The Snow Job, An Eberron Heist Scenario

THE SNOW JOB

As the plane of Risia becomes coterminous with Eberron, frigid winter descends upon the Ironroot Mountains. Lack of food and supplies drives the Jhorash'tar orcs out of their lands deep in the wilderness to within striking distance of Korunda Gate. The forces of House Kundarak and the clans of the Mror Holds rise to face the threat head on, defending their ancestral lands and the many rich vaults in their care that lay deep underground.

As the brave dwarves defend their homes from Blood Spiller and the howling horde at his back, few remain to guard the vaults of Korunda Gate.

Opportunity knocks...

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THE SETUP

The Snow Job is a D&D 5e heist scenario set in Keith Baker's Eberron campaign setting and draws upon some of the rules for Eberron presented in Unearthed Arcana*. The format is inspired by two excellent blogs on heists, bawylie's Heist By Numbers and Runagame's Heist Framework. Thanks to both for their advice in the creation of this scenario!

The Snow Job is intended to be a one-off adventure on an off-night for your campaign or can be slipped into a regular campaign with some modifications. It might be fun to have this scenario be played as a vignette in your game where the regular player characters must then deal with the aftermath created by these characters in a later adventure.

This adventure is built with 3rd-level player characters in mind. Some pregenerated characters for this scenario can be found in the spoiler block below.

Pre-Generated Eberron Characters


* Please note that the pre-generated characters are not updated in accordance with the 7/23/18 release of Wayfinder's Guide to Eberron. They are based on the Unearthed Arcana pdf. While they will work just fine in the context of this scenario, you may wish to update them to the new rules if you plan on making them part of a regular campaign.

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THE HOOK

The team leader (likely Tcotchke d'Cannith if the pre-gens are used) or a quirky, cagey (but usually trustworthy) quest-giver approaches the adventurers with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to break into a Kundarak vault and steal a priceless piece of Cannith technology - a prototype weapon that draws upon the plane of Risia to produce blasts of cold that can freeze enemies right in their tracks. In addition, the vault contains countless chests of gold, coveted magical relics from the Last War, and libraries of information both damning and valuable. The team leader or quest-giver has one of two keys necessary to unlock the vault and provides those to the team.

Anyone daring and lucky enough to successfully pull off this heist would make themselves rich and powerful and would be counted among the greatest of thieves in history...

Work with your players to tie their characters into the scenario by establishing wants and needs for the adventurers' such as:

• An enormous debt that is owed to the quest-giver;
• A desire to be known as the greatest thief in Khorvaire;
• Unrivaled greed for gold;
• A grudge against House Kundarak or House Cannith;
• A need for a particular magical item known to be in the vault;
• An insatiable desire for valuable knowledge.

Once the hook is accepted, it's time to identify the Big Problems. Before the would-be thieves can even get close to the vault, these Big Problems must be resolved. There are a couple of ways to do this: You can, as one blog suggests, collaborate with the players and have them establish what the Big Problems are. Or, you can use the Big Problems I suggest below. The point of the Big Problem is to identify an obstacle that must be overcome with an Outlandish Solution. (See this blog for more on that.)

No matter what, the Big Problem will be resolved by the Outlandish Solution; however, depending on how the scene(s) involving that Big Problem play out, other stakes are in play. Using the example Big Problems below, the characters have a tough time of getting to Korunda Gate, but they will definitely get there. As the scenes play out - actions taken, ability checks made - it may just cost them something in the process.

BIG PROBLEMS

Getting to Korunda Gate
War and winter turn a fairly simple task into a logistical nightmare with the added risk of having one's head put on a spike by fearsome orcs or suspicious dwarves. Freezing to death on the mountain is also a possibility. While the Outlandish Solution will definitely work, the stakes in play might be the adventurers' hard-earned gold, the threat of exhaustion, or the expenditure of hit dice.

Access to the Vault
The Warding Guild of House Kundarak have security measures that can thwart even the most concerted of efforts to rob their vaults. Even getting close to the vault, let alone getting inside, is a major challenge. The stakes in play here might be gold, the promise of favors that must be fulfilled, or leaving incriminating evidence behind that may come back to haunt the adventurers.

The Other Key
As part of their security measures, the Warding Guild uses a system of dual control when it comes to locks and keys. In order to open very secure vaults, two people must use two different keys at the same time. The quest-giver (or team leader) has but one of these keys. The stakes here might again by gold, favors, or accidentally tipping off House Kundarak who put guards in the lift just in case.

An Escape Plan
Once the theft of goods in their care becomes known (and that'll happen quickly for sure), there will be precious little time to get out of the vaults and Korunda Gate. There needs to be a plan in place or else the adventurers are as good as caught. Again, the stakes here might be gold or favors or anything else that's reasonable for the situation.

OUTLANDISH SOLUTIONS

This is the players' role! Don't you be coming up with solutions for them! The key thing to get across to them is that, whatever craziness they come up with, it's going to definitely work (but maybe at a cost). So encourage them to come up with Rube-Goldberg style solutions and/or cinematically pulpy actions. Try to get one character to deal with one Big Problem - that character is the "lead," and the rest of the characters act in support as "features." Set some stakes for the scene(s), then play them out, throwing some dice if you find actions to have uncertain outcomes. Cut the scene when it's been resolved and jump to the next one. For example, if a player proposes he or she calls upon his or her Criminal Contact to get The Other Key, present a social interaction scene with that contact. If the player does well (and rolls well) in the scene, then he or she gets the key, no problem. If he or she doesn't do so well (or rolls poorly), then he or she gets the key but it costs something.

THE TWIST

At a point that most makes sense in the action (after the PCs are in the Lift or Vault), one of the four Big Problems come back to threaten the whole scheme. As it turns out, one of te adventurers' Outlandish Solutions just doesn't work out even when they thought it would. Choose one that'll be most interesting or just pick one at random. Then throw that monkey wrench at the characters and see how the players deal with it. It might be that The Other Key doesn't work or the airship they arranged for their Escape Plan isn't at the docking port. Whatever it is, give the players a fair chance of resolving it, rolling ability checks or the like when the outcome of their actions are uncertain.

THE LIFT



Once the Big Problems are resolved, cut to this scene: The Lift. This is the top chamber of a 10-level vault deep under the mountain where the Warding Guild stores its clients' valuables. While ten floors of loot may make gold-hungry adventurers paralyzed with avarice, they need to focus because time is of the essence and what they're seeking is on the final floor. The challenge here is to get the lift to function in a timely fashion and without summoning this area's defenders. Within five minutes of the adventurers' arrival here, a guard rotation will come along - one knight (MM p. 347) and two guards (MM p. 347) with dwarven traits. You can adjust that time limit upward or downward to make it an easier or harder challenge for the players.

Turn to page 122 of the Players' Handbook and show it to any player whose character speaks Dwarvish.

FEATURES OF THE AREA

Entrance: A grand marble arch bounds a set of heavy stone and metal doors that lead into the area of the lift. On the inside the arch is incribed in Dwarvish: "The Eyes of the Manticore Be Upon You."

The Lift: A magically-powered apparatus that can be controlled to hold a half-ton of weight and raise or lower it to one of the ten floors of the vault. It is emblazoned with the seal of House Kundarak. It cannot be used unless it is unlocked (see below). Once unlocked, touching the Dwarvish runes ("I, II, III, and IIII") will send it to the desired floor (e.g. "I" and IIII" will send someone to the fifth floor") after a short pause to allow for people to step on the platform.

Paintings: On the walls west, north, and east of the lift are fine paintings. The west painting depicts a manticore observing a battle between dwarves and Jhorash'tar orcs on a wintry mountaintop. It is initialed by the famous Dwarven artist Deft Otak ("DO" in Dwarvish script). The northern painting shows dragonmarked dwarves forging an alliance with manticores in a vast cavern warded with runes. It is unsigned. The final painting, on the east wall, shows crossbow-wielding dwarves flying atop manticores, driving orcs before them and out of the Ironroot Mountains. It is initialed by another famous Dwarven artist, Welv Naldra ("WN" in Dwarvish script).

Hexagonal Pillars: These pillars are constructed of metal and stone. On each side are letters in Dwarvish script. On the SW pillar are the letters, H - K - L - D - Z - G. On the NW pillar are the letters, C - E - I - O - Q - R. On the SE pillar are the letters, V - N - B - T - S - N. On the NE pillar are the letters, W - X - A - F - J - Y. The pillars can be rotated clockwise which each face of hexagon pointing toward the Dwarvish runes on the lift apparatus. When placed in the correct sequence, the lift is unlocked with an audible "click." If, however, the wrong sequence is set (all four pillars must have been manipulated in some fashion), then a manticore (MM p. 213) is summoned from one of the paintings and it attacks. Three manticores can be summoned in this fashion after which the lift completely shuts down, useless until reset by the Silver Keys.

The Correct Combination?

THE VAULT



If you've made it this far, then your player characters haven't been arrested by House Kundarak or eaten by manticores. That's good! But things are just getting interesting now...

At the bottom of the lift shaft, two metal doors open to trapped hallways which lead into the vault proper. Once past those hazards, the adventurers will have to deal with a shortage of time, their own greed in the face of immeasurable wealth, a precarious pit, and a guardian in the form of a helmed horror (MM p. 183) The helmed horror is dwarf-sized, uses a battleaxe instead of a longsword, and floats silently above the pit and will accost anyone who is not affiliated with House Kundarak or in the company of the same. In addition to its normal abilities, it can also innately detect the keys to the vault and will try to take said keys as its primary objective.

Remember, the characters have only a five minute window including the time they spent on the lift to successfully get what they came for and get out before a guard rotation comes around. If any traps are set off, however, the guard rotation shows up one minute later.

FEATURES OF THE AREA

The Lift: There is a control panel on the wall northeast of the lift that can send it back up.

Beyond the Northern Door: A 20-foot-long empty hallway ends at a locked metal door with no obvious keyhole, doorknob, or mechanism. Above the door is carved in Dwarvish: "The Wise Tongue of Lord Morikkan is the Key." Along the walls are variously-carved dwarven faces, mouths agape as if talking, four on each side of the hallway (about 5 feet apart from each other). There is an obvious seam on the ceiling at the midpoint of the corridor.


Beyond the Eastern Door: A 20-foot-long hallway ends in a door covered in sharp iron spikes that bears the manticore-sigil of House Kundarak. The hallway-side of the door leading to this corridor is peppered with holes. A groove runs down the walls on either side from door to door. Above the spiked door is Dwarvish script: "Know the Bloodlines or Bleed." Eight names are carved in the ground at regular intervals between the doors (left to right, closest to farthest starting from the lift): Tasdar, Durbannek, Ghedin, Veracer, Cerusk, Tuvodni, Naldra, Ingnal, all in Dwarvish script.


Minor Vaults: There are eight minor vaults here, each containing vast amounts of gold and the like stored in chests, sacks, and crates. The doors are locked iron portcullises. Once past those, a character trying to snatch treasure as quickly as possible can grab 100 gp for each container in the vault per round. (So that's 200 gp to 500 gp per turn depending on the vault.) The locks are increasingly complex, however, starting at DC 15 for a rushed lockpicking job on the least-filled minor vault and escalating by +2 for each step up thereafter to a DC 21. Remember, there is a half-ton weight limit to the lift too!

Pit: A 20-foot-square pit yawns open here, the bottom 40 feet below. Falling in inflicts 4d6 bludgeoning damage and knocks the creature prone. At regular intervals, a magically-generated gust of wind blows downward from vents in the ceiling above the pit. This makes jumping across from one side to another uncertain in most cases, requiring either a DC 12 Strength or Intelligence check to power through or time the gust just so.

Control Panels: Flanking either side of the pit are stairs that lead into chambers wherein a single control panel is mounted on north wall (in the east chamber) or the east wall (in the north chamber). In the center of the control panel is a keyhole. When the proper key is placed in each keyhole and turned at the same time, the main vault door opens and the bottom of the pit rises to become flush with the floor, providing access to the vault.

The Vault: Inside the vault is a single dais upon which rests the Snow Ray, a pistol-like device that glows blue and hums with power now that Risia is coterminous with the world. It is there for the taking! There are also two doors in this vault, one marked "Confidential Records" and the other marked "Experimental Devices." Behind these locked doors (DC 20 for a rush job of lockpicking) are vast stores of knowledge both damning and valuable and coveted magical items, respectively.

The Snow Ray

ADJUDICATION

When it comes to adjudicating the actions of the characters in this scenario, I recommend that the DM use the "middle path" discussed on page 236-237 of the DMG. That is, you keep a balance between granting automatic success (or failure) and asking for checks. You want the player's skill to matter in a game like this and checks to come into play only when dramatically appropriate.

As well, consider using "progress combined with a setback" (Basic Rules, page 58) wherever possible when adjudicating failure on a check. This means that on a failed check, the character succeeds totally or partially, but it costs something. Because of the timed nature of the scenario, a good cost is simply time. With only five minutes (50 rounds) to do what they need to do in the lift and vault, taxing the players 30 seconds on a failed Dexterity (Thieves' Tools) check to pick a lock stings, but doesn't stall the game or force the player to repeat actions. Another example of partial success would be in the traps in the vault. If the player fails an Intelligence (History) check when trying to figure out which of the bloodlines are correct, give them half of the answer (say, the two correct names nearest the spiked door).

Also remember that any character that takes 10 times the normal amount of time needed to resolve a task automatically succeeds (DMG, page 237). So if picking a lock or disabling a trap takes a round with a check, then taking one's time about it, it takes a full minute without a check. This makes the time they have a resource the players can manage. If they're ahead of the game, they can afford to take their time.

AFTERMATH

This scenario is called "The Snow Job" and there's no snow and no lies? What gives?

First, there is snow - it's set during a wintry period in the Ironroot Mountains when the plane of cold is coterminous with the world. Also, the MacGuffin is an ice laser gun. But to beat that horse some more, let's throw in another twist: This heist was all a ruse by some shadowy group to get the snow ray out into the open where it can be stolen from the adventurers. Perhaps The Chamber knows it will be necessary to fulfill some aspect of the Draconic Prophecy. Or maybe The Trust orchestrated this whole thing to test the Warding Guild's security measures and get a feel for whether the adventurers might be capable of performing an even more dangerous and unlikely mission. Better yet, could this have been the work of a strange race of beings that live on the dark side of one of Eberron's moons, eager to get back a piece of technology they lost years ago in Cyre?

I leave that to you and future follow-up adventures you might understake that are inspired by this scenario. Thanks for reading. I welcome your constructive feedback. If you run this adventure at your table, drop me a line and tell me how it went!

The pregenerated characters seem to be missing. Is there any way you can reupload them? I would like to try this with my kids to get them to start using their brain a little more instead of attacking everything.

Joshua Worthen said:

The pregenerated characters seem to be missing. Is there any way you can reupload them? I would like to try this with my kids to get them to start using their brain a little more instead of attacking everything.

Click to expand...

Should be fixed now, thanks for the heads up.

Please let me know how it goes!

iserith said:

Should be fixed now, thanks for the heads up.

Please let me know how it goes!

Click to expand...

Thank you! I will.

iserith said:

Should be fixed now, thanks for the heads up.

Please let me know how it goes!

Click to expand...

I ran this Saturday night for my sons' and a couple of their friends. We weren't able to finish as they could not figure out how to lower the elevator. They were very excited for this one-shot when I explained it to them the day before. One friend loves to try to steal items and was ready for a Heist! They were a little bummed that there were not many foes to fight, and then upset I would not let them take a long rest after they had a small fight. They were so ecstatic when they figured out how to get the lift to move, but then bummed when it would only move one floor. They kept trying different words thus summoning the manticores. After the first two fights and about 2 hours of the same ideas being thrown around I called the game. Hopefully we can get together soon to finish this as I believe it will be very rewarding for them, and potentially help them learn that there are other ways to play besides becoming murder hobos! Thanks again Iserith!

Thanks for the feedback - it's very helpful!

Joshua Worthen said:

I ran this Saturday night for my sons' and a couple of their friends. We weren't able to finish as they could not figure out how to lower the elevator. They were very excited for this one-shot when I explained it to them the day before. One friend loves to try to steal items and was ready for a Heist! They were a little bummed that there were not many foes to fight, and then upset I would not let them take a long rest after they had a small fight.

Click to expand...

That's interesting. Were they aware of the time constraints going in?

Joshua Worthen said:

They were so ecstatic when they figured out how to get the lift to move, but then bummed when it would only move one floor. They kept trying different words thus summoning the manticores. After the first two fights and about 2 hours of the same ideas being thrown around I called the game. Hopefully we can get together soon to finish this as I believe it will be very rewarding for them, and potentially help them learn that there are other ways to play besides becoming murder hobos! Thanks again Iserith!

Click to expand...

If they used the pre-gens, they had a rogue with them. Did they not try to hotwire the lift?