Summary

  • The Book of Many Things introduces fascinating factions tied to the Deck of Many Things, offering exciting encounters for players in Dungeons & Dragons campaigns.
  • The Seelie Market is a traveling caravan filled with unique vendors, providing high-level players with enjoyment and low-level players with a balanced experience.
  • The Heralds of the Comet are a doomsday cult seeking the end of the universe, with ties to the Comet and Void cards of the Deck, while the Moonstalkers Guild is a Thieves Guild made up of lycanthropes, led by Halfling and Human werewolves.

The Book of Many Things is a supplement for Dungeons & Dragons campaigns about the Deck of Many Things. Like all other supplements before it, it presents items, enemies, and factions for the players to encounter. But since they’re all tied in some way to the Deck, they’re some of the most fascinating groups in the multiverse.

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Each of the factions ties back in some way to the Deck, but you don’t need to feel tied to it to use them. They come with basic fundamental principles that allow you to get them into any campaign, opening up for all sorts of multiversal adventures.

5 Seelie Market

A peculiar traveling caravan

Pazrodine and the Seelie Market by Robson Michel

The Seelie Market is the smallest faction introduced in the Book and, as such, has the smallest impact on a campaign. Still, it’s filled with all kinds of vendors, where you trade with favors and trinkets instead of gold. High-level players can get a lot of enjoyment from the place, and it’s also balanced for low-level players to travel through it as well.

The Market is, in essence, a traveling caravan, its leader and method of transportation being a Moonstone Dragon named Pazrodine. She constantly travels between the Material Plane and the Feywild, wanting to see all the wonders of both worlds. The merchants travel with her to see the world as well, and she protects them as if they were her children.

You can find all sorts of exotic fruits and trinkets in the Market, from useless baubles to mythical weapons. The main attraction is Oddlewin, a fey Goblin that casts many shadows. He can read the fortunes of the players, asking for their shadows as price. This fortune reading is done with a Deck of Many Things, giving an early taste for players of all levels of the chaotic cards.

4 Heralds Of The Comet

The obligatory doomsday cult

Entrance to the House of Cards by Bruce Brenneise, Comet card by Vallez Gax

The Heralds of the Comet are a group of cultists awaiting the apocalypse and doing whatever they can to make it happen. Their lowest-ranking members hope that a better world can be born from the ashes of the old one, while the leaders of the cult know the true agenda: to bring about the end of the universe so everything ceases to exist.

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The cult has two ties to the Deck of Many Things. The clearest one is the Comet card since it’s their symbol. They look at the card as a sign of the end to come. Their fundamental beliefs, however, are tied to the Void card since the leader of the cult, Basil, was once trapped by that very card. He hopes to bring everyone the joy of not being by having everything consumed by the Void.

To this end, the Heralds of the Comet are looking for the original Deck so they can use its power to bring about the end of everything. This is the weakest area of the cult as a narrative since it isn’t made clear how the cult aims to use the Deck. While any skilled DM can come up with something, the Deck is not an artifact that lends itself well to being controlled by anyone.

3 The Moonstalkers Guild

Thieves with a heart of fur

Entrance to the House of Cards by Bruce Brenneise, Moon card by Vallez Gax

The Moonstalkers Guild is a Thieves Guild with a twist: every member is a lycanthrope, from werewolves to wererats. Anyone who joins their ranks gets rewarded with a were-like transformation unless they already have one. This makes the entire Guild adept at avoiding and winning fights; they can sneak around as unassuming animals or destroy their enemies by becoming half-man, half-animal beasts.

They are led by Delour and Augustus, a Halfling wererat and Human werewolf, respectively. Delour is your average Thieves Guild leader, making schemes and planning heists. This allows you to use the Guild as you would any other, making them either temporal allies or constant antagonists. Augustus is the one who brings the Deck into the picture, needing one card in particular.

Augustus was born a werewolf, and unbeknownst to his dear friend Delour, he’s looking to end his curse. He keeps this a secret from everyone, employing the Guild’s Hag to locate anyone with a Deck of Many Things, or rather, anyone that draws the Moon card. Since the Moon card allows you to cast the Wish spell, Augustus wants his Wish granted at all costs.

2 The Grim Harrow

Hunters seeking eternal rest

A Harrowing Hunt by Domenico Cava

The Grim Harrow makes for a great antagonist with an interesting story and relentless rage. They are an organization of undead hunters cursed by the Deck and looking to destroy all copies. All their members are people who were slain by an Avatar of Death, a creature summoned by the Skull card. This makes them unable to revive or fully die.

Their aim is clear: gather all undead cursed by the Skull card and hunt down any Decks of Many Things that they can find, destroying them and those who hold them. It’s not known if destroying all Decks will bring them peace, but it’s the only hope they can cling to. They’re still a force of great evil since even if you sympathize with their cause, their methods are far too destructive.

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If you don’t wish to use the randomness of the Deck in your campaign, the Grim Harrow can still be of great use. You can have a Deck that only has good outcomes, so your players will want to keep it, but in doing so, they draw the ire of the Harrow. They could even be attacking a kingdom that unknowingly holds a Deck, and figuring out why the Grim Harrow is attacking makes it part of the story.

1 The Solar Bastion

A beacon of hope in the multiverse

Knights of the Solar Bastion by Zuzanna Wuzyk

Not everyone tied to the Deck is out for murder and thievery, and the Solar Bastion is a great example of this. They work as a self-funded multiversal police force, looking to keep people everywhere safe from the curses of powerful artifacts. Their main goal is to contain the atrocities caused by the Decks of Many Things, helping people who lost it all to a bad draw.

They are led by Hilarion, a solar angel who saw the destructive power of the Deck firsthand. He left his god to form the Bastion, protecting many in the multiverse. While he acts as the supreme leader, there’s not much of a hierarchy in the Bastion. It’s formed by powerful knights united for the same cause, so they respect the opinions of others and are generally autonomous in how they carry out their missions.

This makes them great patrons of adventuring groups, giving players clear goals while also maintaining the freedom to explore anything they want. Since their base of operations is filled with teleportation devices, the faction also makes for a great home for the party in between adventures.

NEXT: Dungeons & Dragons: What Is The Deck Of Many Things?