Way Of The Wicked: The Nessian Knot

“This Jury of the people of Talingarde finds you Guilty!” Proclaims the Judge, the hairs on his ridiculous wig jiggling kept in place just barely by the contemptible mock crown the judges of this “Fair and noble” country wear in Obedience to Mitra. The so called “Shining lord” god of the sun, bravery, honor, justice, charity and other such pusillanimous rubbish. The judge's hammer slams loudly down onto his desk startling you back awake as you squint up at him with a hateful glare, the light from the court house’s windows reflecting off the Large Mitran sunburst hanging above the judge straight into your eyes.
“In account of the Evidence presented before the court and jury on this most glorious Sunday. And in the witness of not only the court and jury but also our Shining Lord do I Pronounce you Guilty! The crimes you have commited are heinous and unforgivable! So it is now I pronounce you Forsaken an enemy of the good people of Talingarde and their one true lord. There is only one punishment worthy of the Forsaken and it is the highest within my authority to bestow, To Brandascar! to see justice done, and see it done right soon. I Pronounce upon you the Death Sentence!”
The hammer slams down sealing your fate, the jury gasps as the sentence is handed out it is what was expected but nevertheless it is rare event indeed that any Citizen of Talingarde is sent to Brandascar.. You are led away unable to do much aside from spit and snarl, bound as you are in your heavy chains like a caged animal.

You are Guilty, a Lawbreaker the worst of the worse. Too dangerous to live amongst the good people of Talingarde, they dragged you in chains before a magistrate and condemned you. They sent you to the worst prison in the land and there they forever marked you. They held you down and branded you with a runic F. You are forsaken. You won’t be at Branderscar Prison for long. Branderscar is only a holding pen. In three days – justice comes. In three days – everything ends. What a pity. If only there was a way out of this stinking rat-hole. If only there was a way to escape. If only… No. No one has ever escaped from Branderscar Prison. This is where your story ends.

The Game:

And that is how you will start your path on the “Way of the Wicked” a unique adventure path for Villains. You’ve saved the world plenty of times by now why not be Villainous for once? Why not walk the “Way of the Wicked.”
In this game you’ll be playing Villains looking to take down the “Oppressive” Goody two shoes Mitrans and their Puppets House Darius, Talingarde is a country full of “Good Guys” Fools! Your going to burn down Talingarde’s current Monarchy and Impose a new order on the people of Talingarde. This is an Evil campaign where Evil has lost but hasn’t been completely stamped out. The PCs have the opportunity to rise up and become the Villians that changed the history of Talingarde..The pc’s will join up with an Evil Organisation and as the campaign progresses will get the option to make their own Villainous Organisations to forward their own ambitions and plots.

“Way of the Wicked” is a chance to play an unusual sort of character. You will play a burgeoning dark lord -- someone who will rise from imprisonment and destitution to become one of the greatest villains of this age. At first, you will be a minion in service to a sinister plot. But eventually, you will be a minion no longer. You, if you can survive, will become the master.

What you can expect / What you get for Playing/Paying:

• A Campaign of Villainy and plotting, Where the Pcs go from mere minions to dangerous Villains in their own right. The campaign is not Sandboxy but does open up a little in the later levels. The players are challenged to come up with cunning solutions to the missions they are given.
• I’ll do my best to weave in player backstory elements, and add in customised elements that fit into the campaign to not only link into player backstories but provide our villains with fun opportunities for Wickedness and plotting. In short while I am using a Written Adventure path I do plan on including customised elements to fit our villains.
• Some homebrew rulings to make the game move smoother and to make our players feel more badass. In particular a homebrew version of Hero points made for this campaign by myself and players from another game of this very campaign. It is called “Villany Points” and gives the players a resource that they can gain and use to be villainous badasses.
• All the Benefits of a Pro Subscription, Dynamic lighting (On maps that aren’t too laggy.. There are some big maps in the Adventure path) and atmospheric music (Curated by me for specific scenes) through a discord bot.
• Pretty maps, some custom made by me for the campaign. Although theatre of the mind is used when appropriate.
• 3-4 hour (mostly depending on a good stopping point) Sessions of Villany! With a short 5 minute break, 30 minutes of session time is set aside for talking and ice breaking.
• GM Support should you need any help! I am almost always contactable on discord and I'll do my very best to accommodate your needs!

General Rules:

• No racism, sexism, homophobia and verbally attacking other players. One strike and thats it I’m pretty unforgiving when it comes to that stuff.
• Respect your other players! This goes for in and out of the game everyone’s here to have fun and in game You might be evil, but your evil to everyone but your allies.
• This ties into Respect your other players. But as this is a Villians game it can take darker turns. For this reason try to keep it to PG-13 Villany, I don’t need to hear how you in detail torture someone (Instead think Darth Vader and Princess Leia on the star destroyer in a New Hope.) This is more of a group rule than anything and I’m sure as we play together everyone to get a better idea of whats acceptable and whats not.
• Try your best to be punctual everyone’s agreed to have a game at the same time. If your unable to attend, please do your best to let the group and more importantly me know at least 24hrs before. If there aren’t enough players to run I’ll postpone the game until next week (with no charge obviously.)
• You must have a Stable internet and a Decent Microphone as we will be using for Discord for voice. And for communications in and out of character.
• You must be over the Age of 18.
• If there any issues, criticism or questions please do dm me! I want everyone to have the best experience possible so if there is a problem please let me know! If you have any ideas also send them my way especially if its something that you’d like to see in the campaign that you think I might’ve missed.

What I am looking for from my players:

• Both new and Experienced players are welcome.
• Players that enjoy combat will find plenty of enjoyment after all you are a Villain in a world of so called “Heroes”, players who are more roleplay focused will certainly be entertained by the campaign as a whole and my own Gming Style. If you are to survive you must be smart and cunning. At Least initially.
• Players who Make thematically appropriate characters and will have great time being Villains.
• I am not looking for players who Min/Max their characters or Lawyer the rules to their advantage. Its a cooperative adventure, not that-one-guy Scares the paladin who’s immune to fear out of town and takes on the whole Talingarde army by themselves - the adventure.
• Players that will work with their Allies, The adventure will end very very poorly indeed if you lone-wolf it. There are adventure paths for chaotic vagabonds “Who always work alone”, this isn’t one of them. We want Cunning and Devious villains that are organised and work as a team.

About me and my style of Dming:

Hello! My name is Martyn and I’ve been a fan of TTRPGs ever since I was introduced to them in University. Now I’m hooked, I’ve been playing them for 6 years and dming for 5 years, my games tend to be fairly roleplay heavy however that said I do have a love for combat and mechanics. While I do know most of the pathfinder rules sometimes they are a little dull and mechanically complicated to run and incorporate. To this end, I do run my games with “Rule of Cool” while doing my best to preserve mechanical balance (To this end Villainy points is one of the ways I give some control to the players so they can do cool narratively driven stuff both in and out of combat.) If there is a confusion on a ruling I will generally ask for the players opinions on how it should work, make a ruling and then move on. We can check it out after the game.

I will happily listen to criticism and feedback and will do my best to improve for the next time. I am not a voice actor but do some light theatrics in the way my characters sound and the way they talk. However I’m not the best at it, but I’ll try my best to portray the many interesting characters the pcs will come across!

I have both played and ran Book one of this campaign before so I know it pretty well, I am also running Book 3 with another group that are having a lot of fun with it so far. I have read all of the books so I do know the adventure path fairly well. I will look to use that knowledge to make the game run smoother and be more vibrant.

Payment Information:

I will be taking payment through paypal at least 24hrs after each session. If you aren’t satisfied with a session you don’t need to pay but you will not be allowed to continue to play. It goes without saying that hopefully we would be able to talk to each other before it came to that.
For this reason the first session isn't Free, but you're under no obligation to pay if you don't wish to continue.