pukunui
Legend
Hi all!
I am planning to run all thirteen of the adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault as part of an episodic campaign set in Eberron. Whenever we finish one of the adventures, I will update this thread with both my conversion notes and my thoughts on how it played. If you've run any of these adventures, feel free to add your own thoughts below.
First, a quick summary of the party:
As my reports will contain spoilers, I will hide them in spoiler blocks.
Next up: Heart of Ashes
I am planning to run all thirteen of the adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault as part of an episodic campaign set in Eberron. Whenever we finish one of the adventures, I will update this thread with both my conversion notes and my thoughts on how it played. If you've run any of these adventures, feel free to add your own thoughts below.
First, a quick summary of the party:
- Belwar, deep gnome UA shadow monk
- Dimble, rock gnome armorer artificer
Glissando, Mark of Scribing gnome eloquence barddeceased- Catnip, forest gnome swarmkeeper ranger / druid
- Nissa, forest gnome Silver Flame vengeance paladin
- Sunny, enlarged forest gnome wild magic barbarian
As my reports will contain spoilers, I will hide them in spoiler blocks.
This adventure took us roughly 5 hours across two sessions to complete.
I decided that the Murkmire is a location in the Shadow Marches, and I had the Varkenbluff Museum be associated with Morgrave University in Sharn. I changed the quest giver to a Zil gnome named Dr Cassia Cantor Dannell.
The PCs went along to the museum while it was open. They didn't really look around much on the ground floor, but they did have a look around the upper floor before going into the gala. Dimble chatted with one of the guards and learned that theallosaurus bladetooth was animatronic. He asked the guard to show him how it worked, and the guard obliged. While looking at the controls, he learned he'd be able to supercharge them and cause the construct to go on a rampage.
At the gala, the PCs talked with the other guests and with the curator, whom I rejigged as a skull face-tattooed Aereni elf named Aldaea Alorenthi. They noticed that the stone's plinth was rigged with a security device but weren't able to figure out what exactly it did. They also learned a few of the rumors.
I rejigged the named gala guests as follows:
I also made the effort to place specific guards in the various after hours roster locations as follows:
Later that evening, the PCs climbed up to the museum roof and re-entered via the open skylight. They ended up sneaking along the upper hallway into the cafe, where they failed to take out Milanova before she could call for reinforcements. I decided not to have the entire guard contingent come. Only the guards in areas V8 and V12 came. All those guards were knocked unconscious. The PCs found Maryam's key to area V13 and four pass cards.
Dimble then went and overloaded the bladetooth. While it was keeping the guards occupied downstairs, he snuck over and unlocked the door to V13, but as he approached the inner door, I told him he could hear the sound of movement from within, so he went back out and got Sunny to lift him up to the vent. He then spent ten minutes ritually casting detect magic to see if he could learn more about the magic security measures on the plinth.
Meanwhile, the other three snuck around and took out the two guards in areas V9 and V10, then stole the jade and the magic weapons. They also discovered that the secret door in V10 led to a cleaning supplies closet with another secret door leading to V13. [I had the other set of doors leading from V10 to V13 have "staff only" signs on them. Both Violet and Sareena had keys to those doors.]
To spice things up a bit, I had the stone turn translucent and do its first pulse just as the PCs all burst into the room to take out the dwarf and halfling guards. Because they're gnomes, they all have advantage on Wisdom saves vs magic, so only the dwarf guard failed, and he was knocked unconscious in one go by Sunny. While I like the idea of the wild magicky effects caused by the stone, they're all pretty much limited to combat effects, so there's not much point in doing the pulses outside of a combat encounter. [I also decided not to have the egg start pulsing magic while the gala is still going as suggested in the DMs Guild conversion guide as I felt that would make it obvious to everyone, including the curator, that it's an egg, not a stone, and pretty much negate the need to steal it.]
With a bit of Bardic Inspiration, Catnip managed to do the Raiders of the Lost Ark-style swap with the piece of jade for the egg. She then placed the egg in Dr Dannell's magic bag. As they were leaving V13, I decided that the remaining four guards from downstairs would have come up to examine the bladetooth's pedestal to see if they could figure out how it had been set loose. The PCs managed to knock them all unconscious as well, although during the fight Sunny passed the magic bag to Catnip, who made a run for the skylight. One guard gave chase but was then knocked out.
The PCs successfully gave the egg to Dr Dannell and got their rewards. The players were all worried that their characters would end up getting arrested since the guards would be able to describe them to the authorities, but I ruled that the Golden Vault secretly intervened and the museum ended up deciding not to press charges.
For their uncommon magic item reward from the Golden Vault, they chose mithril chainmail for the paladin so she won't have disadvantage on her Stealth checks.
Overall I think this adventure was fun, and the players really enjoyed it. However, I note that by coming in via the skylight, they didn't need to explore the ground floor or the basement at all, so they did not interact with the museum offices and thus did not learn about the guard roster, find the spare pass cards, learn about the alarm spells, etc. It was nearly entirely by luck that they didn't trigger any of the security measures on the upper floor.
I decided that the Murkmire is a location in the Shadow Marches, and I had the Varkenbluff Museum be associated with Morgrave University in Sharn. I changed the quest giver to a Zil gnome named Dr Cassia Cantor Dannell.
The PCs went along to the museum while it was open. They didn't really look around much on the ground floor, but they did have a look around the upper floor before going into the gala. Dimble chatted with one of the guards and learned that the
At the gala, the PCs talked with the other guests and with the curator, whom I rejigged as a skull face-tattooed Aereni elf named Aldaea Alorenthi. They noticed that the stone's plinth was rigged with a security device but weren't able to figure out what exactly it did. They also learned a few of the rumors.
I rejigged the named gala guests as follows:
- Captain Frankheim Walters is a Brelish human.
- Vandylara Velderen, a House Tharashk dragonmarked heir who was part of the Murkmire expedition (replacing the sneering elf mining heiress).
- Countess Helene ir'Danforth is a Brelish human and a member of the Sixty. I played her as a matronly woman in her 60s.
- Dr Hrothnar Stonecrusher is a Brelish dwarf.
I also made the effort to place specific guards in the various after hours roster locations as follows:
- V1: Garent "Badger" Millaneff (male shifter), Franceena Lictor (female Karrnathi elf)
- V3: Brendaera Valindril (female Aereni elf)
- V4: Sureth Dhanvhal (male Thranish human)
- V8: Shield (male personality warforged)
- V9-10: Violet Pendergilt (female Brelish human), Sareena (female tiefling)
- V11: Milanova Mag Harlian (female Zil gnome)
- V12: Maryam Bickram (female Brelish human), Darrison Blackwaters (male Brelish human)
- V13: Grendor Toldorath (male Mror dwarf), Billie Quartermile (male halfling)
Later that evening, the PCs climbed up to the museum roof and re-entered via the open skylight. They ended up sneaking along the upper hallway into the cafe, where they failed to take out Milanova before she could call for reinforcements. I decided not to have the entire guard contingent come. Only the guards in areas V8 and V12 came. All those guards were knocked unconscious. The PCs found Maryam's key to area V13 and four pass cards.
Dimble then went and overloaded the bladetooth. While it was keeping the guards occupied downstairs, he snuck over and unlocked the door to V13, but as he approached the inner door, I told him he could hear the sound of movement from within, so he went back out and got Sunny to lift him up to the vent. He then spent ten minutes ritually casting detect magic to see if he could learn more about the magic security measures on the plinth.
Meanwhile, the other three snuck around and took out the two guards in areas V9 and V10, then stole the jade and the magic weapons. They also discovered that the secret door in V10 led to a cleaning supplies closet with another secret door leading to V13. [I had the other set of doors leading from V10 to V13 have "staff only" signs on them. Both Violet and Sareena had keys to those doors.]
To spice things up a bit, I had the stone turn translucent and do its first pulse just as the PCs all burst into the room to take out the dwarf and halfling guards. Because they're gnomes, they all have advantage on Wisdom saves vs magic, so only the dwarf guard failed, and he was knocked unconscious in one go by Sunny. While I like the idea of the wild magicky effects caused by the stone, they're all pretty much limited to combat effects, so there's not much point in doing the pulses outside of a combat encounter. [I also decided not to have the egg start pulsing magic while the gala is still going as suggested in the DMs Guild conversion guide as I felt that would make it obvious to everyone, including the curator, that it's an egg, not a stone, and pretty much negate the need to steal it.]
With a bit of Bardic Inspiration, Catnip managed to do the Raiders of the Lost Ark-style swap with the piece of jade for the egg. She then placed the egg in Dr Dannell's magic bag. As they were leaving V13, I decided that the remaining four guards from downstairs would have come up to examine the bladetooth's pedestal to see if they could figure out how it had been set loose. The PCs managed to knock them all unconscious as well, although during the fight Sunny passed the magic bag to Catnip, who made a run for the skylight. One guard gave chase but was then knocked out.
The PCs successfully gave the egg to Dr Dannell and got their rewards. The players were all worried that their characters would end up getting arrested since the guards would be able to describe them to the authorities, but I ruled that the Golden Vault secretly intervened and the museum ended up deciding not to press charges.
For their uncommon magic item reward from the Golden Vault, they chose mithril chainmail for the paladin so she won't have disadvantage on her Stealth checks.
Overall I think this adventure was fun, and the players really enjoyed it. However, I note that by coming in via the skylight, they didn't need to explore the ground floor or the basement at all, so they did not interact with the museum offices and thus did not learn about the guard roster, find the spare pass cards, learn about the alarm spells, etc. It was nearly entirely by luck that they didn't trigger any of the security measures on the upper floor.
This adventure took us roughly 5 hours across two sessions to complete.
I renamed the primary antagonist Markos ir'Delphi, in keeping with Eberron's naming conventions for noble families. I placed Delphi Manor on the outskirts of the Skyraker Forest west of Galethspyre in Breland.
I determined that Krokulmar was an entity from Xoriat, but I didn't mention the daelkyr.
I reskinned the paladins depicted in the paintings in a hallway in Delphi Manor as Silver Flame templars.
I made the sage from whom Markos stole the Celestial Codex a Zil gnome named Vasil Talis Trome. I had him living in Wroat. I made it so the Golden Vault key came with lightning rail tickets to Wroat.
This was a fairly straightforward adventure. The PCs explored the mansion and encountered most of its denizens. I went a bit easy with the butler-turned-hook horror. They had fun trying to communicate with a being with hooks for hands and an inability to speak Common. They also used their gnomish illusions to fool the ghost so they could steal the star map for the nothic.
With regards to the Fragment of Krokulmar: you'll need to decide whether the fragment's ability to restore hit points to a creature at 0 hp overrides the adventure's statement that everything stops when the possessed body drops to 0 hp. I ruled that it did. Since it can't really do much else, I had the fragment ready actions to heal its possessed body should it fall to 0 hp. Eventually the players realized they'd need to attack the fragment directly. I had been worried that it would be too easy a fight, so I had beefed up Markos' and the body's hit points. At one point it looked like it was going to be a TPK, but then Sunny's player rolled a nat 20 on a death save to save the day (by grabbing the fragment and squishing it). Catnip died due to failed death saves, but since the Delphi family seem happy to raise people from the dead, I ruled that they would pay to have the PC raised since Markos was saved.
Although the PCs attempted to pull off a heist and steal the codex from under Markos' nose by turning Sunny invisible, the time it took her to sneak over to the book meant that Markos was able to complete his ritual. It resulted in a climactic battle after all. It was a fun adventure, but I'm not sure I'd count it as a proper 'heist' given the default placement of the thing you're supposed to steal and the ritual countdown that begins once you enter that area
For their free uncommon magic item, the players chose a +1 greataxe for Sunny.
I renamed the primary antagonist Markos ir'Delphi, in keeping with Eberron's naming conventions for noble families. I placed Delphi Manor on the outskirts of the Skyraker Forest west of Galethspyre in Breland.
I determined that Krokulmar was an entity from Xoriat, but I didn't mention the daelkyr.
I reskinned the paladins depicted in the paintings in a hallway in Delphi Manor as Silver Flame templars.
I made the sage from whom Markos stole the Celestial Codex a Zil gnome named Vasil Talis Trome. I had him living in Wroat. I made it so the Golden Vault key came with lightning rail tickets to Wroat.
This was a fairly straightforward adventure. The PCs explored the mansion and encountered most of its denizens. I went a bit easy with the butler-turned-hook horror. They had fun trying to communicate with a being with hooks for hands and an inability to speak Common. They also used their gnomish illusions to fool the ghost so they could steal the star map for the nothic.
With regards to the Fragment of Krokulmar: you'll need to decide whether the fragment's ability to restore hit points to a creature at 0 hp overrides the adventure's statement that everything stops when the possessed body drops to 0 hp. I ruled that it did. Since it can't really do much else, I had the fragment ready actions to heal its possessed body should it fall to 0 hp. Eventually the players realized they'd need to attack the fragment directly. I had been worried that it would be too easy a fight, so I had beefed up Markos' and the body's hit points. At one point it looked like it was going to be a TPK, but then Sunny's player rolled a nat 20 on a death save to save the day (by grabbing the fragment and squishing it). Catnip died due to failed death saves, but since the Delphi family seem happy to raise people from the dead, I ruled that they would pay to have the PC raised since Markos was saved.
Although the PCs attempted to pull off a heist and steal the codex from under Markos' nose by turning Sunny invisible, the time it took her to sneak over to the book meant that Markos was able to complete his ritual. It resulted in a climactic battle after all. It was a fun adventure, but I'm not sure I'd count it as a proper 'heist' given the default placement of the thing you're supposed to steal and the ritual countdown that begins once you enter that area
For their free uncommon magic item, the players chose a +1 greataxe for Sunny.
I've redubbed this one "The Dolurrhi Gambit". (The PCs were 3rd level, but I didn't make any changes to creature stats.)
I've placed the Afterlife Casino on the banks of the Dagger River west of First Tower. The ambience is a campy sort of spooky, and the theme is "live it up and indulge to stave off the ennui of the afterlife". Employees are not all tieflings. Instead they dress up as ghosts and specters and wear black robes with "Scream" masks and such. The ferriers look Grim Reaperish. The tunnel leading to the casino is full of mist and ghostly noises and such - made to look like patrons are traveling into Dolurrh.
New arrivals are greeted by an employee playing the part of the Librarian from the Vault of Memories. This employee records patrons' names in a large book.
The casino chips bear the scratched on symbol of the Keeper. So do the pass cards for the employee-only doors (which are black and trimmed with silver). Given that the Keeper is the Sovereign of greed as well as death, it is a fitting symbol to use and didn't raise any suspicions amongst the PCs.
The tournament is the Queen of the Dead Invitational, and the trophy looks like a slender elf woman in a robe made of black feathers trimmed with mithril and a cracked alabaster mask.
The owner of the casino is Quentin Caras Clebdecher, and he is a Talon (a priest of the Keeper). The fresco in his room depicts a Dolurrhi landscape. If need be, I will have specters emerge from it instead of spined devils. I've kept Quentin's devilish look.
Verity is a Dolurrhi tiefling. She has pale skin and eyes, no horns, and curly white hair that trails off like mist. The theme of the casino is still a deliberate dig at her heritage by Quentin.
I placed the Brine Widow tavern in Sharn's Welcome, Cliffside.
Casino patrons:
I then had Jetta, whom we had coincidentally established was Glissando's cousin due to them having the same family name (Lyrriman), fall ill and ask him to take her place in the tournament. This allowed Glissando to palm a key card from one of the waiters and then pass it to Nissa.
Sunny and Catnip then caused a scene at the entrance to the tournament area to pull attention (and the security guard standing by the trophy) away from the back of the room. Nissa then surreptitiously cast minor illusion to create a static image of the room in front of the security mirror so that Dimble could sneak up to the trophy case unnoticed, unlock it, take the trophy and put it in Verity's magic bag, then replace it with a lookalike trinket he'd made using his magical tinkering feature.
Glissando managed to convince the casino security and Quentin not to incarcerate Sunny for brandishing a weapon and threatening another patron. (He played the "she's a simple barbarian and couldn't read the rules so didn't know" card.) Glissando agreed to Quentin's condition that he mind Sunny and make sure she caused no further disturbances or else they'd both end up in the cells. Sunny's magic axe would also be stored in the vault until she was ready to leave.
A little while later, Dimble and Nissa used the stolen key card to get into the laundry to obtain some staff uniforms. They then met Catnip, Sunny, and Glissando in the baths, where Glissando used his magic lute to turn Catnip invisible.
While Sunny and Glissando remained in the spa, Dimble and Nissa, posing as casino staff, entered the back offices with the invisible Catnip at their heels. They told the guards in the security office that they were there to retrieve the barbarian's axe because she was ready to leave. One of the guards reminded them about the new security feature, Virgil, and asked if they had the boss' magic control rod. Dimble prevaricated while Catnip snuck over to Quentin's office, found the rod in the desk drawer, then palmed it to him in secret. (I rolled to see if anyone would be in the back hall or if Quentin was in his office but got nothing both times.)
Dimble then used Virgil to open the wardrobes and chests. They took most of the money, putting 5k in Verity's bag, and all of the stowed collateral, and then nonchalantly walked out, and then everyone left the casino straight away (with Dimble and Nissa, still in uniform, acting like they'd finished their shift and were heading home). There wasn't really enough time for the casino staff to raise the alarm.
One thing I'd like to note is that, while the description of the clerk's office states that PCs can verify the presence of "roughly 5,000 gp" in the vault by reading the magic ledger, the description of the vault indicates that all seven chests contain a total of "2d4 x 1,000 gp", meaning that there could be as little as 2,000 gp in the coffers at any one time, which doesn't really work since Verity needs 5,000 gp. We decided to interpret it as 2d4 x 1,000 per chest, but then we ended up with way too much money, so we just halved the amount, and then they took about half of that so the casino employees wouldn't notice right away (like they would if the coffers were completely cleaned out). 5,000 went to Verity, and I think they were left with maybe 2,500 (or 500 apiece) after that? Not a bad haul - but not enough to retire on either!
For the free uncommon item, they chose a nature's mantle cloak for Catnip.
I've placed the Afterlife Casino on the banks of the Dagger River west of First Tower. The ambience is a campy sort of spooky, and the theme is "live it up and indulge to stave off the ennui of the afterlife". Employees are not all tieflings. Instead they dress up as ghosts and specters and wear black robes with "Scream" masks and such. The ferriers look Grim Reaperish. The tunnel leading to the casino is full of mist and ghostly noises and such - made to look like patrons are traveling into Dolurrh.
New arrivals are greeted by an employee playing the part of the Librarian from the Vault of Memories. This employee records patrons' names in a large book.
The casino chips bear the scratched on symbol of the Keeper. So do the pass cards for the employee-only doors (which are black and trimmed with silver). Given that the Keeper is the Sovereign of greed as well as death, it is a fitting symbol to use and didn't raise any suspicions amongst the PCs.
The tournament is the Queen of the Dead Invitational, and the trophy looks like a slender elf woman in a robe made of black feathers trimmed with mithril and a cracked alabaster mask.
The owner of the casino is Quentin Caras Clebdecher, and he is a Talon (a priest of the Keeper). The fresco in his room depicts a Dolurrhi landscape. If need be, I will have specters emerge from it instead of spined devils. I've kept Quentin's devilish look.
Verity is a Dolurrhi tiefling. She has pale skin and eyes, no horns, and curly white hair that trails off like mist. The theme of the casino is still a deliberate dig at her heritage by Quentin.
I placed the Brine Widow tavern in Sharn's Welcome, Cliffside.
Casino patrons:
- Lysa Silvertongue, an Aundairian human bard
- Georgie Simmons, a Brelish human commoner from First Tower
- Karlton Keyes, a Brelish human merchant
- Lowell and Lorna Brassborn, Brelish dwarf siblings
- Rythil of Moonwatch, a Brelish elf businessman
- Anaïs Bellefleur, a shifter from the Eldeen Reaches
- Jetta Lyrriman Dal, a Zil gnome
- Karn Ironpebble, a Thranish dwarf
- Lahdia of Stormreach, a Xen'drik drow
- Nightshade, a mummified-looking Aereni elf
- Ruthie Swifford, a Brelish human from Wroat
- Whiplash, a Brelish male personality warforged
- Wumpus Boromar, a Brelish halfling from Sharn
- A1 is where the 'Librarian' greets new patrons
- A2 is the Crucible
- A3 is the Vault of Memories
- A4 is the Kennel (and the rats are skeletal)
- A5 is Bar Ennui
- A6 is the Silver Flame Spa and Sovereign Baths
- A8 is where the Cirque Six performs
- A9 is the Queen's Chambers
- A11 is the Catacombs Restaurant
I then had Jetta, whom we had coincidentally established was Glissando's cousin due to them having the same family name (Lyrriman), fall ill and ask him to take her place in the tournament. This allowed Glissando to palm a key card from one of the waiters and then pass it to Nissa.
Sunny and Catnip then caused a scene at the entrance to the tournament area to pull attention (and the security guard standing by the trophy) away from the back of the room. Nissa then surreptitiously cast minor illusion to create a static image of the room in front of the security mirror so that Dimble could sneak up to the trophy case unnoticed, unlock it, take the trophy and put it in Verity's magic bag, then replace it with a lookalike trinket he'd made using his magical tinkering feature.
Glissando managed to convince the casino security and Quentin not to incarcerate Sunny for brandishing a weapon and threatening another patron. (He played the "she's a simple barbarian and couldn't read the rules so didn't know" card.) Glissando agreed to Quentin's condition that he mind Sunny and make sure she caused no further disturbances or else they'd both end up in the cells. Sunny's magic axe would also be stored in the vault until she was ready to leave.
A little while later, Dimble and Nissa used the stolen key card to get into the laundry to obtain some staff uniforms. They then met Catnip, Sunny, and Glissando in the baths, where Glissando used his magic lute to turn Catnip invisible.
While Sunny and Glissando remained in the spa, Dimble and Nissa, posing as casino staff, entered the back offices with the invisible Catnip at their heels. They told the guards in the security office that they were there to retrieve the barbarian's axe because she was ready to leave. One of the guards reminded them about the new security feature, Virgil, and asked if they had the boss' magic control rod. Dimble prevaricated while Catnip snuck over to Quentin's office, found the rod in the desk drawer, then palmed it to him in secret. (I rolled to see if anyone would be in the back hall or if Quentin was in his office but got nothing both times.)
Dimble then used Virgil to open the wardrobes and chests. They took most of the money, putting 5k in Verity's bag, and all of the stowed collateral, and then nonchalantly walked out, and then everyone left the casino straight away (with Dimble and Nissa, still in uniform, acting like they'd finished their shift and were heading home). There wasn't really enough time for the casino staff to raise the alarm.
One thing I'd like to note is that, while the description of the clerk's office states that PCs can verify the presence of "roughly 5,000 gp" in the vault by reading the magic ledger, the description of the vault indicates that all seven chests contain a total of "2d4 x 1,000 gp", meaning that there could be as little as 2,000 gp in the coffers at any one time, which doesn't really work since Verity needs 5,000 gp. We decided to interpret it as 2d4 x 1,000 per chest, but then we ended up with way too much money, so we just halved the amount, and then they took about half of that so the casino employees wouldn't notice right away (like they would if the coffers were completely cleaned out). 5,000 went to Verity, and I think they were left with maybe 2,500 (or 500 apiece) after that? Not a bad haul - but not enough to retire on either!
For the free uncommon item, they chose a nature's mantle cloak for Catnip.
I decided to make Revel's End part of the Dreadhold prison island. I decided that because Dreadhold is a sizable island, House Kundarak could have multiple prison facilities around the island, with Revel's End being the place where they keep prisoners with magical abilities (hence the antimagic field cells).
The warden is Marta d'Kundarak. The three Absolution Council members are non-dragonmarked Kundaraks. The prison guards are all dwarves.
I made Varrin Axebreaker a Sharn native, and Prisoner 13's hidden vault is somewhere in the ruins of Old Sharn. Varrin pulled some strings to get the PCs onto an airship bound for Regalport, the technical capital of the Lhazaar Principalities. There they hitched a ride with Varrin's associate Bethra.
I made it so the magic map didn't melt in the PCs' hands right away. I hadn't bothered to figure out how long it would take to travel from Sharn to Regalport and then to Dreadhold island, so I made it so the PCs were instructed to activate the map when they were approaching the prison. That way they would have the full five days that the map lasts to plan and execute their plan in the prison.
Because I had made it so all the guards were dwarves and none of the PCs had the means to disguise themselves as a dwarf (all being gnomes, one of whom is human-sized), I went along with the players' alternative plans. Sunny and Catnip went to the prison as cooks, while Glissando smuggled himself inside in a crate. Nissa, meanwhile, went under the pretense of preaching to the prisoners in hopes of converting them to the Silver Flame religion, and Dimble went to volunteer his services as an artificer to fix things. I figured that House Kundarak would have its own staff of artificers to fix things based elsewhere on the island, but both of them rolled super high on their checks to convince the warden, so I waived the whole "the warden only lets people come in if they're seeking shelter" thing and went with it.
To further play on the artificer player's idea, I made it so the warden's magical heating was playing up in her chambers, so she got him to look at fixing it. This gave him the opportunity to scout out her office and also to learn about her possession.
Nissa's player, meanwhile, was able to use the pretense of proselytizing to the prisoners to speak privately with Prisoner 13 in the exercise yard.
The group decided to steal the warden's ledger and then make a forgery of it, changing some of the info to be incorrect. They suspect that Prisoner 13 is up to no good with wanting the info in the ledger, so they want to mess up her plans while still getting the key from her.
The players all rolled really well during the first session, so everything has gone according to plan ... we'll see if anything goes awry next session. If not, it'll be a fairly short finish to this adventure, and then we'll move on to something else!
~~~~
The players continued to roll really well, including several nat 20s. They smuggled the forged ledger to Prisoner 13 in her food. She then later told Nissa in the exercise yard that that was no good. She needed to be able to be given the book to read. Since Nissa was on her own and couldn't consult with her comrades, she hesitated ... so I had Prisoner 13 state that, after returning to her cell, she could feign feeling ill so that she would be taken to the infirmary. Since there isn't a medic stationed there, it seemed logical for the guards to ask Nissa, as a paladin, to tend to the prisoner. Nissa was able to convince the guard to step outside so she could examine Prisoner 13. The latter then read the book and then showed Nissa her key tattoo, but it was a bit too complicated for Nissa to figure out.
Later that day, Nissa conferred with her allies, and it was decided that Glissando would turn himself invisible and sneak over to Prisoner 13's cell to invisibly copy the tattoo. Here's where the high rolls finally stopped, as he failed a few Stealth rolls and raised the prison's suspicion level in the process (finally!) and had to use a hero point to succeed on the Arcana check to accurately record the tattoo.
The following evening, Nissa was able to convince the warden to let her and her fellow gnomes outside in the evening to attend to "gnome stuff". They then signaled the boat and made their getaway.
All in all, this was a tense but ultimately combat-less adventure. I do feel like there should be consequences down the road, though. Surely at some point Prisoner 13 will figure out that some of the information in the ledger is inaccurate and will direct some of her agents to get back at the party. Also, House Kundarak will want to do an investigation into what exactly happened when a bunch of gnomes showed up at one of their prisons and then left suddenly. They may eventually figure out the truth. But then the Golden Vault will step in and smooth things over in the background.
For their magic item rewards from Varrin Axebreaker, they chose the cap of water breathing (for general use), the slippers of spider climbing (for Catnip), and a suit of mithril plate armor (for Dimble).
For their rare magic item reward from the Golden Vault, they chose an Amulet of Health for Sunny.
The warden is Marta d'Kundarak. The three Absolution Council members are non-dragonmarked Kundaraks. The prison guards are all dwarves.
I made Varrin Axebreaker a Sharn native, and Prisoner 13's hidden vault is somewhere in the ruins of Old Sharn. Varrin pulled some strings to get the PCs onto an airship bound for Regalport, the technical capital of the Lhazaar Principalities. There they hitched a ride with Varrin's associate Bethra.
I made it so the magic map didn't melt in the PCs' hands right away. I hadn't bothered to figure out how long it would take to travel from Sharn to Regalport and then to Dreadhold island, so I made it so the PCs were instructed to activate the map when they were approaching the prison. That way they would have the full five days that the map lasts to plan and execute their plan in the prison.
Because I had made it so all the guards were dwarves and none of the PCs had the means to disguise themselves as a dwarf (all being gnomes, one of whom is human-sized), I went along with the players' alternative plans. Sunny and Catnip went to the prison as cooks, while Glissando smuggled himself inside in a crate. Nissa, meanwhile, went under the pretense of preaching to the prisoners in hopes of converting them to the Silver Flame religion, and Dimble went to volunteer his services as an artificer to fix things. I figured that House Kundarak would have its own staff of artificers to fix things based elsewhere on the island, but both of them rolled super high on their checks to convince the warden, so I waived the whole "the warden only lets people come in if they're seeking shelter" thing and went with it.
To further play on the artificer player's idea, I made it so the warden's magical heating was playing up in her chambers, so she got him to look at fixing it. This gave him the opportunity to scout out her office and also to learn about her possession.
Nissa's player, meanwhile, was able to use the pretense of proselytizing to the prisoners to speak privately with Prisoner 13 in the exercise yard.
The group decided to steal the warden's ledger and then make a forgery of it, changing some of the info to be incorrect. They suspect that Prisoner 13 is up to no good with wanting the info in the ledger, so they want to mess up her plans while still getting the key from her.
The players all rolled really well during the first session, so everything has gone according to plan ... we'll see if anything goes awry next session. If not, it'll be a fairly short finish to this adventure, and then we'll move on to something else!
~~~~
The players continued to roll really well, including several nat 20s. They smuggled the forged ledger to Prisoner 13 in her food. She then later told Nissa in the exercise yard that that was no good. She needed to be able to be given the book to read. Since Nissa was on her own and couldn't consult with her comrades, she hesitated ... so I had Prisoner 13 state that, after returning to her cell, she could feign feeling ill so that she would be taken to the infirmary. Since there isn't a medic stationed there, it seemed logical for the guards to ask Nissa, as a paladin, to tend to the prisoner. Nissa was able to convince the guard to step outside so she could examine Prisoner 13. The latter then read the book and then showed Nissa her key tattoo, but it was a bit too complicated for Nissa to figure out.
Later that day, Nissa conferred with her allies, and it was decided that Glissando would turn himself invisible and sneak over to Prisoner 13's cell to invisibly copy the tattoo. Here's where the high rolls finally stopped, as he failed a few Stealth rolls and raised the prison's suspicion level in the process (finally!) and had to use a hero point to succeed on the Arcana check to accurately record the tattoo.
The following evening, Nissa was able to convince the warden to let her and her fellow gnomes outside in the evening to attend to "gnome stuff". They then signaled the boat and made their getaway.
All in all, this was a tense but ultimately combat-less adventure. I do feel like there should be consequences down the road, though. Surely at some point Prisoner 13 will figure out that some of the information in the ledger is inaccurate and will direct some of her agents to get back at the party. Also, House Kundarak will want to do an investigation into what exactly happened when a bunch of gnomes showed up at one of their prisons and then left suddenly. They may eventually figure out the truth. But then the Golden Vault will step in and smooth things over in the background.
For their magic item rewards from Varrin Axebreaker, they chose the cap of water breathing (for general use), the slippers of spider climbing (for Catnip), and a suit of mithril plate armor (for Dimble).
For their rare magic item reward from the Golden Vault, they chose an Amulet of Health for Sunny.
Glissando died in the Mournland. His replacement PC is a deep gnome ninja, Belwar Seamfinder, who works for Zilargo's Trust. Since there are two 5th level Golden Vault adventures, I decided to ignore the Golden Vault aspects of this adventure. Instead, I made it so Belwar originally came from Little Lockford, which I placed beneath the Howling Peaks on the northern border of Zilargo. I decided that the residents of Little Lockford don't consider themselves citizens of either Zilargo or Breland.
I established that the town's mayor is Belwar's aunt. She sent him a request for help. He then learned through the Trust network that some gnomish adventurers were in town to attend their fallen comrade's memorial service, so he approached them for help through a mutual acquaintance. They agreed to help him (obviously), and the journey from Korranberg to Little Lockford took 15 days (thus playing into the adventure's premise that it's been a few weeks since Tockworth turned on everyone.)
By the numbers, this is not a difficult adventure as written. For five 5th level PCs, Tixie is only a medium encounter, as is the shield guardian. Everything else is easy or trivial. (Even the cloaker in the mines is only a hard encounter, and as written, it only tries to frighten the PCs away rather than fight them.) I recommend giving some creatures, like Tixie and her shield guardian, max HP. I also added some more clockwork creatures that the townsfolk didn't know about (see my notes below), although I forgot about one and my players avoided the others.
We completed this adventure in two sessions. In the first session, they made it as far as the abbey. They convinced the escaped prisoners to go with them and the abbot, whom they escorted back to the front gates as requested. Thanks to Catnip's pass without trace spell, they avoided all contact with clockwork patrols. In the second session, they decided to take the slagline straight to Smoldertown, thus bypassing Turbine Heights entirely. They snuck straight to Tixie's workshop. Belwar cast darkness above the shield guardian (not knowing it had blindsight) and then ran under its legs to open the door. The party then engaged in a running battle as some of them pushed into the workshop and headed up the ladder to the second floor. I gave the party a few rounds before Rack and Pinion finished building the new clockwork defender. They then climbed up the ladder after the PCs who had gone up there while the defender ran out to engage the PCs fighting the shield guardian.
Tixie showed up once Dimble picked the lock on her safe. She managed to take him down but lasted only three rounds herself and didn't get a chance to dimension door away again. The Batman-esque paladin Nissa chose to act as Tixie's judge, jury, and executioner. Dimble got a nat 20 and recovered. He managed to resist the crown of madness spell and successfully used the key to deactivate the town's defenses. And that was the end of the adventure!
Like "Reach for the Stars", this adventure isn't much of a heist since it's impossible to get the key without summoning Tixie (assuming the PCs haven't dealt with her already). Her workshop is also specifically described as being windowless and only has one door, so there's no way to sneak in that doesn't involve getting past the shield guardian. Also, once the PCs get the key, all they have to do is take it downstairs. In retrospect, I think I would move the fail-safe device to the security center in the Overlook. It makes sense to put it there - it's the town's security center after all! - and it means that the item needing to be stolen and the place where you need to use it aren't in the same location.
While we only used about half the content in the adventure, the players really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too. However, if I run it again, I'll make some further changes.
Also, regarding the slagline - the buckets are spaced 15 feet apart and it moves for one minute. We decided that meant the slagline moves 15 feet per minute so that no buckets get missed at each loading station. I then calculated that each station and bucket marked on the map would be a 2-minute interval. Counting those got me to a total of 50 minutes from Old Lockford's station to the foundry in Smoldertown.
Other notes:
I personally dislike Tixie's portrayal. For starters, how does she manage to do anything with no hands? I found that a bit too ridiculous for me, so I decided that her mechanical arms still ended in hands, but one contained a retractable sword (like a warforged's armblade) while the other contained a retractable / foldable shield. The other issue is that the artist (and the art director, it would seem) forgot that deep gnomes have grey skin. Her portrait was easy enough for me to fix in Photoshop but still ...
I established that the town's mayor is Belwar's aunt. She sent him a request for help. He then learned through the Trust network that some gnomish adventurers were in town to attend their fallen comrade's memorial service, so he approached them for help through a mutual acquaintance. They agreed to help him (obviously), and the journey from Korranberg to Little Lockford took 15 days (thus playing into the adventure's premise that it's been a few weeks since Tockworth turned on everyone.)
By the numbers, this is not a difficult adventure as written. For five 5th level PCs, Tixie is only a medium encounter, as is the shield guardian. Everything else is easy or trivial. (Even the cloaker in the mines is only a hard encounter, and as written, it only tries to frighten the PCs away rather than fight them.) I recommend giving some creatures, like Tixie and her shield guardian, max HP. I also added some more clockwork creatures that the townsfolk didn't know about (see my notes below), although I forgot about one and my players avoided the others.
We completed this adventure in two sessions. In the first session, they made it as far as the abbey. They convinced the escaped prisoners to go with them and the abbot, whom they escorted back to the front gates as requested. Thanks to Catnip's pass without trace spell, they avoided all contact with clockwork patrols. In the second session, they decided to take the slagline straight to Smoldertown, thus bypassing Turbine Heights entirely. They snuck straight to Tixie's workshop. Belwar cast darkness above the shield guardian (not knowing it had blindsight) and then ran under its legs to open the door. The party then engaged in a running battle as some of them pushed into the workshop and headed up the ladder to the second floor. I gave the party a few rounds before Rack and Pinion finished building the new clockwork defender. They then climbed up the ladder after the PCs who had gone up there while the defender ran out to engage the PCs fighting the shield guardian.
Tixie showed up once Dimble picked the lock on her safe. She managed to take him down but lasted only three rounds herself and didn't get a chance to dimension door away again. The Batman-esque paladin Nissa chose to act as Tixie's judge, jury, and executioner. Dimble got a nat 20 and recovered. He managed to resist the crown of madness spell and successfully used the key to deactivate the town's defenses. And that was the end of the adventure!
Like "Reach for the Stars", this adventure isn't much of a heist since it's impossible to get the key without summoning Tixie (assuming the PCs haven't dealt with her already). Her workshop is also specifically described as being windowless and only has one door, so there's no way to sneak in that doesn't involve getting past the shield guardian. Also, once the PCs get the key, all they have to do is take it downstairs. In retrospect, I think I would move the fail-safe device to the security center in the Overlook. It makes sense to put it there - it's the town's security center after all! - and it means that the item needing to be stolen and the place where you need to use it aren't in the same location.
While we only used about half the content in the adventure, the players really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too. However, if I run it again, I'll make some further changes.
Also, regarding the slagline - the buckets are spaced 15 feet apart and it moves for one minute. We decided that meant the slagline moves 15 feet per minute so that no buckets get missed at each loading station. I then calculated that each station and bucket marked on the map would be a 2-minute interval. Counting those got me to a total of 50 minutes from Old Lockford's station to the foundry in Smoldertown.
Other notes:
- The goblin Slonk and bugbear Yuzzik were instead Munta and Rakari respectively. They were members of the Kech Volaar (a branch of the Heirs of Dhakaan). They were captured while scouting the area around Little Lockford for Dhakaani relics.
- The 'Deep Brother' is just the deep gnomes' name for Onatar, Sovereign of Fire and Forge.
- The town gates were manned by two magewrights who have to perform a 5-minute ritual to open them. It's slower, but it's also not as noisy as two knock spells! And it adds a little more Eberron flavor.
- Even though I wasn't using the Golden Vault, I added a rare magic item to the mayor's rewards anyway: a pair of bracers of defense, which Belwar admirably let Sunny have. Since the party already has one stone of good luck, I decided they didn't need another, so I replaced that with a pyroconverger (from the Ravnica book - it seemed suitably Eberronish + gnomish) found in Tixie's workshop. I made it a prototype she was working on - hence its short range and the chance of having it malfunction. Dimble the artificer took it, of course, along with the driftglobe. The boots of striding and springing were given to Nissa since Catnip (the only other PC with 25 ft speed) already has some slippers of spider climbing.
- I made it so when the PCs entered Tixie's workshop, Rack and Pinion were just finishing a clockwork defender (like in the picture).
- I added a clockwork iron cobra with increased speed and an overactive sense of self-preservation to area 9b. Tixie created it to guard her lockbox. I then promptly forgot about it!
- I added an oaken bolter with sensors and a ground fault to the Overlook (area 12). It was guarding the security center from the outside. I added a second one guarding the south end of the east bridge between Turbine Heights and Smoldertown. My players avoided these by using the slagline to get from Old Lockford to Smoldertown.
I personally dislike Tixie's portrayal. For starters, how does she manage to do anything with no hands? I found that a bit too ridiculous for me, so I decided that her mechanical arms still ended in hands, but one contained a retractable sword (like a warforged's armblade) while the other contained a retractable / foldable shield. The other issue is that the artist (and the art director, it would seem) forgot that deep gnomes have grey skin. Her portrait was easy enough for me to fix in Photoshop but still ...
I lost most of my notes for Masterwork Imbroglio. Here's what I've still got / can remember:
I placed the adventure in Aundair, with the Cognoscenti Esoterica based in Fairhaven and the Agile Hand in Lathleer, where they specialized in stealing magical trinkets and cultural artifacts to order for high-class customers. I made some custom statblocks that were all variations on arcane tricksters with some minor magical abilities. I think I used a variation of the ambitious assassin statblock from The Book of Many Things for Guildmaster Dusk.
I determined that the guildhouse had a permanent nondetection effect in place and that the main doors had arcane locks on them. I replaced the drunken gladiator in G12 with a bard named Deadly Nell, for whom I used a variation on Edgin Darvis' statblock.
The PCs took a lightning rail to Fairhaven, where they met with Adrisa outside the city. I made it so the prisoner was willing to talk because he felt slighted by Guildmaster Dusk, who'd promoted others over him.
They then took an Orien coach to Lathleer. They staked out the guildhouse, then followed Elix the Saint into town and stole his key. The artificer made a copy of the key, then they dropped it in the guildhouse courtyard to allay suspicions ("Oh, Elix was drunk and dropped his key. Here it is ...").
They then decided to approach the guildhouse from the "blind spot" behind the tower. And then the paladin cast locate object and determined that the painting was at the top of the tower. At first I thought that this was going to result in a very short adventure, but I decided that the painting would make enough noise to wake up Dusk, which then turned the whole thing into a running battle as the PCs tried to make it to the stables with the painting, while Dusk and all her minions tried to intercept them.
I had Dusk call a truce and offer to pay the PCs more than what the Cognoscenti had offered them if they returned the painting and walked away. Of course, the PCs weren't going to do that, so Dusk had her minions attack.
The oni blasted the PC carrying the painting with his cone of cold, and then Dusk managed to recover the painting and ran into the basement with it. The PCs dealt with all but the oni, who flew off as I figured he wasn't willing to sacrifice his life even for Dusk.
This then meant that the PCs, having regrouped after the fight, had to go explore the basement and experience the various challenges and find the secret doors. This they did, and then Dusk wasn't much of a challenge on her own against five PCs. They took her prisoner and dumped her outside the Lathleer watch house on their way back to Fairhaven.
So while I initially thought the adventure was going to be super short and we would miss most of the content, we ended up using pretty much all of it! It took us three sessions to play through IIRC.
I placed the adventure in Aundair, with the Cognoscenti Esoterica based in Fairhaven and the Agile Hand in Lathleer, where they specialized in stealing magical trinkets and cultural artifacts to order for high-class customers. I made some custom statblocks that were all variations on arcane tricksters with some minor magical abilities. I think I used a variation of the ambitious assassin statblock from The Book of Many Things for Guildmaster Dusk.
I determined that the guildhouse had a permanent nondetection effect in place and that the main doors had arcane locks on them. I replaced the drunken gladiator in G12 with a bard named Deadly Nell, for whom I used a variation on Edgin Darvis' statblock.
The PCs took a lightning rail to Fairhaven, where they met with Adrisa outside the city. I made it so the prisoner was willing to talk because he felt slighted by Guildmaster Dusk, who'd promoted others over him.
They then took an Orien coach to Lathleer. They staked out the guildhouse, then followed Elix the Saint into town and stole his key. The artificer made a copy of the key, then they dropped it in the guildhouse courtyard to allay suspicions ("Oh, Elix was drunk and dropped his key. Here it is ...").
They then decided to approach the guildhouse from the "blind spot" behind the tower. And then the paladin cast locate object and determined that the painting was at the top of the tower. At first I thought that this was going to result in a very short adventure, but I decided that the painting would make enough noise to wake up Dusk, which then turned the whole thing into a running battle as the PCs tried to make it to the stables with the painting, while Dusk and all her minions tried to intercept them.
I had Dusk call a truce and offer to pay the PCs more than what the Cognoscenti had offered them if they returned the painting and walked away. Of course, the PCs weren't going to do that, so Dusk had her minions attack.
The oni blasted the PC carrying the painting with his cone of cold, and then Dusk managed to recover the painting and ran into the basement with it. The PCs dealt with all but the oni, who flew off as I figured he wasn't willing to sacrifice his life even for Dusk.
This then meant that the PCs, having regrouped after the fight, had to go explore the basement and experience the various challenges and find the secret doors. This they did, and then Dusk wasn't much of a challenge on her own against five PCs. They took her prisoner and dumped her outside the Lathleer watch house on their way back to Fairhaven.
So while I initially thought the adventure was going to be super short and we would miss most of the content, we ended up using pretty much all of it! It took us three sessions to play through IIRC.
This one I just knew was going to go quickly. There's a lot of talking / roleplaying at the start. Then my players decided the direct approach was best. They knocked on the conservatory's front door and requested an audience with Skalderang. They asked for the mandolin back. When he refused and attempted to ban them from his conservatory, they refused to leave and stopped him from running away. The PCs also told Skalderang about the demonic ichor that had poisoned his olive orchard, turning him against Joster. I had Skalderang surrender and hand over the mandolin, while Joster escaped via the Ethereal Plane. He may come back in some later adventure for revenge. I don't know.
The chasme attacked the PCs as they were leaving but it wasn't a particularly difficult fight. The PCs all made their saves against the droning.
And that was that! Over in two hours flat. The players enjoyed the silliness of this adventure, from the undead bard to the hillbilly halflings, Mackerel and Trout Bonanza, with their sandcastle "map" to the hideously dressed Mozart wannabe, Sythian Skalderang.
Oh, the Eberron-themed changes I made were:
The chasme attacked the PCs as they were leaving but it wasn't a particularly difficult fight. The PCs all made their saves against the droning.
And that was that! Over in two hours flat. The players enjoyed the silliness of this adventure, from the undead bard to the hillbilly halflings, Mackerel and Trout Bonanza, with their sandcastle "map" to the hideously dressed Mozart wannabe, Sythian Skalderang.
Oh, the Eberron-themed changes I made were:
- I placed Toadhop on the southeastern shore of Lake Brey, near Starilaskur, with Skalderang Conservatory in the rural farmlands surrounding the city.
- The halflings with the silly names lived further along the lakeshore from Toadhop.
- I made it so Skalderang had Shavaran tiefling heritage, with his blue skin being slightly scaly and his black horns looking like blackened iron.
- Joster was a servant of Eldrantulku the Oathbreaker instead of Graz'zt, but the PCs never discovered that.
This adventure took 3 sessions to play through. It ended up playing out in a similar fashion to "Masterwork Imbroglio" in that at first it looked like the PCs were going to pull off the heist with little challenge but then suddenly things went pear-shaped!
I placed the eponymous vault in the Brelish city of Starilaskur, which is still damaged from the war (hence the empty buildings near the vault). Vidorant and Goldenbeard conned their way into the Aurum. When Goldenbeard was elevated to the Silver Concord, he used his newfound power and influence to frame Vidorant and get her kicked out.
The Golden Vault arranged for the PCs to meet with Goldenbeard at Moraggan's, the posh dwarf tavern in Highhold, Upper Dura ~ a popular haunt for wealthy Mror expats, of which Goldenbeard is one (Clan Kolkarun). Goldenbeard asked them to retrieve his family heirloom diadem (which I decided was an item a relative of his had recovered from the Realm Below). He provided them with lightning rail tickets to get them to Starilaskur.
While Belwar staked out Vidorant's mansion, Catnip and Fluffywings staked out the vault, and Nissa and Dimble went gathering information. They found one of Vidorant's ex-guards - a Zil gnome named Breelyn Del Doras - who gave them some information and a rudimentary map.
I made one of Vidorant's current guards a warforged. The rest were mostly human. I made it so there's a shift change every 4 hours, with six guards swapping at every change. I also added a door on the east wall of room T4 so the guards have a way of reaching rooms T7-9 without having to go through T6 first. I made it so the guards rotate counterclockwise, entering room T6 via the secret door so they don't trigger the traps on the other doors (since they can only be disabled from inside the room).
The incriminating evidence in area T5 pertains to Goldenbeard and Vidorant's thieving past and the fact that they pretended to be legitimately wealthy in order to gain admission into the Aurum.
In area T6, I described the large landscape paintings as depicting Mirror Lake in the Mror Holds, the Blade Desert in Valenar, the Shimmerwood Forest in Zilargo, and the Sundering Peaks in Aerenal. The smaller painting depicts Stormhome as seen from Scions Sound.
In area T7, I replaced the +X items with a two-birds sling, a byeshk spear, and a suit of mithril scale armor.
In T15, I made the following changes to the treasures:
When the PCs approached Vidorant's vault, they went in via her office window using Belwar's Immovable Rod and Dimble's Rope of Climbing. They quickly found her secret vault (via the secret passage). They spotted the wards on the cases and items, but they got a bit greedy and triggered an alarm while attempting to steal an item. I think they took the treasure map and the heretical text as well as the diadem.
So Vidorant and some of her guards entered her office at the same time the PCs did. She presented her counter-offer and although the PCs ultimately declined, they did give back the treasure map. They then tried to escape out the open window, but Vidorant managed to stun-charm Dimble and took the bag of holding off him, then legged it down the hall and through the maze of the first floor (which the PCs hadn't explored). The PCs fought with her guards for a bit before giving chase, so she had time to get out her secret door and vanish before anyone could catch up to her.
The PCs ended up in a bad way. Dimble was knocked out and dying. Belwar zoomed ahead through the first floor with his monk super speed, tearing through the rooms so fast that he didn't stop to look for secret doors or anything, and found himself at the front entrance, where he doubled back to help Dimble upstairs. Catnip, meanwhile, was alone on the first floor, pinned on the ceiling by several guards and the helmed horrors. Nissa, ever the valiant paladin, ran away.
I made it so Vidorant had stopped to watch. She spotted Nissa running away, so chased after and cornered her alone in an alley, where she repeated her counter-offer. This time Nissa was willing to listen. Meanwhile, Belwar had revived Dimble, and the pair had come to Catnip's rescue. They made it outside just as Vidorant and Nissa returned. Vidorant took them to a nearby late-night cafe and told them her sob story about her falling out with Goldenbeard. She then told the PCs to have a sleep and meet them at her home the next morning.
There, she returned their magic bag, minus the diadem and a few minor magic items (mainly potions and scrolls and a few other extraneous items none of the PCs use). She also gave them her incriminating evidence about Goldenbeard.
So they returned to Sharn empty-handed and successfully lied to Goldenbeard that they'd been unable to get the diadem because Vidorant's defensives are impregnable. They've kept the incriminating evidence to themselves for the time being.
As I am intending to runVecna Vol: Eve of Ruin later in the campaign, I am going to have Vidorant be the one who hooks the PCs into the initial quest. (The kidnapped celebrity is one of Vidorant's friends.)
Overall, this was a fun one! The PCs didn't really explore the lower level as thoroughly as they could have, but it was still a lot of fun, and it was nice to have an antagonist who wasn't all that interested in killing the PCs. I'm glad I made her an Enchanting Beguiler instead of a bog standard assassin, though. There are too many of those in this adventure series!
I placed the eponymous vault in the Brelish city of Starilaskur, which is still damaged from the war (hence the empty buildings near the vault). Vidorant and Goldenbeard conned their way into the Aurum. When Goldenbeard was elevated to the Silver Concord, he used his newfound power and influence to frame Vidorant and get her kicked out.
The Golden Vault arranged for the PCs to meet with Goldenbeard at Moraggan's, the posh dwarf tavern in Highhold, Upper Dura ~ a popular haunt for wealthy Mror expats, of which Goldenbeard is one (Clan Kolkarun). Goldenbeard asked them to retrieve his family heirloom diadem (which I decided was an item a relative of his had recovered from the Realm Below). He provided them with lightning rail tickets to get them to Starilaskur.
While Belwar staked out Vidorant's mansion, Catnip and Fluffywings staked out the vault, and Nissa and Dimble went gathering information. They found one of Vidorant's ex-guards - a Zil gnome named Breelyn Del Doras - who gave them some information and a rudimentary map.
I made one of Vidorant's current guards a warforged. The rest were mostly human. I made it so there's a shift change every 4 hours, with six guards swapping at every change. I also added a door on the east wall of room T4 so the guards have a way of reaching rooms T7-9 without having to go through T6 first. I made it so the guards rotate counterclockwise, entering room T6 via the secret door so they don't trigger the traps on the other doors (since they can only be disabled from inside the room).
The incriminating evidence in area T5 pertains to Goldenbeard and Vidorant's thieving past and the fact that they pretended to be legitimately wealthy in order to gain admission into the Aurum.
In area T6, I described the large landscape paintings as depicting Mirror Lake in the Mror Holds, the Blade Desert in Valenar, the Shimmerwood Forest in Zilargo, and the Sundering Peaks in Aerenal. The smaller painting depicts Stormhome as seen from Scions Sound.
In area T7, I replaced the +X items with a two-birds sling, a byeshk spear, and a suit of mithril scale armor.
In T15, I made the following changes to the treasures:
- The treasure map is for the lost island of Trebaz Sinara. The label reads "reportedly from Pirate Queen Lhazaar herself".
- The scepter is made of Irian wood and was used to crown Queen Calinia of Metrol. It was a gift from the Undying Court.
- The silvered dagger was used to assassinate Prince Angryn Kas, a descendant of Malleon the Reaver.
- The thesis is an heretical Silver Flame text. Reading it allows someone to cast Conjure Celestial once.
When the PCs approached Vidorant's vault, they went in via her office window using Belwar's Immovable Rod and Dimble's Rope of Climbing. They quickly found her secret vault (via the secret passage). They spotted the wards on the cases and items, but they got a bit greedy and triggered an alarm while attempting to steal an item. I think they took the treasure map and the heretical text as well as the diadem.
So Vidorant and some of her guards entered her office at the same time the PCs did. She presented her counter-offer and although the PCs ultimately declined, they did give back the treasure map. They then tried to escape out the open window, but Vidorant managed to stun-charm Dimble and took the bag of holding off him, then legged it down the hall and through the maze of the first floor (which the PCs hadn't explored). The PCs fought with her guards for a bit before giving chase, so she had time to get out her secret door and vanish before anyone could catch up to her.
The PCs ended up in a bad way. Dimble was knocked out and dying. Belwar zoomed ahead through the first floor with his monk super speed, tearing through the rooms so fast that he didn't stop to look for secret doors or anything, and found himself at the front entrance, where he doubled back to help Dimble upstairs. Catnip, meanwhile, was alone on the first floor, pinned on the ceiling by several guards and the helmed horrors. Nissa, ever the valiant paladin, ran away.
I made it so Vidorant had stopped to watch. She spotted Nissa running away, so chased after and cornered her alone in an alley, where she repeated her counter-offer. This time Nissa was willing to listen. Meanwhile, Belwar had revived Dimble, and the pair had come to Catnip's rescue. They made it outside just as Vidorant and Nissa returned. Vidorant took them to a nearby late-night cafe and told them her sob story about her falling out with Goldenbeard. She then told the PCs to have a sleep and meet them at her home the next morning.
There, she returned their magic bag, minus the diadem and a few minor magic items (mainly potions and scrolls and a few other extraneous items none of the PCs use). She also gave them her incriminating evidence about Goldenbeard.
So they returned to Sharn empty-handed and successfully lied to Goldenbeard that they'd been unable to get the diadem because Vidorant's defensives are impregnable. They've kept the incriminating evidence to themselves for the time being.
As I am intending to run
Overall, this was a fun one! The PCs didn't really explore the lower level as thoroughly as they could have, but it was still a lot of fun, and it was nice to have an antagonist who wasn't all that interested in killing the PCs. I'm glad I made her an Enchanting Beguiler instead of a bog standard assassin, though. There are too many of those in this adventure series!
This adventure took 3 sessions to complete. Rather than run it as a Golden Vault adventure, I switched it to an Infinite Staircase adventure. The changes I made were pretty much all cosmetic.
I renamed Oztocan "New Xeluan" and placed it in the Sun Pillar mountains in Xen'drik. "Oztocanite" accordingly became "xeluanite", which I described as being similar to dragonshards.
I changed the backstory so that Xeluan was a mighty stone giant who sided with the elves during their rebellion. His sacrifice was to protect his elf friends from the magical devastation wrought by the dragons of Argonnessen. The elves lived happily in Xeluan's citadel for generations but eventually, for reasons unknown, the settlement was abandoned.
Explorers from Khorvaire rediscovered the ruined citadel shortly before the Last War started. Refugees from the war traveled to the site and, mistaking references to "Xeluan" for the name of the citadel rather than the giant who built it, they named their new settlement "New Xeluan".
Fast forward 80-odd years, and the elf Rilago finds the documents in his family archives and travels to New Xeluan. The mayor won't let him dig beneath the citadel, but he's an elf, so he settles down to bide his time. Meanwhile, the mayor's daughter, Aminta, grows up and leaves for Stormreach, where she joins the Onyx Scar criminal gang (secretly run by one of the Storm Lords).
Not knowing this, the mayor invites his daughter back to New Xeluan to become captain of the town guard. She accepts and then sets about corrupting them for the Onyx Scar. Eventually her father dies, and her brother, Tavio, is elected mayor. She strongarms him into letting Rilago and her look for the tomb.
As written, the adventure talks about Rilago and Aminta finding the tomb, and Rilago dying, mere weeks ago. I don't think that's enough time for the shard to build up a reputation as a cursed item, so I made it so two years had passed. After Rilago's death, Aminta went to Stormreach again, taking the shard with her. At some point she lost it or sold it or whatever, and it spent the next two years making its way to Sharn, where Yana the hobgoblin scholar from Mograve University acquired it. She didn't think much of it at first and set it aside.
Meanwhile, someone back in New Xeluan ventured into the tomb and discovered that Xeluan's body was beginning to fall apart. Perhaps this same someone sent word to Aminta. She went to see for herself, bringing Edino the Onyx Scar mage with her. They discovered that the pieces of Xeluan's body had magical properties not unlike dragonshards (just with a potential downside). It took her a few months to convince her bosses back in Stormreach to send her men, money, and supplies to mount a proper mining expedition, then a few more months to get it up and running. She and Edino have been trying to find ways to accelerate Xeluan's decay, which has been leading to an increase in the number of tremors and such in the New Xeluan area.
Yana's friend and colleague, the Khoravar playwright Leandro, traveled to New Xeluan a while back and has been writing to Yana ever since. His letters concerning the troubles plaguing the formerly peaceful town prompted her to look at the shard again. She did some research but couldn't figure out much, so she went to consult with Nafas the noble genie. Together they did some more research - most likely magical in nature - and learned that the shard was tied to New Xeluan and should be returned, etc etc. Nafas then summoned his favorite problem solvers, the PCs.
They then spent a bit of time traveling the staircase looking for a door that would get them close to New Xeluan. Along the way, they encountered a celestial who was able to speed them along their way to the right door, which opened inside a costume cupboard backstage at New Xeluan's amphitheater. (By the time the PCs arrive in New Xeluan, Aminta's mining operation has only been in full swing for a few weeks.)
They quickly tracked down Leandro, who gave them his info and sent them to talk to Tavio the mayor. I ran both interactions as written in the adventure. The PCs did not accept Tavio's offer to have them pose as workers, preferring instead to sneak in via the air shafts. They chose the eastern one first. They encountered the myconids in the garden. Because Catnip has now multiclassed as a druid, my daughter wanted to make use of her new abilities, so I ruled that she was able to communicate with the myconids and convince them that the PCs meant them no harm. They told her what they knew but warned her they could not control the shambling mound, so the PCs decided to exit the tomb and go to the western air shaft and explore that side since the eastern side was more or less a dead end for them.
On the west side, they talked to the commoners who were resting, persuading them to share some info. They then went into the storage room and up the stairs to the second floor. They debated trying to sneak past the twins playing cards but ultimately decided to approach them openly. The twins started to run away to warn Aminta, so the PCs gave chase and fought them. One died on the mezzanine, but the other managed to make it to Aminta.
Dimble lent Catnip the bag of holding, and she used her spider climb slippers to walk along the ceiling and down Xeluan's arm to get to his chest. A tremor shook the tomb when she pulled the shard out of the magic bag. Catnip was hit by falling debris, as were several of the workers down below. She was dismayed when the shard wouldn't go back into his heart. While the others fought Aminta and her gang, Catnip wandered back down the hall and examined the murals and reliefs on the walls. The other PCs were able to kill the remaining doppelganger and both of Aminta's lieutenants. They then knocked Aminta out and tied her up.
Catnip shared what she'd figured out about Xeluan's history from the murals, and the others concluded that since Rilago was an elf and he had found info about the tomb in his family archives then he must be descended from one of the ancient elf heroes who'd fought alongside Xeluan. Looking at their map, they decided to look in the crypt, where they met Rilago's ghost. He directed them to Edino, the evil elf mage. They fought and destroyed his clay golem rather handily. Edino tried to escape, blasting the PCs with a cone of cold and an ice storm along the way, but they soon got the better of them.
Then it was a simple matter of taking the four pieces of xeluanite and touching them to Xeluan's body to release the trapped spirits. They weren't sure if they could trust Rilago, but Catnip agreed to let him possess her, and he then went and stuck the shard back in the giant's petrified heart, and the day was saved!
By this point, it was getting late, so the players didn't bother exploring the rest of the tomb. They handed Aminta over to her brother. I explained that Xeluan's body went back to being impervious, stopping the Onyx Scar from mining any more of the xeluanite and hold a grudge against them, which may have consequences further down the track. (I am planning to run Grasp of the Emerald Claw soon, which involves the PCs visiting Stormreach. They might bump into some Onyx Scar thugs on the street who recognize the group of gnomes who wrecked the operation in New Xeluan.)
After returning to Sharn via the Infinite Staircase, the PCs visited Yana at Morgrave University. In payment for their services, she gave them a professor orb named Professor Skerrit. Its chosen specialties are:
The only other changes I made were:
I renamed Oztocan "New Xeluan" and placed it in the Sun Pillar mountains in Xen'drik. "Oztocanite" accordingly became "xeluanite", which I described as being similar to dragonshards.
I changed the backstory so that Xeluan was a mighty stone giant who sided with the elves during their rebellion. His sacrifice was to protect his elf friends from the magical devastation wrought by the dragons of Argonnessen. The elves lived happily in Xeluan's citadel for generations but eventually, for reasons unknown, the settlement was abandoned.
Explorers from Khorvaire rediscovered the ruined citadel shortly before the Last War started. Refugees from the war traveled to the site and, mistaking references to "Xeluan" for the name of the citadel rather than the giant who built it, they named their new settlement "New Xeluan".
Fast forward 80-odd years, and the elf Rilago finds the documents in his family archives and travels to New Xeluan. The mayor won't let him dig beneath the citadel, but he's an elf, so he settles down to bide his time. Meanwhile, the mayor's daughter, Aminta, grows up and leaves for Stormreach, where she joins the Onyx Scar criminal gang (secretly run by one of the Storm Lords).
Not knowing this, the mayor invites his daughter back to New Xeluan to become captain of the town guard. She accepts and then sets about corrupting them for the Onyx Scar. Eventually her father dies, and her brother, Tavio, is elected mayor. She strongarms him into letting Rilago and her look for the tomb.
As written, the adventure talks about Rilago and Aminta finding the tomb, and Rilago dying, mere weeks ago. I don't think that's enough time for the shard to build up a reputation as a cursed item, so I made it so two years had passed. After Rilago's death, Aminta went to Stormreach again, taking the shard with her. At some point she lost it or sold it or whatever, and it spent the next two years making its way to Sharn, where Yana the hobgoblin scholar from Mograve University acquired it. She didn't think much of it at first and set it aside.
Meanwhile, someone back in New Xeluan ventured into the tomb and discovered that Xeluan's body was beginning to fall apart. Perhaps this same someone sent word to Aminta. She went to see for herself, bringing Edino the Onyx Scar mage with her. They discovered that the pieces of Xeluan's body had magical properties not unlike dragonshards (just with a potential downside). It took her a few months to convince her bosses back in Stormreach to send her men, money, and supplies to mount a proper mining expedition, then a few more months to get it up and running. She and Edino have been trying to find ways to accelerate Xeluan's decay, which has been leading to an increase in the number of tremors and such in the New Xeluan area.
Yana's friend and colleague, the Khoravar playwright Leandro, traveled to New Xeluan a while back and has been writing to Yana ever since. His letters concerning the troubles plaguing the formerly peaceful town prompted her to look at the shard again. She did some research but couldn't figure out much, so she went to consult with Nafas the noble genie. Together they did some more research - most likely magical in nature - and learned that the shard was tied to New Xeluan and should be returned, etc etc. Nafas then summoned his favorite problem solvers, the PCs.
They then spent a bit of time traveling the staircase looking for a door that would get them close to New Xeluan. Along the way, they encountered a celestial who was able to speed them along their way to the right door, which opened inside a costume cupboard backstage at New Xeluan's amphitheater. (By the time the PCs arrive in New Xeluan, Aminta's mining operation has only been in full swing for a few weeks.)
They quickly tracked down Leandro, who gave them his info and sent them to talk to Tavio the mayor. I ran both interactions as written in the adventure. The PCs did not accept Tavio's offer to have them pose as workers, preferring instead to sneak in via the air shafts. They chose the eastern one first. They encountered the myconids in the garden. Because Catnip has now multiclassed as a druid, my daughter wanted to make use of her new abilities, so I ruled that she was able to communicate with the myconids and convince them that the PCs meant them no harm. They told her what they knew but warned her they could not control the shambling mound, so the PCs decided to exit the tomb and go to the western air shaft and explore that side since the eastern side was more or less a dead end for them.
On the west side, they talked to the commoners who were resting, persuading them to share some info. They then went into the storage room and up the stairs to the second floor. They debated trying to sneak past the twins playing cards but ultimately decided to approach them openly. The twins started to run away to warn Aminta, so the PCs gave chase and fought them. One died on the mezzanine, but the other managed to make it to Aminta.
Dimble lent Catnip the bag of holding, and she used her spider climb slippers to walk along the ceiling and down Xeluan's arm to get to his chest. A tremor shook the tomb when she pulled the shard out of the magic bag. Catnip was hit by falling debris, as were several of the workers down below. She was dismayed when the shard wouldn't go back into his heart. While the others fought Aminta and her gang, Catnip wandered back down the hall and examined the murals and reliefs on the walls. The other PCs were able to kill the remaining doppelganger and both of Aminta's lieutenants. They then knocked Aminta out and tied her up.
Catnip shared what she'd figured out about Xeluan's history from the murals, and the others concluded that since Rilago was an elf and he had found info about the tomb in his family archives then he must be descended from one of the ancient elf heroes who'd fought alongside Xeluan. Looking at their map, they decided to look in the crypt, where they met Rilago's ghost. He directed them to Edino, the evil elf mage. They fought and destroyed his clay golem rather handily. Edino tried to escape, blasting the PCs with a cone of cold and an ice storm along the way, but they soon got the better of them.
Then it was a simple matter of taking the four pieces of xeluanite and touching them to Xeluan's body to release the trapped spirits. They weren't sure if they could trust Rilago, but Catnip agreed to let him possess her, and he then went and stuck the shard back in the giant's petrified heart, and the day was saved!
By this point, it was getting late, so the players didn't bother exploring the rest of the tomb. They handed Aminta over to her brother. I explained that Xeluan's body went back to being impervious, stopping the Onyx Scar from mining any more of the xeluanite and hold a grudge against them, which may have consequences further down the track. (I am planning to run Grasp of the Emerald Claw soon, which involves the PCs visiting Stormreach. They might bump into some Onyx Scar thugs on the street who recognize the group of gnomes who wrecked the operation in New Xeluan.)
After returning to Sharn via the Infinite Staircase, the PCs visited Yana at Morgrave University. In payment for their services, she gave them a professor orb named Professor Skerrit. Its chosen specialties are:
- the history of the Kingdom of Galifar
- lycanthropy and the traits of lycanthropes
- rituals surrounding the making, bottling, and drinking of Goodberry wine
- Dyrrn the Corruptor
The only other changes I made were:
- X6: The statues in the alcoves depicted three of the elf heroes who were Xeluan's companions.
- X7: The shrine here related to the ancient elves' ancestor worship.
- X13: The shrines here are for the Sovereign Host and the Silver Flame.
- I also made it so the workers were an assortment of species (humans, elves, goblins, a dwarf, etc).
Next up: Heart of Ashes
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