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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8798889" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JqZhoyT.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/401439/Escape-from-the-Cyre-1313" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: AdventureCoS-Required? NoWhen Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft released, it had a host of new and altered domains, some well-detailed and others confined to a few paragraphs at most. One of the latter examples was the Cyre 1313, aka the Mourning Rail, a lightning rail train from the world of Eberron that failed to escape the Mourning due to the tardiness of a VIP stalling its escape. As Ravenloft liberally borrowed domains from most other settings, many were excited to see Eberron getting some love in the Domains of Dread.Escape From the Cyre 1313 is an adventure for 4 1st-2nd level PCs who will reach 3rd level at the end of this adventure via the milestone system (and 2nd level at the point they’re being hunted by the ghostly crew members). The overall concept is that one way or another, the PCs end up on the Cyre 1313 and need to find a way to escape. They must do this via convincing the Last Passenger, the domain’s darklord, to grant them leave and then take advantage of the train’s magitek machinery to force it to stop.There are several sample hooks for starting this adventure, with alternate boxed text descriptions depending on if the PCs are from the world of Eberron or not. They include waking up from a nightmare in a train car, hunting for fugitive bandits whose leader got trapped in the domain, or hearing a tale about the Cyre 1313 from travelers in a shared camp. We have a brief description of an abandoned lightning rail station for groups who don’t start in the domain, where they can buy tickets from an undead shadow vendor and see vague blurry figures on the platform.The adventure is modular, with variable characters, train cars, and even darklord identities to make for different experiences. The PCs must look around for Clues which reveal more information about the domain, its inhabitants, and how to escape it. There are six different types of carts (the module’s term for train cars), albeit there are a few that come predetermined: the luxury cart for rich and important passengers cannot be accessed unless its existence is found out via Clues, and PCs who would ordinarily walk into it instead teleport to the next cart over. Some carts aren’t open to passengers, such as the fancy lounge cart or crew carts, and being spotted by crew members or passengers will count as trespassing (see below)Intentionally or accidentally leaving the Cyre 1313 causes a character to lose consciousness and teleport back into the cart with 1 level of exhaustion. Additionally, lightning storms can potentially damage a character every round. There’s an optional cart type, a Haunted cart, for DMs who want a more challenging or combat-filled adventure. These carts are home to a randomly-determined table of monsters (usually aberrations or undead), along with creepy supernatural events like gibbering voices in the darkness or the mists outside fading to show Castle Ravenloft or some other notable landmark.Searching for Clues is the primary aspect of this adventure. It can be a simple Investigation check made once per cart with the result determining whether you find a minor or major Clue. They detail the luxury suite cart, more details on the identity of crew members and/or the Inspector, the corrupted elemental which is trapped within the khyber dragonshard powering the train, and how to take control of the train. Clues and other kinds of rewards can also be obtained from particular passengers. While most inhabitants are spectral shadowy beings who long lost any sense of identity, there are Lost Souls which have a better sense of self and living Prisoners who are beings trapped like the PCs. We have a list of 4 Lost Souls and 2 Prisoners, and PCs who manage to help them come to terms with unfinished business in their lives and leave them with some kind of reward after fading from the domain. One of the constant passengers is the Card Master, a vistani woman who can share information with the PCs if they entertain her in some way, such as beating her in a game or sharing an interesting story.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/lgzlnW4.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Of course, the Cyre 1313 isn’t a harmless place full of passive beings; the crew members observe a list of 15 rules in line with keeping a kind of order, and PCs who break these rules gradually increase their hostility by an Enrage Counter that begins with apathetic neutrality to keeping watch over them to openly searching for and attacking them. Attacking other passengers, entering restricted areas, not having a ticket (tickets can be obtained as treasure in the adventure or bought if the adventure begins with the PCs buying tickets at the lightning rail station), and trying to escape all count as enraging actions. Not all of the rules are made to make things difficult: haunted carts are not part of the train so the crew doesn’t care what happens inside them, the crew can’t check cabins unless they see trespassers going inside, and they can only take action against people breaking the rules or if a passenger asks for help. The Enrage Counter will also go up when PCs find major Clues, help the Lost Souls or Prisoners with their tasks, and completing leads, meaning it is likely the party will eventually earn their enmity even if acting in a pacifistic way. The leader of the crew members is the Inspector, an eerie old man with a lantern with the ability to teleport between carts and the ability to detect rulebreakers and trespassers. He is a tough CR 3 monster who can deal a lot of lightning damage (2d10) against creatures he grapples along with a multiattack slam attack, and once per hour can summon other crew members for help. The Inspector is pretty dangerous for a 1st-2nd level party, and can easily one-shot a character with a grapple and a good damage roll. However, as he cannot do the lightning damage and the grapple in a single round, there is a window of opportunity for the PC or their friends in breaking free.As for the Last Passenger, they can only be found and approached once the PCs get Major Clues about the Luxury Suite Cart and the Last Passenger proper. There are six sample NPCs to serve as the darklord complete with role-playing notes, reasons they would stop the rail, and specific Clues about them. But the things they share in common are being utterly selfish, oblivious or unwilling to admit that their actions led to the deaths of the people and creation of the Mourning Rail, and are unaware of how much time has passed since the domain’s creation. The sample NPCs include a greedy member of House d’Cannith whose primary tactics are finding out how people can benefit or enrich him; a Cyran nationalist soldier who sought to gather up suspected “traitors” she blamed for the ensuing collapse of her nation in a single train to kill, a train conductor whose alcoholism caused him to oversleep and be unable to get the train to leave Cyre in time; a half-elf criminal who sabotaged the engine out of vindictive malice because her husband wanted to stay and get as many evacuees as possible into the Cyre 1313; a warforged laborer whose abuse and mistreatment by others made him create malfunctions and last-minute repairs as an act of rebellion; and a spectral shade who is the conglomeration of an angry and disorganized mob who slowed the evacuation process as violence broke out in the need to blame someone for their delay. Violently attacking or killing the Last Passenger won’t help the PCs escape, for they will resurrect in the cabin in 1d4 hours.After dealing with the darklord, the PCs gain access to the frontal crew cart where a Siberys dragonshard (the text earlier said it was Khyber) is powering the train. A PC who has a Dragonmark of Passage is able to control the train without any checks or spells necessary, but otherwise an Intelligence check is required whose DC depends on how many Clues were discovered about controlling the train. Once the Mourning Rail stops, all of the haunted carts disappear and the crew and Inspector turn hostile on the party, seeking to prevent them from escaping. If the PCs destroy the crystal, the train can be brought to a stop, although this will unleash a hostile corrupted elemental. This is a new CR 3 monster which can squeeze through tiny spaces, has an aura of lightning that damages creatures in a 10 foot radius, and can only spend more than 10 feet of movement via passing through electrical devices such as the lanterns illuminating the carts. Destroying a lantern it is currently in imposes disadvantage on all d20 rolls until the end of its next turn or until it moves to another lantern.PCs who escape the Mourning Rail will receive an epilogue of just barely making it out, finding themselves where they last were before they were on the train with no time seemingly having passed. PCs who didn’t get off with the rest of the party are lost and bound to the domain for eternity, becoming a shadow the next time the party visits the Domain of Dread.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/bo0tMyD.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The book ends with 3 new magic items and an appendix of handouts. The magic items include an Electrical Engine Lantern (basically a modern flashlight), a Detector Rod (can be used to cast Detect Magic and gives advantage on Perception checks to find hidden creatures once per day), and Honorguard (+1 Longsword that makes the wielder aware of any undead or aberrations within 30 feet, is obtained from a Lost Soul security guard to retrieve the weapon from the back crew cart). The handouts include an in-character list of passenger rules that are broadsheets the PCs can find in the train, full-page portraits of the Inspector, the Card Master, each sample darklord save the Shade, and grid maps for each type of cart.Overall Thoughts: Escape from the Cyre 1313 is a clever little module. Although it is in some respects a literal railroad, the emphasis on clue-finding and interaction over combat (at least initially) helps expand the feeling of freedom. The sample characters are all interesting as well, and the gradual hostility of the crew members rather than instantaneous “attack on sight” is a good means of allowing for some room for error.One of my major criticisms is that virtually every page has at least one grammatical error. The text is still more or less readable, but it occurs often enough that it throws me off frequently. Additionally, the plot hook which involves waking up from a nightmare has the PCs meet a crew member immediately asking for tickets. PCs who don’t have a ticket are given one chance to find one before being treated as trespassers, at which point they’re to be taken to an impromptu prison in the rear crew cart. While this isn’t a combat-inevitable beginning, it is one that has a harder default state than the other adventure hooks.Join us next time as we visit more domains in the Atlas of Dread!</blockquote>

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