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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8800508" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XCN7cm1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/329961/The-Fate-of-St-Penetas" target="_blank">Product Link</a>Product Type: AdventureCoS-Required? No, but it can lead into it.Content Warning: adventure background deals with suicideDesigned for four characters of 5th level, the adventure’s title isn’t about a character so much as a monastery named after the character in the title. The Monastery of St. Penetas was a former temple to Lathander located on top of a plateau. Liana, the sister of a nobleman known as Lord Ambul, drew Strahd’s attention in his pursuit of a new bride, so her family made her go into hiding to live among the monks of the monastery. Such a plan was not to last, for Strahd’s minions discovered her location and told the monks to give her up lest they face Strahd’s wrath. The monks broke their own vows of protection and sought to give up Liana, but the woman would prefer any fate than to be at Strahd’s side. She even went so far as to stab herself to death with a piece of stained broken glass.Liana’s brother would be the first to avenge her, killing the monks save for a few survivors to face Strahd when the vampire count arrived. He did, and destroyed the monastery and also killed Lord Ambul who he also viewed as responsible for failing to protect his intended “prize.” Now the once-holy ground lays in ruins, haunted by a curse.As for how the PCs tie into this, one possible hook is that they’re hired by a secret society seeking lost holy relics, promising the party a fair 325 gold each to recover any relics they find. Using Maertin the local guide and his wagon, the party passes through a haunted forest with a warning to stay on the path. The journey takes five days, and over that time the PCs will notice an utter absence of animal wildlife, the loss of direction, and the days growing shorter. PCs who do wander off the path will be attacked by will-o-wisps until they retreat back to the road. Upon reaching the plateau, the wagon will be unable to make the trek, and as they ascend an unnatural fog will follow them up the trail, dealing necrotic damage every round they remain within. This fog is a result of the monastery’s curse, and has stranded unlucky souls who sought to visit the ruins. An old woman by the name of Auntie Ivory will meet the party at a campsite, and offer to read their fortune via a Tarokka deck. She knows who the PCs are, and can explain some vague warnings about the monastery. If attacked she will disappear in a puff of smoke.The Tarokka deck isn’t just for show. Much like in Curse of Strahd and its predecessors, the cards drawn determine certain facts about the adventure in a randomized fashion. This drawing of the deck makes use of just 10 cards, all from the High Deck. Two of the top cards (the Artifact or Broken Man) signify the party’s Fate and are marked the Villain and Ally, determining the antagonist of the adventure and an ally who are both within the monastery. Each PC draws twice from the deck for the rest of the results; these cards are Fortune cards, signifying an Aid and a Danger. Aid results determine the location of a Relic of St. Penetas, new attunable magic items in this module, while Danger cards have a false relic which crumbles to dust when touched and has a relevant danger instead. The Aids and Dangers are keyed to rooms in the monastery. As for the Villain and Ally cards, the NPCs still have the same backstory and stats. The Tarokka deck merely changes their roles in the story and how they approach the party. Auntie Ivory also left a wooden box that can be found via a skill check near the campsite. It contains a Rotstone Amulet, a cursed item that gives +1 to AC and saving throws but also causes any death save result to automatically be a natural 1. As to why she’d leave such a potentially dangerous item there? It’s because her Tarokka readings aren’t “without cost.” Which is odd, as such a cost wouldn’t be “paid for” if the PCs overlook it or detect its cursed nature.So already we have a few problems. The spooky forest and dangerous fog are both very railroady, and while the loss of control of one’s surroundings is necessary to some degree in horror it feels rather artificial when imposed in such a way. While the PCs can take rests in the monastery and there’s no major time constraints on the adventure, I imagine that the fog’s presence is meant to force them to complete the dungeon. A better means would be to fast-forward and have the PCs at the foot of the monastery with some background text of why they’re there.Secondly the Tarokka results are highly reliant on a very specific party size. The module isn’t built for Tarokka results for parties sized differently than 4, although one could perhaps depersonalize the result by just drawing 8 cards independent of PCs. There’s also the fact that Aids and Dangers aren’t specifically attuned to the PC drawing the card: the dangers are dangerous to everyone, and the relics aren’t locked to that particular PC.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/VizH3HB.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /><img src="https://i.imgur.com/JsvKrBL.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />I should note that the book contains handouts for alternate versions of the map with numbers and without. For the ground floor S. Penetas is a 2 level dungeon with 14 total rooms, split between the ground floor and the underground catacombs. 7 of the rooms correspond to relevant Fortunes via Aid or Dangers, and 2 of the rooms contain the results of the Fate NPCs. There’s a number of monsters that can be found in the monastery, several of which the PCs can avoid fighting via clever use of the environment. Several rooms contain skill checks to discover hidden items and areas as well as determine past facts and relevant details of the monastery. Results include examples such as the iron gate’s scorch marks being the result of lightning magic (which was cast by Strahd), or noticing sensory oddities regarding the illusory feast in the great hall.For the most relevant combat encounters, a pack of wolves and a werewolf can be fought in the courtyard (room 3), and the tree is haunted by harmless spirits of monks hung by Lord Ambul. The tree appears to contain a relic, which is the real deal on an Aid. As a Danger, the tree will come to life and attack, reverting to a “normal” tree if the party flees the courtyard. In the great hall (room 7) a group of ghouls are feasting on entrails but are disguised to look like noblemen having a feast and will invite the PCs to join them. PCs can perform skill checks to politely refuse their hospitality and gain information from them, although eating the “food” ends the illusion and a PC gains a short-term madness on a failed Wisdom save. The ghouls will attack if the illusion is dispelled, the PCs continue being suspicious of them, or otherwise refuse their hospitality. The Fortune for this room has a hidden compartment in the hearth, revealing a relic on an Aid or a summoned fire elemental with a free surprise round on Danger (elemental is snuffed out if the PCs retreat from the room). The bell tower (room 8) contains an organic sack hanging from the rafters containing a gestating vrock. It will awaken and attack from loud noise, although cutting the sack open can cause it to fall to the ground and take falling damage; in this room an Aid makes the vrock weaker in addition to giving the relic, but Danger makes Stealth checks suffer disadvantage when it comes to to avoid waking the vrock. The bell tower is of special significance, for the only way to end the curse is to ring the bell with the Holy Striker, a magical maul which can only be obtained from the NPC designated as the Villain. The main crypt (room 10) contains a sarcophagus whose lid if not handled carefully can break and alert creatures deeper in the catacombs. On an Aid result the relic is with a harmless corpse, but on a Danger the false relic is in a trapped sarcophagus (fills the room with poison gas) which also has a mummy.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/pYTKv9s.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />So, who are the two major NPCs? One of them is the spirit of Lord Ambul, who resides in the chapel (room 5) existing as a tormented spirit. As an ally he can explain the history of the monastery and the backstory of the adventure, as well as how to end the curse. He says that the Holy Striker is in the catacombs below, but he cannot leave the chapel. If he is the villain, the altar in the chapel contains the Holy Striker and must be broken apart with damage in order to be obtained, and Lord Ambul will attack the party. In combat he is a ghostly knight, with a high AC of 19, incorporeal movement, a multiattack with a longsword and the ability to smite as a paladin. He also has lair actions such as grappling a target with ghostly ropes, dealing ranged necrotic damage, and teleporting adjacent to a target. Due to his curse his spirit will reform with 1 hit point in a manner of hours.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/lvAE9CX.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The other NPC is Dr. Steinrick Vanhelm, a mad scientist wizard specializing in necromancy and golem creation. Having stolen books from a prestigious magical college to pursue his experiments, his progress so far has only ended in disastrous failure. He has a spider familiar as a lab assistant as well as multiple rogi minions. Rogis are tiny constructs made of stitched-together body parts of various animals, who possess rudimentary speech and view Dr. Vanhelm as a god. They aren’t very threatening in combat save for carrying poisoned syringes which can inflict the poisoned condition on a failed Constitution save, or unconsciousness on a failure of 5 or more.The rogis can be found in other rooms in the dungeon, and if Dr. Vanhelm is the Ally an injured rogi will plead with the party to help save his master. Either way the doctor can be found in the catacombs below, attempting to animate a flesh golem in a makeshift laboratory. If he is an ally, the golem has come to life and seeks to kill the doctor, forcing Vanhelm to hide as it rampages about. If rescued he can tell the party more about the monastery, the curse, the Holy Striker’s location, and also about himself and how he’s been trapped in the monastery for several months due to the deadly fog. He’s reluctant to help retrieve the Holy Striker, and even if he could he spent all his spell slots in dealing with the flesh golem.As the Villain, Dr. Vanhelm’s experiment is instead to bond with the flesh golem, and the results of the process left him murderously insane and he will attack the party along with his rogi minions. He doesn’t merge with the golem immediately, having to spend an action each round and rolling a d20, only triggering on a 10 or greater. As for what happens if they bond…the book doesn’t say. I presume it means the golem is under his control, for there are no stats provided in this book for a scientist-golem hybrid. The Holy Striker is being used to power one of the devices used in the experiment.Regardless of Dr. Vanhelm’s role, the golem has an aversion to fire which he knows about, and a Potion of Fire Breath is present in the room for just such a worst-case scenario. Dr. Vanhelm’s only major abilities are his list of wizard spells, containing such classic options as Magic Missile, Mirror Image, Misty Step, and Lightning Bolt.Once the Holy Striker is retrieved and the bell rung, the sun will rise over the horizon, dispelling the fog. Their Ally will thank the PCs and reward them. In the case of Lord Ambul, he will tell them the location of his and his sister’s remains which has a damaged half plate, a +1 longsword, and valuable signet rings worth a total of 350 gold pieces. Dr. Vanhelm will pay the PCs with treasure he found in the monastery, which includes a Potion of Fire Breath (presumably different from the one in the lab) and 475 gold pieces worth of coins and jewelry. Upon going back down the plateau, Maertine will be there safe and sound, and it turns out that time outside the monastery made it so that the PCs were gone for one night, no matter how many long rests they took.This adventure works fine as a stand-alone module, but in being tied into Curse of Strahd it serves as a prologue to that campaign. Once the curse is lifted the Ally will explain that they were bound into service by Strahd Von Zarovich to test adventurers by seeing if they were competent enough to lift the curse. Now that the ally is free, they are eager to depart. Meanwhile Strahd’s carriage awaits the party at the bottom of the plateau, where it will transport them to the Svalich Woods in Barovia.I will note that being 5th level, the PCs will be overleveled in the beginning Curse of Strahd. Even if one gets rid of the Death House preliminary adventure, that one brings PCs up to 3rd level. If going by the official adventure, the expected average level of 5 is recommended for PCs visiting the Village of Krezk and/or the Wizard of Wines Winery. Although Curse of Strahd is a pretty tough and open-ended module, it may take a bit of the horror away if the PCs are overleveled for many of the initial locations and challenges.AppendicesThe appendices have stat blocks for every monster and NPC present in the module. Individually most of them aren’t a challenge for a 5th level party, but in being a dungeon crawl they serve well as a gradual resource drain. Some new (or at least non-core) monsters we have are a Bloated Ghoul (like a ghoul but explodes in an AoE burst of bile upon death), a Ghostly Swarm (mob of ghosts who have the effects of Spirit Guardians and attack with a ghostly flail), a Mountain Bear (like a bear but can rage like a barbarian), Rogi (already explained), Revenant Tree (multiattacks with slamming and grappling branches but is immobile), and Slithering Nightmares (swarm of worms that burrow into the flesh of creatures it attacks, dealing damage if not scraped off or dug out from flesh).We also get a total of 6 new magic items. We have the Holy Striker, a +1 maul which can cast Thunderwave once per day as a 4th level spell. We already explained the Rotstone Amulet, so the rest are relics of St. Penetas which are all skeletal body parts of the aforementioned saint, save for the heart which is a box containing a supernaturally-beating heart. The Hand functions as a wand whose charges can be used to cast Scorching Ray and once per way the user can sacrifice blood via HP damage to recharge the wand. The Heart grants the attuned person the benefits of the Death Ward spell, and once triggered recharges after 3 days. The Skull is a +1 mace that deals +1d6 bonus radiant damage and once per day can deal 2d8 extra radiant damage (3d8 if fiend or undead) like a paladin’s smite. Finally the Voice is a human trachea that is blown like a horn. This is a once per day AoE cone attack that deals 5d6 thunder damage, and undead, fiends, and creatures made of crystal or glass have disadvantage on the save.Overall Thoughts: The Fate of St. Penetas is a divergent dungeon crawl that makes heavy use of the Tarokka deck in determining the overall opposition of the module. I like how there’s many opportunities for PCs to piece together clues and facts about the monastery via skill checks, exploration, and interaction with NPCs and even monsters. The Relics of St. Penetas are very cool magic items and serve as fine treasures while also being useful against the creatures within the monastery. I appreciate this style of game design.My main point of criticism is that the opening is rather railroady and slow, along with the tie-in to Curse of Strahd resulting in overleveled party members. There’s also the fact that Dr. Vanhelm’s Villain fight can be anticlimactic. He’s only assisted by 3 rogis and a spider familiar which PCs can easily dispose of, even if the latter is hiding during the battle. Spending an entire action with a 45% chance of doing nothing is pretty dire for an enemy that is a fragile wizard with no legendary actions or resistance. Compare this to Lord Ambul, who is a much sturdier foe with lair actions and doesn’t suffer in close combat.Join us next time as we take a trip to the Russian folklore-themed Red City domain and learn why its people shy away from overt displays of talent!</blockquote>

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