Slay the Hawker (PDF)
$9.99

Whilst fat barons to the north shore up wealth in the desolate hills, on the coast of the Seven Seas the ageing mar-grave of Sladestein struggles to protect the nuns at Caddbury from the Dark Ones’ cunning stratagems.

But one man still believes chivalry is not dead. Falken, the younger son of Lord Slade, last in line of the ancient paladins, is a precocious hawker joined by comrades from the ends of the earth – Bildrat the Dwarf, Errol the Elf, Porto the Giant, Morgun the man-at-arms, and Magenta the Witch – likewise the last scions of their Kinds.

Your players, too, are summoned to safeguard Falken’s matrimonial union with Lady Kestrel, a comely maiden also desired by his elder brother Zarkon. Can your party prevent the realm of Rhye from collapsing into chaos?

The adventurers have one week to keep the forces of Chaos at bay so that the wedding of Sir Falken and Lady Kestrel can fulfil the Paladin prophecies. Deeds of daring may yet be done, despite the skulduggery to slay the hawker!

Welcome To The Realm Of Rhye!

In Slay the Hawker, a homage “prequel” to the cult classic, the Legions of Darkness engulf a once-chivalrous society, threatening the nuptials of Lady & Hawker.

• unique system-neutral special rules for dungeon crawls, mass combat, jousting, boar hunting, and social deductions portable to your other campaigns
• handouts for a nightmare that players describe without reading aloud to simulate recalling a dream
• an open-world, but also calendar events with deadlines: you have “turns” each day of the week to pursue hooks, or not
• a fortified Keep of knights and guests lets you experience chivalric life in a castle: banquets, madrigals, festal ceremonies, political intrigue Locations can be explored & scenes role-played in any order, affecting the “plot” as bad guys keep trying to destroy Sladestein – you choose which options to try each day.

In this innovative fantasy adventure, by Jonathan B. Himes, you’ll run your players through:

• “dungeon crawls” – characters Hunt in a thicket of disorienting boar tunnels, and creep through the Catacombs whose twisting under-crofts undergo radical alterations during the week of the Wedding
• outdoor skirmishes with mechanics that put your characters in the midst of dramatic action and help to turn the tide of battle – The Ridge overlooking Port Backwash and the Bridge to Barnaby – involving Agents of Chaos versus Lord Slade’s men-atarms
• a quixotic Jousting Tournament, with variable rules for different fantastical mounts, as part of Slade’s final gesture of chivalry to unite two noble Houses

This adventure can be run as:

• A 1-shot if you run Day 1 & 2, then skip to Day 6 with the main plot and its hooks intact (run-time about 3.5 hours)
• A campaign of multiple play sessions (about a dozen), depending on your embellishments & group preference for “crunchy” combat, extended role-playing, exploration or social interactions Quest Givers adventures use their unique dialogue & event driven narrative elements to organize your whole adventure as it plays out. Everything you need to know in the adventure is right in front of you when you need it.
• Humor, high heroics, mystery and intrigue abound, offering a wide variety of adventures
• Non-player characters are fleshed out with personality and personalised dialect – even fantasy languages and translations!
• Plenty of references, call-backs and giggle-worthy quotes from popular culture from back-in-the-day
• Innovative scene mechanics offer an intuitive approach for Game Masters to run the module with any rules system
• Events can be played in order of choice, or even bypassed, keeping inhabitants moving and plotting around you, while players retain agency
• A coherent narrative formatted like an 80s gamebook that you will enjoy discovering for yourself, making your game prep a joy rather than a chore.