D&D 5E Keys from the Golden Vault play reports

[pukunui]

Did you give any thoughts to the stats of the eldritch horror is it got loose? Given my Dread Metrol setting, I'm quite keen on the idea of it getting loose and chowing down on the guests (didn't I see that movie?)

I was just going to use what was in the book, and I had no real plans to expand on the adventure.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I was just going to use what was in the book, and I had no real plans to expand on the adventure.

By the book, if the clock reaches midnight the egg hatches.

Spoiler

The problem I have is the para-ankheg is a already large creature, which means it's not really going to be able to hide. I really need a the creature to have small and elusive stat block, at least at first. I might have to make it from scratch.

If I was writing the movie script, it would be eaten by the animatronic Allosaurus.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

For the benefit of anyone planning on running this, I will point out that although getting caught will land PCs in prison rather than dead, there are a couple of things in this adventure that could easily kill first level characters outright if they are unlucky enough to run into them. In addition to the eldritch horror, there is a mimic.

 

[pukunui]

By the book, if the clock reaches midnight the egg hatches.

Right, but I found that the adventure gives the PCs more than enough time to do what they need to do (especially if they come in via the attic and don't actually go downstairs) before midnight.

In retrospect, I'm not sure I should have let them off the hook for stealing the magic dagger and handaxe from the archaeology display. While the adventure itself puts them there to tempt the players, it doesn't actually suggest any sort of consequence for stealing them ... but it does explicitly state that the Golden Vault will intervene if the players get into trouble with the law while in pursuit of their Golden Vault quests.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Right, but I found that the adventure gives the PCs more than enough time to do what they need to do (especially if they come in via the attic and don't actually go downstairs) before midnight.

In retrospect, I'm not sure I should have let them off the hook for stealing the magic dagger and handaxe from the archaeology display. While the adventure itself puts them there to tempt the players, it doesn't actually suggest any sort of consequence for stealing them ... but it does explicitly state that the Golden Vault will intervene if the players get into trouble with the law while in pursuit of their Golden Vault quests.

If the players decided to come in though the loading dock, go off mission looking for loot, and run into the mimic, they might feel the need to take a rest...

As for the +1 weapons, there is a guard stationed in that room, but they aren't particularly rare in the Eberron setting.

Is there an official end time for the gala, I can't find it in the adventure?

 

[pukunui]

If the players decided to come in though the loading dock, go off mission looking for loot, and run into the mimic, they might feel the need to take a rest...

Indeed, but my players did not.

As for the +1 weapons, there is a guard stationed in that room, but they aren't particularly rare in the Eberron setting.

Yes. But the PCs weren't able to knock out any of the guards unseen, so the Sharn Watch (and the museum staff) know that it was the PCs who broke into the museum and stole both the stone and, since they went missing on the same evening, the magic weapons. They may not be rare, but they were specific to that exhibit. I've already ruled that the Golden Vault intervened to keep the PCs out of jail (most likely by buying off the Watch to not press charges). I have a feeling, though, that the Golden Vault wouldn't be happy about the PCs opportunistically stealing stuff that wasn't part of their mission, but the book doesn't really say anything about that, and I didn't think of it at the time.

Perhaps I'll throw in a random encounter in a later adventure involving some hired goons out to recover the magic items for the curator. And perhaps I'll say that the PCs are all now banned from the museum for life because of their theft and vandalism (breaking display cases and causing the bladetooth to go on a rampage).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The +1 dagger is actually the ritual dagger of Muk'luk'nuggan, and its cultists are searching for it.

Much as I love the Mission Impossible gags (bonus points for gratuitous use of the word "disavowed"), I'm not planning on using the Golden Vault organisation myself.

 

[pukunui]

The +1 dagger is actually the ritual dagger of Muk'luk'nuggan, and its cultists are searching for it.

Perhaps!

Much as I love the Mission Impossible gags (bonus points for gratuitous use of the word "disavowed"), I'm not planning on using the Golden Vault organisation myself.

I think it fits well with Eberron. I figure it's a sub-branch of the Chamber.


EDIT: Here's the blog post covering our run-through of The Murkmire Malevolence: The Murkmire Malevolence

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I've made an EHH that is harder to kill, has a better chance of running away and hiding, and is less deadly to first level charcters.

 

[pukunui]

OK so I've figured out what I'm going to do with the +1 dagger and +1 handaxe that the PCs stole from the museum.

I'm basing the dagger on the needle of mending from the Wildemount book, but I'm removing the +1. So it's a dagger that can be disguised as a sewing needle, and it allows the attuned wielder to cast the mending cantrip from it.

The handaxe will be similar: it can be disguised as an archaeologist's rock hammer/pick, and it allows the attuned wielder to cast the mold earth cantrip from it.

They can be a pair.