A BRIEFING FOR XANATHAR CONCERNING THE GRAND GAME
I am very sorry that we have failed you lord Xanathar. You should not have been surprised by the revelations of the emissaries of the Zhentarim.
The litany of what we now know—
The Eye you hold is one of Three which belong to the Stone.
The Eye which should have been yours has been taken from Neverember’s get by Manshoon to Kolat Towers. We currently seek to capture a Zhentarim lieutenant and take possession of one of the pass-amulets which would allow us access to the Towers. Unfortunately, Manshoon’s agents are well-trained and have either evaded our attempts or destroyed their amulets before we could secure them. Through Nihiloor’s enhanced interrogations, however, we have ascertained blueprints for the Towers which will prove essential when it comes to time to take that which by right belongs to you.
The disposition of the Final Eye is uncertain to us at this time.
The gnome Dalakhar was an agent of Lord Neverember, seeking to reclaim Neverember’s Engima, which you had by rights taken from our former Open Lord.
The Enigma is, in fact, the Stone of Golorr. I have agents en route to Candlekeep to delve deeper into its secrets. The Stone once belonged to the Abolethic Sovereignty, and was reputedly stolen from the Vaults of the Floating City of Xxiphu by Mask, the Lord of Shadows. As a Xxiphuan Artifact, it is likely that the Stone predates the creation of Toril itself, granting it, within the circles of mysticism, a position of primacy. Its true powers, and thus the reason why Neverember sought to blind it, are unclear to us, but from a position of primacy it would be capable of feats impossible to duplicate even by Mystra herself in this Age.
(You will want to attach a set of blueprints for the Kolat Towers.)
MANSHOON’S REPORT ON THE GRAND GAME
Ritual of the Stone of Golorr
The use of the Stone to magically eliminate a memory or piece of knowledge from the realms of Abeir-Toril requires a special casting of the legend lore rite which requires twelve hours to perform. In addition, one must possess a second Abolethic artifact, a small tetrahedron of red jade which I am certain is still held by Lord Dagult in Neverwinter.
During the ritual, burn incenses infused with the blood of an aboleth. The sides of the tetrahedron will unfold, revealing slots into which four ivory strips may be inserted. The Stone is then placed within the tetrahedron and the sides will close upon it.
As the ritual is completed, the tetrahedron will open once more, revealing the Stone of Golorr as it releases a burst of psionic energy. This energy will refract through the person attuned to the Stone, translating the knowledge they focus upon and erasing it from the known world.
The Stone of Golorr has been blinded by Lord Dagult.
The Neverwinter Eye was obtained from the Protector’s Enclave in Neverwinter, but was taken by Xanathar’s treachery. It remains in the beholder’s possession.
The Waterdeep Eye has been taken from Renaer Neverember and secured within the library’s Astral Vault.
It is apparent, based on interrogations of their impish agents, that the Cassalanters possess the third eye, although it is uncertain where the Cassalanter Eye originated. Perhaps Lord Dagult entrusted it to them?
What happened to Part 7: How the Remix Works? The link to it is broken.
I really love what you’ve done here, even if its going to be a bit of work to sort it out for my own notes and constructing it.
I only have one hitch that I’m having a bit of trouble with. My players have a couple of drow in their party and are already sallying up to ol’ Jarlaxle pretty tightly (Salvatore fanboys). I had planned to use this relationship to set up a much longer campaign (beyond 5th level and Dragon Heist) in which the PCs have connected their cellar to the sewers running through Trollskull Alley (FR1 Waterdeep & The North has a sewer map with an ingress/egress point in Trollskull alley anyway) to assist in smuggling operations, through the sewers, through Undermountain, into Skullport, and out into the Underdark.
How would you recommend detangling Jarlaxle and Bregan D’aerth from the Grand Game a bit and have the PCs working for them, with BD providing support, cause I fully assume if Jarlaxle says he’ll cut them in on the take, the PCs will side with him over anyone else.
Mind you I also picked up from the DMs Guild: Waterdeep Cloak & Dagger, a supplement which has optional additional factions. Id love to just drop one in, in place of Braegan D’aerth, but im struggling to decide which would best fit:
The Dark Dagger: Drow faction that oppose Lolth and worship Vhaeraun, God of surface Drow and male drows. **I have this faction in play as one of the PC drow is a cleric of Vhaeraun.
The Iron Throne – a group of arms-dealers who will stop at nothing to gain a complete strangle hold on the arms trade
The Knights of the Shield – a secret society of ‘like-minded’ nobles and merchants, pooling their knowledge to gain an advantage over their competition. **I intend to put this faction in play however they will not be as forward as some of the others. Their involvement is for bigger campaign involvement much further down the line.
The Kraken Society – a group of pirates, slavers, and thugs that make up a vast intelligence network. They are secretly led by a kraken seeking to obtain godhood.
The Legion of the Chimera – a group of outcasts in Undermountain. They trade favors and work together to achieve their common goals.
The Moonstars – a splinter group from the Harpers. Little is known about them other than that they’ll do everything that is necessary to defeat evil.
The Murkstalkers – a group of necromancers that have lurking in Skullport. They are secretly part of a plot to bring down the Blackstaff
The Night Parade – a gang of mutated humanoids. They recruit form the lowest dregs of society to sustain their numbers.
The Red Sashes – a vigilante organization. They hunt the guilty and work to free the innocent, all while doing their best to keep their own hands clean.
The Reforged Ring – a group of slavers that has recently made a bid to take over the Xanathar Guild. They are led by a power-hungry vampire beholder.
The Sons of Xvim – a criminal gang that believes ‘might makes right’. Little do most of them realise that they are pawns in a much larger scheme.
The Unseen Servants – a gang of spies, assassins, illusionists and shape-changers. Their motives are a mystery even to themselves.
Link fixed!
One of the addendums I’ve been planning on writing up is discussing how you can use the other factions as collaborators (instead of the Cassalanters). Maybe I’ll prioritize getting that written up this week. Reviewing those notes, I see that my thought basically consisted of having Jarlaxle connect them with Volo at the beginning of the campaign.
Basically, to a large extent if the PCs want to work with Bregan D’Aerthe for the duration of the Grand Game… you can just do that. You don’t need to swap somebody else in.
I also mention at one point that one of the ways you can use the Unseen from (Introcaso’s Unseen Waterdeep) is to replace Bregan D’Aerthe if Jarlaxle never gets tipped off.
Thanks so much Justin. This site you have here has been an AMAZING resource and learning source for me as a DM. Things like Node-Based design, Adversary rosters and the likes were ALIEN to me and while I had some hacked methods of my own for dealing with these types of scenarios, i’m truly excited to dig into your gamemastery 101.
Keep doin what you’re doin boss. This is so awesome.
Thanks, Scott!
I also prioritized that addendum I was talking about, and it can be found here.
Hi Justin,
Thank you very much for this enormous work you did. This is the 3rd time I reread your Remix, to get more and more familiarized with it, and to tailor it to my campaign, which I run on Oerth. This is a kind of Birthright inspired political campaign with several modules and own creation integrated into it. I’m a little bit worried about the party put their hands on such a powerful artifact, that can eliminate memories from an entire world. Do you have any idea how can I reduce the risk of exploiting it after the Dragon Heist? Perhaps the tetrahedron could be consumed during the Rite, I’m not sure if it creates a plothole in other parts of the story.
Thanks again for this impressive endeavour. This is brilliant.
This concern is actually why I created the red tetrahedron in the first place. Note that there is no obvious path by which the PCs can get their hands on the red tetrahedron nor is it required for the Dragon Heist campaign to play out to completion. Without the tetrahedron you can do cool stuff with the Stone, but you can’t use its uber-power to delete knowledge.
If you’re OK with the PCs getting their hands on that kind of power, then they can stage a Grand Neverwinter Heist or otherwise figure out how to get it from Lord Dagult.
If you’re not, the red tetrahedron has vanished: Somebody stole it from Dagult and there are no clues. Or they destroyed it. Whatever. There’s no path to it, and without it the PCs can’t do the ritual.