In Midpoint, I said that you didn't need to know where this scene is taking place. The important thing is that it does take place, so you need to plan for it.
That's not the case this time. You absolutely do need to know where this scene is taking place. You can give yourself more than one option, if the plot demands it, but you need to know all your options. This is the Big Reveal; this, more than anything else in the game, is Rome.
That means you need to be as true to the concept, and Rome, as you possibly can in the End. If this is an Arabesque Bookhounds game, it needs to be as Arabesque as possible. If Rome is Cthugha, you need to emphasize Cthugha as much as possible. Theoretically, if this is the End not just of the scenario but also the campaign, you need to have Rome appear in the final scene. In this example, that could mean burning London to a crisp as the Witch-Cult's schemes finally come to fruition. Or it could mean the characters bearding the remains of the Cult in its den and squashing their plot once and for all.
Which brings me to the first important point: you need at least two Ends. One for if the characters succeed, and one for if they fail. That means you need a clear idea of what success and failure looks like, in context.
OK, so we already know from the Opening that there's a Hound-Lich menacing the population and that the Witch-Cult is after the Religio Medici because it thinks there's information in it that can be used to create one of their Books of Shadow. Failure for the characters means success for the enemy, so in this instance failure means the Hound-Lich gets what it wants and the Cult gets what it wants. Success means either the Lich or the Cult are thwarted - preferably both, but sometimes you just can't have everything.
Given that the Hound-Lich's tomb-lair is in Kingshill, it follows that a good End scene for the Lich would be in that tomb-lair. The Witch-Cult is represented by Alexis Waddell (and opposed by Jane Russell and Wilson Davies-Gore, aka the Baron of Blackheath) so it follows that a good End scene for Waddell would be in his house, or his magical sanctum where he carries out ritual magic. Theoretically the End scene could be in any number of places up to and including London Bridge Tube Station (because few things are more thrilling than a speeding train bearing down on someone) but you want this to be as Rome as possible, and what could be more Rome than a facedown with the main opposition in their place of power?
Look at it this way. Pretend this is Shakespeare, and you're putting on Julius Caesar. In that play, Caesar gets stabbed. That stabbing could happen anywhere up to and including the public lavatory. It's a stage play; you set the stage. But it's more impressive, more impactful, if it happens at the Forum, the legal and spiritual heart of Rome.
Frankly, it didn't matter to Shakespeare whether the real-life Caesar died in that way and in that place; Shakespeare knew good drama when he saw it. The same principles apply to your End scene.
So: you need an End scene in Kingshill graveyard, and an End scene in Waddell's home/magical sanctum. That's what happens if the Hounds win.
What if they lose?
Well, in that case the End scene is in their place of power - the shop. The shop's fortunes were at risk, and now you know the scale of damage done. Note that the End doesn't have to mean character death. Damage, yes, probably both financial and social. But if the enemy has what it wants and has retreated to its corner, there's no need for a big fight scene when a moment of existential angst will do just fine.
Three Ends, this time, not Two.
I mentioned damages. This is the kind of thing you want to specify in advance. It's Cthulhu tradition to have that block of text at the conclusion of the scenario that specifies what everyone gets. Such-and-such Stability reward if such-and-such happens, or a Windfall or Reversal for the shop depending on X, that kind of thing. This can be handled in an Epilogue rather than the End scene, if you like.
Do all three Ends have to happen in different locations?
No. They have to happen in thematically appropriate locations. That thematically appropriate location can be the same place for all, if it fits the narrative.
Take the Many Deaths Of Edward Bigsby. I had a lot of fun with that one. There are quite a few moving parts. Without wishing to spoil, the characters wander through Soho looking for X, and if along the way they happen to complete a number of subobjectives then their odds of survival in the End scene are greatly improved. If, on the other hand, they did not complete those subobjectives, then a Terrible Entity is present in the scene.
Oops.
Point being, the number of subobjectives, the location of those subobjectives, did not affect the goals of the OPFOR. Those remained the same, which meant that the End scene could take place in one location as it fit the narrative demands of those satisfied goals.
However, in Buyer's Remorse you have two very different opposing factions with very different goals. It makes sense for there to be a separate End scene for each.
Finally: this is your Reichenbach Falls moment. It ought to be impressive.
It is, indeed, a fearful place. The torrent, swollen by the melting snow, plunges into a tremendous abyss, from which the spray rolls up like the smoke from a burning house. The shaft into which the river hurls itself is an immense chasm, lined by glistening coal-black rock, and narrowing into a screaming, boiling pit of incalculable depth, which brims over and shoots the stream onward over its jagged lip. The long sweep of green water roaring forever down, and the thick flickering curtain of spray hissing forever upward, turn a man giddy with their constant whirl and clamor. We stood near the edge peering down at the gleam of the breaking water far below us against the black rocks, and listening to the half-human shout which came booming up with the spray out of the abyss. Doyle, The Final Problem
But! Do you have to play out every single moment? Do the players have to see everything?
Not necessarily. Remember, in the Final Problem you, the reader, never see that confrontation between titans on the waterfall's lip. The reader knows it happened because Watson sees the end result and infers the confrontation. But we never see the struggle, or that plunge into the waterfall's depths.
Let's say for the sake of discussion that the Hounds beat the Hound-Lich and there's an exciting climax scene at Kingshill but, for whatever reason, a climax scene with Waddell is inappropriate. Maybe the Hounds don't have enough on Waddell to force a victory, or maybe after the fight with the Hound-Lich they haven't got the stuffing for another armed confrontation.
It would be perfectly appropriate in that case for them to find, when they come to deal with Waddell, that he's no longer there. The place is cleared out. The remains of the ritual circle hint at what he was up to, but the man himself is long gone.
The same applies if they beat Waddell but find they can't deal with the Hound-Lich. The tomb is empty. Perhaps the malign force is still present, costing Stability and perhaps even Sanity depending on what's there, but the Hound-Lich itself is gone.
Or: the Hound-Lich marked one or more characters for death in the Midpoint, and by the endgame those characters haven't thought of a way to deal with it. If the players are willing, it could be interesting to have them narrate the final moments of their lives. That frozen second when they came face-to-face with the abyss. Remember, this is a player-facing game. What better way to have it end, at least for those characters, by having them tell the others how it came to pass?
It could even be a setup for a Reichenbach Falls moment. After all, Holmes did return from the Falls. Perhaps the characters do as well. No doubt irrevocably changed by their experiences, perhaps with hidden scars mental or physical (or both) - but they might return ...
This is a three-part series and in the first part I discussed the Opening Scene: what makes it work, and what you'd need to have on hand to run one.
This time I'm going to discuss the Midpoint. What can the players expect? What should you prepare for?
The Midpoint is usually a Core scene. What that means is, no matter how they get there, the players eventually get there. They may not get there in one piece, or with all their brain cells intact. But they will get there.
What will they find, when they do?
Before I delve deeply into that Mine of Moria, let's take a step back and talk about the opposing forces. The enemy. The villains.
When discussing this before I drew your attention to the villain's trifecta. They have:
Power appropriate to their function.
Goals, which may be personal or professional.
Assets, which they use to reach their Goals.
They are active participants in the narrative, working towards a Goal, deploying assets to achieve those Goals, and using their Power to do that.
This means that, in each previous scene, they will have been making their mark. If their Power involves killing, then people (preferably NPCs) are dead by now. If their Power involves stealing things, then something's been stolen or at least there's been a serious attempt to steal things by now. If their Assets include bribed cops, then those cops have been deployed and probably been encountered in a previous scene.
If we were talking about the monomyth or Campbell's Hero's Journey, this is where the Trial happens. The Initiation.
I'm not going to go that far, but I will say that, by the midpoint, the characters ought to have a clear idea of the Powers and Assets arrayed against them and have some notion of the Goal. That doesn't mean the characters are right. Twist endings exist for a reason.
Robot Chicken
It does mean that the Hounds ought to think they know what's going on, whether or not they actually do.
That's not all they should know. Let's say for the sake of this post that you have some greater conspiracy in mind, some mover and shaker behind the scenes that will be the main big bad in the campaign as a whole. Bookhounds has several options.
Let's say that the Big Bad this time around is a Witch-Cult with connections to an older tradition that venerates Cthugha. They're collecting Books of Shadows - handwritten magical grimoires - and they believe that the annotated Religio Medici was owned by someone who knew of their work (Doctor Hargrove) who was in turn following in the footsteps of his antiquarian ancestor, the one who built the tomb in which the Tomb-Hound now lurks. For that reason, the Witch-Cult wants the Religio Medici.
By the end of the Midpoint the characters ought to have picked up some indications that the Big Bad exists. They may have met some of their minions, or been attacked by them, or found some clue as to their intentions. Perhaps book scout Samuel Penman spilled some tea. Perhaps the cult has sent some agents of their own into the fray.
It might be anything, but the larger point is this: the Big Bad has powers, assets and goals just like all the other OPFOR, and by the end of the Midpoint the players should have some indication as to one of those things. They should have picked up clues that allow them to guess at the powers, assets or goals of the Big Bad. Ideally the goals, since this may motivate the characters in a way that other information wouldn't. If the Hounds know, for instance, that the Cult intends to start another Great Fire of London as part of their scheme then the Hounds may be motivated to prevent it, lest they become charcoal briquettes. Still, the Cult is offering a lot of money ...
Do you need to know where this scene is taking place?
No, not necessarily. You want a degree of flexibility here, because the Hounds may go a completely different way to the one you planned out. You know, because you wrote this thing, that there are several different potential locations mentioned in the script, but the Hounds didn’t read your script. This isn’t a Baldur’s Gate situation where the programmers can specify exactly when and where, say, Raphael appears.
All you know for certain is the when, not the where.
You know the when because you specified the triggers for when this will happen. The vital clue, the event, the whatever-it-may-be.
It’s a basic if-then. If they meet all the conditions, then …
Now, there will be times when you do know the where because the trigger is linked to the where. If the trigger is linked to a particular auction taking place at a particular auction house, then you do need to know about that auction house. However, you could as easily have the trigger be something that isn’t linked to the where. The auction doesn’t have to happen at that particular auction house; it could happen anywhere, and if the players have reasons of their own for it to happen at such-and-such a place, (and points to spend to make that happen), let them. This is a player-facing game. Anything that brings the players into the decision-making process is to be encouraged.
No, the only thing you absolutely have to know is the trigger. That ‘black ash of a Trichinopoly’ moment where suspicion becomes certainty. That’s the moment when the players have all they need to go on to the next beat in the narrative.
The sentence I use in situations like these is a simple reminder: ‘By this point in the narrative the players should have … [whatever it may be].’
What next?
When in doubt, have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand – or, since this is Bookhounds, a grimoire.
By which I mean:
Keep the specifics of the scene concentrated on action.
Remind the players what’s at stake.
Give them a clear idea of what will happen next if they don’t intervene.
OK, all that said:
Buyer's Remorse - Midpoint
By this point in the narrative the Hounds should either have the copy of Religio Medici or know who has it. They should know that Crowley's former student at the Abbey of Thelema, Jane Russell, wants the Religio Medici but hasn't the money to pay for it, and that book scout Samuel Penman is devoted to Russell. They should also have had an offer for the book from collector Alexis Waddell. They may or may not not know that Waddell represents the Witch Cult. They may or may not have the peculiar amulet found in the Orientalist mausoleum at Kingshill, but if they didn't get it then Penman did.
This scene may take place at the Hounds' shop but can take place anywhere.
Either the Hounds have the amulet or Penman does.
If Penman does, then he has an imperfect idea of what entity is linked to the amulet; he's had some bad experiences that nearly cost him his life, but he doesn't know the true nature of the amulet. He went to Russell for help, but she cast him out, fearful of what was following him. Penman decided to seek out the only other people he knows who might help: the Hounds.
If the Hounds have the amulet, then the following omens will take place before the midpoint scene:
a man is brutally murdered close to the Hounds' shop, at night. It's up to the players/Keeper whether any Hounds were at the shop when this happens. The victim is either Penman or Rough Lad Mickey MacFarlane, whichever is more convenient for plot purposes.
The dead man was casing the shop for a burglary and had burglary tools on them when they were torn apart.
The dead man was violently butchered, as if by a wild animal, but whatever it was didn't eat the dead man's flesh. Why not?
It must have taken seconds; the dead man didn't even have time to cry out, and though there are some minor defensive wounds it's clear the dead man didn't have time to put up more than a token effort before dying.
A witness - a reeling drunkard - says the attacker was 'a giant dog-bat! bat-dog! well, it flew on bat wings!'
All the reflective surfaces in the shop went dark one day and stayed dark for an hour. After the hour passed - right to the second - they cleared again. Occult 1 point: a powerful supernatural entity must have been near. The effect centered on that peculiar amulet.
The scene begins either when Penman approaches the Hounds or after the Hounds experience the omens.
The Hound-Lich manifests and attempts to retrieve its amulet.
The first sign of its approach is that all reflective surfaces within a 5-meter area of the amulet go dark. This happens 2 rounds before the Hound manifests, and a 0-point Mythos or a Difficulty 4 Sense Trouble realizes what's about to happen.
A 1-point Mythos allows the Hound to improvise a magical barrier that is not permanent but will last for long enough for the Hounds to protect themselves during this scene, so long as they don't step outside the magical circle. This is a Magick roll of 10+, and can be boosted through Cooperation, Megapolisomancy, or spending Sanity.on a 1 for 1 basis. Any Sanity spent is gone forever.
The Hound-Lich manifestation is a 5-point Stability for anyone near, and if there is protection up and the main caster goes temporarily insane as a result of this test, then the protection barrier immediately fails. If there is a secondary caster available that caster can try to reestablish the barrier before the Hound attacks; the test is 10+, as before.
Other options include Fleeing with the amulet. Successful Fleeing for 3 rounds after the Hound manifests causes it to demanifest.
If this scene happens at the shop, then there are customers at the shop and unless the Hounds can come up with a play that prevents it, the Hound-Lich will kill at least one customer in the action round it manifests. This prevents it attacking a player character in the opening round but causes a Reversal for the shop, as the surviving customers spread all kinds of lurid rumors, some of which actually resemble the truth - for once.
If the players come up with a different idea play it out, on the understanding that after 3 rounds the Hound-Lich will demanifest if it has not achieved its objective.
Descriptors:
a malevolent cloud of inky blackness that absorbs - devours? - anything it touches
a wolf-pack howling
whispers of arcane knowledge that seem to embed themselves in your flesh, leaving bruises behind that never entirely fade
jaws with a thousand thousand teeth, a shark's grimace
empty, passionless doll's eyes
a hound's lean body, the essence of hunger that can never be sated
an unmarked corpse, its flesh withered but undamaged
If the Hound-Lich gets close enough to the amulet to retrieve it, it will, and will take that amulet back to its tomb in Kingshill. It will also mark one or more of the people present in this scene for future torment. If the Religio Medici is present in the scene it will take that as well, but the amulet is its main objective.
If it does not get the amulet within 3 turns of manifesting it lets out a soul-chilling scream (3 point Stability) and demanifests. On demanifestation it returns to its tomb in Kingshill.
After this moment the following Clues are available:
0 point Occult: this was a powerful demonic attack from the Beyond, and will have left psychic residue behind,
1-point: that residue can be used to trace the entity back to wherever its lair is.
0 point Archaeology: some of the manifestation's characteristics remind you of archetypes seen in ancient artefacts and Eastern mythological accounts.
1-point Archaeology: allows you to create a Contact at the British Museum who knows all about this sort of thing and may have useful advice.
0-point The Knowledge: you've seen signs all over London - architectural fol-de-rols, old gargoyles on churches and similar - very like this entity. How long has it, or its kind, been haunting London?
1-point The Knowledge: you can spend a night and a day tracing these symbols and gain 1 potential point Megapolisomancy - or, if not using Megapolisomancy in the game, then Magick.
0-point Craft: the contours of that peculiar amulet are burned into your brain and cannot be forgotten. Perhaps it was those whispers of arcane knowledge, but for whatever reason you will never be able to forget that amulet as long as you live.
1-point Craft: you can fake a copy of that amulet. Probably not well enough to fool the Hound-Lich, but humans will not be able to tell the difference.
The following Core clues will also become available:
After the manifestation collector Alexis Waddell redoubles his efforts to obtain the Religio Medici. Price was no object before; now, lives are nothing to him so long as he gets what he wants. That may mean sending hired thugs after whoever has it, and he won't believe the Bookhounds have lost it unless his thugs turn over the shop first. See further A Collector Scorned.
After the manifestation occultist Jane Russell redoubles her efforts to get the Religio Medici and the amulet, using Megapolisomancy to do it. The Bookhounds will encounter her psychic projections in future scenes. See further Tantric Echoes.
After the manifestations the Bookhounds are contacted by mysterious antiquarian and book collector Wilson Davies-Gore, aka the Baron of Blackheath. He offers the Hounds a potential way out of their current dilemma - if they'll agree to his terms. See further All Saints, All Sinners.
Future Torment. If the Hound-Lich marked one of the player characters for future torment, the Hound will realize they are marked deep in their soul. If the character had no Mythos, they gain 1 Mythos. See further Damned.
That's the Midpoint. The characters have had their brush with death; now it's up to them to grasp at straws and claw their way out of death's embrace. Hopefully making a profit along the way ...
Here, in the heart of the forest, the character embraces their new self. Knowledge is gained which can never be lost; where they have sought, here they find, and they can never go back. John Yorke, Into the Woods
I've talked a lot about campaign design. Core Concept Trees bear Core Concept Fruit, Where To Begin, the Arc. Now I want to talk about what happens midway through the campaign - or the one-shot.
The Midway point. Conflict and Drama.
Oedipus Rex, Chorus
As Director you should have a midway point in view, but may not know how to get there. This is because your players drive the narrative, and players have a tendency to go chasing moonbeams as it suits them.
That said, as Director you already know that all this shooty bang-bang is going somewhere. Stanley David Fentiman's treachery is revealed. Bankhaus Klingemann's scandals come to light. Grand schemes are seen in all their malevolent glory - and the time has come to put an end to them.
So you know what the Middle looks like, even if you're not certain how to get there.
I'm going to suggest to you that the Middle is where you resolve plot, and establish new plot. It's also where the main direction of the narrative is established, and the characters progress from this point forward knowing what that direction is - whether or not they follow it themselves.
Let's say this is a Night's Black Agents game and the agents have been following the activities of the Conspiracy, and by extension Bankhaus Klingemann, throughout the plot to date. The agents have chased up some plot threads and have a vague idea of what's going on, but don't know what the end game is. Hints have dropped, and there have been some red herrings. The overall vision is still fuzzy.
The Midpoint does several things:
It clarifies the plot stream. From this point forward there's no question what the enemy wants to achieve, and probably no question about how they want to achieve it.
It resolves some or all of the outstanding character threads. Say the Bang-and-Burner has wanted to know what happened to her son from session one. Well, now she does - and it probably isn't good news. From this point forward, her goal is probably Revenge. In any case, whatever it is her new goal arises from the resolution of that plot thread.
It resolves the Bankhaus Klingemann narrative, whatever it may have been. Its assets are scattered, its main actors dead, imprisoned or otherwise neutralized. One or two survivors might lurk in the shadows to strike back at a later date, but the main threat is dealt with.
Why do all this, you may ask. You do this because the Midpoint is also a Mini-Conclusion.
It resolves minor narrative threads, so they don't get in the way of the main narrative.
It establishes the main narrative. If there was doubt before, now there is none.
It gives the characters a little hit of victory, providing them with the energy they need to go on.
So now the agents know that all those diamonds they've been chasing are going to be used to make a deadly space laser, which the Conspiracy will use to blackmail the governments of the world. Or that the unusual secret government manufacturing facilities are actually being used to manufacture food for aliens. The question is, how do they stop it?
Quatermass 2, Hammer Horror
Bankhaus Klingemann or its equivalent has to go, because it's exhausted its role in the narrative. It was financing peculiar research laboratories all over Europe. Now the focus has to switch to those research laboratories, and by extension the main plot of the narrative.
After all, Bankhaus Klingemann isn't the main event. The main event is the top tier of the Pyramid, the Vampires themselves. They're what's hiding behind all this smoke & mirrors, and they're who the agents have to ultimately defeat. Their big plan is what the agents have to stop. If their big plan is to grow devil plants, then finding those plants and destroying them is the focus of the final chapters.
Defeating Bankhaus Klingemann sets the stage for the main event, whatever that may be. That doesn't mean it's gone for good. Crazy Uncle Albert might have survived the wreckage and now plots his revenge from some bunker in Switzerland, surrounded by zombie Lisle-a-likes. That could make a fun session, or perhaps just an action scene in the middle of a session. But the whole of the plot doesn't have to be about Uncle Albert.
How do you, as Director, know when the agents are approaching the Midpoint? After all, this is meant to be a player-facing, free-floating narrative.
Well, apart from anything else you know the Midpoint approaches when it's clear the agents have gone about as far as they can with the opening chapters. They know what Lisle wants. They've foiled her plans a time or two. They've all but destroyed Bankhaus Klingemann as a financial institution, and sown the ground with salty social media posts. Stick a fork in it; it's done.
Remember, Bankhaus Klingemann was only ever intended as an insertion point. It was the first thing the agents encountered. The next few sessions were probably about exploring the Klingemann narrative, identifying the main actors (Lisle and Albert), probably getting into a few gunfights or Thrilling scenes - meat and potatoes.
But there's only so far you can go.
World of Warcraft, which I played to death back in vanilla, has many faults but also many strengths, or it would never have lasted as long as it has. One of those strengths is its willingness to push the narrative forward, through quest completion. At the start it's all 'find me six wolf tails' or whatever it may be, but as you progress you become wrapped up in intrigue. What happened to the Angamand family? What's going on in the Scarlet Monastery?
Then you find yourself pushed into other zones - the Silverpine Forest, say - looking for answers, only to discover that those zones have things for you to do so you get wrapped up in its drama. Then someone asks you to take a message to Ogrimmar ...
The game knows that there's only so much you can do in the starting zone. It might lure you back there now and again for big events, but that's just a fleeting visit. Eventually you'll have to leave that zone if you want to progress the narrative, and the game gently pushes you out there.
Once the players find out what happened to the Angamands, what's going on at the Monastery, and have explored those threads as far as they can go, you - as Director - establish new threads.
