mythago
Hero
mythago vs nooneofconsequence
Expedition to the Plane of Jars
A D&D Adventure for 3-5 Low Level PCs
Introduction
Everyone in town knows Rahimas. He is respected for his piety and praised for his generosity; he has a known tendency to become absent-minded and lose the IOUs of the poor who cannot even afford his most meager, lopsided water jugs. For all this, he is shy and modest. He is also an excellent potter. If asked, the townspeople will scratch their heads and admit no, he doesn't have family here, and he's not from town originally; a lot of soldiers settle here when they retire, so it's possible he came from the King's old guard. But no one knows. Every so often he'll leave town with a wagon full of pots to sell in the big city. Everyone worries that he'll be set upon by highwaymen, but he just smiles and says Heironeous will watch over him. And, it seems, Heironeous does.
Someone in the big city owes Rahimas a favor, though. What it is, the party never finds out. But they are sent from their big-city headquarters to this dusty little farm village, in a corner of the kingdom that doesn't even have so much as marauding orcs to provide a little distraction. Their job is to help Rahimas the potter with a vital mission for Heironeous.
The real story:
Rahimas is a paladin of Heironeous. He is in service to the Shield-at-Ready, a covert, elite order of knights who are sworn to protect the humble worshippers of their god from evil. Soldiers of the Shield-at-Ready live modest, humble lives. Evil, they believe, prefers to prey on the weak and undefended. By remaining hidden, these paladins know that sooner or later, evil will swagger out from under its rock, confident that none of its intended victims will be able to defend themselves. And when it does, the Shield-at-Hand will surprise and kill it.
The plot:
When a particularly devoted paladin of Heironeous is dying, a high-level priest may attempt to cast a spell called Preserve Holy Essence. A variation of Magic Jar, this spell requires the target's cooperation and a successful Will save. If it works, the soul of the target is preserved in the specially prepared jar. This is done because any number of evil outsiders and extraplanar beings would love to snack on the soul of one of Heironeous's deceased followers. To make sure they reach their god's home plane safely, periodically a war party of Heironeous's mightiest living servants will physically transport the jars via Plane Shift to the gates of heaven. For safety the jars are stored in a small, secure demiplane. The number of people who have rightful access to this demiplane is, for obvious reasons, limited.
Recently the Six Points of Woe, a group of Hextor's servants, managed to get a Trojan horse into the demiplane. Instead of a pious worshipper of Heironeous, this jar contains a baatezu. (Getting the jar into the demiplane was a lot easier than getting the baatezu into the jar, if you were wondering.) The Six Points have figured out that some guy named Rahimas is one of the guardians of the demiplane. They are waiting not far from town
to strike. Their plan: wait until Rahimas opens the planar gate to get the jar, strike him down, and then waltz in to collect all the jars. Won't Hextor be pleased!
Rahimas, however, did not get into the Shield-at-Hand by being stupid. He received word that the PCs are coming to help, and that he should expect the Six Points of Woe to make an attack on the demiplane. His plan is to open the gate, and defend it when he is attacked. The PCs' job: get into the demiplane, find the damn jar that isn't supposed to be in there, and get out. The demiplane has one entrance, which can only be opened by a Planar Gate, and one exit that anyone in the demiplane can just walk through.
If the PCs agree to help, that is exactly what will happen. Spend some time going on about how the townsfolk treat them with a mixture of awe, suspicion and stark terror. Rahimas will stay away from them in public. When night falls, the entire group will sneak out to a yurt that Rahimas has hidden out in the woods near the village's sheep fields. There, he will use a holy item to open the gate to the demiplane and, soon after, the Six Points of Woe will attack. Expecting a feeble old priest, the Six Points will be quite surprised to see Rahimas throw off his robes to reveal shining mail and a big, sharp, pointy longsword that resonates with the joy of smiting down evil.
Rahimas will order the PCs into the gate. He can take the Six Points goons, but he needs the PCs to get in and get that jar. If they hesitate, he will be quick to encourage them. At swordpoint if need be.
The Demiplane of Jars
If the PCs were expecting Elysian fields, they will be disappointed. The demiplane looks like an enormous storage cellar, filled with rather ordinary-looking clay jars. There are a few hundred jars here, not all of them occupied. The PCs should be able to find the Trojan jar without too much trouble; Detect Evil works, as does simply examining the jars. This is tedious, but the baatezu jar is of extremely poor workmanship and stands out (a Spot check at DC 30 will find it).
The way out of the demiplane is through the only set of doors in the entire room.
Unfortunately for the PCs, what Rahimas didn't know is that the Six Points of Woe actually sent *two* jars into the demiplane, just to be on the safe side and all. Because they can't throw clay to save their lives, one of the jars broke in transit. The second devil, a Polymorphed erinyes, is waiting for them at the exit gate. Its goal is to pretend to be a humble priestess of Heironeous, keeping an eye on the jars from within the demiplane itself. It is bound to wait for the Six Points, but there was nothing in its orders that said it shouldn't lull the PCs into a false sense of security, then take them apart. Certainly a little mortal-crunching would help to pass the time.
Resolving the Adventure
With luck, the PCs will defeat the erinyes, get the baatezu jar, and get out without smashing any of the jars that are supposed to stay intact. Passing through the gate, they will reappear in the exact spot from which they vanished, to find a content Rahimas (modest robes and deceptive exterior again in place) surrounded by the corpses of several formerly overconfident worshippers of Hextor.
He will thank the PCs for their generous aid, take the jar, and make it disappear into a fold of his robe. He will provide them with a sealed letter to return to their patron in the big city, commending them for their bravery. There should be a decent reward, but it's going to take an even more tedious journey back home to get it.
Adjustments for your campaign:
Any small, prosperous village within a few days of a big city will suffice for the town. Rahimas can be of whatever level you like, but from the party's perspective he should be a righteous kicker of the butt of evil. For Heironeous, substitute whatever noble, paladinly Lawful Good deity is operant in your campaign. The party can be sent to help Rahimas in whatever manner works for them: getting paid to do so, being told there is great adventure waiting for them, owing a priest of Heironeous a favor, and so on. The reward should of course be balanced, but be generous.
Expedition to the Plane of Jars
A D&D Adventure for 3-5 Low Level PCs
Introduction
Everyone in town knows Rahimas. He is respected for his piety and praised for his generosity; he has a known tendency to become absent-minded and lose the IOUs of the poor who cannot even afford his most meager, lopsided water jugs. For all this, he is shy and modest. He is also an excellent potter. If asked, the townspeople will scratch their heads and admit no, he doesn't have family here, and he's not from town originally; a lot of soldiers settle here when they retire, so it's possible he came from the King's old guard. But no one knows. Every so often he'll leave town with a wagon full of pots to sell in the big city. Everyone worries that he'll be set upon by highwaymen, but he just smiles and says Heironeous will watch over him. And, it seems, Heironeous does.
Someone in the big city owes Rahimas a favor, though. What it is, the party never finds out. But they are sent from their big-city headquarters to this dusty little farm village, in a corner of the kingdom that doesn't even have so much as marauding orcs to provide a little distraction. Their job is to help Rahimas the potter with a vital mission for Heironeous.
The real story:
Rahimas is a paladin of Heironeous. He is in service to the Shield-at-Ready, a covert, elite order of knights who are sworn to protect the humble worshippers of their god from evil. Soldiers of the Shield-at-Ready live modest, humble lives. Evil, they believe, prefers to prey on the weak and undefended. By remaining hidden, these paladins know that sooner or later, evil will swagger out from under its rock, confident that none of its intended victims will be able to defend themselves. And when it does, the Shield-at-Hand will surprise and kill it.
The plot:
When a particularly devoted paladin of Heironeous is dying, a high-level priest may attempt to cast a spell called Preserve Holy Essence. A variation of Magic Jar, this spell requires the target's cooperation and a successful Will save. If it works, the soul of the target is preserved in the specially prepared jar. This is done because any number of evil outsiders and extraplanar beings would love to snack on the soul of one of Heironeous's deceased followers. To make sure they reach their god's home plane safely, periodically a war party of Heironeous's mightiest living servants will physically transport the jars via Plane Shift to the gates of heaven. For safety the jars are stored in a small, secure demiplane. The number of people who have rightful access to this demiplane is, for obvious reasons, limited.
Recently the Six Points of Woe, a group of Hextor's servants, managed to get a Trojan horse into the demiplane. Instead of a pious worshipper of Heironeous, this jar contains a baatezu. (Getting the jar into the demiplane was a lot easier than getting the baatezu into the jar, if you were wondering.) The Six Points have figured out that some guy named Rahimas is one of the guardians of the demiplane. They are waiting not far from town
to strike. Their plan: wait until Rahimas opens the planar gate to get the jar, strike him down, and then waltz in to collect all the jars. Won't Hextor be pleased!
Rahimas, however, did not get into the Shield-at-Hand by being stupid. He received word that the PCs are coming to help, and that he should expect the Six Points of Woe to make an attack on the demiplane. His plan is to open the gate, and defend it when he is attacked. The PCs' job: get into the demiplane, find the damn jar that isn't supposed to be in there, and get out. The demiplane has one entrance, which can only be opened by a Planar Gate, and one exit that anyone in the demiplane can just walk through.
If the PCs agree to help, that is exactly what will happen. Spend some time going on about how the townsfolk treat them with a mixture of awe, suspicion and stark terror. Rahimas will stay away from them in public. When night falls, the entire group will sneak out to a yurt that Rahimas has hidden out in the woods near the village's sheep fields. There, he will use a holy item to open the gate to the demiplane and, soon after, the Six Points of Woe will attack. Expecting a feeble old priest, the Six Points will be quite surprised to see Rahimas throw off his robes to reveal shining mail and a big, sharp, pointy longsword that resonates with the joy of smiting down evil.
Rahimas will order the PCs into the gate. He can take the Six Points goons, but he needs the PCs to get in and get that jar. If they hesitate, he will be quick to encourage them. At swordpoint if need be.
The Demiplane of Jars
If the PCs were expecting Elysian fields, they will be disappointed. The demiplane looks like an enormous storage cellar, filled with rather ordinary-looking clay jars. There are a few hundred jars here, not all of them occupied. The PCs should be able to find the Trojan jar without too much trouble; Detect Evil works, as does simply examining the jars. This is tedious, but the baatezu jar is of extremely poor workmanship and stands out (a Spot check at DC 30 will find it).
The way out of the demiplane is through the only set of doors in the entire room.
Unfortunately for the PCs, what Rahimas didn't know is that the Six Points of Woe actually sent *two* jars into the demiplane, just to be on the safe side and all. Because they can't throw clay to save their lives, one of the jars broke in transit. The second devil, a Polymorphed erinyes, is waiting for them at the exit gate. Its goal is to pretend to be a humble priestess of Heironeous, keeping an eye on the jars from within the demiplane itself. It is bound to wait for the Six Points, but there was nothing in its orders that said it shouldn't lull the PCs into a false sense of security, then take them apart. Certainly a little mortal-crunching would help to pass the time.
Resolving the Adventure
With luck, the PCs will defeat the erinyes, get the baatezu jar, and get out without smashing any of the jars that are supposed to stay intact. Passing through the gate, they will reappear in the exact spot from which they vanished, to find a content Rahimas (modest robes and deceptive exterior again in place) surrounded by the corpses of several formerly overconfident worshippers of Hextor.
He will thank the PCs for their generous aid, take the jar, and make it disappear into a fold of his robe. He will provide them with a sealed letter to return to their patron in the big city, commending them for their bravery. There should be a decent reward, but it's going to take an even more tedious journey back home to get it.
Adjustments for your campaign:
Any small, prosperous village within a few days of a big city will suffice for the town. Rahimas can be of whatever level you like, but from the party's perspective he should be a righteous kicker of the butt of evil. For Heironeous, substitute whatever noble, paladinly Lawful Good deity is operant in your campaign. The party can be sent to help Rahimas in whatever manner works for them: getting paid to do so, being told there is great adventure waiting for them, owing a priest of Heironeous a favor, and so on. The reward should of course be balanced, but be generous.
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