D&D 5E Sample adventure to test 5E in high level (15th) play. Any takers?

[Zubatcarteira]

I don't have History prof, but I do have the maneuver that lets me add a superiority die to a History check, so I'll assume that counts if Jack of All Trades does.

1d20 (6) + 4 + 1d10 (10) = 20

 

[jayoungr]

Ellina glances at the adventuring gear laid out on the table with mixed feelings. Well, I guess I wasn't as clever as I thought I was...but this does mean they'll probably give us time to put our armor on before we go face whatever it is. You can't always count on that!

As for this Hermes, she has no doubt he is a messenger of the gods; he certainly looks the part. She watches Bartholomew, who usually seems to know what to do in situations like this, and prepares to follow his lead.

[I am not trained in any of the relevant skills for this bit.]

 

[Flamestrike]

I don't have History prof, but I do have the maneuver that lets me add a superiority die to a History check, so I'll assume that counts if Jack of All Trades does.

1d20 (6) + 4 + 1d10 (10) = 20

It does indeed!

Worship of the Olympian pantheon (and the Mulhorandi Pantheon) was brought to Aber Toril around -5000 DR by the Imaskari Empire, after they opened planes to other worlds and brought in captured slaves from other planes to build their empire.

At least one of the Olympian deities (Tyche) became an established member of the Netherese pantheon.

Speaking of Netherese, the language on the Orrery is Loross, written in the Draconic script. It's the ancient high language of the lost empire of Netheril.

I got a pretty good roll on religion so I think I succeeded:

Religion: [19]+7= 26

The Olympian pantheon are largely regarded as 'interloper deities' on Aber-Toril, however at least one (Tyche) was an established member of the Netherese Pantheon, before she herself split into the two Faerunean deities of Tymora and Beshaba during the Dawn cataclysm.

As the name suggests, their divine realm is Olympia, and Hermes is their herald; a divine messenger.

The dogma of the Gods of Olympus recounts a 'time before time' when beings known as Titans ruled the cosmos, before those beings were cast down and the Gods took their place. The Olympians are on friendly terms with the Seldarine, and a few of their Gods are also allied with other Faerunian Gods (Haepheastus is allied with the Dwarven God Dumathoin).

They otherwise have a limited influence on Faerun.

I'm also going to cast detect magic through my staff (since I'm casting through a magic item, the spell requires no components including verbal or somatics. Essentially, its a (Subtle) detect magic). If I do not sense any noteworthy magic like illusion, transmutation, or divination; I will immediately bow and,

Concentrating on the power of the staff, you peer into the weave in your immediate vicinity (30') and after a few seconds can tell that the Orrery detects as Divination magic.

In addition, the weave pools very... strongly around Laerel. It's almost as if she is (in some way) comprised of magic itself. Laeral has a strange silvery aura that you have never seen before, and the weave around her appears almost perfect.

You've heard rumors that Laeral is a supposed 'Chosen of Mystra'; perhaps this is what that looks like?

She smiles at you knowingly as you glance in her direction with your spell active, and you feel a connection through the weave as she does so, as though she inherently senses what you're doing.

assuming I pass the check, say: "Great Hermes. It is an honor to be in the presence of the herald of the gods. There must be a great disturbance if one such as yourself is formally tasking mortals personally."

He smiles at you; a grin that you feel would otherwise be one of mischief, but somehow conveys a sense of deep concern, and then he speaks:

'Greetings to you Lady Galvich (he turns to the other PCs) Lady Ellina, Lords Asa, Bartholomew and Alvin.'

''You are correct, in that a great disturbance is at hand (he motions towards the slowly rotating Orrery, with its seemingly malfunctioning orb). A disturbance that could lead to a cosmic unbalance akin to the Sundering.''

As the Herald of Olympia, I have been tasked to communicate this impending calamity to worthy Mortals. The Divine edicts of the Tablets of Fate prohibit direct interference by the Gods or their Chosen, so the task at hand must instead be entrusted to heroes of legend.''

'Ideally my masters would have preferred a more subtle approach, but time I fear is of the essence.'

At the mention of the Sundering, you all pause. The Sundering (and the Spellplague that followed it) wreaked great havoc in Faerun, and indeed across all of reality. Millions (billions; probably even trillions) died, and magic, the planes and even reality was reshaped.

'It seems as if the Titans have found a way to defy the edicts of the Tablets of Fate.'

He pauses for questions, giving you all a chance to soak the above in.

(If you have any questions you wish to ask as he pauses, or wish to make any skill checks, ask away, otherwise I'll continue in a bit)

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Questions are better after the explanations, so I'm good for now.

 

[Flamestrike]

Questions are better after the explanations, so I'm good for now.

Roger, I'll give it a few hours for everyone to catch up and we can continue.

 

[Mort]

Questions are better after the explanations, so I'm good for now.

Agreed. Better to let the god give us the details he thinks are important rather than peppering him with interruptions!

 

[Flamestrike]

Hermes continues:

At the Dawn of time, the Abyss came to be, a manifestation of the primordial chaos itself. As is the nature of chaos, other realms soon sprang into existence; some of which you might now call ‘the outer planes’.

One of the earliest formed planes was Olympia, and in the same manner as the Abyss was spawned already inhabited by the Obilriths as manifestations of the nature of that accursed realm, the plane of Olympia also came to be already inhabited by fickle creatures of immense majesty and great power, who called themselves the Empyreans.

In your common tongue, they are known colloquially as ‘Titans’.

The Titans lived in peace in their new paradise, and some say even assisted a higher power in the creation of the material plane from the primordial Chaos. They in turn spawned offspring who called themselves the Olympians, who watched on as the place you call home was formed.

It is said that when the creation was finished, the Titans angered this higher power in some manner. They were denied a chance to influence this new realm with divine authority, and the mantle was instead passed to their children, my masters.

Many of the Titans took this as a grave insult, and a great civil war erupted in heaven largely unknown to most mortals, waged between the so called 'Thanatotic' Titan rebels, led by Chronos the greatest of their number, and the new Gods of Olympus.

This great battle was called the Titanomachy, and it shook up and reshaped the heavens for better or for worse. The Olympians and their loyal Empyrean Titans on one side; the rebellious Thanatotic Titans on the other, aided and abetted by armies of fiends drawn from the deepest layers of the Abyss and other planes of evil.

Towards the end of the Battle, Chronos. Leader of the rebels, assaulted Mount Olympus directly, leading a nightmarish army to directly assail the Gods themselves. The armies of Titans, fiends and Gods met with a mighty clash on the slopes of the sacred mountain, and the magical energy created was unlike anything seen before, or since.

Whether this energy, the intervention of some higher power, or a simple act of fate or destiny, the conflict served to sunder the very plane of Olympia and the holy Mount Olympus itself into two distinct planar realms, each realm holding the remnants of that cosmic battle. These realms we know as Olympia, containing the Gods of Olympus, and its darker mirror, the prison plane of Carceri - a foul domain of evil, that houses the rebellious Thanatonic Titans, and their hideous daemonic servants.

Notwithstanding the defeat of the rebels, the end result was a pyric victory for the Gods, with Mount Olympus itself being sundered and its ties to Aber Toril being weakened. My masters were left to look to other Prime material planes for worshippers, while the rebels railed against their entrapment in the sundered realm of Carceri, forever seeking some means to end their imprisonment.

Few ways exist to leave the prison of Carceri outside of Divine intervention, mighty mortal magic or the services of the Ferryman Charon himself. The Thanatotic Titans were thus forever doomed to be confined to the Plane for all of eternity. Their presence, and the presence of other foul inhabitants have rendered the plane corrupting in its influence on mortals who foolishly visit, and become themselves trapped.

Thus peace has been maintained for millennia. Until recently.

It has come to my masters attention that the Mad Titan Krios, a fallen Empyreal imprisoned on Othrys in the Tartauran depths of Carceri, has discovered a method to break the imprisonment of the plane, and escape. Years ago a powerful adventurer was banished to Carceri, in possession of an artifact known as The Well of Many Worlds. Attempting to use the device to escape the plane, he drew the attention of the Mad Titan, who slew him and took the device for himself.

It seems as if Krios, whose portfolio once included the stars and the heavens, unlocked some way to use the artifact to weaken and destabilize the boundaries of the prison plane. He constructed an arcane engine, seeking to use the power of the device to break the powerful magic.

The God indicates towards the orrery, in particular the oscillating orb.

The orrery you look at is a representation off the Great Wheel of the Planes, and that Orb represents the plane of Carceri. It seems as if the ritual threatens to destabilase the planar boundaries leading to the collapse of the wheel itself!

 

[Flamestrike]

At this point he pauses again, looking at you all intently for any questions you may have.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

"How did they break free from the Tablet's restrictions? Perhaps it could be reversed, or the gods could replicate it to be able to intervene themselves".

 

[Mort]

I will wait to ask a question until after @Zubatcarteira is answered as my biggest question may be mooted by the answer to his.