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The Kings of Silver
A campaign frame for Spire RPG
By Grant Howitt & Christopher Taylor
Copyright © 2018 by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor.
Published by Rowan, Rook and Decard Ltd.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical meth-
ods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except
in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and
certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For
permission requests, write to the publisher at the address below.
Rowan, Rook and Decard
113 Forest View Road
London E12 5HX
www.rowanrookanddecard.com
Writing and design: Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor
Illustrations: Adrian Stone
Layout: Alina Sandu
Production: Mary Hamilton
INTRODUCTION
Glittering and grimy, bloody and bright, the gaudy
crown jewel of Spire – the Silver Quarter is ripe and
ready to fall. The current de facto ruler, a diminu-
tive and ingenious drow called Mesye So, has resisted
previous attempts by the Ministry to turn him to-
wards their service, so a council of elders within the
sect has developed a new plan. They have purchased
– through a string of agents and shell companies –
the Manticore, a run-down casino, establishing it as
a base of Ministry operations. From there, using the
gambling house as a cover, they have tasked a cell of
ministers to infiltrate and seize control of the Silver
Quarter – or, at the very least, destabilise it enough to
allow someone else to step in.
You are one of the ministers who has been chosen
to take on this mission. You have been given the keys
to the Manticore and a sheaf of newspaper clippings
that form a dossier on power players within the Silver
Quarter who your magister feels could be of interest.
All of them have something to lose, and something
they desperately desire.
THE HOME NATIONS CIVIL WAR
THE SILVER QUARTER, IN BRIEF
The Silver Quarter is described in great detail in the
Spire
core book, but for the sake of completeness,
here is a refresher:
Beneath the icy streets of Amaranth and above the
mouldering rooftops of Ivory Row, the Silver Quarter
is where the wealthy drow of Spire come to see, and
be seen. (And where the aelfir come to misbehave.)
It is a garish web of magelit walkways and balconies
where filthy canals flow uphill, or in impossible pat-
terns, throughout.
It is primarily famous for its casinos, gambling
houses and members-only clubs, almost all of which
are a hotbed of illegal or at the very least nefarious
activity. At the head of it, situated behind rows of
the best security that money can buy, is Mesye So.
Through clever manipulation of the up-and-com-
ing House Quinn, he has transplanted the civil war
from the Home Nations to the streets of the Silver
Quarter, and he uses it as a means to expand his em-
pire of hotels, casinos and clubs further and further
each month.
Located to the west of Spire, the Home Nations
have been embroiled in a bloody civil war for as
long as anyone cares to remember, with militarised
city states led and funded by the noble houses of the
drow. At present, the biggest two players in the war
are the current rulers House Yssen (traditionalist,
party-going bloodletters) and House Quinn
(nouveau
riche,
bound together by oaths and not
marriage or blood).
Each year, the war spreads to new areas, and
drow are driven out of their homes by the thousand.
Some go west and try their luck amongst the
disparate communities of the humans, but most
gather their possessions and trek to Spire, either
overland (paying exorbitant immigration fees
at the Blue Docks) or through one of the many
tunnels that stretch out from the Home Nations. A
lot of them die en route; those who survive often
carry grudges against one house or another.
This leaves no end of willing footsoldiers ready
to be radicalised and turned against one another.
Houses Yssen and Gryndel specialise in arming
militias and authorising hit squads, while Quinn
prefer to swear in their agents as some kind of minor
noble, often with an entirely invented title: Demi-
Dukes, Halfmarquises, Kinglings, etc. Outside of
the Silver Quarter, the tensions between houses
rarely boil over into violence. Within the Quarter,
gangs of nobles and half-bloods kick the tar out
of one another on a regular basis in an attempt to
claim territory.
Here’s how
Kings of Silver
works: as the GM, you give
the players the newspaper clipping handouts at the
start of the campaign, right after they pick their char-
acters from the pregenerated options available (or
make their own). Then, they choose which leads to
investigate and in which order – it’s up to you, GM,
to react appropriately as the players push against the
established power structures in the Silver Quarter.
HOW TO RUN THIS GAME
1
Given that Spire gives so much control to players
– many of the abilities possessed by player characters
allow them to frame scenes in ways that you simply
can’t plan for – you’ll find that the system resists ac-
tive, painstaking planning. Instead, we recommend
that you get a handle on the NPCs and factions in-
volved, pick out the ones that interest you, and hold
them in your mind as the players set out to take over
the district.
It bears mentioning that you – probably – won’t
use every NPC in this document, nor will you use
every suggested scene. As you play, you’ll find that the
players veer towards certain characters and locations;
use these, and discard the rest. If you don’t know the
answer to something, make it up. (Or, better yet: ask
the players, and use their answers.) There’s no right
way or wrong way to run this campaign frame – think
of it as a starting point for a story about corruption,
brutality and betrayal.
Players can expect to advance when a sizeable
progression has been made towards one of their
goals. For example: capturing a respected mem-
ber of Loq Walks-On-Light’s entourage would earn
them a low advance; reclaiming a casino from Mesye
So’s control could earn them a medium; and defeat-
ing, or turning, one of the named NPCs could earn
them a high. However, as ever, use your best judge-
ment, and treat advances as a reward for exploring
plot threads and achieving the cell’s mission in inter-
esting ways.
There are three key characters in Kings of Silver:
Loq Walks-On-Light, Lay-Deacon Strides-Out-Har-
monious, and Hestra Wander-the-Lost. Groups don’t
have to deal with all of them – don’t consider them
as a list of objectives to be ticked off and dealt with.
The Ministry’s goal is to destabilise or take control of
the Silver Quarter, and there are other cells that can
take advantage of missed opportunities that the play-
er characters overlook or don’t have time, resources
or manpower to handle.
However: if you’d like to use all three, and your
players are leaving some by the wayside, consider
having an NPC reach out directly to talk to the cell.
After all, odds are that the player characters are mak-
ing waves in the local community, and they’ll draw
the attention of other useful people who want to try
and exploit them or shut them down.
USEFUL RANDOM TABLES FOR
THE SILVER QUARTER
What follows is a handful of D10 tables that you
can use to lend some random chance to your games;
they’re not intended to generate full plots, but instead
to add colour and depth to the game world.
WHICH HOUSE IS THIS DROW
NOBLE CLAIMING TO COME FROM?
1. Destera, the Weavers: deposed rulers of
Spire, all faded grandeur
2. Yssen, the Unquiet Blades: glory-hound
warriors
3. Malrique, the Unlidded Eye: scryers and
mystics
4. Valwa, the Silver-blooded: cursed by an
ancient pact, with a flair for the dramatic
5. Gryndel, the Crimson Hunters: bon vivant
bloodletters
6. Starys, the Drowned Kings: damned and
spat upon by other Houses
7. Aliquam, Repairers of Reputations: desert
merchants from the southlands
8. Duval, the Grave Cold: pale and
interesting, morbid sense of humour
9. Quinn, the Noble and Most High;
nouveau riche, not bound by blood but
sworn in
10. Roll again, re-rolling further results of 10
– they have been disowned by this house
2
WHAT’S THE MOST INTERESTING
FEATURE HERE?
1. Grand fountain, spraying water and mist
out into the air
2. City guard violently breaking up a shady
three-queen monte game
3. Interlocking balconies, some of which host
competing minstrels
4. Vibrantly-lit aquarium, many feet tall,
filled with shoals of glinting silver fishes
5. House Yssen and House Quinn in a stand-
off over territory, rapiers drawn
6. A tavern kicks out, filling the street with
drunks looking for a good time
7. Handful of moneyed drow are out on a
sulphur bender, looking for nasty thrills
8. Plaza housing an outside bistro, where
strong kafee is served in thimble-sized
cups
9. Pre-war, idealised statue of a drow noble
with its name-plaque removed
10. Thin, improvised bridge built by
stevedores, only wide enough for one
WHAT’S THE NAME OF THIS
GAMBLING HOUSE/CLUB, AND
WHAT’S INTERESTING ABOUT IT?
1. The Cat o’Twenty Tails; upmarket BDSM
joint with plenty of private rooms, play
cards on a barely-clothed usher
2. The Silver Fountain; has a whacking great
fountain in the middle of it, full of fat fish
3. The Polaris; very expensive, raw meat and
fish served on everfrost in the aelfir style
4. The Nujabian; tacky, over-decorated
homage to the culture of the gnolls to the
south
5. The Turned Buckle; jumped-up pitfighting
arena with a variety of side-bets available
6. The Green Lady; expensive wine-bar, not
much going on, run by vintner druids
7. Terpsichore’s Vaunt; a torrid, too-hot
table-dancing bar with cheap drinks
8. The Cube; a perfectly cubic white space,
hireable for private parties, repainted
weekly
9. Devil’s Bargain; only has roulette, coin-
toss and other games of chance – games of
skill are strictly forbidden
10. The North Docks; a sanitised, swish
version of an “authentic” North Docks
“tavern experience” run by clueless aelfir
3

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