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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pukunui" data-source="post: 9610704" data-attributes="member: 54629">Hi all,I am currently running "Vidorant's Vault" from the Keys from the Golden Vault anthology. SPOILERS AHEAD!If you're unfamiliar with that adventure, it involves two former partners-in-crime, a dwarf named Goldenbeard and an elf named Vidorant, who have had a falling out. Goldenbeard hires the PCs to break into Vidorant's treasure vault to steal an heirloom diadem. My PCs managed to get the diadem, but they triggered an alarm in the process that brought Vidorant to investigate. She confronted them and made them a counter-offer: some magic items in exchange for letting her keep the diadem and telling Goldenbeard that her vault is impenetrable so he'll stop sending thieves to try and break in. The PCs declined the counter-offer and attempted to get away with the diadem, which they'd placed in their bag of holding. I decided to use the Enchanting Infiltrator stat block from The Book of Many Things for Vidorant instead of the generic Assassin stat block. Vidorant managed to use her Beguiling Whispers action to stun the PC carrying the bag. She then took it off him and made a run for it. The PCs took too long to start following her, so she managed to get out of the vault and could now be pretty much anywhere. What's more, the party is now split!Here's the situation as it currently stands:The PCs do not know where Vidorant is. She has their magic bag, which has their surplus magic items plus a few other valuables (along with the stolen diadem) in it. We did establish prior to the heist that Vidorant had been hosting a soirée at her mansion (she masquerades as a wealthy socialite). The vault the PCs broke into is her high-security treasure depository. I think it would be unlikely that she would have somewhere else as secure to stash loot, but she might have some secret "loot drops" around the city, and she might have a safe in her mansion.The vengeance paladin managed to make it out onto the vault balcony (the inside of the vault is warded against teleportation magic) and misty stepped to the roof of a building across the road. She is badly injured, even after using Lay on Hands on herself, and intends to drop down to the alley behind the building and make her way back to the party's inn to wait for the others.The shadow monk attempted to pursue Vidorant but lost her trail in the room with the secret door to the outside (he didn't pause long enough to look for secret doors because of all the guards). He's so fast that he managed to get out and through the front door before all the guards could stop him. He then shadow stepped back up onto the balcony and went into Vidorant's office to rescue the armorer artificer, who is the one who'd been stunned and then relieved of the magic bag. He had been taken out by guards but had self-stabilized. The monk revived him with a healing potion. They can probably get away.The swarmkeeper ranger is alone in the middle of the ground floor of the vault (which they didn't scout beforehand, so it's unfamiliar terrain for her). There are numerous guards (all of whom use the veteran stat block) and an invisible stalker nearby. I suspect she will either be taken prisoner or die trying to escape. (If she goes back the way she came, the invisible stalker will attack her.)The players want to regroup at the inn, take a long rest, then go to Vidorant's mansion in the morning, where the paladin will cast Locate Object to see if their magic bag is inside. (The spell has a radius of 1000 feet ... but given that I am running this in Eberron, there may be a way to amplify the radius somehow, perhaps with a dragonshard or something. They could also potentially hire a House Tharashk agent to help them track down Vidorant and/or their magic bag.)If you were in my shoes, what plans would you make and where would you focus your prep time for your next session? We're very much off-script, and I'm just not sure what to do. I'd like to give the players a fun time as they seek to recover their stuff. I don't want to just say, "You can't find Vidorant or get your magic bag back." That being said, I wouldn't mind if they lost a few of their extra magic items. They do have more than they can all attune to.I also think that Vidorant, being a master thief, would be able to acknowledge that the PCs are skilled infiltrators. She would not want to make enemies of them, as they might become a thorn in her side. So she might be willing to 'make peace' by returning their stuff (sans the diadem) if they promise not to bother her again. She might also have stayed nearby to observe how things went at her vault rather than run all the way back to her party.Perhaps Vidorant stashes the magic bag somewhere she considers "safe" then heads back to the party, and if the PCs do indeed wait till morning to go to her mansion, she can negotiate with them without having to worry that they'll just beat her up and take back their stuff that way.I'm also not sure what effect capturing one (or more) of the PCs would have on the situation.I would very much appreciate your thoughts and advice! (Let me know if there's anything more you'd want to know.)Thanks,Jonathan</blockquote>

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