throws a wrench in the dwarven plans unexpectedly. She could be a guide. Lots of possibilities based on how the players handle the situation and how the pacing is unfolding.

Getting the Statue

The central question I need to solve at this point is designing multiple ways the characters can get at the statue. There’s always violence, killing those who have it; in that case, maybe the statue animates and comes to von Belltorque’s aid. If that happens, maybe they break it open and find the secret was inside it, and that’s just as valuable as the statue when they take it home. There are a lot of dwarves, so to make the violence option tougher, I tuck away a few magical defenses on the property that can activate if needed.

This option is not ideal, as there would be consequences with the nobles in the area, and it’s not a good look. Also, they have lots of other tools to solve problems.

They could sneak in and steal the statue; it’s too heavy to carry, so they’d need the command word. They could get that from Woxler, or from von Belltorque under duress or through trickery. Maybe she wrote it down somewhere they can find it, maybe a servant under duress could guess where. To make that a little spicier, I came up with some spy crows that watch the grounds and report suspicious activity.

Can they trade for it? A boring solution would be to negotiate some kind of price, but none of the dwarves have the authority to enter into contracts on behalf of the clan (at least they don’t yet, as I’m planning the adventure). Also, we will likely need some violence, as it’s shaping up to be a pretty talk-heavy adventure; I can throw in scuffles with ruffians, and the odd encounter on the moor, but with five or six dwarves in the party they are a serious force in combat.

Lady von Belltorque is an adventurer and a hunter, so I decided to have a big predator threat move into the area that she could not tackle (even with hired help). A hydra will do the trick. It has moved into a river cave by the main road. Clear out that threat (she’s responsible for keeping her fief safe) and she’ll give them the statue.

Good to Go

With that, I had the session loosely put together. The story fit into the world as we had played in it so far, and it fit the Axes and Anvils rules, and it fit with the characters. In play, some things were dropped (of course) and others were improvised. Still, I had a great start for my adventure planning by using the NPC deck as a starting point.

Now that these non-player characters are in the world, I can circle back and revisit them. I used the statue as a starting point for this arc of adventures. The cards started off my prep for this session, but it also laid the groundwork for further games.

Here is the adventure!

Using the Coastal Townsfolk Deck

I really like the Coastal Townsfolk deck. You could put all the NPCs in a village, theoretically, but it works better to spread them out across a region. Since I have a coastal region, I can sprinkle them through various settlements. Some won’t work for this setting, but since I have a whole deck, I can easily discard the ones that don’t make sense here.

My favorite parts of the card are the quirks, the needs, and the secrets. A quirk gives you an idea for how to make the character distinct, it is a mental touch-stone; that’s useful when you are a dozen NPCs deep in the adventure and start to slip into one of the 3 modes you have for portraying NPCs. I like the needs because they are an easy way to provoke the NPC to proactively go to the PCs for help.

The secrets work differently. Secrets are more useful for the GM in planning, rather than at the point of meeting the NPCs. Secrets are good for motivating adventures, as the PCs could get involved because of the secret and have to work their way back to the character. Or, if PCs latch on to someone, there’s a little extra depth to develop that NPC.

Anyway, if you are interested in the deck, you can find it here. Now you have had a peek behind the curtain for how I use resources like this!