Tales from the Infinite Staircase?

vilani · Oct 7, 2015

Hi everyone,
My characters are in the middle of a 5e campaign, they are level 14 and recently got plane shift. They want to get to Sigil (to buy and sell magic items basically) but after some research they discovered they can't directly plane shift there. After a bit more research and brainstorming they decided to use the Infinite Staircase to get to Sigil after research revealed an entrance was close by to their current adventure locale (how convenient!). I (the DM) was going to crack out the old Tales from the Infinite Staircase and run that first adventure to get them where they are going. The problem as I see it is that wouldn't the lilend just tell them where the closest portal to Sigil is which undermines the entire reason to do that first adventure in the first place (get to the planewalkers guild, ask for directions, move on).

Or am I misunderstanding this? I'm not see a rational or believable way for the lilend to refuse to help. Then again she could tell them where a door is but its two days away and the rest of the adventure content are worked in as "random" encounters.

Thanks all!

Mecheon · Oct 7, 2015

When in doubt, go for the Under Maintenance approach. Entirely possible the portal may not be usable for whatever reason at this current time.

vilani · Oct 7, 2015

haha I actually like that "oh yeah its up that way" when they get there the glaberzu has torn the door off its hinges!

VikingLegion · Oct 9, 2015

Maybe don't have them meet the lillend at all? It's been over a decade since I read that book, so I don't remember how important she is to the overall story of the first adventure ~~(is that the one with the Pillar of Skulls in Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells of Baator?)~~ Oops I was way off, that adventure was in an entirely different source.

Another alternative is for her to tell the PCs which door leads to Sigil, but have them get waylaid before they can reach it. As they get to a landing just before the Sigilian door, they get jumped by some monstrous beastie so overpowering they have zero chance of getting past it. Turning around to flee shows an even nastier monster charging up the stairs to do battle with the first one. They can get squashed in the middle of this heavyweight fight, or they can duck into the door of their current landing out of desperation, taking them to whichever adventure you wish to utilize. Sure it's a bit railroady, but sometimes you do what you have to do.

Actually, I just re-read the OP and see they are level 14, which probably means they will hold their ground and try to fight the monsters, or have a host of unpredictable counter measures to avoid taking the unknown door.

vilani · Oct 9, 2015

I think I'll just have the Lillend tell exactly where the door is but fail to mention a demon is "camping" the site. They meet the lillend right at the start of the adventure and can meet one randomly. This is not meant to kick off a campaign its just a "side quest" to get to Sigil. I didn't want their first visit to be easy.

Orius · Oct 10, 2015

Remember, you can just put a portal to Sigil anywhere you want, that's pretty much the reason Sigil exists, metagame-wise. You don't even need to futz around with the Staircase. Even if you do use the Staircase, you don't need to use the adventure, you can make it as easy or as difficult as you want, really. And don't forget the adventure potential in the Cage itself. The players want to trade some magic? Well, maybe there's some knights of the post who think they're just a bunch of clueless primes with plenty of jink who'll be easy to peel. 'Course, maybe those berks'll hit the blinds going up against a bunch of 14th level cutters who might just put those thievin' sods into the dead-book.

Cristian Andreu · Oct 10, 2015

Maybe they meet a false lillend; perhaps an enterprising devil has created a fake entrance to the Infinite Staircase that looks like part of the whole thing -but really is just a fancy pocket dimension you walk through to get to the actual stair-, and now he's imparting purposely misleading directions ("Six flights to the left, then take a turn on the twisting one where you hear trumpet music, walk upside-down around the one with yellow steps and you'll find it. Can't miss it!") in order to get unsuspecting mortals to stumble into trouble and then conveniently show up to "help them" -in exchange for their souls, of course. If he's in a good mood, he might just ask one mere soul to save the whole party! An offer you can't refuse after you stepped through a gate into the point where Negative Energy and Quasielemental Vaccum meet; such a trip can suck the life out of you, quite literally.