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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9184286" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/HZcRJ2s.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />These aren’t exactly full adventures, but rather serve as short encounters that can be inserted while the PCs are traveling. The Bones Below is our first encounter, described as suitable for a party of 3-5 PCs of levels 5 to 10, which honestly is a very wide range. It takes place near the edge of Solamnic territory, where the PCs come across a priestess known as Jesska who is crying for her missing brethren in the Church of Mishakal. They were tasked with finding and transporting a shipment of healing items to help with a war before seemingly vanishing. In reality, they were ambushed by cultists of Chemosh and taken to an underground temple to be sacrificed. The PCs can investigate the crime scene via investigatory skills and abilities, finding an illusionary rock formation where the Mishakal priests were dragged through.This short five-room dungeon crawl consists of an entrance, two rooms with cultists to fight or otherwise overcome, and a final ritual chamber holding the captive priests, with a bone amalgamation forming to attack the party in the last area. Some of the cultists use typical Cult Fanatic stat blocks from the core rules, but there are Cult Zealots who are even stronger versions with better stats and spells. Should the Mishakal worshipers be freed and taken to the nearest city, the party will be rewarded with Cords of Mishakal, magic items that are basically single-target Bless spells that last for one turn.The second encounter is Safe Passage, designed for 3 to 4 PCs of levels 2 to 4, also taking place on the outskirts of Solamnic territory. It begins in a tavern, as so many adventures are wont to do, where an injured woman bursts through the front door to report that her family farm was attacked by raiders who looked like reptilian soldiers. There are some Knights of Solamnia in the tavern, but as this is outside their jurisdiction they pass the duties on to the PCs. Real nice guys.The farmstead is the scene of carnage, the sight of a now-burned home. A pair of Solamnic knights inside are guarding a heavily-injured third knight, and three draconian soldiers are seeking to overwhelm their holding place. PCs who use healing magic and/or the Medicine skill can help buy the injured knight more time, and they explain that they sent one of their own through a nearby swamp to get more help. Dozens of draconian soldiers are guarding the major route out, so the swamp is the safe way out for the PCs. If the PCs go through the swamp, they will find a green hag disguised as the last survivor who will attempt to ambush the party. The real knight is held captive in her cave.The final stretch takes place through more of the swamp, where the PCs have to overcome an ambush laid by a group of draconian soldiers led by Morax the Twisted, a particularly strong specimen with more prominent draconic abilities such as a fiery breath weapon and burning spittle. He is actually one of the progenitors in the early draconian experiments, and will announce this proudly before fighting the party by himself. He is so arrogant that he tells his subordinates to watch as a demonstration of his power. The other draconians will retreat should their leader die, and the adventure concludes once the PCs exit the swamp into the grasslands and meet with the Solamnic reinforcements.Thoughts: These encounters are too short to be adventures, but too long to be typical single-combat encounters. Instead they are a sort of middle-ground. I will say that the Bones Below are likely better suited for a 7th level or higher party, as the two processions of cultists plus the bone amalgamation at the end can be quite the challenge for PCs who aren’t powerful or well-built. The fact that the Zealots can Animate Dead as an action to add even more foes to deal with can compound things. But 9th or 10th level PCs should breeze right through this dungeon.As for the Safe Passage, the second to last combats with the hag and draconian progenitor may be trivialized by the presence of allied NPCs. The PCs have a real chance at gaining the aid of 3 knights in combat, and while they aren’t given stats even mere Guards can help add onto action economy during the aforementioned fights. If they’re actual Knights with a capital K, they can probably fight just as well if not better than the party’s martial PCs at this point in the campaign!<img src="https://i.imgur.com/j34Muog.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Trials of the Tower InitiateOur first of two full adventures in the Dragonlance Companion, this is designed for 4-5 PCs of 2nd level, and is split into 3 chapters which level up the party at the end of each one. Starting out in the coastal settlement of Crossing in northern Abanasinia, the PCs are hired to escort a mage-in-training named Val Astorio to the Tower of High Sorcery of Wayreth. Both of his parents aren’t too fond of this, but Val is committed to taking up the life of a mage so they made deals to ensure his safe passage. However, the Tower only manifests on the Material Plane at rare moments, and in ten days will re-enter its own personal demiplane and become unreachable for an indefinite period of time. Not only that, a violent anti-magic organization known as the Taljara seeks to either dissuade Val from his quest or kill him…and his own mother is their duped accomplice!It wouldn’t be a real Dragonlance adventure without a DMPC, and Trials of the Tower Initiate isn’t going to let Val remain as a blank slate hireling! He grows in power as the party does, and depending on their actions in the adventure they can shape his attitude towards the journey. He has a Resolve Score and Doubt Score representing how much confidence he has in himself, and as these scores change this can affect both his personality and his combat capabilities. Specifically, the more prominent his Doubt score in comparison to his Resolve, he gets progressively-worse debuffs in combat that require Wisdom saves to shake off. Statwise Val begins as the equivalent of a beginner-level arcane caster, with a few cantrips, an Arcane Burst attack which is basically Eldritch Blast, and his only leveled spell is Mage Armor. By Chapter 2 he gets another Hit Die and can also cast Fog Cloud, and by Chapter 3 he gets his final Hit DIe and can also cast Web. Even by Chapter 3 his Hit Points are a fragile 18, so between that and his lack of damaging abilities he is very much built to be a support caster.The adventure begins with the PCs being hired by the Astorio family while a storm blows in from the coast, and they get a first-hand view that the family is rather dysfunctional. Skill checks and roleplay can alter Val’s Resolve and Doubt in reaction to his parent’s reservations and his own conflicting emotions. PCs can choose whether to leave immediately and risk exhaustion from the weather, or stay the night and have half a day to shop around town. However, PCs who opt to stay in town will be shadowed by a kenku, hired by a member of the Taljira to keep tabs on the party.Wait, kenku are a race in Krynn now? Are they a Graygem-spawned race? Are they rare like the Shadowpeople and Kyrie and so are more legend than fact, or are they like dwarves and gnomes and won’t raise a big fuss when entering human settlements? The book doesn’t say. This may be a bit nitpicky of me to focus on, but given that Dragonlance has defined itself by what it doesn’t have as much as what it does in comparison to other DnD settings, I feel compelled to ask these questions.There’s a 1d6 table of random encounters for the first leg of the journey from Crossing to Solace. Not all of them are dangerous, and can involve having a friendly Kender join the party and give good spirit for a Resolve bonus, getting ambushed at camp by gnoll witherlings (imagine gnolls but weaker), or helping out a group of hunters track down and kill some bears infected with a dangerous illness. Most of these encounters are tied into each other, particularly the bears, who also attacked a group of Solamnic knights and managed to slay one of their own. The PCs can aid the knights in giving their fallen comrade a burial that takes time but grants Resolve to Val. There are two mandatory scenes at night where Val asks one of the PCs to tell a story around the campfire that can affect his Resolve and Doubt, and another where a group of bandits led by a kenku attack and attempt to kidnap Val, which if they’re successful in doing takes time for the PCs to track them down and rescue him.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/dpVD8Ai.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The PCs reach level 3 as they visit Solace in Chapter 2, where they can stay at the iconic Inn of the Last Home. This segment of the adventure is less about overland travel and more social and investigation oriented, for a Taljira agent known as Leucis Therai is in town and pretending to be a bard in order to gather information and hinder efforts of travelers looking to join the Orders of High Sorcery. Upon arrival in town the PCs can gather some information about local goings-on, including an unrelated NPC tie-in to the next adventure in this book. The PCs will meet Leucis performing for a crowd at the Inn of the Last Home, and there are chances to pick up that he isn’t all that he seems during their stay here.Greysen Ashe, another local in town, has become aware of the Taljara’s activities, and will attempt to warn the PCs that Val is in great danger. This likely happens during their stay at the Inn, where he acts erratically before bolting out of the place. The Taljara are aware of his snooping around, and have poisoned his tea leaves. Should the PCs visit him at his home, the poison will take effect while he serves them tea and he will die suddenly, although PCs who drank the tea only suffer the poisoned condition on a failed save. Should the PCs report the murder, they will have to stay put in town for questioning to Val’s worry, costing a day of travel.But should the PCs attempt to seek out justice, this is a possibility. The use of skill checks in Greysen’s house can determine the cause of death, discover the poisoned tea leaves, and also find hidden notes studying missing persons cases of spellcasters in the area. Leucis will have used the opportunity to skip town, hiding in a cabin two hours travel from Solace, although he has six other Taljara agents there (basically Cultists but with leather armor and scimitars). There will be missives inside the cabin proving Leucis’ involvement with the Taljara and make for convincing evidence of his guilt, but if the PCs attempt to flee town Leucis’ gang will attempt to attack the party while they’re out on the road.The final stretch of the adventure takes place in the Forest of Wayreth of Chapter 3, where the party reaches 4th level. The journey to the Tower takes approximately five days, and there’s a d10 table of random encounters ranging from Qualinesti scouts doing battle with a hill giant, six Taljara making camp who can be ambushed, Dragonarmy soldiers hunting for the Solamnic knights, and your more standard monsters such as displacer beasts, giant spiders, and insect swarms. And like the first chapter, several of these random encounters can tie into other ones, like the insect swarm being bloatflies located in the corpses of a family who was slain by the displacer beast. There is one last campfire scene as well as a final encounter with the Taljira. The leader of the organization, Eddan Breylan, will appear on the path to the Tower of Wayreth, which is within sight of the party. He will demand that Val denounce the evils of magic and abandon his mission. To make matters worse his mother Damaia Astoria is among them, and believes that the group is genuinely looking out for her son. Investigation and Insight checks are allowed to get a read on the various NPCs, their morale, and their intentions.At this point the accumulated Doubt and Resolve points come into play: if Val is committed, he intends to fight and is much more headstrong, but if he’s uncertain then he needs the input of the PCs to sway him, and if wavering he intends to give up. Persuasion or Intimidation checks by the PCs can get him to change his mind. If the Taljara attack Val, then his mother will fight alongside her son and the PCs. If Val gives up, the Taljara will allow him and his mother to leave on a carriage but decide to kill the party for being more trouble than they’re worth. If deemed appropriate, three Mages (stats as the NPC of the same name) will arrive to aid the party. They have healers from the Tower, including ones who can cast Revivify or Resurrection spells, but will expect payment of some kind such as service in future adventures.In terms of stats, Eddan Breylan is a heavily-armored martial character who can multiattack with any of his weapons, can use a bonus action to grant one ally movement and a free melee attack, and as a reaction can retreat up to half his speed and avoid opportunity attacks. This last feature makes him very much a guerilla fighter, seeking to stay out of melee and shooting at the party with arrows while using the nearby trees for cover. Damia, on the other hand, is pretty much a Commoner but with a lot more hit points (18), a good Charisma score, and a dagger.Everyone reaches 5th level upon conclusion and the adventure has various endings depending on the resolution. PCs who lose the final battle may possibly be captured by the Taljara in the hopes of brainwashing them into joining the organization. If the PCs overcame the Taljara but Val gave up and left or was killed, the mages at the Tower will still honor their efforts during the journey and pay them the rest of the agreed-upon payment arranged with the Astorio family. PCs who were successful in every way will see Val invited into the Tower, and will be rewarded their standard payment along with uncommon magic items. In either case, surviving PCs who themselves show promise in arcane casting are invited to join Val, albeit this can split the PC from the rest of the party. The Tower mages will also give the party a direct hook to the next adventure in this book, offering to teleport them to a group of Solamnic knights in need of their help.Thoughts: Trials of the Tower Initiate looks to be a pretty strong adventure from my initial reading. While it is a bit linear and has the dreaded DMPC escort, the adventure has quite a bit of leeway and agency, with detailed encounters and consequences for PC actions, multiple opportunities to get worthwhile treasure and magic items, and strikes an ideal balance between the combat, social, and exploration pillars. The leveling up is a bit fast for my tastes, which along with Greysen’s unavoidable death are my only major complaints.Thoughts So Far: The smaller Encounters are too brief and by the numbers to really impress me, but the full adventure pleasantly surprised me.Join us next time as we finish the Companion with the adventure Escape from Senag Island!</blockquote>

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