NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kobold Stew" data-source="post: 9183815" data-attributes="member: 23484"> <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Broken Mirror</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Persistent Kitten</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Clouded Vision</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Celebrated Bard</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Home Renovation</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Shadow Puppet</li> </ul>ROUND 1.Through a Glass, Darkly mid-level D&D side-questHooks: (a) After watching her concert, players befriend Ancella Sutomi, whose sellout performances blend songs, virtuoso violin, and illusions of shadows and shapes, with an encore that conjures a forest on stage for her pastoral finale. With a winsome flirtatiousness, she invites the PCs to her house the next day.(b) The following night, Ancella fails to show up for her show, and the PCs are invited to find her by the landlord, who does not want to lose paying audiences. The pub’s backroom concert hall sells out whenever Ancella performs.The Mirror: Ancella Sutomi, celebrated bard, is doing home renovations. She has leased Moccari Hall, the mansion once occupied by that wizard, and is removing the cramped, labyrinthine corridors, favoring an open-space plan. If seen in the day (=hook a), she is covered with dust and swinging a sledgehammer into some bookcases for which she has no use. She offers tea, smiles warmly, but is working throughout their visit. If the PCs help, it can be they who find the hidden room; otherwise, Ancella will.Boarded over is a small alcove, containing a broken mirror. It reaches the floor, and has been cracked and chipped. It’s enchanted, and reflects individuals standing before it, but not the wider room. Instead, the viewer sees swirling mists of a pocket dimension. Nosing up to the glass’s inside, tapping at the PCs with its paw, is a young displacer beast, the thorns on its tentacles not yet matured and opened. The mirror thus shows the bodies of all in the alcove and the persistent kitten, whose reflection remains though it’s no longer in the room. The kitten isn’t behaving as displacer young should: it rolls about, taking adorable swipes at the mist, and tumbles cutely – a clue that creatures caught within this mirror reverse their alignment while inside.Breaking in. Striking the glass from the outside opens this, the only portal, and those in the alcove are transported within. Whether trying to free the kitten, or to destroy the mirror, this is how Ancella gets trapped (with some PCs, following hook a). If PCs seek Ancella (=hook b), they’ll see the kitten, but not Ancella. They need to enter to retrieve her.Inside the mirror, players can be encouraged to play against their usual alignment. They remember their mission, but are pulled to behave antithetically (clerics and paladins remain safe; what happens in a pocket dimension, stays in a pocket dimension). This should be fun, not an ethical challenge: a means to encourage out-of-character speeches, etc.Because of the mists, everyone inside has clouded vision: the space’s dimensions are not visible, but rough, damp, cavelike walls can be found and followed. Forgotten objects are scattered about, to be stumbled over: small piles of copper pieces; an unmade bed; a hank of silvered cord; perhaps a forgotten treasure chest. Time works different here: there is no need for food or sleep (the kitten hasn’t aged since it entered, decades earlier); rest remains possible. Sound is deadened: no reverberations, no footsteps; voices remain clear.When she enters, Ancella flees into the mists and begins scheming: now malevolent, she stews in imagined resentments. She hides, and if found will fight the PCs as best she can. The challenge is to take her out without killing her, and then to escape. She has her sledgehammer and her cantrips, and will conjure illusions of shadow-creatures to misdirect and try to separate the PCs. Her shadow puppets move silently, offering targets always just out of reach. Ignoring these leaves PCs open to (ill-aimed) sniping attacks. Completing a rest under these conditions is another challenge. Creative solutions may dispel the mist briefly, but it always returns. The kitten will cuddle anyone who pets it.Breaking out. There are several ways out. Remove Curse cast from within can free any individual. Other spells might also work: Mirror Image cast next to the portal, but not Misty Step or Dimension Door (since the mirror dimension is beyond range). Mundane solutions also exist. Someone mirroring the actions of a person in the alcove can be released as they enter, as reflection and reality switch. Anchoring oneself before entering (e.g. with rope) creates a lifeline that can be followed out. Physically smashing the portal from the inside (any magic is reflected away) breaks the mirror, closes the dimension, and ejects everything from within.The kitten reverts to its feral state in the real world.</blockquote>

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