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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8087954" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/XQZMvgi.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Bamboo in the DarkThis adventure is for 3-5 players and a very wide level range from 5th to 10th. It is different from the others we encountered so far in that it’s an open-ended plot in the vein of heist films. Taking place in the unnamed City, a big festival dedicated to folk hero <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A1nh_Gi%C3%B3ng" target="_blank">Thánh Gióng</a> is underway, and an auction of smuggled artifacts is being held in an undisclosed location. It’s possible that a stolen cultural treasure valuable to one or more PCs is up for sale; or they could be working for the local Magistrates (voluntarily or not) seeking to bust up the ring; or they could just be your typical murderhobos out for a quick gold piece. Regardless of their reasoning, not only do they need to find the hidden auction and get the artifacts, they have to get out of the city with their lives and freedom intact!There’s a mini-system known as the Reputation Scale and Adversity Track, representing how covert the PCs have been overall. These are not binary states, but give general outlines for minor boons and complications that can affect each other to minor degrees. Reputation reflects how easy it is for PCs to covertly contact information sources, to what extent locals will be inclined to aid or hinder their ability to hide from authorities and/or criminals, and to what extent they’ll give up or sell minor items and favors. Adversity Track is akin to the “alert phases” of various stealth video games, where PCs who do a sloppy job will get more people on their tail. This has a sliding scale of negative consequences, from rumor mongering locals negatively affecting reputation, Magistrates looking to bring them in for questioning,* a contact becoming compromised, increased security at the auction, and/or the criminal factions sending out hit squads to kill the party.*PCs working with them may get a talking-to about being “a loose cannon” and waste several hours on a first offense, although further offenses will get them tossed in jail for being an unreliable asset.As you can tell, this is the kind of adventure where the fewer fights the PCs get in, the better things can work out. A clean get-away with nobody the wiser is an ideal solution, but the writer realized that making everything go pear-shaped as soon as initiative is rolled is not fair either. For that, a house rule for Stealth Combat is employed. What this means is that presuming the PCs aren’t being intentionally loud and flashy, characters beyond 30 feet of a fight when initiative is rolled will not notice provided that the following conditions are filled: the PCs have surprise on an enemy, combat lasts no longer than 2 rounds, and no spells higher than 2nd level are cast barring cases of the DM’s discretion. Additionally, most people do not want to die and will seek shelter if combat turns against them. Given the sheer crowds around town, it’s not amiss for PCs and NPCs to disappear among the chaos of the crowds or simply outmaneuver pursuers, and people’s memories aren’t perfect for finer details when in a panic or fleeing to safety. Furthermore, failed skill checks “fail forward” rather than hitting PCs at a dead end: a failed Investigation may give a lead or clue but give the party less time to prepare should they follow up on it, while a poor Charisma-based skill check may impact Reputation/Adversity.The adventure is divided into 3 chapters, although given the open-ended nature are less about locations and encounters and more the general phases of a heist set-up. Chapter 1: the Legwork outlines the City and ways of traversing it, the 3 adversarial factions, and sample contacts. The City’s divided districts which are typical for fantasy settlements: Sticks are the haphazard urban slum, the Scales are the docks, the Temple Ward has shrines and festival rituals, etc. But a notable feature is that waterways criss-cross through most of the districts and “water taxis” regularly ply their trade ferrying people when going on foot would be too slow, crowded, or otherwise impractical. The seven Sources of information all use Commoner stats, but they all can tell the PCs different things and have preferred stomping grounds should the party be in need of finding them.There are three Adversarial Factions, albeit one of them may be allies of convenience for the PCs. Each faction has 4-5 NPCs, with their own names, stat block references, and brief personality traits and physical descriptions. Furthermore, they all have goals which put each other at cross-purposes which clever PCs can use to their advantage. The Smugglers are the ones bringing in the artifacts for auction and are organizing the events under the guise of a legitimate business. Statwise they tend towards martial pursuits (Assassin, Bandit, Veteran) although their boss, Lien Phan, is a Mage who has a unique jade longsword she is proficient with and can use as an arcane focus. The Magistrates all share the Knight stat block and represent the local government. They are aware of a smuggling ring operating in the City but do not know the location, and are rather conspicuous in their uniforms and positions. They will prioritize safety of civilians, even if it means letting criminals flee. The Rival Crew are a group of adventurers after the same things the PCs are, and act at a cross-purpose. Although it’s possible to team up with them, they have no intention of sharing and will betray the PCs when convenient. Their stat blocks are the most versatile and closest to a typical adventuring party: they use the Priest, Gladiator, Veteran, and Spy archetypes.All of these stat blocks are freely available on 5esrd, and there’s a few commonalities. None of them have very high Passive Perception scores, ranging from 10 to 13 on average with the Spy stat as the highest at 16. The spellcasters’ magic isn’t optimized to guard against enchantment and illusion spells, which I assure you players will pick for their PCs if running this adventure as a one-shot. Granted this isn’t going to make things trivial, particularly when the whole party has to roll for sneaking around, but rather the most common opposition aren’t geared towards thwarting thief types which seems rather odd.*Detect Magic and Dispel Magic are the most obvious options, but would be the types deployed once they realize that something is wrong.Chapter 2: the Job centers on the Deck, a high-class invitation-only club. The auction takes place at 9 PM after a big fireworks festival begins which the PCs can learn during the Legwork phase. If the Magistrates are in cahoots with the PCs they will tell them to infiltrate the place and confirm any suspicious activity. They don’t have a warrant and thus cannot just barge in and risk the guilty parties fleeing. If they’re blackmailing the PCs they’ll order them to make arrests and confiscate the evidence themselves. If the party’s willingly working with them they’ll be on standby for a signal of some kind, but in either case if the Deck is in a state of “high alert” then the Magistrates will raid the Deck 10 rounds after alarms are raised.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/kiw4Aao.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />The Deck itself is a two-story, 13 room building filled with civilians and a few NPC guards in addition to the Smugglers. Rival Crew members will be in disguise and/or staking the place out, barring any interventions the PCs done that may change up their tactics. PCs disguised as civilians will be patted down by guards looking for hidden weapons, and they’re canny enough in the magical arts to identify spell component pouches and <a href="https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/8eb1fc1f-ca2d-407b-a81e-4e0524febf45" target="_blank">staves disguised as “an old man’s walking stick.”</a> High-security areas or ones with heavy traffic will have a pair or more of guards by default, and there are various events and distractions for PCs to take advantage of: examples given are waiters on smoke breaks, laborers carrying in crates of food to smuggle things in, a storage space where confiscated items are kept, and so on. There’s also a password-only secret casino in a back room, and an adjacent high-security vault room that contains the smuggled items. Said vault can also be accessed via the banquet hall via dumbwaiter. This is how said items are transported up for the auction. In cases of high alert the vault will be reinforced with a magical Alarm spell, and if a fight breaks out that’s not Stealth Combat there’s a list of who shows up first and in what order based on rounds the combat lasts.The items for auction range from non-magical jewelry and art objects to a forged map and plate armor with magnanimous stories behind them. But the two items most of interest to PCs include the magical staff Tre Dang Nga, a weapon once wielded by Thánh Gióng, and the unnamed McGuffin personalized to one or more PCs’ backstories. The bidders are rich and the gold piece values can easily run into the five or six-figure digits for the most valuable items, which more or less precludes simply buying them.Chapter 3: the Getaway is the shortest of the chapters and includes brief advice on how to resolve things once the PCs get their hands on the valuables. The book advises against letting them easily exit the way they came back, both for drama’s sake and to show that no plan survives contact with the enemy. A grease fire in the kitchen may block off that section of the Deck for escape, for example, and if the PCs were sloppy in covering up evidence (tampered/destroyed locks, unconscious bodies, etc) then a 1 on a 1d6 roll per vulnerability means that someone discovers it and puts the Deck on a state of heightened alert. If the PCs need to lie low then the DM should ask them what plans they have in mind for safehouses, rendezvous points, friendly contacts, etc. Such scenes would not be RPed out individually, but if the players have a convincing enough argument that may let them bypass one or more obstacles when fleeing the City.There’s also mention of a standoff/showdown with one of the rival groups as a climax after the PCs escape and are enjoying their just desserts, albeit it’s an optional suggestion more in line with heist movies. I don’t really watch that subgenre, so I cannot comment on how appropriate this is or not. Personally I feel that a successful getaway is it’s own reward.The Tre Dang Nga staff has its own stats. It requires attunement by a Lawful Good character, but once attuned is quite powerful: a +3 quarterstaff with the Versatile and Reach properties, can cast a small array of spells, grants a bonus attack when alone and outnumbered in melee, and extra speed for your mount. It can unlock even more spells if the character is attuned to Thánh Gióng’s legendary armor, but said item is not detailed in this adventure and meant to be found as a plot hook for future adventures.Thoughts So Far: I really like Bamboo in the Dark due to the fact that it’s unconventional and open-ended in how it can be resolved. I have not played it so I cannot speak to the quality of the Reputation/Adversity system, but it seems that the adventure did a good job of covering the most pertinent information and outcomes for the Dungeon Master. If there are any weak points, it would be the fact that the adventure could use a second editing pass. Although not a constant, there were sentences which were either too long or constructed oddly in that the information delivered was not clear:So does Sgt. Hoang (a Magistrate NPC) not mind that his pet draws more attention than him, or is it an animal whose annoying ways don’t bother him but bother everyone else?Beyond this, the adventure requires a more specific party set-up than others. Although it’s possible to go in loud, the fact that the heist must be accomplished within a specific time frame means that classes and archetypes focused around short rests instead of long ones will shine better. Furthermore, the large number of NPCs that can get involved in combat at once means that a rather unsubtle party can get in over their heads and risk an enemy faction getting away with the goods if they tip their hands too early. To the adventure’s credit it advertises this in the initial pitch, but if running Unbreakable as a series of adventures for the same group it may take some tinkering in case you have one too many Fighters and not enough Arcane Tricksters.Join us next time as we go on a firebending dungeon crawl in Hearts Aflame at Lan Biang!</blockquote>

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