This post is part of my solo Hell’s Rebels campaign.

Intro

If we were simply reading the book, we would already be done with adventure 01. But we’re playing, and there is a vital part of the adventure’s capstone dungeon delve that I’ve been putting off until now: the looting!

I’ve ran this delve as a “brutal raid”, so our PCs were mainly interested in clearing the cultists infesting the place as fast as possible, and whenever they found some loot they just made a mental note to get to it later.

Well, Nox has been defeated, and it’s “Later” now. The book doesn’t really mention how often the diabolists here checked back with Thrune, but I figure our heroes have enough time to gather and tally all the loot, though I guess they might need to call in a couple of Silver Raven teams to help haul it all back to base.

I’m labeling this “Scene 15” because it’s technically part of the first adventure, but we’re not doing any Mythic stuff here this time around.

[GM] Delver: The Lootening

Unfortunately, the very fact that Thrune’s minions know where the Monastery is and have successfully raided it in the past means that they cannot use it as a base, so they have to stay in the somewhat cramped Wasp Nest for now. But they can still loot the place!

I think we can abstract our actual procedure here. The PCs use a Silver Raven figurine to call their Freedom Fighters and Sneaks teams and strip this place bare. I’ll roll Perception for the PCs when stuff is hidden, but we can assume the teams take care of carting the loot out, and dropping Azvernathy somewhere beyond city walls with instructions to never show his face in this town again.

The next section gives talks about the XP they gained from this delve. Then we get a high-level overview of what the PCs found, and what they did it with it after bringing it to the Wasp Nest.

And finally, for the completionists, you get a full tally of the loot found in the dungeon, complete with costs and weights in the format I use for my home-brewed gear tallying script.

[GM] XP Rewards

I’m not sure I specified how I’m handling XP here. That’s in part because I hadn’t 100% settled on a system yet. I went with the one suggested in Exploits for a while but I think I’m going to go with something considerably more generous given the slow pace of play in this campaign and the lack of proper “sessions”.

Every time the PCs complete a significant quest, they get 5 character points. If we have a capital-P part in a Hell’s Rebels book that has one single linear goal, that’s a significant quest. If we have something that’s labeled as a Mission, usually in the middle part of a book, that’s also a significant quest. So, for example, the Aria Park Riot was one such quest, then we had the various missions I played, and then the capstone delve was another quest.

Additionally, every time the book specifically calls out a story-based XP award for something, they gain 1 character point if they achieve that goal.

And finally, they get another 5 character points at the end of the adventure.

We’re using this new system starting from the capstone delve in adventure 1. So at the end of this delve, they got:

  • 1 point for gaining access to level 2 of the dungeon.
  • 1 point for deactivating the Cubic Gate.
  • 1 point for recovering the soul tomes.
  • 1 point for discovering the clue within (see below).
  • 5 points for clearing the dungeon.
  • 5 points for finishing the adventure.

That’s 14 points each, making all of them into 289-point characters (they were at 275 when they started the delve).

We’ll deal with character advancement in a later post.

[Player] Loot Disposition

Obviously we’re taking the money right away and taking it into the common party stash. I want to use this to upgrade the PC’s gear, and most of what’s left when I’m done will go into the Raven treasury. Already that’s $8700 right there.

Next we have our “art objects”, mundane but valuable items with no associated game benefits. We’re keeping the Victocora signet rings to hand off to Rexus, but everything else should be fenced. The rest consists mainly of books, with some miscellaneous fancy writing and reading tools thrown in. Urist will only part with the books if he’s sure they can go to someone who will make good use of them outside of Cheliax, but Jania assures him she can make it happen (and as the GM I confirm it). She’s going to talk to Lady Mialari Docur in the space between adventures, and I she will handle the rest.

Our loot pile in this category totals a whopping $51250 and weights 43kg. The process of carting it around to various fences and selling it probably takes a couple of weeks, but we can sum up the results here. Per the standard rules, that amount up there is the loot’s nominal worth. Our heroes will be able to fence it for 40% of that value, or 50% if one of them can win a contest of Merchant vs. 15. Jania does win, so we’re looking at $25625 for the lot. 64 gold, 1 silver, 5 copper.

Next we have our “tools”, items which have a game effect but are not what I’d consider “equipment”. This includes consumables like potions and scrolls, as well as the useful tomes we found and the Bookplate of Recall. I think we’re keeping everything here except for the Bookplate. I roll another Merchant roll for it, and it gets sold off for $5000 (12 gold, 10 silver).

And finally we have our “Equipment”. Armor and weapons and things that can be worn and wielded for continuous effect. Here we have Nox’s and Azvernathy’s armor and weapons, the Headband of Will +1, the Ring of Swimming, a scroll belt, and a humble belt pouch. Total value $61134, total weight around 39kg.

Our heroes are keeping everything but Nox’s glaive, which no one specializes in, and Raul’s shield which is redundant. That’s $240 (12 silvers) added to our party treasury. Art will take Nox’s Armor, Urist will take Raul’s mace and armor. Jade takes the Headband and Ring of Swimming, Jania the scroll belt.

I’ll charge the group a $500 “refit” fee for the two suits of armor and the mace, which is roughly 10% of their value. They have to be cleansed of all that Asmodean iconography and Raul’s armor has to be adjusted to fit Urist’s dwarven frame. Total fee: $1500 (3 gold, 15 silver).

[Player & GM] Detailed Loot Ledger

This goes over each room in the dungeon that has treasure in it, and lists the treasure in detail. The list is formatted for both human readability and for consumption by a simple script I hand-coded to tally costs and weights, which is why you can see those big numbers in the previous section.

We start from the entrance to the Phantasmagorium level (rooms E1 to E10), and then go through the Monastery level (rooms F1 to F7.

Room E2:

They looted this one on the way in during the delve. The Ring of Swimming used to be weaker than this, but I thought hey, why not go all in?

  • 4 x Silver Coin: $20, 0.01kg .
  • Ring of Swimming: Grants Amphibious but not Gills while worn. $25000, 0kg .

Room E4

We already searched this room on the way in, so this list is a reprise. The scrolls have already been looted, the rest is being taken now.

  • 1 x Gilded souvenir medal: $250, 0kg .
  • 19 x Silver Coin: $20, 0.01kg . (total $380, 0.19kg)
  • 1 x Scroll Belt: 10 waterproof compartments for scrolls. $60, 0.5kg .

The scrolls are all universal and charged:

  • 1 x Scroll of Panic: 1m radius. Universal, charged. $400, 0kg .
  • 1 x Scroll of Bravery: 2m radius. Universal, charged. $400, 0kg .
  • 1 x Scroll of Curse: 1 point. Universal, charged. $300, 0kg .

There was also a scroll of Deathtouch (2d, $200) but it has already been used by Jania.

Room E7

  • 1 x Alabaster Snake Eye: $1500, 0kg .

Room E8

The party isn’t going to sell these rings, but I’m listing their value for completeness’ sake.

  • 2 x Victocora Signet Ring: $750, 0.1kg . (total $1500, 0.2kg)

Room E9

Perception -1 to search the room for left-over valuables. The PCs pass this the test, and so find everything.

  • 1 x Bottle of lead-based ink: $500, 0.25kg .
  • 5 x Miniature ivory doors: $50, 0.01kg . (total $250, 0.05kg)
  • 1 x Roll of copper Wire: $250, 4kg .
  • 12 x Silver Coin: $20, 0.01kg . (total $240, 0.12kg)
  • 1 x Diamond: $1000, 0kg .

Azvernathy’s belongings were also left here when he was imprisoned on E10.

  • 1 x Balanced Dwarven Mace: enchanted with Puissance 1. $5450, 2.5kg .
  • 1 x Medium Shield: $80, 7.5kg .
  • 1 x Suit of Armor: DR 6 on body, DR 2 on limbs and extremities, no helmet. Lighten 1 and Fortify 1. |$4674, 11.7kg|.

Room E10

This is where Azvernathy was imprisoned, but he won’t be able to sneak any treasure on his person as the Freedom Fighters escort him away.

The book listed below also contained a clue to opening the way to the Monastery, but we didn’t need it because Urist already knew the trick.

  • 1 x Book: This is an ornate tome sacred to the dead god Aroden. $1000, 6kg .

Room F1: The Sacred Archive

  • Miscellaneous Books: $2000, 30kg.

  • Bookplate of Recall: Metal plate with space to write the owner’s name. When glued to the inside cover of a book it allows the owner to summon it to their hand once a day. |$10000, 0.01kg|.

  • 1 x Elixir of Water Breathing. Breathe water for 1d hours. $600, 0.25kg .
  • 1 x Paut: Recovers 4 FP lost to magic. $135, 0.5kg .
  • 2 x Scroll of Analyze Magic: Universal, charged. |$800, 0kg|. (total $1600, 0kg)
  • 1 x Scroll Silence: Affects a 3m-wide area for 1 minute. Universal, charged. |$600, 0kg|.
  • 1 x Silver Magnifying Glass: $1500, 0.25kg .
  • 1 x Owl-shaped Platinum Letter Opener: $800, 0.01kg
  • 1 x Ivory and Gold Bookmark: $200, 0kg .
  • 10 x Gilded Page: $100, 0kg . (total $1000, 0.0kg)

Room F4: Artifact Recovery

Dust of Emulation interacts with Use Magic Device and we don’t use that here, so let’s replace it with a dose of Paut.

The PCs do find the secret panel, so they take everything in the list below.

  • Ruined Cubic Gate: Lost its magic but still worth money as a collectible. |$30000, 1kg|.

  • Tome: +1 to Hidden Lore (Magic Items). $500, 6kg .
  • Silver and mother-of-pearl ink pen: $2000, 0.01kg .
  • Platinum disc depicting a leering angel: $1000, 0.01kg .
  • 1 x Paut: Recovers 4 FP lost to magic. $135, 0.5kg .
  • Headband of Strengthening Will +1 : Bronze circlet that grants +1 Will when worn |$20035, 0.25kg|.

Room F6: Common Room

These books are a pile of mostly unredacted historical documents which can be worth selling to an interested foreign collector. The dead redactors don’t have anything of value.

  • History books: $9000, 7.5kg

Room F7: Meditation Garden

The books Nox was perusing here are soul tomes created by Yiliv the Scrivenite. They became mundane books when the original owners of their memories died, but remain valuable for the knowledge they contain.

In addition to that knowlegde, they also contain stories about how the archive used to contain a copy of a section of the Broken-Winged Crane, a terrible eldritch tome about demons of all kinds. They also make mention of a scholar named “Trailbrazer Huni” who visited the place and convinced the archivists to let him study the book for a single hour. The PCs have not read this one yet, but when they do they should have no problem decoding the anagram and figuring out this was Thrune in disguise.

We also have Nox’s possessions, originally described here.

So we get this list, with prices and weights formatted for the use of my home-grown tallying scripts:

  • Soul Tomes: +4 to History or Area Knowledge rolls about Kintargo and Ravounel if consulted. |$16000, 10kg|.

  • Nox’s Armor: DR 7 to the front of the body, 4/2 everywhere else except the head. |$5425, 13.5kg|.

  • Belt pouch. $10, 0.1kg
    • 20 x gold coin. $400, 0.01kg (total $8000, 0.20kg)
  • Dwarven Dueling Glaive: Damage sw+2 cut (Reach 1,2) or thr+3 imp (Reach 1,2). |$400, 3kg|.

Nox actually used a different suit of armor during the fight with DR 6/4 all over, as the stats I had for her were an earlier version. But let’s use the published one as loot.

The Silver Ravens (End of Adventure)

Includes Sentinel bonuses.

  • Rank: 4/5
  • Focus: Secrecy
  • Members: 22
  • Supporters: 28
  • Population: 11900
  • Treasury: $9400
  • Min. Treasury: $200
  • Notoriety: 5
  • Org Skills:
    • Loyalty: 14
    • Secrecy: 17
    • Security: 14
  • Actions: 2
  • Max Teams: 3+1
  • Danger Rating: 20
  • Active Events:
  • Teams:
    • Crow Sisters (bonus team)
      • Tier: 1
      • Members: 3
      • Actions: Earn Money, Gather Information
    • Freedom Fighters
      • Tier: 1
      • Members: 6
      • Actions: Reduce Danger
    • Sneaks
      • Tier: 1
      • Members: 3
      • Actions: Secure Cache.
    • Rumormongers
      • Tier: 2
      • Members 6
      • Actions: Gather Information, Spread Disinformation
  • Allies:
    • Laria Longroad
      • +2 to Recruit Supporters as long as she’s a member.
      • Leadership-12, Streetwise-12
    • Rexus Victocora
      • -1 Notoriety per Upkeep phase as long as he’s a member.
      • Administration-12, Public Speaking-12
    • Vendalfek
      • Grants use of the Spread Disinformation action even if no other team does the same.
      • If a team does grant the action, gives a +2 bonus to the skill roll for the action.
  • Officers:
    • Demagogue: Rosalia
      • May use complimentary skills on Loyalty checks.
      • Skills: Propaganda, Public Speaking, Leadership.
    • Partisan: Laria Longroad
      • May use complimentary skills on Security checks.
      • Skills: Strategy, Leadership, Tactics.
    • Recruiters: Urist; Arthur
      • May use complimentary skills on checks for recruiting supporters.
      • Adds rebellion rank to the number of recruited supporters, and this stacks with multiple recruiters.
      • Skills: Public Speaking, Streetwise, Savoir-Faire.
    • Sentinel: Jade
      • Occupying this post gives a +1 to the rebellion’s non-focused skills.
      • May use complimentary skills on any check used to resolve an Event.
      • Skills: any of the ones listed for the appropriate category.
    • Spymaster: Jania
      • May use complimentary skills on Secrecy checks.
      • Skills: Intelligence Analysis, Streetwise, Administration.
    • Strategist: Rexus
      • Occupying this position grants a bonus action. May use its complimentary skills on the bonus action.
      • Skills: Strategy, Tactics, Administration