D&D 5E Keys from the Golden Vault play reports

[pukunui]

We started "Masterwork Imbroglio" tonight. The player handout map omits the third floor of the tower. As soon as I described that the tower had what appeared to be a third floor, my players decided that that had to be where the painting was. So they've made a beeline for it. After stealing Elix's key, making a copy of it, then planting it on the road to the guildhouse to make it look like he'd dropped it, they approached under cover of night plus pass without trace, avoiding the guards on the balconies.

In through the front door and up the stairs. One PC has slippers of spider climbing while another can cast spider climb, so two of them could avoid the creaky floorboards. The monk rushed the guard in the office and knocked him out after the artificer bunged up the locks to the balcony and bunk room doors to prevent reinforcements. The guard didn't even get a chance to yell out a warning.

Then the vengeance paladin remembered that she has locate object. So now they know that the painting is up in the top of the tower, and I can't conveniently move it somewhere else to extend the adventure ... although, actually, I could ... because she's never seen the painting, so the ping she got is just the nearest "painting". There could be a different painting there. But no, I probably will not bother doing that.

Even if they manage to sneak past Guildmaster Dusk and her lover without waking them up, when they get to the room with the painting, they will trigger a magical alarm that will awaken Dusk so they can't just sneak back out with the painting without having to confront her.

I'll post a full report in the original post once I've finished running the adventure.

 

[pukunui]

Even if they manage to sneak past Guildmaster Dusk and her lover without waking them up, when they get to the room with the painting, they will trigger a magical alarm that will awaken Dusk so they can't just sneak back out with the painting without having to confront her.

Instead of having a magical alarm, I just made it so the portrait called out, "I say, you're not Guildmaster Dusk!" in a loud enough voice that it woke up Dusk and Dartinal. Belwar the monk jumped onto the bed and tried to knock them out by banging their heads together. He knocked out Dartinal, but of course Dusk was too tough. She used a legendary action (she's a modified ambitious assassin from the Book of Many Things) to drop a smoke bomb, enabling her to slip over the railing to the stairs leading down. She then fled through the parlor and out to the other building, raising the alarm as she did so (as per the high alert bit).

Dimble managed to win initiative and got a cloak over the painting before it could magic missile him. He missed spotting the poison gas trap but made his Con save, so it didn't do much to him. But him being a short gnome and the painting being rather large meant it was awkward for him to get it down the stairs ... but he has wayfarer's boots, so he used them to cast expeditious retreat.

The others fought the drunk guild members in the parlor downstairs (I replaced the gladiator with Deadly Nell, a bard based on the stats for Edgin from the D&D movie).

We left it on a cliffhanger, with Belwar and Dimble dashing across the courtyard for the stables (where they hope to find a horse and cart to take the painting away in - they didn't previously explore that part of the compound), while Gwish the oni and Jaymont the doppelganger attempt to intercept. (They were pretty weirded out when an elderly man in an oversize robe came flying out of the open upstairs window and proceeded to attack them with a glaive.) The others were still battling the drunk guys in the parlor.

When we pick it up next weekend, I'm going to have Dusk attempt a parley - she's going to beat the Cognoscenti's offer in an effort to hang on to the painting. Of course the PCs will decline, as that would put them in bad standing with both the Cognoscenti and the Golden Vault. I'm hoping the oni doesn't kill any of the PCs, but we shall see ...

It's certainly turned out to be much more exciting than it seemed like it would be at the end of the first session!

 

[pukunui]

I have now added my notes for "Masterwork Imbroglio" and "Axe from the Grave" to the OP.

With the former, I thought the PCs were going to make quick work of the adventure, but it ended up taking us three sessions to complete and the PCs explored pretty much the whole guildhouse, while the latter ended up only taking us two hours in total.

(I suspect that some of my players are beginning to tire of sneaking around and just want to kick in the door and smash stuff. Unfortunately for them, I have selected "The Last Word" from the Oracle of War campaign as the next adventure. It involves uncovering a spy at a fancy party on board a riverboat.)

 

[RoryB]

FR would pretty much have to be Waterdeep, as the most modern city outside Lantan, which has not been described in 5e. But Eberron is basically "any city".

I could make some suggestions, but they are more obscure settings:

Ravnica (anywhere)
Strixhaven
Spelljammer (Rock of Braal)
Ravenloft (Ludendorf, Lamordia)
Exandria (Ank'harel)


The second one gets complicated. Technically Three Dragon Ante is a Forgotten Realms game, and there are certainly casinos in the Baldur's Gate computer games, but some players might get antsy about that level of ahistory. Did the Romans have casinos? Fortunately, we have casinos nowadays, and there are even https://onlinecasinosites.com.gh/services that can really help you find cool bonuses, but the question of casinos among the Romans remains open. Anyone know?

Ravnica and Strixhaven would be fascinating for a more unique setting. Ravnica’s guilds and politics would make for some intriguing casino heists. Exandria and Ank'harel also offer cool options, especially given Ank'harel’s rich cultural setting, which could make a casino heist feel right at home.

 

[pukunui]

Last session we made it to "Vidorant's Vault", the 7th level adventure in the anthology.

Since my party consists entirely of Small-sized gnomes (Sunny's player has mostly stopped playing), they made a beeline for the upper story window leading to Vidorant's office. They got into her secret vault without too much trouble, but then failed to disarm the rune on the diadem, alerting Vidorant.

They refused Vidorant's deal, deciding they would make a run for it instead.

If it weren't for the fact that it was getting late so we had to pause in the middle of the ensuing battle, this would've been a one-shot adventure with the first floor of the vault getting skipped entirely. You may recall that I nearly had a similar situation when running "Masterwork Imbroglio", but I managed to have the villain reclaim the painting and run into the cellar with it, forcing the PCs to do a bit more exploration of the hideout. I doubt I'll be able to repeat that here ... but it's possible one of the PCs will get stuck in the window (It is a DC 20 after all!), and they may decide to try their luck going downstairs instead. The players are focused on escaping, not fighting.

By the way, I decided that the assassin stat blocks (both 2014 and 2024) were too boring for Vidorant, so I'm using the Enchanting Infiltrator stat block from The Book of Many Things instead. This has meant that she can "see" through Belwar's magical darkness thanks to her blindsight.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I have now run Heart of Ashes (very modified and repurposed) and Affair on the Concordant Express. Which makes it four from the book. I didn't use Vidorant's Vault.

A comment on Heart of Ashes - the boss wizard is an interesting fight, but the room she is encountered in is a bit to small for her to make good use of her reactive teleport.

Concordant Express is basically a comedy, with very little combat required. Thus, it's very easy to change it's level from the the listed 9th in either direction. I ran it at level 12, and all I did was change the boss (which turned out not to matter anyway since the party negotiated) one of the random prisoners, and the treasure guard in the loco (neither of which they encountered). And I added an aboleth passenger to the aquarium. I would suggest adding an additional passenger carriage for the PCs to use (assuming they have tickets) and a Buffet carriage for the sake of logic.

 

[Zardnaar]

I ran Tockworths Clockworks and added an extra level. First fire temple from PotA.

Tied it to Baldurs Gate and Wulbren Bongle.

 

[Zardnaar]

Last night we finished playing through "Tockworth's Clockworks". I've added my thoughts and changes to the original post.

Overall, I think it's a fun adventure. However, as written, it's not particularly challenging, nor is it much of a heist. I have included some suggestions for improvements.

I ramped it up with DM specials encounters. Based one off Grym from BG3.

Tweaked the Gnome BBEG

 

[Zardnaar]

Last session we made it to "Vidorant's Vault", the 7th level adventure in the anthology.

Since my party consists entirely of Small-sized gnomes (Sunny's player has mostly stopped playing), they made a beeline for the upper story window leading to Vidorant's office. They got into her secret vault without too much trouble, but then failed to disarm the rune on the diadem, alerting Vidorant.

They refused Vidorant's deal, deciding they would make a run for it instead.

If it weren't for the fact that it was getting late so we had to pause in the middle of the ensuing battle, this would've been a one-shot adventure with the entire first floor of the vault getting skipped entirely. You may recall that I nearly had a similar situation when running "Masterwork Imbroglio", but I managed to have the villain reclaim the painting and run into the cellar with it, forcing the PCs to do a bit more exploration of the hideout. I doubt I'll be able to repeat that here ... but it's possible one of the PCs will get stuck in the window (It is a DC 20 after all!), and they may decide to try their luck going downstairs instead. The players are focused on escaping, not fighting.

By the way, I decided that the assassin stat blocks (both 2014 and 2024) were too boring for Vidorant, so I'm using the Enchanting Infiltrator stat block from The Book of Many Things instead. This has meant that she can "see" through Belwar's magical darkness thanks to her blindsight.

That one looks very easy.

 

[pukunui]

I have now run Heart of Ashes (very modified and repurposed) and Affair on the Concordant Express. Which makes it four from the book. I didn't use Vidorant's Vault.

A comment on Heart of Ashes - the boss wizard is an interesting fight, but the room she is encountered in is a bit to small for her to make good use of her reactive teleport.

Good to know! Thanks.

Concordant Express is basically a comedy, with very little combat required. Thus, it's very easy to change it's level from the the listed 9th in either direction. I ran it at level 12, and all I did was change the boss (which turned out not to matter anyway since the party negotiated) one of the random prisoners, and the treasure guard in the loco (neither of which they encountered). And I added an aboleth passenger to the aquarium. I would suggest adding an additional passenger carriage for the PCs to use (assuming they have tickets) and a Buffet carriage for the sake of logic.

I was looking forward to foreshadowing that one via the book in Vidorant’s library …