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• Jun 24, 2023

  Let's Read Hell's Rebels Adventure 3, Part 3

  

  Here we come to the final part of our Let’s Read of the third Hell’s Rebels adventure, “Dance of the Damned”. With the “regional support” missions complete, the Rebellion’s stats can grow to their maximum values. We’re almost at the point where things get real serious in Kintargo.

  The revolution starts with a party.

  Part 5: The Ruby Masquerade

  Barzilai Thrune has been organizing a grand masquerade ball to be hosted at the Opera House ever since the start of this adventure. He advertises it as a way to reconcile with his critics and to show everything is fine in Kintargo, but of course it’s a dastardly trap. After the PCs close the Menador Gap he steps up his time table and announces a date for the event. He might also end up doing it on his original schedule if the PCs take too long to complete that key mission.

  His plan is to use a troop of dottari and disguised devils to massacre the ball’s attendants at the party’s climax, and doctor the evidence to blame the Silver Ravens. This will give him an official excuse to begin hunting them down in earnest.

  Barzilai sends invitations to every noble or other prominent citizen he knows does not support him. He’s not stupid enough to believe the PCs would attend if he invited them directly, so he makes invitations relatively easy to acquire by other means as well.

  It’s at this point that the private investigator Tayacet Tiora makes contact with the PCs. Barzilai had hired her to look into the Silver Ravens, and it’s even possible they ran into her in previous adventures if the GM decided to use that scene. This time, she’s found out enough to become convinced the PCs are in the right, and she comes to warn them that the Masquerade is a trap. Her recommendation is for the PCs to not attend, but she promises to help if they insist.

  Simply not going is certainly an option. It ensures the safety of the PCs but lets the trap spring on the innocent guests unopposed. The book also contemplates the possibility that the PCs will want to break into the Opera House early, which is actually a good call. The same security forces will be present and they will be patrolling more aggresively, but there will be no bystanders. The PCs would miss out on a few extra hob-nobbing opportunities but would be in a much better tactical position.

  The rest of the adventure assumes the PCs do attend, however. It should be fairly easy to get invitations for the whole party plus any allies they wish to take. Tiora will also attend in this case, and be ready to help if necessary.

  The Masquerade starts at 9 PM, and whatever day is most convenient for the GM. The PCs should have ample time to prepare for this one, growing the rebellion and aiming their NPC teams at the Opera House to provide information. It’s even possible to plant an infiltrated saboteur among the guards. With good rolls they should have a pretty good idea of the security inside the place, and an extra ally on the inside.

  Party Mechanics

  The actual ball is a bit of a skill challenge in the same vein as the Vyre banquet. There’s an official dress code: outfits should include the color red, everyone must wear a mask, and both should be fancy. Fortunately they can pass anything up to medium armor and shields as part of the costume, but it’s definitely worth it to have it adorned and to splurge on extravagant masks. These give bonuses to social skills during the event.

  Just like we had Banquet Points in Vyre, here we have Masque Points. PCs start with an amount between 4 and 16 depending on how fancy their costumes are. NPC allies they bring with them also affect this total. The ball is split into half-hour segments, and each PC can perform one of several available actions during this span of time. Some of these actions cost Masque Points, some can be used to acquire more with good skill rolls.

  Unless the PCs have been making an effort to ingratiate themselves with the noble houses during “strategic” play, this is their last real chance to do so before things heat up. The Kintargo-aligned house heads should all be here, so the party’s socialites can identify them and chat them up. Having to do this now does add a layer of complication to the procedures, which is why I like the idea of introducing this element early in the campaign instead and let players make their own interaction opportunities.

  Opera House Layout and Security

  The Opera House has three floors and an extensive basement. The main seating areas had all of their seats removed to host the ball. Most guests stay on the ground floor, but the nobles gravitate towards the second floor balcony because they like to look down on commoners.

  The first two floors have a lot of backstage areas off to the sides, and the third floor and basement are all “backstage”. Many of these areas were converted in living spaces for Barzilai and his staff. All backstage areas are off-limits to party guests, so PCs need to be sneaky when exploring them.

  There are a total of 22 dottari in the house, half of which attend to the guests while wearing smiley masks. The other half stands in reserve, waiting for the trap to spring. The dottari here use the same stats as the Menador soldiers, with slightly different gear. This means the PCs should be able to handle small groups of them just fine - the challenge is doing so without raising an alarm.

  There is also a troop of devils in here: two bone, six bearded, and a single erinyes. One of the bone devils, Crizmerkis, has a few class levels on him and is wearing an illusory disguise to look like Barzilai. The real Thrune has relocated to the temple of Asmodeus, and does not appear in this adventure. The other bone devil is in the orchestra pit, using his illusion magic to provide the music for the ball. The remaining monsters are scattered through several side rooms.

  One of the rooms also contains suspended cages for Barzilai’s pet cockatrices, which can be released at the press of a switch. Unless the PCs or an ally break the switch, these creatures will be released when the trap is sprung.

  Finally, there are a bunch of secret rooms in a sub-basement that used to belong to the original Silver Ravens. Barzilai is using them to stash his treasures and house his “prize” henchthings. Former Mayor Jilia Bailinus sleeps here as a vampire, and the long-missing singer Shensen is also here as a statue.

  There are a couple of additional secret chambers Thrune’s lackeys haven’t been able to find, and which contain valuable Silver Ravens stuff. This includes the crypts for the original Ravens, which confirm their fates and the fact that Jackdaw, the last remaining member, might still be alive. And it also includes the musical score for the Song of Silver, a potent ritual that will greatly help the PCs in the climax of the rebellion.

  Using rebellion actions the PCs can arm themselves with plenty of information before going in: a Covert Action can give them the map to the whole building, even the secret-secret chambers with a good enough roll. And a Sabotage action can place an infiltrator among the dottari. Once the PCs link up with the infiltrator during the party, they can learn the composition and location of the place’s entire security detail, devils included. The saboteur can also break the cockatrice release switch.

  There are several rooms that are noted as being rarely visited by both guests and patrols, which makes them perfect places to hide bodies. So yup, time to Assassin’s Creed it up.

  “Delving” the Masquerade

  I would say those covert actions are so vital that the GM should push for them to happen if the players have been neglecting that aspect of the game. The PCs are on the clock here and every little advantage helps.

  The party starts at 9PM. At 10PM, they have a special “Dance of the Damned” event that takes up half an hour. At midnight an unmasking ceremony happens and Crizmerkis springs the ambush with the aim of killing every single guest in the house.

  PCs should carefully manage their masque points, with some of the party making an effort to mingle and gain more while the rest spend them on exploration actions. It’s important that the minglers manage to maintain the point total above 0, and that the explorers avoid raising a general alarm. Either of these things will cause Crizmerkis to spring the trap immediately.

  Participation on the dance is optional, but winning the contest gives a ton of Masque Points so the minglers will want to participate. This leaves them with 5 other segments on which to decide their actions before the trap is sprung.

  Explorers who refuse to take part in the contest have 6 segments on which to act. Their priority target here should be taking out the dottari, because they’re weaker and have less means of raising the alarm (several of the devils are telepathic and can do so instantly). The less enemies there are at midnight, the easier the final fight will be. Looting and detailed exploration of the basement should wait until after the main ambush force is defeated. There are a few extra monsters down there that will not take part in the ambush, so they can be safely ignored for the moment.

  The Stroke of Midnight

  At midnight, Crizmerkis (disguised as Barzilai) will stop the music and make an ominous speech. During the speech, the dottari will split into 11 pairs and stand guard over every one of the building’s exits, locking those doors in the process. Attacking them before the speech is done will cost the party a bunch of Masque Points but will give them a surprise round and a tactical advantage.

  The gist of the speech is that the guests present here have graciously volunteered themselves to help maintain public order, by being massacred so the blame can fall on the Silver Ravens and Barzilai can go after them. As soon as it ends, the devils attack.

  There are 300 guests in the house, not counting the PCs. The “spare” bone devil and the erinyes will focus on slaughering them, while the bearded devils and Crizmerkis will come for the PC directly. Most of them will be disguised as good outsiders using illusions, but additional summoned devils and such will not have disguises on. The PCs can draw the attention of the bone devil and erinyes by engaging them in combat. If cornered, Crizmerkis might summon the vampire Jillia Bailinus to help.

  This is why killing the dottari early helps: if there are less of them, they’re going to leave some of those exits unlocked and unprotected. The PCs must open the exits so guests can leave: 1d6 guests escape every round for every unlocked exit. With no open exits, 2d6 of them die every round to sheer crushing crowd pressure. Those two devils kill even more per round if left alone. If you’re using GURPS, read “every round” as “every six seconds”, otherwise things might get a little impossible here.

  Results and Consequences

  The event will go down in history as the Ruby Massacre. Whether the PCs or Thrune are blamed for it depends on how well they do in this final fight.

  If the PCs win the big fight they should have plenty of time to explore the rest of the opera house. They’ll get to fight a pack of hellhounds being used as guard animals in the basement, find Vampire Jilia’s coffing and stake her, and find Shensen and the Song of Silver. There’s also a lot of other cool loot to be had, including a scroll of resurrection that can be used to bring the former Mayor back to life after she’s destroyed as a vampire.

  If the PCs loose, they’ll find themselves waking up inside a cell in Castle Kintargo. Either way as soon as they leave the opera house we transition directly to Volume 04, where we go full Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.

  Notes and Impressions

  The book makes that final battle sound quite difficult, particularly if the PCs didn’t prepare for it by coming into the party armed and taking out some of the opposition ahead of time. Even if they did, it’s going to be hard to save all the bystanders. Dungeon Fantasy delvers should have it a bit easier because the GURPS version of these opponents won’t have HP in the triple digits, but it’s going to be tough even for them.

  The same emphasis on etiquette from the Vyre banquet is present here, but here it makes less sense given the surrounding context. The Silver Ravens only get diplomatic/strategic benefits from thwarting the ambush if they have more than 20 Masque Points by the time the ambush starts. I guess this is supposed to represent the final impression left on the survivors about who is to blame for the massacre, but it feels odd to have the party save these people in a very obvious manner and not be recognized for it. I’d say that saving the heads of the noble houses at least should be more than enough to get them on-side for the next adventure, if that hasn’t happened yet.

  If the PCs have been buttering up the nobles on their own initiative prior to this point, then the best strategic decision they can make is to break into the opera house days before the ball, preferrably during daylight hours so the vampire isn’t a factor. All the same enemies will still be there, but the whole party can focus on exploring the area and taking them out. They’ll completely forfeit the possible diplomatic rewards from the Masquerade, but not having to split their focus between delving and socializing or rescuing bystanders is more than worth it.

• Jun 20, 2023

  Let's Read Neverwinter: Bladesinger

  

  TL; DR

  Play a swordmage or hexblade instead.

  Introduction

  I first heard of bladesingers back in the days of 2e, when they were first introduced as an elf-only character kit that gave a lot of powerful combat bonuses.

  I was a member of a couple Brazilian RPG mailing lists where people either loved or hated them. Their fans were also elf fans in general, and their haters were usually GMs who thought it made the character “too anime”.

  I never actually read the original bladesinger writeup, so I didn’t take sides in that fight. But having read the Bladesinger class as presented in the 4e Neverwinter Campaign Setting, I have to say I’m not their greatest fan.

  They’re probably the greatest departure from the design principles established in the PHB classes, far more extreme in that regard than even the Essentials classes from the “Heroes” books. They feel very much like a return to the design philosophy of previous editions. Or perhaps they’re “foreshadowing”: while 5e hadn’t come out yet when this book was published, it was probably already in development, and one of its major goals was to recapture the feel of those older editions. In either way, they feel very dissonant to me when placed alongside other 4e classes.

  The Lore

  The book spends a whole page describing bladesingers as the epitome of elven superiority. The text feels like it was written by a sun elf. The term Tel’Quessir is used a lot here but not explained. I assume it means “the elven people”, but I am not sure.

  According to the book, the art of the Bladesong was developed by Corellon himself, and has been passed down among the elven people for an untold number of their extremely long generations. Even among elves, few individuals are worthy of receiving its teachings, for one must have the mind of a great wizard and the agility of a great dancer to even comprehend its awesomeness.

  Their techniques are passed directly from master to student, and were never written down anywhere. When the last bladesinger dies, so does the mystery and beauty of their art.

  All bladesingers are completely devoted to upholding and defending the ways of the Tel’Quessir, for such is the purpose Corellon gave them. Few bladesingers deign to leave their homelands - those who do so are surely in pursuit of some mission or relic vital to the Tel’Quessir.

  See those last three paragraphs? They’re almost direct quotes from the book. I’m barely paraphrasing.

  Basic Information

  Bladesingers are presented as a Wizard subclass, which is the kind of presentation I would expect to see in 5e but not here. The book says you should play one of them if you want to be someone who can both participate in melee combat and cast arcane spells. So you could perhaps see them as the Essentials version of the Swordmage, at least in theory.

  Despite this, they’re described as arcane controllers, because of the “wizard subclass” thing, and they get Striker-like HP and healing surges. They still get the wizard’s +2 to Will, and a fairly large list of class skills: Acrobatics, Arcana, Athlethics, Diplomacy, History, Intimidate, Nature and Perception. A bladesinger’s key abilities are Intelligence and Dexterity, in that order. They’re proficient with cloth and leather armor, with all simple and military weapons, and with wizard implements (wand, orb, staff).

  This is probably the only class in the entire edition that seems to have a hard racial requirement: no self-respecting Bladesong master would teach it to anyone who is not an elf or eladrin. Once in a great while, a half-elf might earn the honor, but even that’s a bit scandalous.

  Eladrin are pretty much ideal bladesingers since they get bonuses to both Int and Dex. Other Int/Dex ancestries are likely to be just as effective.

  Powers and Features

  We get a full 30-level writeup for the class. Like the other Essentials classes, this one comes with an exclusive Paragon Path (Sorcerous Sword) and you have no reason to pick anything else. You have a little more freedom of choice for your epic destiny.

  Level 1

  This is an incredibly front-loaded class, with a very long list of level 1 features. They all have slightly different requirements to work, but the combined result this: you want to wear at most light armor, and you want to wield a light or heavy blade in one hand, and either a wand or nothing at all in the other. Let’s call this the Bladesinger Requirement.

  When you do fulfill the Bladesinger Requirement, you can use your the following list of benefits:

  • You use Int instead of your Strength for both attack and damage when making basic melee attacks.

  • You gain a +2 shield bonus to AC.

  • You don’t provoke opportunity attacks when using ranged or area attacks. This is a bit less awesome than it sounds because of how your powers work.

  • You can use your sword as an implement for powers that require one. As usual in these cases, you don’t add its proficiency bonus to the attack roll, but you do add its magic item bonus to attack and damage, and its critical dice when you score a critical hit.

  You then pick three Bladespells from a set of six - these are your at-will powers, and they all work the same. They don’t use actions, and trigger when you hit an enemy with a melee basic attack while fulfilling the Bladesinger Requirement. Each is a Ranged 10 attack that does automatic (Dex Mod) damage of a different elemental type and has a different controller-y rider:

  • Dancing Fire: Fire damage, target grants CA until the end of your next turn.

  • Dazzling Sunray: Radiant damage, target has -2 to attack until the end of your next turn.

  • Frost Bite: Cold damage, target is slowed until the end of your next turn.

  • Lighting Ring: Lightning damage, target gets damaged again if they move before the end of your next turn.

  • Shadow Sever: Necrotic damage and you knock target prone if it’s the same size as or smaller than the target of the triggering melee attack.

  • Unseen Hand: Force damage and you slide the target 3 squares.

  Because of the bonuses above, Bladespells don’t provoke an opportunity attack. They also don’t have to target the same creature you just hit, but you can only use one of them per attack. Their damage increases by 2 per tier past Heroic. Looks like Shadow Sever and Unseen Hand are more or less automatic picks here, their riders are much better. The third pick would depend on your party’s abilities and what benefits them the most.

  We’re not done with the Level 1 powers yet. You get three cantrips chosen from the traditional list of Prestidigitation, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Light and Suggestion. And then you get the errataed version of Magic Missile, the one that always hits for minimal force damage. That’s another spell I like more in its PHB 1 form.

  And finally, you get the Bladesong encounter power. If you’re fulfilling the Bladesinger Requirement, you can use this as a minor action to slip into a fancy bullet time trance that gives you a +2 power bonus to attack rolls and all defenses, and a +5 power bonus to damage rolls. This lasts until the end of your next turn, which means you can get 2 turns’ worth of Bladesong if you use it as your first action on your turn. There is no other way to extend its duration. The word rolls there means it doesn’t benefit your bladespells or Magic Missile, but it does affect your basic attacks and spells that have damage rolls.

  Spellcasting and the Rest of the Levels

  That huge list of level 1 stuff seems pretty nifty, and there’s so much of it! Unfortunately it also represents most of what you’ll be doing through your whole career, because the rest of your powers are kinda underwhelming.

  Let’s start with spellcasting, the main reason why this is presented as a wizard subclass and also the main way in which it breaks from this edition’s usual class design philosophy. You see, bladesingers bring Vancian spellcasting back to 4e.

  They get to pick encounter and utility powers as they advance in level, but these are treated much like wizard spells were in 3e instead of being a set of class-specific powers. While their possible choices are all detailed in the class description, they are also literally “taken from the wizard spell list” in that they’re copied from that class’s list of powers.

  There is a table showing at which levels they learn new spells. At set levels, they get to pick either two encounter attack spells or two utilities to add to their spellbook. After finishing a long rest, a bladesinger can prepare a number of these spells, detailed in another table. There is no mention of replacing spells with higher level ones as you level, so I guess they just accumulate in your spellbook. A level 1 bladesinger knows 2 encounter attack spells and can prepare 1. A level 30 character knows 14 encounter attack spells and 10 utilities, and can prepare 3 and 5 of them respectively.

  I say “encounter attack spells”, and they get presented in red boxes, but they’re only encounter powers for standard wizards. A bladesinger treats them all as dailies, and even gets them when other characters would normally get daily powers. This means the level of the powers lags behind your character level. At level 5, you pick from a list of level 3 wizard powers, and so on. So yeah, even “spell level differs from character level” makes a comeback here. Your reward for reaching level 20 is that you get to pick a single spell from a list of actual daily attack powers.

  Utility powers are less wonky. You get them at the same levels as everyone else, their level matches yours when you get them, and their frequency of use actually matches the one in their descriptions.

  At the levels where other characters would get encounter powers, you gain new class features. These either make your bladespells a little better, or give you extra bonuses and triggered abilities that only work while your Bladesong is active.

  Impressions

  Mechanics-wise, bladesingers feel like the many 3e attempts at making a class equally skilled at swordplay and magic. Like them, it gives us a class that’s not that good at either thing as a specialist, and as a result might feel less powerful and fun in play.

  They’re labeled as controllers, but they’re not great at it. The majority of their control ability is going to come from their three bladespells, which will usually only affect one enemy at a time. They need to wait until level 24 to be able to target multiple enemies with a bladespell, and they can only do that once per day.

  Those “encounter as daily” Vancian spells can let them exert more control, but they’re weaker and scarcer than what a “proper” controller of the same level has access to. In a party with a wizard, invoker, or psion, the bladesinger will be overshadowed as a controller.

  They’re better when viewed as strikers. Bladesong’s bonuses to basic attacks and damaging spells provide an appreciable damage increase. However, I don’t think they do so as consistently as the powers and features of a dedicated striker class.

  My conclusion here is the same one I added to the helpful TL; DR section at the start of this post: play something else. Like a swordmage, for example! These great PHB-style arcane defenders do a much better job of letting you play someone who is equally skilled at swordplay and magic. Their lore is also far less snobbish, though you can still call your swordmage a bladesinger if you want without changing anything about their mechanics.

  Swordmages can be found in the 4e Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, which as a bonus includes a lot of information on the wider world of Toril where Neverwinter is located.

  Alternatively, if you want to be a elf-flavored striker, you could go with a fey pact Hexblade warlock, who can be found in Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms. One of the characters labeled as a bladesinger here was in fact a hexblade warlock in that book.

  Story-wise, I guess they intended this to be the class of choice for the Iliyanbruen Guardian, but I would probably choose Swordmage even so. The only thing that could make me play a bladesinger would be if I could something other than an elf or eladrin, just so I could make fun of the snobbish flavor text. A pixie from the Player’s Guide to the Feywild would be ideal.

  The bladesinger class is the last section of Chapter 2. In our next post we’ll begin looking at the GM-focused material of Chapter 3, Factions and Foes.

• Jun 19, 2023

  Let's Read Neverwinter: Torm Domain

  Torm, the Loyal Fury, seems to be your typical “paladinic” god of justice and honor. His warpriests pursue justice in an unjust world and act with honor towards those who have none. His domain is by far the most recommended for the other FR gods, being applicable to any god who has a militant or compassionate bent, from Bahamut to Ilmater.

  Mechanics

  Warpriests of Torm are pretty much Wisdom-based warlords. Their riders boost ally attacks and defenses or allow quick repositioning, in much the same way the different warlord powers do. The optimization forums say this is probably the most varied domain around in terms of what it lets you do - it’s hard to get bored playing a warpriest of Torm.

  One thing that jumped out to me is their Level 1 utility power, which they get to keep throughout their whole careers: True Strike! This is an at-will power that lets them spend a Standard action to grant a +4 bonus to an ally’s next attack. It’s not quite as fun as the Lazy-Lord’s signature ability, but it’s the closest you can get to it in an Essentials-only campaign. It’s also super-useful for setting up big attacks with encounter or daily powers.

  Impressions

  Just as in FR, this power set could fit a lot of different core deities. The lore’s focus on justice make it a good fit for Bahamut and Moradin, and the tactical nature of its powers could allow it to stand in for the domains of non-Good “strategist” gods like the unaligned Erathis or the evil Bane.

  That’s it for domains. Next we’ll look at a full class, the infamous bladesinger.

• Jun 15, 2023

  Let's Read Neverwinter: Selûne Domain

  Selûne is the FR goddess of the moon, and is quite an important figure in the setting’s pantheon. She originally created the world alongside her sister Shar, the goddess of darkness. Together they also witnessed the “fissure of reality” that split that world in two, Abeir and Toril. That fissure is the reason why the Realms were Forgotten.

  Shar is responsible for a lot of evil shit throughout FR’s metaplot, including the events that happened during the Spellplague/edition transition to swap bits of Abeir’s and Toril’s geography around.

  Selûne used to be a goddess who took the path of forgiveness, compassion and self-sacrifice, but the last century has seen her become more aggressive and proactive in battling evil. Light must battle darkness if it is to prevail.

  The book doesn’t suggest using her domain for priests of any other FR god. I don’t think any of them are moon-themed enough.

  Mechanics

  Warpriests of Selûne benefit from having a high Constitution, since a lot of their power riders use the bonus for that attribute. These riders usually focus on granting allies damage resistance or bonus damage, and in penalizing enemy damage or attack rolls.

  Her signature damage type is “cold and radiant”, which means PCs can potentially benefit from two of the edition’s most infamous feat combos (Permafrost and Radiant Mafia). That’s the domain’s greatest feature according to the optimization forums. It helps that their Channel Divinity power makes enemies vulnerable to radiant damage.

  Lots of radiant damage makes this domain powerful against undead, which is true for most others. Its Level 1 Utility is a daily that makes the warpriest’s weapon count as silvered for the entire encounter, also making it a good counter to lycanthropes. As we saw on the character themes, there are quite a few of those among the possible foes in the Neverwinter campaign.

  Impressions

  You would think this would be an appropriate domain for clerics of Sehanine in the core setting, but I think this version of Selûne is a bit more aggressive and militant than the trickster-ish Sehanine Moonbow. Corellon’s domain would fit her better.

  You could say this is the domain for priests who worship Sehanine’s wrathful face, perhaps. And it’s a good pick for any player who wants their central concept to be “fighting evil by moonlight”.

• Jun 10, 2023

  Let's Read Hells Rebels 3, Part 2

  

  This is part of a series! Go to the project page to see all entries.

  Let’s continue our reading of Dance of the Damned! I expect this to be the second of three posts for this adventure. In the last one, we covered two chapters of the book. Let’s aim for two more here.

  Chapter 3: The Vyre Accord

  Vyre is a city located in the same province as Kintargo. There’s a whole mini-guide on it attached to the book, but the only thing we really need to know is that it’s pretty much Fucked-Up Fantasy Venice.

  Though technically part of Cheliax, Vyre is almost entirely independent. Cheliax tolerates this because the city is a prime vacation destination for Chelish elites. On the other hand, Vyre’s slice of coast makes for a shitty port, so they’re almost entirely reliant on nearby Kintargo for the sea trade that gets them most of their food and luxuries.

  Vyre’s government is extremely self-interested, but Cheliax has good reasons to maintain good relations with them, and they have good reasons to maintain good relations with Kintargo. If Vyre backs the rebellion, they can exert pressure on those Chelish elites to back off from the province.

  Allies and Information

  Advance information on the city comes from two sources. Captain Sargaeta, whom the PCs befriended in Adventure 02, can tell them the basics, and give them a ride there on his ship. Molly Mayapple can provide them with extensive and invaluable advice on their actual goal in the city.

  The PCs haven’t met Molly yet, but they should have recovered a bunch of documents belonging to her from the Lucky Bones. These are deeds for a set of waterfront warehouses, which were stolen by the extinct Gray Spiders decades ago. Even though Molly has since rebuilt her fortune (she owns a successful hotel), she’s still going to be extremely grateful when the PCs hand the deeds back to her, and will provide a lot of insider information and help. They can track her down from the information on the deeds.

  The Basics

  Vyre is ruled by five monarchs, each tasked with an aspect of government. The one they want to meet is Manticce Kaleeki, the Queen of Delights, who is in charge of the city’s economy and foreign relations. Vyre’s laws are simple yet baroque, creating an environment where non-lethal duels and eternal feuds are common, all sales are final, but prejudice of any sort is frowned upon. However, you can get away with anything if you follow the last and most important rule: don’t get caught.

  The Queen of Delights is set to host a banquet in the near future, and that will be the PCs’ opportunity to talk to her. The GM determines how long the PCs have until the banquet. Most of this time is probably going to be spent looking for outfits, gifts, and information, but the GM can also introduce a few Vyre sidequests to spice things up.

  The Banquet

  The Banquet might be an entirely non-violent scene, but it’s as difficult to navigate as any dungeon. Vyre high-society etiquette is weird, and the Queen of Delights heaps even more weird on top of that because she’s basically Morticia Addams as a Tiefling in Fucked-Up Fantasy Venice.

  Molly’s help is absolutely vital here. The book doesn’t even mention how the PCs get invited to the banquet, but I assume she’s instrumental in arranging invitations for them and for herself. She’s also an excellent source of information on the complex etiquette surrounding the event.

  This starts with what to wear and what gifts to bring. Molly knows what the Queen likes, and PCs good at gathering information might learn about Manticce’s less well-known preferences.

  There are nine other guests in the banquet aside from Molly and the PCs. We get personality notes for each one. Most are only sources of roleplaying color, but one of them will be important in the next adventure: Hei-fen, former guildmistress of the Gray Spiders. Tough it’s been decades since she escaped the destruction of that guild, she’s still a spiteful old wererat and is angry at the PCs for stealing “her home”. She’s here to size them up for future reprisal.

  The other “special” guest, not counted among those nine, is the Queen’s long dead husband, whose skeleton adorns one of the table’s chairs. The correct move here is to not acknowledge poor Gomez in any way. To do so is considered crass.

  While roleplaying should be first and foremost in this scene it also has a mechanical component. The banquet is effectivelly a long and colorful skill challenge. PCs get a number of starting “banquet points” depending on how they dress, what gifts they bring, and whether or not they participate in a standing ovation when the Queen appears (they should!). After that, each course in the banquet allows them several opportunities to learn more.

  The first is a knowledge skill test to identify the dish in question and how to eat it (probably Area Knowledge, Current Affairs or Savoir-Faire in GURPS). Careful PCs can just wait for one of the other guests to start eating and skip the skill test, but succeeding shows they know what they’re doing and earns them a point.

  The second is a series of tests to actually eat the course, which varies with each dish. There’s no way to skip this one, though the PCs doesn’t need to succeed at them all to earn a point. If they do, they earn extra. If they fail badly enough or just decide to forgo rolling and eat the thing wrong on purpose, they lose points.

  The third is a social skill test to do well in the conversation that accompanies that dish. This would likely be Fast-Talk, Diplomacy or even Public Speaking in GURPS, modified by what the players actually say. Success makes them come off as smooth operators and earns points. Failure loses points and leaves them embarrassed. Again careful characters can just keep quiet and skip this part, but it earns them nothing.

  The dishes range from the merely bizarre to the horrific:

  • We start with quicksoup, a bowl of boiling hot soup accompanied by a water bowl containing five small live fish and a set of peculiar utensils. This requires tests involving manual dexterity to properly poach the fish in the soup and eat them. Probably plain DX modified by Manual Dexterity in GURPS, though I’d also let a daring PC test Surgery instead.

  • Next is Galtan Squash, which looks like a severed head but is just a carved pumpkin full of extremely spicy red soup. This is a straight-up Fortitude save/HT roll to endure the spice. A bad enough failure leaves your face swollen and penalizes your talky rolls for the rest of the feast! I’d probably let it be modified by Resistant to Poison and other advantages that include it.

  • Then you get the Unseen Feast, meat pies made from the flesh of an invisible stalker. I’m pretty sure invisible stalkers are sapient, which makes this the most horrific dish of the lot. It’s quite possible some PCs will refuse to eat this one on moral grounds. Those who decide to forge ahead need to be fast and perceptive. They have to eat the invisible meat before it turns visible and loses its flavor. PCs who can see invisibility can pass this one automatically, though it’s considered crass to cast a spell for it while at the table. Others must succeed at a difficult Perception check, which I guess I would modify for Acute Smell/Taste.

  • Finally, you get Sweetfats With Honey Sauce for dessert. Sweetfats are candied spiders - this is an Underdark dish. The most difficult thing here is opening the honey sauce container, which is a mundane replica of a Hellraiser-style puzzle box. Time to break out the Thaumathology and Hidden Lore (Demons) skills, though I guess Traps or Lockpicking might also work.

  Whether Vyre allies with the Silver Ravens or not depends entirely on how many banquet points the characters manage to get. They need at least 20. A party of 5 who arrives properly dressed will start out with 10, and might get a few more from bringing optimal gifts. Even so, they will still need to take active part in at least some of the banquet in order to succeed at the mission. I’d probably give them a sign that they succeeded once they get enough points.

  If the party succeeds, the Queen might invite the individual who gained them the most points for an intimate night. Ties go to the prettiest or most charismatic PC, and if they’re still tied she invites all of the tied PCs. If the party has more than 30 points and the propositioned PC(s) accept Manticce’s invitation, she will also offer the group her personal alliance, providing extra mechanical boosts to the strategic rebellion layer.

  Notes and Impressions

  This part is very different than what you would expect from a standard dungeon fantasy adventure. It can be really fun for PCs who like role-playing, so even in a condensed approach I’d recommend keeping it. If you want to make the Unseen Feast part less objectionable, you could perhaps say the “meat” is gelatinous cube jelly, which is almost as hard to see and doesn’t come from something sapient. And if you don’t want to feature sexual themes at all in the adventure, you could remove Manticce’s invitation at the end and just say that the party gets her personal support if they get more than 30 points.

  The downside when using GURPS is that if your PCs are overly focused on dungeon delving they might not have the skills necessary to cause a good impression here. In this case I suggest being generous: if none of the delvers has the most appropriate skill, ask for a roll on the closest skill one of them does have, or perhaps even roll against DX or IQ. That said, characters who followed the tips from the Player’s Guide or who used earned points to become a bit sneakier and more social shouldn’t have too much trouble covering their bases.

  Part 4: Breaking the Menador Gap

  The Menador Gap is a mountain pass in the mountains separating Ravounel from central Cheliax. It’s the only viable route for marching an army through those mountains, so it must be closed. The PCs start the adventure at level 7, and the book says they should be level 8 before tackling this chapter.

  The gap is protected by a fortress named Menador Keep. It used to be an old dwarf fort, but is now occupied by Chelish military. Rexus, who studied those old Silver Raven documents extensively, can tell the PCs that there’s a dwarven self-destruct mechanism deep within the bowels of the fort. The PCs’ goal here is to get to that mechanism, activate it, and get out. This will demolish the fort in a way that ensures the pass is completely closed.

  It’s theoretically possible to demolish the fort from a distance using spells like Earthquake, but a) this might not block the pass completely and b) it will bury all the sweet loot located inside the fortress.

  Dungeon: Menador Gap

  The fortress itself has two above-ground floors and an underground level. Its ground floor contains a courtyard with two large gates on either side, which blocks the mountain pass. Inside the building are a large number of guard posts, utility/storage rooms, and a couple of monster pens.

  The fort is defended by a garrison of 23 soldiers, commanded by Lucien Thrune, a wyvern-riding cavalier. He also has a bound erinyes devil with him, and a very unhappy bound jann servant. Another devil acts as a stationary sentry at the entrance to the treasury. The soldiers are weak individually, but dangerous in large groups. They wear mail and are armed with halberds and crossbows, favoring ranged attacks over melee.

  The best way to handle this might be as a Metal Gear-like stealth mission. The PCs are very likely to have the necessary magic to turn the whole party invisible and levitate them for a short time. Clever PCs might find the entrnce to the wyvern’s stable down on the cliffside and enter through there, bypassing a lot of the security measures on the surface. The same technique might allow them to land atop the fort’s battlements and begin from there, bypassing the courtyard kill box. Even if they immediately go loud and begin a frontal assault, they’ll begin doing that from a hugely advantageous position.

  The third-best option is for them to disguise themselves as someone authorized to cross the Gap and ride into the courtyard, from which they can force their way into the fort. It’s less than ideal because they can be targetted by crossbow and ballista fire from the battlements.

  Starting an overt assault will sound a general alert and have every soldier converge on the party’s position. It’s easier to deal with them piecemeal, though that might require magic to prevent the sounds of fighting from spilling out. Stealth might also allow the party to fight the “elites” (Lucien, his wyvern, the devils) while they’re alone and isolated. The jann servant, Zorumar, is a potential ally here. He can’t do anything against his master directly, but he can give all sorts of information about enemy locations and the layout of the fort, including all secret doors. Killing Lucien will set Zorumar free, and he will return in the future to gift the party with magic items in thanks.

  There’s a secret door in the fort’s armory leading to the ancient dwarven mechanism in the “basement” level. The only one of its current inhabitants who knows about this is Zorumar. The device, called the Anvil of Unmaking, is protected by ancient guardians and traps, some of which can be bypassed by proper prayers to the dwarf god Torag and by diplomacy. Activating the contraption will cause it to completely destroy the fortress in 10 minutes. The PCs have that long to run away and get clear. Also the tremors and rumbling will definitely put every remaining enemy in the place on high alert, if they weren’t already.

  Loot-wise, the most valuable places to hit here are the treasury (obviously), the war room, and Lucien Thrune’s person. Lucien has a sweet flaming sword, lots of bling, and the key to the treasury chest. The treasury has a bunch of magical gear and the fort’s payroll. And the war room has an extremely valuable dagger lying around next to a pile of important strategic documents full of classified Chelish military info.

  Notes and Impressions

  A good old tactical espionage action romp, with the potential to turn into a wonderfully chaotic battle if the PCs trip the alarm. It’s likely to be the most time-consuming scene in the entire adventure, and could conceivably take more than one session to resolve.

  I suggest playing the enemies with a modicum of intelligence here, but remember that raising the alarm is not an automatic action. If a single guard spots the PCs, the rest of the fortress won’t automatically know they’re there. An alarm must be raised, which takes time and is susceptible to disruption from the PCs.

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