D&D 5E Infinite Staircase - When a Star Falls upscaling

[Quickleaf]

Thanks for all that. How did you change the beginning?

I wonder if having the dragon be hunting the meteor specifically would give it a bit more of a reason to be there so it’s not so random.

Maybe the dragon caused the cave-in at the derro lair in an attempt to get the meteor, and it tries to convince the PCs to hand it over after they emerge with it.

The PCs won’t want to, so it’ll fight them for it and flee when they beat it up but will follow them and attack again occasionally. Then a final showdown at the end.

I had it so the PCs wanted to learn about their futures from the Elder Sage – normally exorbitantly expensive, so they were sent to recover the Meteor in exchange for prophecies.

Yeah, the dragon (it's originally 2 young red dragons) is out of left field... I had the dragon(s) hunting for the Meteor believing it was a dormant dragon egg. Making the dragon responsible for derro cave-in is a good idea!

When a Star Falls has a wonderful theme, but it really needs a second pass tightening up the narrative – from your description it doesn't sound like WotC did that in the 5e update.

Instead of the ending being "dragons suddenly appear", I was going to have Sion (if still alive) show up to either (a) sabotage machin-i-bzorgs / machinery and a Revenge of the Sith style finale, or (b) offer moral dilemma about the Elder Sage's lies and seek to team up with PCs against the Elder Sage. Buuut... I think you could do something similar using the dragon instead.

 

[el-remmen]

I haven’t gotten my hands on Infinite Staircase yet but I have the original module and have been running it for my in-person 5e group. It is fascinating to read about the changes to the original module in this thread, so thanks!

Funny that Therno is to be a safe haven, I made them isolationist competitors for the fallen star. But I did add some villages south of the valley so that served as a place the party can rest and resupply if necessary.

Edit to add: I made the young dragons a blue dragon who has had its wings shorn off as a wyrmling by the deep gnomes. They use its lightning breath to power their machine but it is on the verge of breaking free.

 

[Zaukrie]

Random stuff happens all the time. I'm good with the dragon here. Overall, it's one of the better WotC jobs at updating things. Of course, they had a great adventure to start with.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don’t think the narrative is too loose. The players will make sense of it, they are used to not holding all the cards.

 

[Zaukrie]

I don’t think the narrative is too loose. The players will make sense of it, they are used to not holding all the cards.

Agreed

 

[pukunui]

Random stuff happens all the time. I'm good with the dragon here. Overall, it's one of the better WotC jobs at updating things. Of course, they had a great adventure to start with.

Ordinarily I’d agree about the dragon. My only reason for bringing it up is because Eberron tends to handle dragons differently.

I think I will make the dragon a (rogue?) Chamber agent who is after the fallen star. He had foreknowledge that the star would fall here and arrived early, tangling with the deep gnomes while looking for a suitable place to lair while he waited for the star to fall.

The dragon believes that the star is necessary for some part of the Prophecy.

That should suffice.

 

[pukunui]

OK. I am going to use Nafas and the Infinite Staircase* as a framing device for this and any other adventure I run from this anthology.

Since my PCs are members of the Clifftop Adventurers' Guild in Sharn, I am going to begin the adventure with a short prologue in which the PCs are "hanging about" the guild's HQ tower one day when an imp-like creature seemingly made of glimmering stardust appears and beckons for them to follow it. The creature leads them through the HQ's massive bulk to a seemingly disused tower. It flits up a spiral staircase that leads to a domed circular chamber decorated with a 360° mural depicting the Infinite Staircase, with Nafas' Censer of Dreams palace visible in the distance.

A stone archway framing an iron-banded oak door is incorporated into the mural. The stardust mephit beckons again, then flits over to the door and squeezes through the keyhole like smoke.

The PCs can open the door and step through into the Infinite Staircase's demiplane. This will feel like the mural is becoming 3D. (The mural could be a magical window onto the demiplane.)

The mephit beckons a third time and then zooms off toward Nafas' palace. The PCs can't fly so can't follow it directly. They will have to take the stairs. As they proceed, they will feel a gentle breeze nudging them toward the palace.

Along the way, they will pass a door that looks like a cave mouth. From within will come babbling that grows louder until a swarm of gibberlings bursts forth onto the landing. This was a random encounter I rolled, but it can handily serve as foreshadowing since the PCs will encounter more gibberlings later in "When a Star Falls".

After defeating the gibberlings, the PCs can make it to the Censer without further trouble. There, they will meet Nafas, who will ask them to help as per the included adventure hook. I note that the picture of a door included in the book is labeled "A door to the Tower of the Heavens". However, the adventure doesn't start there, so I think I will have the door open into an old ruin near the adventure's starting point.

I have decided to set the adventure in the Icetop Mountains in northeastern Karrnath. This mountain range is roughly the same size and shape as the Tegefed Mountains, and the name seems suitable given the description of the Tegefeds as having snow on them even in the warmer months. It's also nicely isolated from civilization with no roads or lightning rail lines nearby (unlike the book's suggested location of the Starpeaks in northern Aundair, which are surrounded by roads and a lightning rail line).

There's also virtually nothing written about the Icetops, so I can basically use the adventure as written with minimal changes. The main thing will just be to add some Karnnathi flavor.

I will update this thread once I've finished my adaptation and upscaling in case it is of interest / use to anyone else.


*Note: My version of the Infinite Staircase will functionally only connect to locations on the planet of Eberron and its connected planes. I prefer to keep my branded campaign settings separate, so my PCs won't be traveling from Eberron to Toril or Athas or anywhere else. There might be other planets on Eberron's material plane, but I'm not likely to have my PCs visit them during this campaign. The Infinite Staircase will just be a framing device to get them to and from far-flung locations on Eberron and Eberron's planes.

 

[pukunui]

Changes to the adventure:

1) Memory Web encounter: I will include 2 memory webs, each with 50 hp, just to give this encounter a bit more of a kick.

2) Piyarz's Shadow: I have beefed up Sion to CR 5 and his shadow minions to CR 1.

3) Cernant Valley: As I said previously, it's unlikely my players will get into any fights here. However, I have nevertheless rejigged Derwyth to be a CR 5 druid (based off the frost druid from the Icewind Dale book). I would also have the two giant eagles show up to help defend Derwyth.

4) Derro Lair: In Eberron, derro are the daelkyr-twisted descendants of the ancient dwarves from the Realm Below, so they can pop up anywhere.

• D2: I will add 1 more derro raider and 1 more derro apprentice.
• D3: No changes.
• D4: I will add 1 more zombie and add 1 derro savant and 1 derro apprentice. The fallen idol in the middle of the room will be a representation of Dyrrn the Corrupter rather than Diirinka.
• D5: I will add 2 derro savants to this encounter.
• D8: No changes.
• D9: I will replace the lamia with a mind flayer prophet. Since the mind flayer could just plane shift out, I have decided that it has been too busy conducting a magical experiment to notice the passage of time. Only when the PCs interrupt it will it realize how hungry it has gotten. If the PCs provide it with suitable sustenance, it will reward them with a symbiont (most likely an ear worm).

5) Therno Lake: No changes. I'd just like to point out that the derro have a dozen zombies under their command, so this community has lost at least that many hunters! (Who knows how many more were buried by the cave-in.)

6) Tower of the Heavens

• T1: Changing the gnomes from guards to customized thugs.
• T3: Guards as T1 above.
• T4: I've beefed up Lurg to CR 2 (and made him a shifter), and I will add 1 more tower hand.
• T5: I'll swap out the regular mimic for a CR 3 giant mimic.
• T6: Guards as T1 above. I have renamed the captain Talina Torralyn Lyrris and customized the knight statblock. I've also added 1 Nevermind Gnome Inventor and a CR 2 gnome cleric (named Elymar Hal Hebberdesh).
• T7: Guards as T1 above.
• T11: Guards as T1 above.
• T12: I've customized the tower sage statblock for Porro (halfling) and Cipolla (silver dragonborn) and beefed them both up to CR 2. I will add 1 more tower hand as well. Porro and Cipolla are supposed to flee since they can't use their magic in this area (there's a permanent silence effect here).
• T17: I've beefed up Piyarz to CR 4, and I will add 2 more tower hands. This is supposed to be a deadly fight if Porro and Cipolla are both present.
• T18: I will replace the spectator with a gauth.
• T20: No change.
• T22: I will add 2 more gargoyles.

7) Forge of the Kagu-Svirfneblin

• Gibberling Horde: I will add 1 more swarm of gibberlings and give them all max HP.
• F2: No changes.
• F3: I will give this maschin-i-bozorg max HP.
• F5: No changes. This is still a deadly encounter for 6th level PCs, but I really don't expect any fighting here - I intend to make the svirfneblin leader, Ecklash, be the svirfneblin PC's long-lost great-aunt.
• F7: No changes.

8) Dragon Attack finale: I'm swapping Grisdelfawr to a young gold dragon to reinforce that Eberron's dragons don't conform to the standard dragon alignments. I have beefed him up a little by giving him the Alert feat (which I give all my dragons) and the suggested spells for young gold dragons in Fizban's. I've also given him 1 kobold scale sorcerer and 2 kobold dragonshields as minions.

 

[pukunui]

Regarding the dragon, I got ChatGPT to help me come up with a suitably cryptic passage from the Draconic Prophecy that the dragon can be attempting to follow: When the heavens bleed and the pages are turned, the Keeper of Secrets shall awaken from stone. A new dawn rises, shrouded in ash, as the scales of power shift beneath the weight of truth.

Since the PCs will have already used the fallen star to get the second set of prophetic books by the time they run into the dragon, it will be angry due to the PCs' interference. It will attack them for a bit to vent its anger and then fly away before they can kill it, vowing that they will rue the day they interfered with the Draconic Prophecy or something.