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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7301819" data-attributes="member: 20323">I'm adapting Blood & Fire (an adventure Dungeon #63) for my 11th-level Al-Qadim game, and in that adventure there's a mythal (ancient elven mystical power site) known as the Valley of Mists. Currently the valley is occupied by evil mages of the Brotherhood of True Flame, but a LN <a href="https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Gynosphinx#content" target="_blank">gynosphinx</a> named Tekhufnet has been inhabiting it for about a century prior.However, the adventure relegates Tekhufnet's role to a mere paragraph in a random encounter table: she hates the Brotherhood, knows much about them & the valley, and she'll reveal this to PCs if they give her treasure.Sphinxes, especially in 5e with their vast power, merit a greater role than "treasure for info. plot device" when they appear. They need to present meaningful tests to the PCs, at a bare minimum. How might I expand on the gynosphinx's role in this adventure? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />[SBLOCK=Awesome lair actions sphinxes can do in 5e]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The flow of time is altered such that every creature in the lair must reroll initiative. The sphinx can choose not to reroll.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The effects of time are altered such that every creature in the lair must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become 1d20 years older or younger (the sphinx's choice), but never any younger than 1 year old. A greater restoration spell can restore a creature's age to normal.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The flow of time within the lair is altered such that everything within moves up to 10 years forward or backward (sphinx's choice). Only the sphinx is immediately aware of the time change. A wish spell can return the caster and up to seven other creatures designated by the caster to their normal time.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The sphinx shifts itself and up to seven other creatures it can see within in its lair to another plane of existence. Once outside its lair, the sphinx can't use lair actions, but it can return to its lair as a bonus action on its turn, taking up to seven creatures with it.</li> </ul>[/SBLOCK]<img src="https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e5/49/40/e5494096817c67a71c19258b4813ab4f.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Some things I've established so far, adapting the adventure for my game:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ancient Elves. In ancient times, elves inhabited the valley but abandoned it under mysterious circumstances. A fair number of half-elves live in a humble village at the valley's base, and their leader remembers the traditions of the elven siswa (temple-warriors, a term borrowed from B7 Rahasia).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Mists of the Mythal. The mythal has 3 properties: no magical summoning (or extraplanar creatures) in the valley, divinations can't penetrate the valley, and magic mists permanently shroud the valley. However, unbeknownst to the Brotherhood, in the elven ruins there exists a way to manipulate the properties of the mythal.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Appointed by Fate. Tekhufnet was appointed as guardian of the Valley of Mists and its mythal by "Fate herself" (which in the Al-Qadim lore may mean just that, may mean the Loregiver, or a god like Hakiyah the Honest). So far, the Brotherhood hasn't endangered the mythal itself.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The Blue Sphinx. Tekhufnet is a blue-furred/blue-skinned gynosphinx, earning her the appellation "The Blue Sphinx" by villagers and the Brotherhood.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Valley Lair. Tekhufnet's lair is the entire valley, and she can be found (d6): (1) Traveling the Astral, Ethereal, or Inner Planes. (2) Flying over the fields (area 9d) with greater invisibility. (3) Lounging in the doves’ grove (area 9h), composing poems and crafting riddles. (4) Prowling the monument (area 9i), intermittently traveling back in time to speak with elves. (5) Hunting/drinking along the stream (area 9j). (6) Resting at her ledge/cave in the mountainside.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Stalemate with the Brotherhood. Originally, Tekhufnet fought the Brotherhood some 50 years ago, but when the Bey (governor) she was fighting was betrayed by his fellow mages and had his beating heart cut from chest, she entered a stalemate. She hates the Brotherhood, but believes they'll be their own undoing, so she waits.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Sphinx-Hunters. One Brotherhood mage, Jaheira, views it as her personal quest to subdue Tekhufnet for the Brotherhood; Jaheira leads a group of mercenaries in hunting down the sphinx, but they only find traces of Tekhufnet at most, the sphinx treating it as a bit of a game.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Covetous Gypsosphinx. There is a gypsosphinx (a NE vulture-headed death-foreteller appearing in the <a href="https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/tome-of-beasts-for-5th-edition/" target="_blank">Tome of Beasts</a>) named Zu'l-Janah (replacing the unique dragonne of the same name in Blood & Fire) lairing in a nearby desert necropolis that covets Tekhufnet as his mate and for the secret lore she possesses. Naturally, Tekhufnet finds the gypsosphinx abhorrent. Part of the PCs' quest may involve killing Zu'l-Janah for a desert settlement...or possibly learning of the gypsosphinx's death-prophecies for their own ends.</li> </ul></blockquote>

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