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Message: <blockquote data-quote="THEMNGMNT" data-source="post: 8044800" data-attributes="member: 6809274">The players reached 3rd level in my Dragon Heist/Deck of Many Things mashup. Their previous mission took them to Grimshackle Jail, an island prison just outside Waterdeep Harbor, to free a dwarf architect held there. This dwarf built a secret vault holding a fortune in gold. The players are seeking it -- but so are agents of the drow and the Xanathar Guild. The players defeated the agents and escaped from the island in the drow boat with the dwarf in their possession.This session opened as the characters rowed their boat back to Waterdeep. The dwarf pleaded they take him to a wizard or cleric who could protect him from extraplanar threats. His cell wasn't designed to keep him in; it was designed to keep something out. What, exactly? It turns out that the only way to open the secret vault is to stand before it with a complete Deck and draw a card. Once you've tested your luck, the vault doors open, and the fortune is yours. After building the vault, the dwarf was forced by the cleric that hired him to prove that it worked as designed -- by drawing a card from the deck. Unfortunately he drew the Skull Card, summoning an Avatar of Death -- his death. When his apprentice tried to interfere, a second Avatar appeared and slew her. In the confusion, the dwarf architect fled, ultimately finding refuge in Grimshackle Jail.The players docked and unloaded the boat. That was when the dwarf's Avatar materialized and attacked. The wizard tried to banish it with dispel magic. Instead, a second Avatar appeared -- this one looking like the wizard. Then the fighter attacked the dwarf's Avatar -- and a third Avatar appeared that resembled the fighter himself. The rogue, seeing the direction this was going, hid. Ultimately, the fighter and wizard managed to slay their Avatars. For a few minutes, it genuinely looked like one or more characters would die. Perhaps even a TPK. But not this day! However, the dwarf architect was slain. When his Avatar dematerialized, in its place was the Skull Card. The characters retrieved it and added it to their collection. Three cards down, nineteen to go.In the drow boat was a crumpled note with the location of the safe house they intended to take the dwarf. The characters are headed there in the next session.A lot of character backstory reveals also happened, but the above are the highlights.</blockquote>

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