pukunui
Legend
Hi all!
I am planning to run all thirteen of the adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault as part of an episodic campaign set in Eberron. Whenever we finish one of the adventures, I will update this thread with both my conversion notes and my thoughts on how it played. If you've run any of these adventures, feel free to add your own thoughts below.
First, a quick summary of the party:
As my reports will contain spoilers, I will hide them in spoiler blocks.
I am planning to run all thirteen of the adventures in Keys from the Golden Vault as part of an episodic campaign set in Eberron. Whenever we finish one of the adventures, I will update this thread with both my conversion notes and my thoughts on how it played. If you've run any of these adventures, feel free to add your own thoughts below.
First, a quick summary of the party:
- Belwar, deep gnome UA shadow monk
- Dimble, rock gnome armorer artificer
Glissando, Mark of Scribing gnome eloquence barddeceased- Catnip, forest gnome swarmkeeper ranger
- Nissa, forest gnome Silver Flame vengeance paladin)
- Sunny, enlarged forest gnome wild magic barbarian
As my reports will contain spoilers, I will hide them in spoiler blocks.
This adventure took us roughly 5 hours across two sessions to complete.
I decided that the Murkmire is a location in the Shadow Marches, and I had the Varkenbluff Museum be associated with Morgrave University in Sharn. I changed the quest giver to a Zil gnome named Dr Cassia Cantor Dannell.
The PCs went along to the museum while it was open. They didn't really look around much on the ground floor, but they did have a look around the upper floor before going into the gala. Dimble chatted with one of the guards and learned that theallosaurus bladetooth was animatronic. He asked the guard to show him how it worked, and the guard obliged. While looking at the controls, he learned he'd be able to supercharge them and cause the construct to go on a rampage.
At the gala, the PCs talked with the other guests and with the curator, whom I rejigged as a skull face-tattooed Aereni elf named Aldaea Alorenthi. They noticed that the stone's plinth was rigged with a security device but weren't able to figure out what exactly it did. They also learned a few of the rumors.
I rejigged the named gala guests as follows:
I also made the effort to place specific guards in the various after hours roster locations as follows:
Later that evening, the PCs climbed up to the museum roof and re-entered via the open skylight. They ended up sneaking along the upper hallway into the cafe, where they failed to take out Milanova before she could call for reinforcements. I decided not to have the entire guard contingent come. Only the guards in areas V8 and V12 came. All those guards were knocked unconscious. The PCs found Maryam's key to area V13 and four pass cards.
Dimble then went and overloaded the bladetooth. While it was keeping the guards occupied downstairs, he snuck over and unlocked the door to V13, but as he approached the inner door, I told him he could hear the sound of movement from within, so he went back out and got Sunny to lift him up to the vent. He then spent ten minutes ritually casting detect magic to see if he could learn more about the magic security measures on the plinth.
Meanwhile, the other three snuck around and took out the two guards in areas V9 and V10, then stole the jade and the magic weapons. They also discovered that the secret door in V10 led to a cleaning supplies closet with another secret door leading to V13. [I had the other set of doors leading from V10 to V13 have "staff only" signs on them. Both Violet and Sareena had keys to those doors.]
To spice things up a bit, I had the stone turn translucent and do its first pulse just as the PCs all burst into the room to take out the dwarf and halfling guards. Because they're gnomes, they all have advantage on Wisdom saves vs magic, so only the dwarf guard failed, and he was knocked unconscious in one go by Sunny. While I like the idea of the wild magicky effects caused by the stone, they're all pretty much limited to combat effects, so there's not much point in doing the pulses outside of a combat encounter. [I also decided not to have the egg start pulsing magic while the gala is still going as suggested in the DMs Guild conversion guide as I felt that would make it obvious to everyone, including the curator, that it's an egg, not a stone, and pretty much negate the need to steal it.]
With a bit of Bardic Inspiration, Catnip managed to do the Raiders of the Lost Ark-style swap with the piece of jade for the egg. She then placed the egg in Dr Dannell's magic bag. As they were leaving V13, I decided that the remaining four guards from downstairs would have come up to examine the bladetooth's pedestal to see if they could figure out how it had been set loose. The PCs managed to knock them all unconscious as well, although during the fight Sunny passed the magic bag to Catnip, who made a run for the skylight. One guard gave chase but was then knocked out.
The PCs successfully gave the egg to Dr Dannell and got their rewards. The players were all worried that their characters would end up getting arrested since the guards would be able to describe them to the authorities, but I ruled that the Golden Vault secretly intervened and the museum ended up deciding not to press charges.
For their uncommon magic item reward from the Golden Vault, they chose mithril chainmail for the paladin so she won't have disadvantage on her Stealth checks.
Overall I think this adventure was fun, and the players really enjoyed it. However, I note that by coming in via the skylight, they didn't need to explore the ground floor or the basement at all, so they did not interact with the museum offices and thus did not learn about the guard roster, find the spare pass cards, learn about the alarm spells, etc. It was nearly entirely by luck that they didn't trigger any of the security measures on the upper floor.
I decided that the Murkmire is a location in the Shadow Marches, and I had the Varkenbluff Museum be associated with Morgrave University in Sharn. I changed the quest giver to a Zil gnome named Dr Cassia Cantor Dannell.
The PCs went along to the museum while it was open. They didn't really look around much on the ground floor, but they did have a look around the upper floor before going into the gala. Dimble chatted with one of the guards and learned that the
At the gala, the PCs talked with the other guests and with the curator, whom I rejigged as a skull face-tattooed Aereni elf named Aldaea Alorenthi. They noticed that the stone's plinth was rigged with a security device but weren't able to figure out what exactly it did. They also learned a few of the rumors.
I rejigged the named gala guests as follows:
- Captain Frankheim Walters is a Brelish human.
- Vandylara Velderen, a House Tharashk dragonmarked heir who was part of the Murkmire expedition (replacing the sneering elf mining heiress).
- Countess Helene ir'Danforth is a Brelish human and a member of the Sixty. I played her as a matronly woman in her 60s.
- Dr Hrothnar Stonecrusher is a Brelish dwarf.
I also made the effort to place specific guards in the various after hours roster locations as follows:
- V1: Garent "Badger" Millaneff (male shifter), Franceena Lictor (female Karrnathi elf)
- V3: Brendaera Valindril (female Aereni elf)
- V4: Sureth Dhanvhal (male Thranish human)
- V8: Shield (male personality warforged)
- V9-10: Violet Pendergilt (female Brelish human), Sareena (female tiefling)
- V11: Milanova Mag Harlian (female Zil gnome)
- V12: Maryam Bickram (female Brelish human), Darrison Blackwaters (male Brelish human)
- V13: Grendor Toldorath (male Mror dwarf), Billie Quartermile (male halfling)
Later that evening, the PCs climbed up to the museum roof and re-entered via the open skylight. They ended up sneaking along the upper hallway into the cafe, where they failed to take out Milanova before she could call for reinforcements. I decided not to have the entire guard contingent come. Only the guards in areas V8 and V12 came. All those guards were knocked unconscious. The PCs found Maryam's key to area V13 and four pass cards.
Dimble then went and overloaded the bladetooth. While it was keeping the guards occupied downstairs, he snuck over and unlocked the door to V13, but as he approached the inner door, I told him he could hear the sound of movement from within, so he went back out and got Sunny to lift him up to the vent. He then spent ten minutes ritually casting detect magic to see if he could learn more about the magic security measures on the plinth.
Meanwhile, the other three snuck around and took out the two guards in areas V9 and V10, then stole the jade and the magic weapons. They also discovered that the secret door in V10 led to a cleaning supplies closet with another secret door leading to V13. [I had the other set of doors leading from V10 to V13 have "staff only" signs on them. Both Violet and Sareena had keys to those doors.]
To spice things up a bit, I had the stone turn translucent and do its first pulse just as the PCs all burst into the room to take out the dwarf and halfling guards. Because they're gnomes, they all have advantage on Wisdom saves vs magic, so only the dwarf guard failed, and he was knocked unconscious in one go by Sunny. While I like the idea of the wild magicky effects caused by the stone, they're all pretty much limited to combat effects, so there's not much point in doing the pulses outside of a combat encounter. [I also decided not to have the egg start pulsing magic while the gala is still going as suggested in the DMs Guild conversion guide as I felt that would make it obvious to everyone, including the curator, that it's an egg, not a stone, and pretty much negate the need to steal it.]
With a bit of Bardic Inspiration, Catnip managed to do the Raiders of the Lost Ark-style swap with the piece of jade for the egg. She then placed the egg in Dr Dannell's magic bag. As they were leaving V13, I decided that the remaining four guards from downstairs would have come up to examine the bladetooth's pedestal to see if they could figure out how it had been set loose. The PCs managed to knock them all unconscious as well, although during the fight Sunny passed the magic bag to Catnip, who made a run for the skylight. One guard gave chase but was then knocked out.
The PCs successfully gave the egg to Dr Dannell and got their rewards. The players were all worried that their characters would end up getting arrested since the guards would be able to describe them to the authorities, but I ruled that the Golden Vault secretly intervened and the museum ended up deciding not to press charges.
For their uncommon magic item reward from the Golden Vault, they chose mithril chainmail for the paladin so she won't have disadvantage on her Stealth checks.
Overall I think this adventure was fun, and the players really enjoyed it. However, I note that by coming in via the skylight, they didn't need to explore the ground floor or the basement at all, so they did not interact with the museum offices and thus did not learn about the guard roster, find the spare pass cards, learn about the alarm spells, etc. It was nearly entirely by luck that they didn't trigger any of the security measures on the upper floor.
This adventure took us roughly 5 hours across two sessions to complete.
I renamed the primary antagonist Markos ir'Delphi, in keeping with Eberron's naming conventions for noble families. I placed Delphi Manor on the outskirts of the Skyraker Forest west of Galethspyre in Breland.
I determined that Krokulmar was an entity from Xoriat, but I didn't mention the daelkyr.
I reskinned the paladins depicted in the paintings in a hallway in Delphi Manor as Silver Flame templars.
I made the sage from whom Markos stole the Celestial Codex a Zil gnome named Vasil Talis Trome. I had him living in Wroat. I made it so the Golden Vault key came with lightning rail tickets to Wroat.
This was a fairly straightforward adventure. The PCs explored the mansion and encountered most of its denizens. I went a bit easy with the butler-turned-hook horror. They had fun trying to communicate with a being with hooks for hands and an inability to speak Common. They also used their gnomish illusions to fool the ghost so they could steal the star map for the nothic.
With regards to the Fragment of Krokulmar: you'll need to decide whether the fragment's ability to restore hit points to a creature at 0 hp overrides the adventure's statement that everything stops when the possessed body drops to 0 hp. I ruled that it did. Since it can't really do much else, I had the fragment ready actions to heal its possessed body should it fall to 0 hp. Eventually the players realized they'd need to attack the fragment directly. I had been worried that it would be too easy a fight, so I had beefed up Markos' and the body's hit points. At one point it looked like it was going to be a TPK, but then Sunny's player rolled a nat 20 on a death save to save the day (by grabbing the fragment and squishing it). Catnip died due to failed death saves, but since the Delphi family seem happy to raise people from the dead, I ruled that they would pay to have the PC raised since Markos was saved.
Although the PCs attempted to pull off a heist and steal the codex from under Markos' nose by turning Sunny invisible, the time it took her to sneak over to the book meant that Markos was able to complete his ritual. It resulted in a climactic battle after all. It was a fun adventure, but I'm not sure I'd count it as a proper 'heist' given the default placement of the thing you're supposed to steal and the ritual countdown that begins once you enter that area
For their free uncommon magic item, the players chose a +1 greataxe for Sunny.
I renamed the primary antagonist Markos ir'Delphi, in keeping with Eberron's naming conventions for noble families. I placed Delphi Manor on the outskirts of the Skyraker Forest west of Galethspyre in Breland.
I determined that Krokulmar was an entity from Xoriat, but I didn't mention the daelkyr.
I reskinned the paladins depicted in the paintings in a hallway in Delphi Manor as Silver Flame templars.
I made the sage from whom Markos stole the Celestial Codex a Zil gnome named Vasil Talis Trome. I had him living in Wroat. I made it so the Golden Vault key came with lightning rail tickets to Wroat.
This was a fairly straightforward adventure. The PCs explored the mansion and encountered most of its denizens. I went a bit easy with the butler-turned-hook horror. They had fun trying to communicate with a being with hooks for hands and an inability to speak Common. They also used their gnomish illusions to fool the ghost so they could steal the star map for the nothic.
With regards to the Fragment of Krokulmar: you'll need to decide whether the fragment's ability to restore hit points to a creature at 0 hp overrides the adventure's statement that everything stops when the possessed body drops to 0 hp. I ruled that it did. Since it can't really do much else, I had the fragment ready actions to heal its possessed body should it fall to 0 hp. Eventually the players realized they'd need to attack the fragment directly. I had been worried that it would be too easy a fight, so I had beefed up Markos' and the body's hit points. At one point it looked like it was going to be a TPK, but then Sunny's player rolled a nat 20 on a death save to save the day (by grabbing the fragment and squishing it). Catnip died due to failed death saves, but since the Delphi family seem happy to raise people from the dead, I ruled that they would pay to have the PC raised since Markos was saved.
Although the PCs attempted to pull off a heist and steal the codex from under Markos' nose by turning Sunny invisible, the time it took her to sneak over to the book meant that Markos was able to complete his ritual. It resulted in a climactic battle after all. It was a fun adventure, but I'm not sure I'd count it as a proper 'heist' given the default placement of the thing you're supposed to steal and the ritual countdown that begins once you enter that area
For their free uncommon magic item, the players chose a +1 greataxe for Sunny.
I've redubbed this one "The Dolurrhi Gambit". (The PCs were 3rd level, but I didn't make any changes to creature stats.)
I've placed the Afterlife Casino on the banks of the Dagger River west of First Tower. The ambience is a campy sort of spooky, and the theme is "live it up and indulge to stave off the ennui of the afterlife". Employees are not all tieflings. Instead they dress up as ghosts and specters and wear black robes with "Scream" masks and such. The ferriers look Grim Reaperish. The tunnel leading to the casino is full of mist and ghostly noises and such - made to look like patrons are traveling into Dolurrh.
New arrivals are greeted by an employee playing the part of the Librarian from the Vault of Memories. This employee records patrons' names in a large book.
The casino chips bear the scratched on symbol of the Keeper. So do the pass cards for the employee-only doors (which are black and trimmed with silver). Given that the Keeper is the Sovereign of greed as well as death, it is a fitting symbol to use and didn't raise any suspicions amongst the PCs.
The tournament is the Queen of the Dead Invitational, and the trophy looks like a slender elf woman in a robe made of black feathers trimmed with mithril and a cracked alabaster mask.
The owner of the casino is Quentin Caras Clebdecher, and he is a Talon (a priest of the Keeper). The fresco in his room depicts a Dolurrhi landscape. If need be, I will have specters emerge from it instead of spined devils. I've kept Quentin's devilish look.
Verity is a Dolurrhi tiefling. She has pale skin and eyes, no horns, and curly white hair that trails off like mist. The theme of the casino is still a deliberate dig at her heritage by Quentin.
I placed the Brine Widow tavern in Sharn's Welcome, Cliffside.
Casino patrons:
I then had Jetta, whom we had coincidentally established was Glissando's cousin due to them having the same family name (Lyrriman), fall ill and ask him to take her place in the tournament. This allowed Glissando to palm a key card from one of the waiters and then pass it to Nissa.
Sunny and Catnip then caused a scene at the entrance to the tournament area to pull attention (and the security guard standing by the trophy) away from the back of the room. Nissa then surreptitiously cast minor illusion to create a static image of the room in front of the security mirror so that Dimble could sneak up to the trophy case unnoticed, unlock it, take the trophy and put it in Verity's magic bag, then replace it with a lookalike trinket he'd made using his magical tinkering feature.
Glissando managed to convince the casino security and Quentin not to incarcerate Sunny for brandishing a weapon and threatening another patron. (He played the "she's a simple barbarian and couldn't read the rules so didn't know" card.) Glissando agreed to Quentin's condition that he mind Sunny and make sure she caused no further disturbances or else they'd both end up in the cells. Sunny's magic axe would also be stored in the vault until she was ready to leave.
A little while later, Dimble and Nissa used the stolen key card to get into the laundry to obtain some staff uniforms. They then met Catnip, Sunny, and Glissando in the baths, where Glissando used his magic lute to turn Catnip invisible.
While Sunny and Glissando remained in the spa, Dimble and Nissa, posing as casino staff, entered the back offices with the invisible Catnip at their heels. They told the guards in the security office that they were there to retrieve the barbarian's axe because she was ready to leave. One of the guards reminded them about the new security feature, Virgil, and asked if they had the boss' magic control rod. Dimble prevaricated while Catnip snuck over to Quentin's office, found the rod in the desk drawer, then palmed it to him in secret. (I rolled to see if anyone would be in the back hall or if Quentin was in his office but got nothing both times.)
Dimble then used Virgil to open the wardrobes and chests. They took most of the money, putting 5k in Verity's bag, and all of the stowed collateral, and then nonchalantly walked out, and then everyone left the casino straight away (with Dimble and Nissa, still in uniform, acting like they'd finished their shift and were heading home). There wasn't really enough time for the casino staff to raise the alarm.
One thing I'd like to note is that, while the description of the clerk's office states that PCs can verify the presence of "roughly 5,000 gp" in the vault by reading the magic ledger, the description of the vault indicates that all seven chests contain a total of "2d4 x 1,000 gp", meaning that there could be as little as 2,000 gp in the coffers at any one time, which doesn't really work since Verity needs 5,000 gp. We decided to interpret it as 2d4 x 1,000 per chest, but then we ended up with way too much money, so we just halved the amount, and then they took about half of that so the casino employees wouldn't notice right away (like they would if the coffers were completely cleaned out). 5,000 went to Verity, and I think they were left with maybe 2,500 (or 500 apiece) after that? Not a bad haul - but not enough to retire on either!
For the free uncommon item, they chose a nature's mantle cloak for Catnip.
I've placed the Afterlife Casino on the banks of the Dagger River west of First Tower. The ambience is a campy sort of spooky, and the theme is "live it up and indulge to stave off the ennui of the afterlife". Employees are not all tieflings. Instead they dress up as ghosts and specters and wear black robes with "Scream" masks and such. The ferriers look Grim Reaperish. The tunnel leading to the casino is full of mist and ghostly noises and such - made to look like patrons are traveling into Dolurrh.
New arrivals are greeted by an employee playing the part of the Librarian from the Vault of Memories. This employee records patrons' names in a large book.
The casino chips bear the scratched on symbol of the Keeper. So do the pass cards for the employee-only doors (which are black and trimmed with silver). Given that the Keeper is the Sovereign of greed as well as death, it is a fitting symbol to use and didn't raise any suspicions amongst the PCs.
The tournament is the Queen of the Dead Invitational, and the trophy looks like a slender elf woman in a robe made of black feathers trimmed with mithril and a cracked alabaster mask.
The owner of the casino is Quentin Caras Clebdecher, and he is a Talon (a priest of the Keeper). The fresco in his room depicts a Dolurrhi landscape. If need be, I will have specters emerge from it instead of spined devils. I've kept Quentin's devilish look.
Verity is a Dolurrhi tiefling. She has pale skin and eyes, no horns, and curly white hair that trails off like mist. The theme of the casino is still a deliberate dig at her heritage by Quentin.
I placed the Brine Widow tavern in Sharn's Welcome, Cliffside.
Casino patrons:
- Lysa Silvertongue, an Aundairian human bard
- Georgie Simmons, a Brelish human commoner from First Tower
- Karlton Keyes, a Brelish human merchant
- Lowell and Lorna Brassborn, Brelish dwarf siblings
- Rythil of Moonwatch, a Brelish elf businessman
- Anaïs Bellefleur, a shifter from the Eldeen Reaches
- Jetta Lyrriman Dal, a Zil gnome
- Karn Ironpebble, a Thranish dwarf
- Lahdia of Stormreach, a Xen'drik drow
- Nightshade, a mummified-looking Aereni elf
- Ruthie Swifford, a Brelish human from Wroat
- Whiplash, a Brelish male personality warforged
- Wumpus Boromar, a Brelish halfling from Sharn
- A1 is where the 'Librarian' greets new patrons
- A2 is the Crucible
- A3 is the Vault of Memories
- A4 is the Kennel (and the rats are skeletal)
- A5 is Bar Ennui
- A6 is the Silver Flame Spa and Sovereign Baths
- A8 is where the Cirque Six performs
- A9 is the Queen's Chambers
- A11 is the Catacombs Restaurant
I then had Jetta, whom we had coincidentally established was Glissando's cousin due to them having the same family name (Lyrriman), fall ill and ask him to take her place in the tournament. This allowed Glissando to palm a key card from one of the waiters and then pass it to Nissa.
Sunny and Catnip then caused a scene at the entrance to the tournament area to pull attention (and the security guard standing by the trophy) away from the back of the room. Nissa then surreptitiously cast minor illusion to create a static image of the room in front of the security mirror so that Dimble could sneak up to the trophy case unnoticed, unlock it, take the trophy and put it in Verity's magic bag, then replace it with a lookalike trinket he'd made using his magical tinkering feature.
Glissando managed to convince the casino security and Quentin not to incarcerate Sunny for brandishing a weapon and threatening another patron. (He played the "she's a simple barbarian and couldn't read the rules so didn't know" card.) Glissando agreed to Quentin's condition that he mind Sunny and make sure she caused no further disturbances or else they'd both end up in the cells. Sunny's magic axe would also be stored in the vault until she was ready to leave.
A little while later, Dimble and Nissa used the stolen key card to get into the laundry to obtain some staff uniforms. They then met Catnip, Sunny, and Glissando in the baths, where Glissando used his magic lute to turn Catnip invisible.
While Sunny and Glissando remained in the spa, Dimble and Nissa, posing as casino staff, entered the back offices with the invisible Catnip at their heels. They told the guards in the security office that they were there to retrieve the barbarian's axe because she was ready to leave. One of the guards reminded them about the new security feature, Virgil, and asked if they had the boss' magic control rod. Dimble prevaricated while Catnip snuck over to Quentin's office, found the rod in the desk drawer, then palmed it to him in secret. (I rolled to see if anyone would be in the back hall or if Quentin was in his office but got nothing both times.)
Dimble then used Virgil to open the wardrobes and chests. They took most of the money, putting 5k in Verity's bag, and all of the stowed collateral, and then nonchalantly walked out, and then everyone left the casino straight away (with Dimble and Nissa, still in uniform, acting like they'd finished their shift and were heading home). There wasn't really enough time for the casino staff to raise the alarm.
One thing I'd like to note is that, while the description of the clerk's office states that PCs can verify the presence of "roughly 5,000 gp" in the vault by reading the magic ledger, the description of the vault indicates that all seven chests contain a total of "2d4 x 1,000 gp", meaning that there could be as little as 2,000 gp in the coffers at any one time, which doesn't really work since Verity needs 5,000 gp. We decided to interpret it as 2d4 x 1,000 per chest, but then we ended up with way too much money, so we just halved the amount, and then they took about half of that so the casino employees wouldn't notice right away (like they would if the coffers were completely cleaned out). 5,000 went to Verity, and I think they were left with maybe 2,500 (or 500 apiece) after that? Not a bad haul - but not enough to retire on either!
For the free uncommon item, they chose a nature's mantle cloak for Catnip.
I decided to make Revel's End part of the Dreadhold prison island. I decided that because Dreadhold is a sizable island, House Kundarak could have multiple prison facilities around the island, with Revel's End being the place where they keep prisoners with magical abilities (hence the antimagic field cells).
The warden is Marta d'Kundarak. The three Absolution Council members are non-dragonmarked Kundaraks. The prison guards are all dwarves.
I made Varrin Axebreaker a Sharn native, and Prisoner 13's hidden vault is somewhere in the ruins of Old Sharn. Varrin pulled some strings to get the PCs onto an airship bound for Regalport, the technical capital of the Lhazaar Principalities. There they hitched a ride with Varrin's associate Bethra.
I made it so the magic map didn't melt into the PCs' hands right away. I hadn't bothered to figure out long it would take to travel from Sharn to Regalport and then to Dreadhold island, so I made it so the PCs were instructed to activate the map when they were approaching the prison. That way they would have the full five days that the map lasts to plan and execute their plan in the prison.
Because I had made it so all the guards were dwarves and none of the PCs had the means to disguise themselves as a dwarf (all being gnomes, one of whom is human-sized), I went along with the players' alternative plans. Sunny and Catnip went to the prison as cooks, while Glissando smuggled himself inside a crate. Nissa meanwhile went under the pretense of preaching to the prisoners in hopes of converting them to the Silver Flame religion, and Dimble went to volunteer his services as an artificer to fix things. I figured that House Kundarak would have its own staff of artificers to fix things based elsewhere on the island, but both of them rolled super high on their checks to convince the warden that I waived the whole "the warden only lets people come in if they're seeking shelter" thing and went with it.
To further play on the artificer player's idea, I made it so the warden's magical heating was playing up in her chambers, so she got him to look at fixing it. This gave him the opportunity to scout out her office and also to learn about her possession.
Nissa's player, meanwhile, was able to use the pretense of proselytizing to the prisoners to speak privately with Prisoner 13 in the exercise yard.
The group decided to steal the warden's ledger and then make a forgery of it, changing some of the info to be incorrect. They suspect that Prisoner 13 is up to no good with wanting the info in the ledger, so they want to mess up her plans while still getting the key from her.
The players all rolled really well during the first session, so everything has gone according to plan ... we'll see if anything goes awry next session. If not, it'll be a fairly short finish to the this adventure, and then we'll move on to something else!
The players continued to roll really well, including several nat 20s. They smuggled the forged ledger to Prisoner 13 in her food. She then later told Nissa in the exercise yard that that was no good. She needed to be able to be given the book to read. Since Nissa was on her own and couldn't consult with her comrades, she hesitated ... so I had Prisoner 13 state that, after returning to her cell, she could feign feeling ill so that she would be taken to the infirmary. Since there isn't a medic stationed there, it seemed logical for the guards to ask Nissa, as a paladin, to tend to the prisoner. Nissa was able to convince the guard to step outside so she could examine Prisoner 13. The latter then read the book and then showed Nissa her key tattoo, but it was a bit too complicated for Nissa to figure out.
Later that day, Nissa conferred with her allies, and it was decided that Glissando would turn himself invisible and sneak over to Prisoner 13's cell to invisibly copy the tattoo. Here's where the high rolls finally stopped, as he failed a few Stealth rolls and raised the prison's suspicion level in the process (finally!) and had to use a hero point to succeed on the Arcana check to accurately record the tattoo.
The following evening, Nissa was able to convince the warden to let her and her fellow gnomes outside in the evening to attend to "gnome stuff". They then signaled the boat and made their getaway.
All in all, this was a tense but ultimately combat-less adventure. I do feel like there should be consequences down the road, though. Surely at some point Prisoner 13 will figure out that some of the information in the ledger is inaccurate and will direct some of her agents to get back at the party. Also, House Kundarak will want to do an investigation into what exactly happened when a bunch of gnomes showed up at one of their prisons and then left suddenly. They may eventually figure out the truth. But then the Golden Vault will step in and smooth things over in the background.
For their magic item rewards from Varrin Axebreaker, they chose the cap of water breathing (for general use), the slippers of spider climbing (for Catnip), and a suit of mithril plate armor (for Dimble).
For their rare magic item reward from the Golden Vault, they chose an Amulet of Health for Sunny.
The warden is Marta d'Kundarak. The three Absolution Council members are non-dragonmarked Kundaraks. The prison guards are all dwarves.
I made Varrin Axebreaker a Sharn native, and Prisoner 13's hidden vault is somewhere in the ruins of Old Sharn. Varrin pulled some strings to get the PCs onto an airship bound for Regalport, the technical capital of the Lhazaar Principalities. There they hitched a ride with Varrin's associate Bethra.
I made it so the magic map didn't melt into the PCs' hands right away. I hadn't bothered to figure out long it would take to travel from Sharn to Regalport and then to Dreadhold island, so I made it so the PCs were instructed to activate the map when they were approaching the prison. That way they would have the full five days that the map lasts to plan and execute their plan in the prison.
Because I had made it so all the guards were dwarves and none of the PCs had the means to disguise themselves as a dwarf (all being gnomes, one of whom is human-sized), I went along with the players' alternative plans. Sunny and Catnip went to the prison as cooks, while Glissando smuggled himself inside a crate. Nissa meanwhile went under the pretense of preaching to the prisoners in hopes of converting them to the Silver Flame religion, and Dimble went to volunteer his services as an artificer to fix things. I figured that House Kundarak would have its own staff of artificers to fix things based elsewhere on the island, but both of them rolled super high on their checks to convince the warden that I waived the whole "the warden only lets people come in if they're seeking shelter" thing and went with it.
To further play on the artificer player's idea, I made it so the warden's magical heating was playing up in her chambers, so she got him to look at fixing it. This gave him the opportunity to scout out her office and also to learn about her possession.
Nissa's player, meanwhile, was able to use the pretense of proselytizing to the prisoners to speak privately with Prisoner 13 in the exercise yard.
The group decided to steal the warden's ledger and then make a forgery of it, changing some of the info to be incorrect. They suspect that Prisoner 13 is up to no good with wanting the info in the ledger, so they want to mess up her plans while still getting the key from her.
The players all rolled really well during the first session, so everything has gone according to plan ... we'll see if anything goes awry next session. If not, it'll be a fairly short finish to the this adventure, and then we'll move on to something else!
The players continued to roll really well, including several nat 20s. They smuggled the forged ledger to Prisoner 13 in her food. She then later told Nissa in the exercise yard that that was no good. She needed to be able to be given the book to read. Since Nissa was on her own and couldn't consult with her comrades, she hesitated ... so I had Prisoner 13 state that, after returning to her cell, she could feign feeling ill so that she would be taken to the infirmary. Since there isn't a medic stationed there, it seemed logical for the guards to ask Nissa, as a paladin, to tend to the prisoner. Nissa was able to convince the guard to step outside so she could examine Prisoner 13. The latter then read the book and then showed Nissa her key tattoo, but it was a bit too complicated for Nissa to figure out.
Later that day, Nissa conferred with her allies, and it was decided that Glissando would turn himself invisible and sneak over to Prisoner 13's cell to invisibly copy the tattoo. Here's where the high rolls finally stopped, as he failed a few Stealth rolls and raised the prison's suspicion level in the process (finally!) and had to use a hero point to succeed on the Arcana check to accurately record the tattoo.
The following evening, Nissa was able to convince the warden to let her and her fellow gnomes outside in the evening to attend to "gnome stuff". They then signaled the boat and made their getaway.
All in all, this was a tense but ultimately combat-less adventure. I do feel like there should be consequences down the road, though. Surely at some point Prisoner 13 will figure out that some of the information in the ledger is inaccurate and will direct some of her agents to get back at the party. Also, House Kundarak will want to do an investigation into what exactly happened when a bunch of gnomes showed up at one of their prisons and then left suddenly. They may eventually figure out the truth. But then the Golden Vault will step in and smooth things over in the background.
For their magic item rewards from Varrin Axebreaker, they chose the cap of water breathing (for general use), the slippers of spider climbing (for Catnip), and a suit of mithril plate armor (for Dimble).
For their rare magic item reward from the Golden Vault, they chose an Amulet of Health for Sunny.
Glissando died in the Mournland. His replacement PC is a deep gnome ninja, Belwar Seamfinder, who works for Zilargo's Trust. Since there are two 5th level Golden Vault adventures, I decided to ignore the Golden Vault aspects of this adventure. Instead, I made it so Belwar originally came from Little Lockford, which I placed beneath the Howling Peaks on the northern border of Zilargo. I decided that the residents of Little Lockford don't consider themselves citizens of either Zilargo or Breland.
I established that the town's mayor is Belwar's aunt. She sent him a request for help. He then learned through the Trust network that some gnomish adventurers were in town to attend their fallen comrade's memorial service, so he approached them for help through a mutual acquaintance. They agreed to help him (obviously), and the journey from Korranberg to Little Lockford took 15 days (thus playing into the adventure's premise that it's been a few weeks since Tockworth turned on everyone.)
By the numbers, this is not a difficult adventure as written. For five 5th level PCs, Tixie is only a medium encounter, as is the shield guardian. Everything else is easy or trivial. (Even the cloaker in the mines is only a hard encounter, and as written, it only tries to frighten the PCs away rather than fight them.) I recommend giving some creatures, like Tixie and her shield guardian, max HP. I also added some more clockwork creatures that the townsfolk didn't know about (see my notes below), although I forgot about one and my players avoided the others.
We completed this adventure in two sessions. In the first session, they made it as far as the abbey. They convinced the escaped prisoners to go with them and the abbot, whom they escorted back to the front gates as requested. Thanks to Catnip's pass without trace spell, they avoided all contact with clockwork patrols. In the second session, they decided to take the slagline straight to Smoldertown, thus bypassing Turbine Heights entirely. They snuck straight to Tixie's workshop. Belwar cast darkness above the shield guardian (not knowing it had blindsight) and then ran under its legs to open the door. The party then engaged in a running battle as some of them pushed into the workshop and headed up the ladder to the second floor. I gave the party a few rounds before Rack and Pinion finished building the new clockwork defender. They then climbed up the ladder after the PCs who had gone up there while the defender ran out to engage the PCs fighting the shield guardian.
Tixie showed up once Dimble picked the lock on her safe. She managed to take him down but lasted only three rounds herself and didn't get a chance to dimension door away again. The Batman-esque paladin Nissa chose to act as Tixie's judge, jury, and executioner. Dimble got a nat 20 and recovered. He managed to resist the crown of madness spell and successfully used the key to deactivate the town's defenses. And that was the end of the adventure!
Like "Reach for the Stars", this adventure isn't much of a heist since it's impossible to get the key without summoning Tixie (assuming the PCs haven't dealt with her already). Her workshop is also specifically described as being windowless and only has one door, so there's no way to sneak in that doesn't involve getting past the shield guardian. Also, once the PCs get the key, all they have to do is take it downstairs. In retrospect, I think I would move the fail-safe device to the security center in the Overlook. It makes sense to put it there - it's the town's security center after all! - and it means that the item needing to be stolen and the place where you need to use it aren't in the same location.
While we only used about half the content in the adventure, the players really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too. However, if I run it again, I'll make some further changes.
Also, regarding the slagline - the buckets are spaced 15 feet apart and it moves for one minute. We decided that meant the slagline moves 15 feet per minute so that no buckets get missed at each loading station. I then calculated that each station and bucket marked on the map would be a 2-minute interval. Counting those got me to a total of 50 minutes from Old Lockford's station to the foundry in Smoldertown.
Other notes:
I personally dislike Tixie's portrayal. For starters, how does she manage to do anything with no hands? I found that a bit too ridiculous for me, so I decided that her mechanical arms still ended in hands, but one contained a retractable sword (like a warforged's armblade) while the other contained a retractable / foldable shield. The other issue is that the artist (and the art director, it would seem) forgot that deep gnomes have grey skin. Her portrait was easy enough for me to fix in Photoshop but still ...
I established that the town's mayor is Belwar's aunt. She sent him a request for help. He then learned through the Trust network that some gnomish adventurers were in town to attend their fallen comrade's memorial service, so he approached them for help through a mutual acquaintance. They agreed to help him (obviously), and the journey from Korranberg to Little Lockford took 15 days (thus playing into the adventure's premise that it's been a few weeks since Tockworth turned on everyone.)
By the numbers, this is not a difficult adventure as written. For five 5th level PCs, Tixie is only a medium encounter, as is the shield guardian. Everything else is easy or trivial. (Even the cloaker in the mines is only a hard encounter, and as written, it only tries to frighten the PCs away rather than fight them.) I recommend giving some creatures, like Tixie and her shield guardian, max HP. I also added some more clockwork creatures that the townsfolk didn't know about (see my notes below), although I forgot about one and my players avoided the others.
We completed this adventure in two sessions. In the first session, they made it as far as the abbey. They convinced the escaped prisoners to go with them and the abbot, whom they escorted back to the front gates as requested. Thanks to Catnip's pass without trace spell, they avoided all contact with clockwork patrols. In the second session, they decided to take the slagline straight to Smoldertown, thus bypassing Turbine Heights entirely. They snuck straight to Tixie's workshop. Belwar cast darkness above the shield guardian (not knowing it had blindsight) and then ran under its legs to open the door. The party then engaged in a running battle as some of them pushed into the workshop and headed up the ladder to the second floor. I gave the party a few rounds before Rack and Pinion finished building the new clockwork defender. They then climbed up the ladder after the PCs who had gone up there while the defender ran out to engage the PCs fighting the shield guardian.
Tixie showed up once Dimble picked the lock on her safe. She managed to take him down but lasted only three rounds herself and didn't get a chance to dimension door away again. The Batman-esque paladin Nissa chose to act as Tixie's judge, jury, and executioner. Dimble got a nat 20 and recovered. He managed to resist the crown of madness spell and successfully used the key to deactivate the town's defenses. And that was the end of the adventure!
Like "Reach for the Stars", this adventure isn't much of a heist since it's impossible to get the key without summoning Tixie (assuming the PCs haven't dealt with her already). Her workshop is also specifically described as being windowless and only has one door, so there's no way to sneak in that doesn't involve getting past the shield guardian. Also, once the PCs get the key, all they have to do is take it downstairs. In retrospect, I think I would move the fail-safe device to the security center in the Overlook. It makes sense to put it there - it's the town's security center after all! - and it means that the item needing to be stolen and the place where you need to use it aren't in the same location.
While we only used about half the content in the adventure, the players really enjoyed it. I enjoyed it too. However, if I run it again, I'll make some further changes.
Also, regarding the slagline - the buckets are spaced 15 feet apart and it moves for one minute. We decided that meant the slagline moves 15 feet per minute so that no buckets get missed at each loading station. I then calculated that each station and bucket marked on the map would be a 2-minute interval. Counting those got me to a total of 50 minutes from Old Lockford's station to the foundry in Smoldertown.
Other notes:
- The goblin Slonk and bugbear Yuzzik were instead Munta and Rakari respectively. They were members of the Kech Volaar (a branch of the Heirs of Dhakaan). They were captured while scouting the area around Little Lockford for Dhakaani relics.
- The 'Deep Brother' is just the deep gnomes' name for Onatar, Sovereign of Fire and Forge.
- The town gates were manned by two magewrights who have to perform a 5-minute ritual to open them. It's slower, but it's also not as noisy as two knock spells! And it adds a little more Eberron flavor.
- Even though I wasn't using the Golden Vault, I added a rare magic item to the mayor's rewards anyway: a pair of bracers of defense, which Belwar admirably let Sunny have. Since the party already has one stone of good luck, I decided they didn't need another, so I replaced that with a pyroconverger (from the Ravnica book - it seemed suitably Eberronish + gnomish) found in Tixie's workshop. I made it a prototype she was working on - hence its short range and the chance of having it malfunction. Dimble the artificer took it, of course, along with the driftglobe. The boots of striding and springing were given to Nissa since Catnip (the only other PC with 25 ft speed) already has some slippers of spider climbing.
- I made it so when the PCs entered Tixie's workshop, Rack and Pinion were just finishing a clockwork defender (like in the picture).
- I added a clockwork iron cobra with increased speed and an overactive sense of self-preservation to area 9b. Tixie created it to guard her lockbox. I then promptly forgot about it!
- I added an oaken bolter with sensors and a ground fault to the Overlook (area 12). It was guarding the security center from the outside. I added a second one guarding the south end of the east bridge between Turbine Heights and Smoldertown. My players avoided these by using the slagline to get from Old Lockford to Smoldertown.
I personally dislike Tixie's portrayal. For starters, how does she manage to do anything with no hands? I found that a bit too ridiculous for me, so I decided that her mechanical arms still ended in hands, but one contained a retractable sword (like a warforged's armblade) while the other contained a retractable / foldable shield. The other issue is that the artist (and the art director, it would seem) forgot that deep gnomes have grey skin. Her portrait was easy enough for me to fix in Photoshop but still ...
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