Plecostomus B3 is poorly written and you will have to decide on a trigger.
the boss monster is a social encounter or die monster. My group bribe them. Read my session write up 1 to 6 which covers the lost city.
Hey all, I'm back again with more questions. I actually finished reading Infinite Staircase and continued to Vecna: Eve of Ruin.
I really want several of the Staircase modules to take place not just in the same world but the same region. Then I could have some NPCs appear multiple times and maybe create a continuity of sorts. If running Infinite Staircase --> Eve of Ruin, I think restricting the infinity of the Staircase might also keep the connected campaign from feeling too jumpy (like nothing the PCs do affects the next adventure).
As I sat around brainstorming NPCs and through-lines, I realized this is why so many new DMs jump straight into making their own world, even though prep-wise that seems so much more difficult. So this reading has been very enlightening.
Okay here's the actual questions:
1. Staircase has a massive amount of monetary/non-functional loot. I went back to the DMG and was hoping there was something like "when the PCs reach this level, the item shop will have XYZ for sale", but there isn't. You have to compare the cost table to the entire loot list. Has anyone made prepackaged item shops by level for 5E?
I did see the DMG considers any magic item a bonus, so the magic items and spells given in the modules are sufficient, if the PCs even find them. But I do feel like players would finish a module, come back to Nafas's palace, and want to unload all that loot in some fashion.
Other stuff to spend on money on:
PCs get a bastion at Nafas's palace or nearby, so they could spend money on that.
Wizard needs to spend money on spells maybe...
Money for bribing monsters (Zargon is an early instance of this)
From the reading I've already done on this, it seems like this is not just an Infinite Staircase problem. In the campaign where I am a player, we only ever get abstract amounts of money, and the functional loot comes from adventures or crafting only. We don't do shopping.
Putting #2 under a spoiler tag because it's about connecting Staircase with Vecna: Eve of Ruin.
2. If I was to run these adventures with my group, I'm sorry to say that we have no knowledge of the characters in Eve of Ruin. I'm the only one who has even watched Stranger Things!
I've been researching Vecna, there's a really great post here on ENworld about Vecna's 5E incarnation. But I feel like selling Eve of Ruin will require some amount of hinting in Staircase. Or at least if I get some hints in, then I don't have to dump everything the moment the PCs appear in Sigil and expect them to care about Alustriel Silverhand and Mordenkainen and their problems.
Here's my ideas so far:
I would use the alternate start for Lost City, which has the characters on a desert caravan before they get separated by a sandstorm. In this module Zargon has a regional effect that water sources within 1 mile of his lair are tainted. I would extend this to 10 miles to match his Eerie Weather regional.
And on the caravan (I think I'm imagining this caravan more like a "sand ship"/Jabba's ship), I would mention that before serving drinks, the server brings the tray to someone dressed cleric-ly but holding a funky-looking sigil, and that person casts a spell on the drinks. This would be a cleric of Vecna who is searching the desert's lost civilizations for secrets, and to earn their fare on the caravan they purify drinks. If there's no further engagement, this at least lets the PCs see Vecna's sigil within 5 minutes of starting Staircase.
I might have the cleric show up again for Pharaoh. Both these modules can be in the Dragonlance world per the book, though it specifies different regions. I'd probably just put them in the same region.
By virtue of Vecna being a multiversal entity, I assume his clerics can appear anywhere, even in Dragonlance where I think there's some issues with clerics depending on the time period—I'm still reading the setting.
Nest of the Eldritch Eye can be inserted as a Nafas wish after Lost City. NEE asks for Level 3 PCs, but maybe it can be adjusted. If not, at least it's short.
I would replace Tasha in EOR with Iggwilv. I confess I'm not really sure what's going on with Tasha because I haven't read all the necessary books, but the players would know Iggwilv from the Tsojcanth module. And they could even banter with her about their adventure in Tsojcanth. I also think it's more interesting to have someone so plainly not a great person helping to stop Vecna.
Have Nafas involved in the broken Wish from EOR somehow.
Where I'm stuck:
More info about Alustriel, Mordenkainen, and Kas before EOR starts.
Staircase has a massive amount of monetary/non-functional loot. I went back to the DMG and was hoping there was something like "when the PCs reach this level, the item shop will have XYZ for sale", but there isn't. You have to compare the cost table to the entire loot list. Has anyone made prepackaged item shops by level for 5E?
I did see the DMG considers any magic item a bonus, so the magic items and spells given in the modules are sufficient, if the PCs even find them. But I do feel like players would finish a module, come back to Nafas's palace, and want to unload all that loot in some fashion.
In the campaign where I am a player, we only ever get abstract amounts of money, and the functional loot comes from adventures or crafting only. We don't do shopping.
I would replace Tasha in EOR with Iggwilv. I confess I'm not really sure what's going on with Tasha because I haven't read all the necessary books, but the players would know Iggwilv from the Tsojcanth module. And they could even banter with her about their adventure in Tsojcanth. I also think it's more interesting to have someone so plainly not a great person helping to stop Vecna.
I really want several of the Staircase modules to take place not just in the same world but the same region. Then I could have some NPCs appear multiple times and maybe create a continuity of sorts. If running Infinite Staircase --> Eve of Ruin, I think restricting the infinity of the Staircase might also keep the connected campaign from feeling too jumpy (like nothing the PCs do affects the next adventure).
You should definitely do that. Ditch the Infinite Staircase and Nalfas, it's very weak connecting material. There is no reason all those adventures shouldn't be located in the same sandbox. They are all set in GenericFantasyland. If you want a hook, maybe the PCs stumble over the Lost City (which makes more sense, frankly) and rescue a prophetess called Princess Not-Zelda who prompts the party in the direction of the other adventures.
This is because those where all originally 1st edition AD&D or Basic D&D adventures. Those versions of D&D where predicated on the accumulation of wealth, possibly to be used to build a kingdom and move into proper wargaming. It's probably not of much value to modern players, but I wouldn't worry, just give them an orphanage or some other worthy cause they can donate it to. Default 5e is magic item shops do not exist.
He is just a generic villain. He doesn't appear in person until the end, so I wouldn't worry too much about his history. He was originally invented as backstory for a couple of magic items.
Iggwilv is very very evil demonologist, who makes Vecna look like your slightly creepy uncle. She is not someone Alustriel would work with. Tasha is a version of her from before she went bad. She is only briefly mentioned in Lost Caverns in any case. She does appear, in a later form (allegedly back to CN, but if you read what she got up to with respect to Isolde (VGR), nope, still evil) in Wild Beyond the Witchlight.
Having said that, in my version, I have diched Kas, and am using Witchlight Iggwilv as the main villain, true shapechanged into her younger self as a disguise.
Yeah. These modules bring PCs back to the Staircase frequently, but not necessarily to their home world. Keeping a bastion in/near Nafas's palace means it can always be found too. And you can hire weird extraplanar entities as your workers.
VEOR offers Sigil, but Sigil seems horrible by comparison, and there's no supporting material for it in VEOR, and I don't have a reason for the PCs to go there before that campaign starts.
It's ultimately the players who decide where the bastion is though I guess. Staircase's framing means they are never very far from anywhere in particular.
"from the past, before Tasha became Iggwilv the Witch Queen." So she would not know about Tsojcanth. Seems like a missed opportunity when hooking these two adventures together.
You should definitely do that. Ditch the Infinite Staircase and Nalfas, it's very weak connecting material. There is no reason all those adventures shouldn't be located in the same sandbox. They are all set in GenericFantasyland. If you want a hook, maybe the PCs stumble over the Lost City (which makes more sense, frankly) and rescue a prophetess called Princess Not-Zelda who prompts the party in the direction of the other adventures.
This is really appealing to me, though the reason I decided to read Staircase in the first place was because I liked the Nafas frame. I'll have to think about this some more. I don't think my group would mind the VEOR set-up missions taking place in Dragonlance-but-also-Neverwinter-is-there...someone on the internet might get super steamed though. Maybe I'd rename the city so that no one knows my sins.
If connecting to VEOR, I think I would have that prophet role taken by the Vecna cleric I mentioned. The cleric could direct the party and reward them for stories about what they find (much like Nafas would).
Iggwilv is very very evil demonologist, who makes Vecna look like your slightly creepy uncle. She is not someone Alustriel would work with. Tasha is a version of her from before she went bad. She is only briefly mentioned in Lost Caverns in any case. She does appear, in a later form (allegedly back to CN, but if you read what she got up to with respect to Isolde (VGR), nope, still evil) in Wild Beyond the Witchlight.
Having said that, in my version, I have diched Kas, and am using Witchlight Iggwilv as the main villain, true shapechanged into her younger self as a disguise.
So what you're saying is Alustriel is the problem, and all of the Wizards Three should be evil. Hey, the bad guys want to live in a Vecna-free world too.
This would be a situation where having the Nafas frame might be beneficial, because you spend the low levels working for this real nice guy, and then he sends you to these 3 horrible people for your upper level adventure. I think Nafas vouching for the importance of said scenario might keep the PCs from auto-rejecting. But if the PCs do reject working with the Wizards Three, Nafas might take over assignment duties and the Wizards Three can be used in other ways.
One of the nice parts about how vague the hubs/quest givers in the anthologies are: you can mix and match them. You can put Nagas on the Tadiant Cotadel, and maybe he runs the Golden Key organization.
@plecostomus
As someone gearing up to run Infinite Staircase (or at least a version of it), I have appreciated your questions and the kind folks here for chiming in.
It will be my first campaign and I knew I wanted to run an anthology campaign but I needed some structure to lean on and the general premise of QFTIS fit for what I wanted. But, frankly I don’t like the idea of my chaos gremlins having an infinite staircase to play with until I’m more confident as a DM.
Anyway, thanks for rewarding my lurking with good questions and ideas everyone.
I'm currently preping level 3 of Infinite Staircase Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, and I've run into something which I don't think works.
In the inner garden there is an encounter with some thri-kreen, who will offer the PCs some grenades if they will kill some shambling mounds for them. I assume this isn't from the original version, since I don't think thri-kreen were invented at the time. But the problem is how did they get there? It doesn't mention that they have a passkey. Why are they there? Why don't they leave? What have they got against the shambling mounds?
If anyone has some good ideas for making this encounter make sense (since my players are sure to engage them in conversation and ask difficult questions), or has a suggestion for a cool alien flora/fauna themed replacement, I would like to hear them.
Hey, the bad guys want to live in a Vecna-free world too.
