And now that the story-arc has come to an end, I can post what has been happening in the campaign. I decided to adapt another classic DnD module: =18pxAgainst the Cult of the Reptile GodFor the next leg of the campaign, the PCs have been asked to accompany le Compte de la Ferr, aka Athos, who is his majesty’s ambassador, on a trip to a number of countries. This trip will function not only as official diplomatic business for the state but also as a “Grand Tour” for the NPCs Athena (Athos’ daughter and paramour of Girard) and Portia (Porthos’s daughter and paramour of Angus). My plan was to base (loosely) the various adventures that would take place over this leg of the campaign on the series “An Ambassador’s Tales” written for Flashing Blades, but in between each, I would run some other adventure as well. The first such adventure is a loose adaptation of the AD&D adventure “Against the Cult of the Reptile God”. I changed the village of Orlane to "le Ville d'Orleans", and made a number of other changes as well. Before leaving to embark on their journey, Angus was called to meet privately with Baron Porthos who wanted to make sure that Angus would “make an honest woman of her” or step aside. He offered him either a gold ring or a bag of gold coins. Angus could either take the coins so that Portia could find a suitable husband on this journey, or he could opt to become the suitable husband himself-- but he does not want his daughter’s affections to be trifled with. Angus tossed the bag of coins back to Porthos and opted to take the ring! So at some point on the journey, it seems that there might be a possible engagement. Stanislaus’ employer, Karolina has also been invited to be part of the Grand Tour (she is very good friends with Baron Porthos who has asked her to keep an eye on Portia as well) so Stanislaus has a reason to accompany the group as well in his capacity as Karolina’s b

Le Compt declared his innocence, that he was not the Hooded Man, but merely accepted the money offered by the Hooded Man and followed his instructions to use this money to acquire the position of Compt du Mornay. He swore he did not know where the gold was coming from, assuming it was related to "buying low and selling high" with the coffee caravan between Bordeaux and Paris (this was actually only used to launder the counterfeit* coins). He did not know the true identity of the Hooded Man, only that all the other men involved seemed afraid of him. 

While it was never absolutely proven who the Hooded Man was, there is one conspicuous fact. Among the people who disappeared after the sailing of the Vengeful Harpy (Saberface's ship) was included Signeur Remy du Fontaine, the bully who tried to beat Dupris with his cane after he had spilled a drink on him (which resulted in a confrontation with Alec). This happened at the same party where the Chevalier was seeking help from Porthos to join the Society of the Crimson Plume which snubbed him for being too poor. 

Unfortunately, the PCs had no way to know where Saberface was going to sail to (along with most of the stolen gold). But someday, and soon, they will probably cross paths again... 

*The gold was real, but they were not actually minted by the royal mint, making them non-legal tender.

Our party split up again, this time with Angus and Stanislaus searching for the Swede. Their search brought them to a set of branching tunnels where they saw three fuses burning down 3 different directions! With only 2 of them to give chase, they really had to hustle but managed to cut the fuses before they reached the end.

Reconvening at the fork in the tunnels, Ariel found a secret passage behind some false barrels. This was the escape route that the Swede and his followers took. Ariel's claustrophobia prevented her from following the small tunnel and instead chose to see what the fuss was leading to (her torch went out just as she walked into a room full of barrels of black powder). She chose not to light it again given the circumstances. 

The other PCs followed the tunnel and found a ladder. They climbed up and up until they found a ledge near a waterfall. A rope bridge hung from the cliff, half burned, leaving a 100' drop. The Swede had gotten away.

The party chose to try to sleep in the cave and wait till dawn (and hopefully a break in the snowstorm) to return to town.  

I can look into it. I wasn't sure it would be worthwhile for such a short booklet, but I guess people do it for adventure modules, so why not? 

I have a large group (seven players) in my Honor + Intrigue campaign. One thing I like in Honor + Intrigue (and BoL, old school D&D) is rolling initiative each round-- it adds an element of unpredictability to combat-- but with so many players, having each person roll and doing a countdown each round was starting to take too long. 

Side-Based initiative (each side rolls a die and the winning side goes first) is *fast* but the problem is that it takes away the individualism from the players-- especially because in Honor + Intrigue, Initiative is 1d6+Savvy (in Everywhen 1d6+Initiative)-- and some fighting styles and Boons give a bonus to Initiative, while some things give penalties. This is also why I wouldn't employ the method used by Savage Worlds (it is a great method dealing everyone playing cards that are out on the table for all to see, but this is not as granular as I would like). 

Cyclical initiative (like in D&D 3, 4, and 5e) is slow in the first round, but easy to manage after that-- but a bit too predictable for me, and going first doesn't matter much after Round 1. 

So here is what I call "Rally Initiative" that I ended up using to great success last night: 

The PCs roll 1d6+Savvy as normal. Named villains also get an individual initiative roll (there won't even be one in most scenes). I then roll 1d10 for the other side (adding no bonuses). You can also let Pawns act on their own assigned initiative (Level 3 pawns go on 3, Level 2 pawns go on 2, etc. ) or fold them into the 1d10, up to you. Ties are resolved the way they usually are in Honor + Intrigue (wich whoever has the most ranks in the most relevant career to the scenario win ties, so sailors win ties on the deck of a ship, soldiers win ties in pitched battles out in the open, etc.). 
[color=#141414]The result is sometimes it ends up like Side-Based initiative. When the d10 rol