WotBS Mission to improve Mission to the Monastery of Two Winds

[VicsHacienda]

Trillith
They're a bit more esoteric, but you've got the core hook of Trilla being exploited for her power, and then trapped with her own nightmares, and never really being in control of her own life. Her 'children' cause havoc in the world, and their goal is to break free and unmake everything in sort of a nihilist fugue.

How would the players know this?

 

[Oginme]

How would the players know this?

As I ran it, the players get to work it out through the series up to where they need to deal with Trilla in her dream world. Every encounter with one of the Trilla gave them a bit more insight into their nature and origins, with many of them referring to each other as 'siblings born of mother's dreams.'

Some of them held a grudge against the party which came out as they fought. Others were more at peace or at least neutral towards them party based upon their own temperament and drives. This led to several who interacted with the party and were willing to discuss the nature of their kind in greater detail as the campaign developed.

The connection of the Trillith to Trilla, or more appropriately Syana, becomes apparent when the party meets Deception (Earnest) again in Castle Korstul. He proclaims the successful fulfillment of his prophecy to meet the party again under the bones of his grandmother. Connecting the Trillith to a gold dragon.

This becomes a bit more complete as I added several visions the party would see in the Temple of the Echoed Souls of Coaltongue slaying Syana, the imprisonment of Trilla, and the rescue of Trilla by the Taranesti. A later vision towards the end shows Trilla in restless sleep, tossing from the nightmare architechs who manipulate her dreams.

I leave it to the party to make the connections, which one did very well and the other stumbled through it, only coming to connect the clues when they confronted Trilla in her dream world.

 

[Oginme]

Regarding the changes for the Monastery of the Two Winds:

I painted Longinus and Pilus as nearly opposite in nature. Longinus was seeking understanding and peace with his upbringing and destruction of his home village. Pilus was obsessed with revenge, plotting not only to take it out on Coaltongue, which he was denied, but also on the world at large for not stopping the wars which helped to form the Ragesian empire and its later invasions of other nations.

Longinus welcomes Tranquility (the Trillith Balance in the written module) in hopes of exploiting her powers to balance out his brother's nature. Pilus was a plotter and planner, seeking the right time to extract revenge on both Ragesia and the rest of the world.

When Tranquility was consumed by exhaustive use of their powers, Pilus grew quickly out of control, using the creations he had started and Caela had finished to plan his final revenge.

Pilus had become a trusted advisor to Ommandamin, helping him to conquer his rivals and subdue uprisings within Ostalin. He groomed Ommandamin to become reliant on his advice to hold power and to set his sights on world conquest. In this way, Pilus was using Ommandamin to extract revenge on the world at large for the devastation of his village and the difficulties he and his brother had gone through.

Pilus helps out the Resistance in the destruction of the Koren Obelisk only because he saw that as a threat to his own plans. I had a blast from the obelisk hit the flying shark, causing it to veer and apparently fall from the sky. In actuality, the flying shark was damaged and Pilus steered it away before it was lost, thus preserving it for later.

During the last module, The Beating of the Aquiline Heart, Pilus returns after the party is successful in removing the ritual in Ragos. He carries the Ostalin army and Ommandamin within the ship, aiming not just for revenge on the Ragesians, but also with the promise to Ommandamin to conquer the world.

A projection of Longinus shows up in the camp of the Resistance outside of Ragos to warn the leaders and the party that his brother is out of control and he no longer had the powers to stop him as he was on his way to destroy both armies so that the armies of Ostalin could conquer the whole known world.

This blended the last two modules and made more sense (at least to me) on what motivated both brothers (peace and resolution versus revenge) in their actions. It also continued the debate of morality within the party over the continued use of souls to power the Torch.

 

[RangerWickett]

How would the players know this?

It's been a while, but I like what Oginme said.

But you could also just be direct: the PCs could talk to them and get hints along the way from Indomitability and Madness, with Balance giving the most useful and clear information, so they know what Freedom is up to and what they'll be trying to stop in adventure 10.

 

[VicsHacienda]

Yes,
Perhaps with Balance they can talk. Indomitability nor Madness seemed like the "talking kind"...

It's been a while, but I like what Oginme said.

But you could also just be direct: the PCs could talk to them and get hints along the way from Indomitability and Madness, with Balance giving the most useful and clear information, so they know what Freedom is up to and what they'll be trying to stop in adventure 10.

 

[Oginme]

Yes,
Perhaps with Balance they can talk. Indomitability nor Madness seemed like the "talking kind"...

I had them both talking to the characters, even during combat.

Indomitabilty was bragging about never being defeated and how he and his siblings were going to take over the world and mold it to their liking. Deception, once discovered, also made claims about his brother, Indomitabilty, and mentioned having siblings in the world.

Madness recognized the boon of Indomitability and swore that her brothers and sisters would extract revenge for their treatment of him. Upon being defeated, her last words were a plea to her mother to save her.

Tranquility started the conversation by telling the party they had clearly encountered some of their siblings. She commented during the conversation that not all of her mother's creations sought an end to the world.

I continued this with each Trillith the party encountered, even a later vision from Crystin when they returned to Seaquen about 'her golden mother' as a remnant of the Trillith spirit which resided within her presented visions. of future events. In particular, I had Crystin give one of the visions of Darius as they were heading to Dassen to foreshadow the 'delusional' nonsense of Darius some validation and make the party pay more attention to them.

I try to weave as much foreshadowing in as possible throughout the series as I felt it helped to draw them together to a tighter story.

 

[VicsHacienda]

As I prep to run the next game, the trillith Balance seems to reflect much of the ethos of the Shadowfell.

Mike Mearls: Where the Shadowfell is a realm of, essentially, depression. It's where everything just goes to just stop. You know, the challenge in the Shadowfell is how do you fight through that, it's dolorous nature, right. You might go to the Shadowfell, and then lose track of your quest. You might fall victim to it. You might start, yourself, just repeating the same thing. Like, let's say you're traveling across the Shadowfell, you might just start traveling in circles, endlessly, you lose all hope. You lose all emotion. What drove you here is probably something emotional, your goal. And instead you just accept stasis and just become part of the scenery, essentially. So that's how those two realms are positioned.

D&D's Shadowfell and Feywild Explained

D&D's Mike Mearls explains The Shadowfell and the Feywild.

www.dndbeyond.com

Like many "villains" they don't see themselves as villains. In this case it would be bringing "balance".