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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MarauderX" data-source="post: 1174019" data-attributes="member: 9990">There is a city adventure from an OD&D gazeteer that I ripped off and modified once, and it involved higher level PCs.  Someone has stolen a phoenix egg from a well protected mage tower in the city, and they need to track it down and prevent it from being used as it could lay waste to the whole city as it keeps being reborn.  There should be a few groups that will be trying to do the same thing, so the adventure should seem a bit competitive.  Have it be stolen by an experience cat thief who only works alone, and the PCs have to get in touch with her via the thieves guild, who only hires the cat thief through a certain monster, and must pay well to pass along any messages.  They should be able to come up with a list of possible buyers that would hire the thief and know how, and they should run down the list one by one, using the next to last one reached as the target.  Once the PCs set out given a couple of leads, they should try to out-run the other groups to get to the first lead, then just keep giving them piece by piece until they learn some things about the phoenix, and perhaps hint they may want to trade a magic item or two for a fire-resistant blanket, shield, or other equipment.  Whenever they start towards the last target are within sight of it, a huge phoenix should explode out from the building, destroying it and setting other nearby buildings on fire.  The PCs should be the first to get there, and have them battle the phoenix the first time, until it falls into ashes.  After that, have one of the other groups show up along with the town guard when the phoenix re-ignites a few rounds later and starts setting more buildings on fire.  It keeps doing this, and no matter how many times it is defeated and the ashes scattered, the phoenix is revived and must be fought again.  The PCs should have gathered enough clues to realize that the only way to defeat this particular phoenix is to gather up the ashes inside the egg once again, and seal it with a Mend spell.  They will need to climb through the destroyed building to locate the two halves of the egg during the battle and bring them to the ashes without getting fried themselves.  Put in challenges like climb, jump, balance, str checks, etc. to get through the burning mess to recover the egg halves from some dying low level wizard who thought he knew what he was doing, and perhaps his familiar and some cronies attack the PCs, thinking they were finishing off the wizard.  If the PCs split up or decide to stay and fight the phoenix, they should be on their last legs by the time the egg halves arrive to trap the phoenix.  Each time the phoenix is revived have it blow things up like carts, guards, a building or two, some random things as it cruises along the streets away from the egg.  It makes for a good mission to complete within a day, forcing the casters to expend some spells and find magical items like a scroll with Mend on it if the PCs don't have it memorized, all in the interest of time to save the day.  Give them something cool as a reward for saving the city, and if they prevent their competitors from getting killed have each group give them a fire protection magic item, replacements for the items they sold, or something else as cool from the adventure.  It works out well, and everyone gets a piece of the pie.</blockquote>

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