Hooks, Threads, and Factions

This page holds the moving parts that run under the tiers: the factions whose clocks advance whether the party acts or not, the recurring antagonists, and rumor tables for salting the spine into play.

The faction clocks

Each faction has an agenda that advances on its own. When the party ignores a faction, tick its clock; a ticked clock is the next adventure’s trouble.

Thyatis (the circling empire)

Wants: Norwold, which it never conceded; revenge for the annexations [Phindar-Aftermath].
Method: deep-cover lords, bought humanoids, a fleet gathering on the Isle of Dawn [Neri-RBP] [Phindar-Aftermath].
Clock ticks: a spy-lord consolidates a dominion; a frontier is destabilized; the fleet grows. Full clock: open invasion from the Isle of Dawn.

The Heldannic Knights (the entrenched Order)

Wants: Oceansend back, and the Vanya-faith’s writ over the south [Alm-Oceansend] [Alm-Kamminer].
Method: Warbirds, the Eyes of Vanya, the occupation of Kamminer Bay and Landfall [Agosta-Northlands].
Clock ticks: a coastal dominion is raided; a spy is placed in Oceansend. Full clock: a second assault on Oceansend.

The Ice-Witch legacy (the old cold)

Wants: to freeze the Great Bay for good and drown the dominions under a new ice age, the unfinished work of Akra and Frota [Neri-TG] [LoZ-R2R].
Method: stolen relics, courted frost giants, a cold cipher only the dead can read.
Clock ticks: winter comes earlier; a cairn wakes; Frosthaven stirs. Full clock: the permanent winter, the Tier III set-piece.

The dragons of the Wyrmsteeth (the watchers)

Wants: to be left alone and courted, not commanded; to profit from the humans’ wars [MMB-Region] [Agosta-Northlands].
Method: the Parliament at Windreach; envoys like Sandryth; hidden agents like Quentin Jax [Alm-Arcadia] [Neri-RBP].
Clock ticks: a dragon is wronged; a hoard is raided. Full clock: the dragons pick a side, for or against the party.

The crown of Alpha (the fragile center)

Wants: to survive and look strong [Alm-Alpha].
Clock ticks: a lord declares independence; a levy deserts. Full clock: Ericall loses control and the vacuum widens, raising the stakes of every other clock.

Recurring villains

Keep two or three of these on stage across the whole campaign; let the party learn to hate them before they can beat them.

Longtooth, Baron of Latela (T20 CE), the Thyatian master spy. The campaign’s likely prime mover; works through others, never seen until late [Neri-RBP].
Alak Dool (MU19 CE), the banned Thyatian mage building a humanoid army; the armorer behind Tier I’s coordinated raids [Neri-RBP] [Alm-Alpha].
Dimitri Dikhoff (F18 CE), the mercenary baron who means to carve his own crown from the chaos; a wildcard who may fight the party or the conspiracy [Neri-RBP].
Coiger de Mory, the renegade cleric and his giants; the face of the frontier raids and the M2 war to come [M2] [Neri-RBP].
The cold thing in the Tomb, Akra’s legacy, the unspeaking engine of the native evil [LoZ-R2R] [Neri-TG].

Rumor table (d8), Tier I

Roll or pick; each points at a thread.

“The hill-goblins have a paymaster now. Who pays goblins in good silver?”
“Winter’s early again. My grandmother says it came like this the year the bay froze and the giants walked over.” [Alm-Leeha]
“A lord’s steward rode out three nights running and came back with foreign coin.”
“They pulled a dead man in black armor out of the wreck on the point.” (Oceansend) [Alm-Oceansend]
“The Dark Masks are buying cold iron. All of it.” [Agosta-Northlands]
“The king keeps the war-levies under arms. The queen keeps her own guard. Count the swords.” [Alm-Alpha]
“A dragon was seen over the Dragon’s Spur. They say one sleeps there.” [Alm-Ironwood]
“The Crones at Crystykk are taking visitors. They only do that before something big.” [CM1]

Rumor table (d6), Tiers II-III

“Baron Longtooth’s grain ships sail empty and ride low. What’s in the holds?” [Neri-RBP]
“The Red Banner captains are being insulted on purpose. Someone wants the plains at war.” [Neri-Viask]
“Coiger’s giants only ever hit where the crown isn’t looking. How do they know?” [M2]
“The Warbirds are flying scout-lines over Oceansend again.” [Alm-Oceansend]
“The relics they’re smuggling north are older than Alphatia, and they’re cold to the touch.” [LoZ-R2R]
“Arcadius wants into the dragons’ city so badly he’ll owe anyone who gets him there.” [Alm-Arcadia]

Weaving it together

The craft is to let a clock the party ignored become the hook they can’t. Skipped the smugglers in Tier I? The early winter is worse in Tier II. Spurned the dragons in Tier III? They sell the party’s dominion’s location to Thyatis in Tier IV. The spine is a single plot; the clocks are how it breathes.