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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 8091670" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/uQQiZE9.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> A Cargo of Melons for the Courts of the DeadThe power spike in Unbreakable’s latter adventures continues as we reach the penultimate module, suitable for 4 PCs of 17th to 20th (!) level. It begins simply enough: deliver a giant salamander-demon’s melons to her bureaucrat son in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyu" target="_blank">Chinese Hell</a> so her tears will stop flooding the land. Errr...not so simple.The immediate adventure hook is that a series of dangerous floods are plaguing the surrounding region, and the PCs get caught up in the middle of one while in a village (and requiring skill checks to stay safe). Given that they’re probably one of the few high-level people in the entire world, the party’s taken to be the best suited to handling the problem. Tracking the floods to their source finds a giant salamander demon (she’s not evil) by the name of Niangniang weeping by the riverbed. Once the PCs get her attention she stops crying, causing the water levels to suddenly drop, and she expresses genuine remorse for the destruction she’s caused. Visiting her at home, she describes the source of her woes: her son Xiao Wei is a high-ranking bureaucrat in Diyu. Niangniang sought to grow him the best cantaloupe melons she’s ever made, his favorite food, upon his return for a family reunion. But he’s too busy to leave on account of his job and she’s upset at the fact that said melons will spoil given that she’s too old to make the trip herself. She says that her son is rather wealthy, and would surely compensate the PCs for their trip.The hook presumes that the PCs agree to this errand, and they will get 2 giant cantaloupes (20 pounds each, 1 more via a simple Persuasion check) per PC. They might be giant demon-brewed melons, but they’re still normal melons and can break easily especially in combat and damaging environments. Taking precautionary measures such as a Bag of Holding or extradimensional storage space can avert this scenario. Diyu can be trivially reached via Plane Shift, although if the party does not have access to such a spell then they can either go through a nearby dragon turtle’s underground stream or drink vials of poison supplied by Niangniang to go there themselves. She mentions that they will surely be resurrected by her son because “the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yama_(Buddhism)" target="_blank">Yama Kings</a> owe him a favor.” Although the adventure doesn’t exactly spell it out right now, food and other objects can spawn with souls passing through the afterlife provided that they’re nearby.Diyu is its own plane of existence whose primary purpose is in sorting out the spirits of the dead. It is a rather grim place, where mortal souls are put into various layers of Hell dedicated to specific tortures (Hell of the Mountain of Knives, Hell of Boiling Feces, etc) to cleanse them of sin in order for them to be properly reincarnated. The will of the Yama Kings is such that those who enter Diyu cannot leave without going through the reincarnation process, showing proper paperwork that indicates an error in their entry, or being an immortal creature who can come and go as they please. Furthermore, people’s bodies can still decay and feel pain, but nobody dies here, meaning that characters that are “killed” are restored to full health in 8 hours.The PC’s first obstacle is the DEVIL GATE OF THE WORLD OF DARKNESS* where two giant animal-headed sentries usher in newly-arrived souls. They are not very fond of spellcasters who use resurrection magic to “cheat death,” and any PC who benefited from such a spell has disadvantage on all Charisma checks with them. They do not recognize the name and description of Xiao Wei, and will bar entry to suspicious visitors unless they actually died. The party in this case must find another way in, which can include disguise, skill checks, fighting through a legion of demonic guards, or convincing them that the melons are offerings for the festival as several possible routes.*the letters of the gate’s sign are huge and in gold.Youdu is the capital city of Diyu, and there’s a big festival being set up: an approaching holiday in the mortal world involving almsgiving and sacrifice to the spirits will cause said items and food to manifest in the afterlife, and everyone’s looking forward to this. Xiao Wei can be found via the ol’ sleuthing and divination magic routines, although failed checks will take up time and “fail forward” in making a future encounter difficult. Eventually the party will find said salamander-demon being shaken down for late loan payments by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mogwai_(Chinese_culture)" target="_blank">mogui thugs</a> (use oni stats). Xiao Wei will come clean once the PCs explain their mission: his real name is Yiwei, and Xio Wei is merely an affectionate nickname his mother calls him all the time. He’s but a low-level functionary in Diyu’s government struggling to get by, but he exaggerated his position in order to avoid disappointing his mother. His parents always placed high standards on him, and he avoided coming home because he knows that he’s a terrible liar when it comes to family.As such, he cannot pay an appreciable sum for delivering the melons (which he does appreciate, by the way) and that the only real way to get out of Diyu is via the reincarnation process and outlines the restrictions of Diyu’s planar properties mentioned above. Yiwei suggests that inspecting the Birth & Death records in Senluo Palace is their best bet in making a case to the Yama Kings, but nobody will be allowed within there due to the festival unless they bring food. PCs can “buy” their way in if they have any remaining melons, although if they dawdled a bit in their investigation then everyone’s stuffed and only 2 PCs total can be permitted via the melon gifts. The Record Halls are a vast featureless room stretching as far as the eye can see, with shelves full of scrolls holding the names and identities of every mortal creature that exists or has ever existed stretching for just as long. The party will eventually find their records with the salamander-demon’s help (and he can forge them to appear as a clerical error if the PCs did indeed die to come here), although failed skill checks will bring suspicious guards down upon them.The PCs are more than free to leave upon showing the Yama Kings this evidence, who are in a good mood after the feast. They’ll ask what clerk caught the error, saying only someone perceptive and dedicated to their work could have noticed this. Recommending Yiwei to them will be great for his career, although he’s now conflicted given that he won’t be home for a very long time as a result and asks the PCs what he should do. Should he visit his family, but at the risk of having some other dedicated worker pass him by in the otherworldly hierarchy? Or should he stay and take this opportunity while it’s certain? The adventure has two resolutions based upon this: if he stays then Yiwei will send a letter back to Niangniang explaining the truth, and she’ll be disappointed at this but mentions they’re always welcome to visit. If he comes home, then they’ll reunite in a tearful reunion, and he’ll tell the truth. This causes an argument, but their relationship will be better long-term as opposed to the letter route as they’ll eventually make up. PCs will be rewarded eventually with a 30,000 gp bank note from the underworld if Yiwei stayed, or that amount of gp worth of giant cantaloupes due to him helping out his mother in the garden.This adventure’s appendix has stats for a giant salamander demon. It’s a Challenge Rating 13 fiend that can actually be of any alignment. Its primary offensive methods include physically powerful bite and tail attacks along with a rechargeable AoE acidic spit that deals damage over time. Their strongest stat is a 27 Wisdom, and they have a small array of innate spells ranging from utility (control weather, water breathing) to debuffs (poison spray, blindness/deafness, grease).Thoughts So Far: A thing I’ve noticed about Unbreakable’s higher-level adventures is that they appear built around providing solutions to challenges for parties that may have few or no spellcasters. There’s not much in the way of shutting down entire spells like is normally the case in a lot of high-level modules, although being unable to Plane Shift out of Diyu is a rather notable exception. Barring the mogui thugs it’s also a combat-lite adventure, much like the Lost Children or Bamboo in the Dark. For what it’s worth the ten Yama Kings do have stats (as pit fiends) meaning that it is theoretically possible that the PCs may opt to get their release from Hell via force.Otherwise I don’t have very strong feelings one way or another. I can see many groups try to find more immediate solutions to the flood problem, including killing Niangniang, although that approach is rather callous.Join us next time as we gather all the animals of the Chinese Zodiac to attend a legendary hermit’s going-away party (to the spirit world) in The Last Guest!*This twitter account URL doesn’t seem to exist, <a href="https://twitter.com/KCShiWrites" target="_blank">but this seems to be her Twitter proper.</a></blockquote>

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