Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8090507" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/DLLA6Mp.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> The Lost RathiThis adventure takes place in the South Asian-inspired city of Nagajari, and is a rather dramatic power increase in being designed for 4 PCs of 15th level. The set-up is that crown prince Raja Harkesh Divyaali is in need of some elite help in dealing with a warband approaching the city. He’s heard word of a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_mythological_wars#Levels_of_Warrior_Excellence" target="_blank">legendary warrior known as the Rathi</a> living in the city’s slums, who he hopes to recruit in defending the city with their martial prowess.The reality of the situation is much darker. The sitting Raja is a rakshasa in disguise that murdered the true prince and now wears his form. Although the city was oppressive before in having segregated tiers breaking people up by castes, the prince’s policies have only grown worse since. The vaunted warband are actually a group of holy warriors who received a divine vision of a hidden evil within Nagajari, and the rakshasa hopes to manipulate the Rathi, a champion of the oppressed, into fighting against them. Better that his enemies fight among themselves than realize the true danger.There’s yet another party that can throw things for a loop independent of the various power players and factions: Mother Nature herself! The Monsoon Die is a rather important game mechanic that persists throughout the entirety of the Lost Rathi, representing an incoming tropical storm that will do great damage to the city and the surrounding environs. The die begins at d20 and is rolled with the advent of every new scene and important combats, with lower results representing the gradual worsening of weather. A cumulative penalty modifier is applied the more results that are the same to ensure that things won’t remain calm and pleasant forever, and the Monsoon Die itself gets smaller and smaller depending on how the PCs interact. Violent, cruel, and otherwise dishonorable actions downgrade the d20 to a d12 to a d10 and so on, to a minimum d4.The adventure’s onset is an investigatory one, with an interview with the Raja and the promised payment for finding the Rathi (600 GP plus 1 personalized magic item per PC). The major leads in this investigation point to the slums where the lowest castes live, and most people go out of their way to avoid the party due to negative experiences with the government and its representatives. They’ll even refuse monetary bribes, knowing that it “is a tool for the rich and poison for the poor,” which seems...a bit strange. I can get refusal for fear of the money making them a target to others especially if offered openly in the street, or protecting the Rathi out of principle given his guardianship of the district. But the adventure contradicts itself on this point, saying that most NPCs the party interact with make a deal for monetary or information gain unless otherwise stated in order to leave the city or climb higher in the caste system.But honeyed words and skill checks of that kind can get the PCs farther, although using Intimidation and failing or getting into fights will cause everyone to flee the streets as the Rathi appears as the last man standing face to face with the party. Yes, failing forward can bring an early end to the investigation!Otherwise, there are three major areas for sleuthing. The first is an alleyway shop home to a firbolg merchant by the name of Vistal. His wares all come from a magic bag that can draw a single non-magical item form anywhere in the world provided that said item exists somewhere. He does not deal in coin, and for those seeking information or his wares he will ask for each PC to relive an emotional moment. As they tell him their past, they will suddenly remember him being there as an observer and in that memory he will tell them where to find the Rathi. They can also get the same information for using violence, although he’ll disappear in a puff of Exhaustion-causing smoke; the party will relive a memory of Vistal meeting the Rathi earlier today, discussing meeting in Kapoor’s Kitchen.The second place is the Red Makaan, a haphazard public housing unit. The Rathi lives in one of the rooms, and the PCs can get entry to it via either convincing the local clerk to let them in or breaking in via skullduggery (this lowers the Monsoon Die). The Rathi’s room has a Glyph of Warding trap and a hidden compartment containing coded notes and maps revealing robberies against the Raja’s various assets (both ones that already happened and in the planning stages).The final place is Kapoor’s Kitchen, a local restaurant. The owner is a terrible liar and will try (and most certainly fail) to convince the party not to explore the kitchen. The Rathi and his dog eat in the back for privacy rather than the normal tables. PCs who gain her trust learn that the Rathi is part of a vigilante network who steal from Nagajari’s government and dispense the funds to much-needed charitable causes. The fact that the Raja has earlier cut funding to said causes out of spite and is taxing the poor even harder to the point of violence is the reason why much of the slums tolerates the Rathi and support his cause.Regardless of how they go about things, eventually the PCs will come face to face with the Rathi, or he’ll find them first. But before the PCs can talk with or subdue him, shouts erupt and bells start ringing throughout the city warning of the warband’s imminent arrival. The Rathi will state as much, and his attention will quickly move to leaving the city post-haste to confront them. Although the Rathi has stats (a souped-up Assassin with better stats all-around and can make 4 attacks per round), the adventure gets a bit rail-roady in that the PCs are incapable of keeping up with him and must make Survival checks to follow his trail, but the result is the same as they will eventually catch up with him as he is let past the front gates by a sympathetic guardsman. These are 15th-level PCs we’re talking about, fast travel in three dimensions is easily within their capabilities!So what happens if the PCs realize that they set out in doing what the Raja wanted and decide to report back for their reward? The adventure sadly, does not have an answer for this scenario.When approaching the warband the Rathi is the slash first, ask questions later type, although a successful skill check (either Persuasion or identifying the warband’s banner as belonging to that of Bravika, a peaceful and righteous god) can stay his hand. If they fail these checks...well the rest of this encounter presumes that the PCs make peaceful contact with the warband.The warband are in fact holy monks who came here after experiencing a shared vision of an evil presence residing within Nagajira’s walls. Their leader, Nima Kolivan, is a middle-aged woman (no stats are given, but the in-game text identifies her as a paladin) who will explain as such to the party, and offer to share this vision with them should they desire. As she’s aware that the unknown evil will notice this ritual, Nima suggests that a few PCs stand guard while the others participate in the trance. The Rathi will be among the guards in this case.The vision and the ensuing combat technically take place simultaneously, but the adventure advises the DM to run them one after another or at the same time depending on what works best for their table. The vision involves the party going through a dreamlike Nagajari as a shapeshifting imposter leaves a trail of ruin before it comes to inhabit the palace. The only real danger is damaging psychic screams from tormented spirits that pop up when the party fails skill checks as the vision progresses. In the real world, the Raja dispatched six hell hounds to follow the magical residue from the ritual-vision and slay those partaking of it. The pilgrims will disperse as the Rathi guards the NPCs, leaving the PCs standing guard to prevent them from attacking Nima. If she’s hit, then the PCs in the vision will suffer psychic damage.At this point the party will become aware that the current Raja is the source of the evil, and the monsoon begins in earnest. Nima’s order sneaks all of her warriors into the city one at a time (how big is this warband? How can they do this so quickly? Is high-level magic involved?), and the PCs are tasked with performing open-ended skill challenges describing how they prepare the city’s slums to withstand the storm. Given Nagajari’s tiered nature, the low-caste districts will flood first and the worst. Regardless of their efforts, Nima and the Rathi will accompany the party to the Raja’s palace to overthrow the pretender-king. The rakshasha already knows the jig is up and has a retinue of hell hounds and loyal guards at his side when they arrive. The Raja dramatically shapeshifts into his true form by breaking an amulet in his hands, and during the battle the monsoon will get more violent. This will cause both NPCs to depart combat to save more civilians, albeit not during the same round. Depending on the result of the skill checks one or both friendly NPCs may either live or die due to the monsoon.The Lost Rathi’s resolution has four different outcomes, depending on the surviving NPCs and the overall success of the party’s skill challenges. The best outcomes grant the Raja’s granted monetary reward plus a bonus magic item from Nima, the Rathi, and/or grateful citizens, with less rewards for worse results. The absolute worst outcome causes most of the city’s inhabitants to die from the flood, and the surviving citizens had enough of the upper class’ naughty word and lead a violent revolution against the rich.Thoughts So Far: I like the concept of the adventure, as well as the Monsoon Die mechanic. The investigatory route has a bit of a <a href="https://thealexandrian.net/wordpress/37903/roleplaying-games/5-node-mystery" target="_blank">node-based mystery design</a> which I like, and while brief is just the right size for what is intended to be a single-session one-shot.However, the adventure itself can use a little more polish, particularly in handling circumstances where the PCs go off the beaten path or resolve things in ways the plot didn’t intend. What if the party attacks the warband? What if they subdue the Rathi and bring him back to the Raja? What if after learning about the government’s brutality, the PCs decide that they’re being used as pawns and give up the hunt for the Rathi to instead confront the Raja? Nima is also in need of a stat block or stat block reference, and the Rathi is surprisingly a glass cannon for the level at which he appears. Four attacks per round and sneak attack is nothing to sneeze at, but his low Armor Class and Hit Points mean that the average 15th level martial character is probably a better fighter than him.Join us next time as we enter a high-stakes mahjong tournament in the Den of Broken Tiles!</blockquote>

Verification