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It's Good To Be Evil

A Pathfinder 2e game In the world of Uskara (Sixth World)
February 27, 2023 | Full
In the lands of Talingarde, only the most heinous crimes may send you to Branderscar Prison, but the sentence has but one meaning: You are wicked and irredeemable, someone that even a society that believes deeply in redemption, charity, and second chances cannot allow to be free. Each of you received the same greeting when you arrived. You were held down by rough hands and branded upon the arm with a runic F. The mark signifies ‘forsaken’ and the painful scar is indelible proof that each of you has betrayed the great and eternal love of Mitra and Their chosen mortal vassals.   You never really felt Their love before this, but it still stung a bit.   Condemned, you face at best a life of shackles and servitude in the nearby salt mines. Others might await the “gentle” ministrations of the inquisitors so that co-conspirators may be revealed and confessions extracted. Perhaps, some of you will be spared this ordeal. Perhaps instead you have come to Branderscar to face the final judgment. In three days, the executioner arrives and the axe falls, the pyre will be lit, or the noose tightened.   Through fire, rope or steel, your crimes will be answered.   For years it was known that none who were taken to Branderscar would ever escape, and yet the lax accommodations and guard only cause your blood to boil all the more. You are given a comfortable bed, and the light of the sun wakes you each morning through a stone slit. You are given fresh water and hot meals, while the guards drink from horns of wine and jest with each other about their lives openly, fearing you not. A cleric of the Morninglord comes at every sunset to ask if you repent, and is always sad and disappointed at the result. There is nothing worse than facing death amid such brazenly stupid jailers as these.   Yet none of your individual cunning is enough to make your escape on your own. You have all been well searched and every attempt to conceal anything on your person has failed. And if you could somehow slip your bonds and fly out of this prison, where would you go? Who from your former life would want anything to do with the forsaken? Despised, alone and shackled – all that you can do now is await your doom.   For each of you, your old life is over. For each of you, hope is a fading memory. For each of you, justice will be fairly meted. And who can blame fair Talingarde after what each of you has done?   If you don't want to burn it all down yet, you might not be up for this adventure.   It's Good to Be Evil is a Pathfinder 2e campaign, based on the Pathfinder adventure path "Way of the Wicked" by Fire Mountain Games, but with a fair amount of editing so that someone who has read it won't expect much more than the basic outline, and a bit of a twist in theme. I would like to approach the game far less self-serious in its portrayal of evil, hearkening back to works like Dungeon Keeper in their darkly comedic take on evil, though still not pulling any punches.   Let's not mince words: In this game you are playing a dyed-in-the-wool villain. You may have a semi-tragic backstory, some cobbled together justifications, or a fanatical belief in some delusion, but ultimately you are defined by selfish glee and a destructive bucking of the system. We're not talking about the performative costumed villainy of superhero comics either. This is more of the raze-the-town, oil-up-the-rack, kidnap-the-princess kind of villainy. That said, we want to keep it tasteful, with the best example given in Way of the Wicked being the way torture was handled between Darth Vader and Princess Leia as being off-screen but impactful.   This should be a game where you feel free to go out of your way to conquer, steal, and corrupt those around you, but Way of the Wicked is well-constructed to provide a backbone of motivation for the players. It will center around a conspiracy to restore the worship of the archdevil Asmodeus to the peaceful land of Talingarde, and unify its six Good kingdoms into a unified dominion of Evil.

This story is told by

Supporting Cast
  • Princess Annuska Darian
    The mysterious daughter of King Markadian V whose unknown parentage was quite the scandal. Kept isolated within her Maiden's Tower in Auld Sarum and kept away from the rest of the world for reasons unknown.
  • Serjeant Beppo Blackbriar
    The venal and and vain turnkey of Branderscar Prison, a Laithish knight with a notable military career behind him but is a soldier in a time without need for them. Takes advantage of his position when the Lord Warden Mortigern is away to visit his frustrations upon his prisoners, being that most would think little of it. He was the one who personally held the Brand that marked each of the Nessian Coda.
  • Minister Cabiria Eherron
    Formerly an Inquisitor stationed in Volturnos, she was Tenuis's superior for the majority of his career. A woman like him driven to study of forbidden subjects, she comes from Ninevarine nobility, and when the scandal of Tenuis's diabolism ended her career with the Inquisition, she found a place in the Ministry Evangelian.
  • Chargammon
    One of the great wyrms of Talingarde, a blue dragon who has seeded her cult and blood across the continent for millenia in preparation for her schemes, only to have one of her descendants to change everything.
  • Sir Delen
    Sir Delen Witchfinder is a living legend, a venerable mainstay of the Sphinx Lodge and one of the most famous Inquisitors, feared by Evil everywhere. While the time of burning heretics at the stake and dragging hedge wizards out in the street to be put to the sword are long over, Sir Delen still embodies a bit of that old form of the Axiomatic Faith, with only his unerring judgment and remarkable ability to sniff out evil keeping him in the good graces of the more forgiving modern church. He also personally saw to the capture of two of the Nessian Coda.
  • Elishat Licinia Barca
    The scheming last wife of the late Nikare, the former famulus of Clan Khazakver, associated with the Omthel dwarven crime cartels. A Quintoro noble of the dishonored House Barca, with the blood of emperors in her veins, this quickling had no desire to die before seeing her ambition done, though now that her daughter is proclaimed the Devil Godmother, she is isolated even further from polite society.
  • Count Fuizt of Volturnos
    The Count of Volturnos is a dashing, cavalier figure that combines the rough culture of the Cinder Tables, the forward-thinking (and gunslinging) of the Guranese League, and his own upbringing in Rusante as a hostage of another noble house. A harfoot of no small reputation, he is musketeer, barrister, swashbuckler and spymaster, and Good King Markadian's left hand. He was also a courtroom nemesis of the Contracts Ogre, and was instrumental to his sentencing.
  • Halstan
    A callow lad and one of the Lord Warden's two apprentices, charged with helping keep the wards active in his absence. Of the two, Halstan is easily dominated by Simulba, having a gentle nature but also a natural talent for magic.
  • Brother Irmin Tul
    A firbolg dwarf and friar of a strange mendicant order of St. Voden, which indulges in sin so that they might better understand it. Mainly, that means drinking and whoring, and Brother Irmin was fond of both, yet his heart is truly Good. It was he who led young Tenuis out of his misty backwater to the Church, and attempted to vouch for his soul at trial but was disallowed. Has a peculiar relationship with the Inquisition.
  • High King Markadian V
    King Markadian V is of the House of Darian, which restored order after the catastrophic War of Five Towers that nearly destroyed the Holy Lawful Empire. He has reigned for nearly two decades, and with elvish blood he is expected to reign for many more years yet. Good King Markadian is known as judicious, kind, and brave, but also secretive and somewhat distant from the people, and unlike his beloved predecessors he is loyally served but perhaps not deeply loved.
  • Artifix Metaslyga V
    The current Artifix of the Axiomatic Church, very recently appointed by conclave by the High Synod when the previous Artifix, Seropaenes II, was assassinated by agents of the Rosy Compass. Formerly the Cardinal of Agurain who was known for a hardline stance against reformers, her being a dwarf was a cause of scandal since the Devil Godmother's involvement with the assassination was revealed.
  • Lord Warden Mortigern
    A wizard of some renown and power, a specialist in the school of abjuration. It is thought by many his assignment as Lord Warden of Branderscar was a punishment, as he was previously the court wizard of the Earl of Myrrick but was dismissed rather suddenly, but in the last decade he has made many improvements and seems to be devoted to his task, taking pride in the work. However, he is a famously poor judge of character, considering who he left behind in charge.
  • Orna Navratil
    A truly Good soul, who was responsible for the capture of two of our dastardly villains. A vestal warrior of the church militant, and champion of St. Idrian. A veela with a distinct Brecilien accent who wears a habit that covers some of her features, yet is fair all the same.
  • Rosaniya of House Caphaxath
    A meek and passive elf of a cadet branch of House Caphaxath that was both cousin and handmaiden to Lady Yrthaea, who was her little minion for many years. She was always a true believer in the cult and the Architect, and she practically worshiped Yrthaea. Unlike Thea's parents, she did not kill herself to avoid capture, but neither did she escape, leaving her fate unknown.
  • Simulba Ghilcante
    A veela from Rusante and a noble no less, who entered the academy at Styrmonium somewhat late and is now apprentice to Mortigern. A far more imposing (and cruel) personality than Halstan, she dominates her more talented peer socially, and like Serjeant Blackbriar, takes opportunities to take out her petty frustrations on the prisoners.
Timelines

Scheduled Sessions

Mon 3rd April 2023 18:00

Book I: Session 1, or "The Gang Breaks Out of Branderscar"

Five truly wicked prisoners are brought together by what appears at first to be circumstance and quickly reveals itself to be designed. With a single boon, an opportunity to escape is presented to them. They have three days before they meet their ordained fate. Can they escape the clutches of the jeering Serjeant Blackbriar and pursue the lead of their mysterious benefactor?


The Protagonists

Armend Kullmart

Yrthaea Vorastrix

Champion Of Lies Tenuis Teveroa

Level .
Health
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Cathbad

Hespera of Clan Khazakver