SESSION 47A: THE MASTER OF TWO SERVANTS

December 26th, 2009
The 25th Day of Kadal in the 790th Year of the Seyrunian Dynasty

There were still a couple of hours before the shipment was due to arrive. Having found a place to conceal themselves while watching Mahdoth’s front door, they continued their discussion. It wasn’t long before they had once again talked themselves out of waiting: They would obviously have an easier time of it if they tackled Mahdoth and the cultists separately (rather than all at once as the transfer was made), and in re-reading the letters they weren’t even sure that their doubts about Mahdoth being the ultimate source of the suppressive fields in the asylum were well-founded.

“Although,” Tee said, reminding them again, “Whether the suppression fields drop or not, we’re still leaving an asylum full of inmates with no one to watch them.”

“Well… we can always just tell the city watch what happened,” Elestra said.

“Except they might not be happy with us killing everybody inside,” Nasira pointed out.

“Mahdoth is wearing a bone ring,” Elestra countered. “That means he’s a cultist. And we’ve been deputized to take care of the cultist problem.”

Whatever the ultimate solution to the “madhouse full of unwatched inmates” problem proved to be, they headed back into Mahdoth’s with murder on their mind.

THE WESTERN CELLS

Nothing seemed to have been disturbed and it was clear no alarm had been raised. They headed back to the office they had left perhaps a quarter of an hour before and then headed through the next door.

This brought them to a T-intersection. To the west a flight of stairs dropped away. To the east, the hall ended abruptly in a door of solid-looking iron.

Tee, who was habitually taking the lead, briefly debated with herself about which way she should go. She had just decided to check out the door when she heard a soft, light-hearted humming coming from somewhere down the stairs. Turning aside from the door, she headed down the stairs.

The stairs were stark and steep. After a couple dozen feet they bottomed out into a cell block lined with close-set doors, each barred with a heavy slat of iron. A swarthy-looking man was lounging against the wall near the far end of the cell block, humming the guileless tune that had attracted Tee’s attention while spinning a ring of keys on his finger.

The ring of keys made the decision easy for Tee. She planted three arrows in the man before he had a chance to stop humming. He dropped with a soft, almost noiseless gurgle.

Tee quickly scouted the room. There were no other threats. She noted that the door at the opposite end of the cell block was considerably less used than the similar doors lining each wall. There was also a small passage winding away from the cell block.

Tee, suspecting that this was the “western cell block” Zairic’s corpse had told them about, was tempted to explore the passageway. She suspected it might lead to Mahdoth’s quarters.

But instead she went back upstairs and got the others. While talking their options over, they decided to go the opposite direction instead and make sure the locked door at the top of the stairs wasn’t perilous.

“If those are the western cells down there—“

“And they are the western-most cells we’ve seen.”

“—then whatever’s behind that door is pretty close to the western cells, too. It might be Mahdoth.”

MAHDOTH

Tor was something of an incorrigible noise-maker in his clanking armor, and the suppression fields prevented them from creating a zone of magical silence to cover for him. Therefore, in an effort to maintain the element of their surprise, they positioned themselves in such a way that Tee could open the door; Agnarr could see her opening the door; and the others could see Agnarr (but not Tee). This kept Tor’s clanking as far as possible from the scene of stealth.

Tee unlocked the door and swung it open. Beyond was a large, roughly-spherical room of angular depressions and vaulting roofs. Strange, yet comfortable-looking cushions and pieces of furniture were scattered across the chamber at multiple levels.

And rising from one of these was the bulbous body of Mahdoth.

“Zairic! What is all of that racket out—“

Tee shot an arrow at him, but it went wide. Mahdoth’s eyestalks swung around and beams of energy lanced out – Tee was knocked unconscious and then levitated into the air. She was slowly being tugged through the door and wholly into Mahdoth’s chamber.

Agnarr, seeing her go, roared in rage and rushed forward. As he came through the door he was struck by another beam of energy… and suddenly thought of Mahdoth as his best friend in the entire world.

“Why don’t we all calm down, my friend?” Mahdoth said with a smile. Agnarr felt his rage oozing away.

The others were caught slightly off-guard by Agnarr’s precipitous (and unexplained) charge. Tor was the first to rush forward. Entering the room he saw Agnarr smiling up at Mahdoth while Tee’s limp body was slowly lowered into a divan with an oddly-shaped divot in the middle of it.

Tor circled quickly but warily around Mahdoth, looking to distance himself from Agnarr (who he was afraid might turn on him under Mahdoth’s influence) while still putting himself in a position to strike.

But Mahdoth, mindful of losing his influence over Agnarr, floated between the two of them… thus blocking Agnarr’s view of him blasting Tor with a beam of energy.

Which also turned Tor into Mahdoth’s best friend.

Agnarr, meanwhile, was rushing to Tee’s side as she was lowered into the divan. He was anxious to see if she was all right. His jostling woke her up as Agnarr turned a worried eye to Mahdoth, “Is she going to be all right?”

Mahdoth seized the opportunity. “You’re right to be concerned, my friend. Give me some room to pass a healing beam over her.”

And so Mahdoth charmed Tee, too.

The others entered the room… and were befuddled by the sudden love-in.

Mahdoth recycled his “healing beam” explanation and hit Ranthir with the same effect. Ranthir resisted it, but realizing it for what it was he chose to bluff his way through it. Elestra and Nasira, meanwhile, nervously hung back by the door.

Tee, in her charmed state, felt compelled to burble out a confession to Mahdoth: She had killed Zairic! She couldn’t imagine now why she had done anything like that, but she thought he ought to know.

Mahdoth turned suddenly cold. “Why have you done this?”

Tee babbled something about a letter and the shipment that Wuntad was delivering to Mahdoth. “And since Wuntad is a bad man, we just assumed that you must be—“

“Who the devil is Wuntad?”

“You don’t know who he is?” Tee, in her charmed state, was honestly befuddled. But those in their right wits were beginning to figure it out.

“Let me see this letter,” Mahdoth demanded.

Tee dug it out of her bag of holding. Mahdoth grabbed it with his telekinetic eyestalk and perused it with half a dozen eyes at once.

“Where is that traitorous halfling?”

Sheepishly Tee pulled Zairic’s corpse out of her bag of holding. Mahdoth quickly inspected it. “You’ve cast speak with dead on it?”

At this point, Agnarr felt compelled (quite literally) to mention that Mahdoth’s second servant had also been killed.

“Urak? Excellent,” Mahdoth said. “Follow me.”

Nasira and Ranthir were, at this point, tentatively committed to coming along. (Although Ranthir made a point of “playing with his magic dagger” in Mahdoth’s anti-magic zone just to give him an excuse to get a knife close to the beholder.) Elestra was still bitterly paranoid, but in lieu of a non-suicidal option, tagged along for the moment.

On the way out of his room, Mahdoth’s telekinetic eye opened a drawer on a nearby cabinet, took out a ring, and lowered it onto another of his eyestalks.

“What’s that?” Tee asked.

“I want to have a few words with my late servant.”

“A ring of speak with dead?!” Ranthir mouthed to Nasira. He was impressed. And perhaps a little covetous.

As they headed down the stairs, Tee broached a subject within the reach of her friendly compulsion. “Can you tell us about the Pactlords of the Quaan?”

Mahdoth turned cold again. “I haven’t crossed their path in many years. It is a chapter of my life that I do not open.”

A nervous tension filled the air for a moment, but then they arrived at Urak’s corpse. Floating to the corpse’s side, Mahdoth activated his ring and Urak’s body jerked into the air as if suspended by invisible strings.

“Who suborned you?”

Urak’s voice rattled through the chamber. “Zairic. His employers pay me well.” He finished with a hideous, cackling laugh.

“What was your plan for tonight?”

“I was to watch the stairs. Zairic would bring them down to the western cells. The others would arrive from the caverns. Then Zairic would cast a scroll to breach the wall into the sewers.”

“How many are coming?”

“Usually a dozen of the cultists. I don’t know how many of the Children of Mrathrach.”

There was a final, cackling laugh and then the body collapsed in a broken heap on the floor.

The unanswered question that flitted across all their minds was simple: Who were the Children of Mrathrach?

Running the Campaign: False Assumptions – Campaign Journal: Session 47B
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index

An excellent module haunted by some unfortunate flaws.

Review Originally Published May 22nd, 2001

The Forge of Fury is the second in WotC’s Adventure Path series of modules for D&D – designed to take the beginning party all the way to 20th level, while still having each module function as an autonomous whole. (In other words, you don’t need to have played The Sunless Citadel – the first module in the series – in order to play The Forge of Fury. There is, literally, no direct connection between the two.)

Like The Sunless Citadel before it, The Forge of Fury demonstrates that WotC is more than capable of competing effectively within the open market they’ve chosen to create for the D&D game: High quality maps (possibly the best on the market today), an exacting attention to detail (even small things, like having the same adventurers pictured on the cover as were pictured on the cover of The Sunless Citadel), and exceptional production values all combine to make this an extremely attractive product.

Warning: From this point forward, this review will contain spoilers for The Forge of Fury. Players who may end up playing in this module are encouraged to stop reading now. Proceed at your own risk.

The Forge of Fury is a location-based module, set within the confines of Khundrukar – a dwarven citadel which fell before an orcish invasion two hundred years ago, and which has, since, become inhabited by the denizens of evil.

Like The Sunless Citadel before it, however, The Forge of Fury is not a “one note” dungeon by any stretch of the imagination. To the contrary, Khundrukar is possessed of a rich, detailed, dynamic history (involving dwarves, orcs, troglodytes, demons, duergar, magic, and a black dragon). Combined with a complex dungeon geography (involving a complicated, but logical, arrangement of five interconnected dungeon sections, ranging from natural caverns to dwarven passages) this provides a delightfully evocative, believable, and entertaining gaming environment.

There are four major sections to Khundrukar (along with a number of minor features, which I won’t take the time to explore in detail here): The orcs who have taken up residence in the Mountain Door (the first barrier the ancient dwarves set up to repel invaders); the troglodyte warren which inhabits the Glitterhame (a network of beautiful, natural caverns); the duergar who have invaded the Foundry in an attempt to discover the ancient secrets of the dwarven forge; and the dragon which has taken up residence in the Black Lake.

It is ironic, however, that a module which draws so many strengths from its attention to detail, should also have its primary flaw be a lack of attention to such details. The most noticeable weakness of this product is the plethora of errors which wander through its pages with wild abandon: Minor map details which don’t match the text, missing italics in a section of boxed text, incorrect and contradictory information regarding the carving of the orcish tunnel on pg. 18, and so forth.

A few other minor problems are also present: I consider the boxed text to be lackluster and, in places, sub-par – needing some definite improvement upon occasion in order to provide the polish necessary to make an otherwise excellent dungeon environment really shine. Similarly, the adventure hooks designed to bring the PCs into Khundrukar are simply lacking (a problem which The Sunless Citadel also possessed). An epic setting such as this needs something with a little more kick to it than “hunt down the orcs” or “I’ll pay you a bounty for magic swords”.

Far more worrisome are the “killer monsters” which lie in wait: A roper and a succubi have both been placed within Khundrukar. Both of these are far too powerful for the 3rd to 5th level characters who are supposed to be going through this adventure, and – although the succubi is given several escape hatches – the roper is a definite problem. Cautious DMs should also be aware that the black dragon, although a reasonable challenge for the PCs, can also be extremely deadly if they encounter it while in non-peak condition.

While these problems are annoying, however, they are only minor flaws which do not serve to noticeably mar in otherwise exceptional adventure. In short: The Forge of Fury, like The Sunless Citadel before it, is a module with an epic quality to it – which will fill many nights with gaming memories which will linger for years to come. Definitely check this one out.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Grade: A-

Authors: Richard Baker
Company: Wizards of the Coast
Line: D&D
Price: $9.95
ISBN: 0-7869-1644-3
Production Code: TSR11644
Pages: 32

“A roper and a succubi have both been placed within Khundrukar. Both of these are far too powerful for the 3rd to 5th level characters who are supposed to be going through this adventure.”

Oh no. It’s me. I’m the problem. It’s me.

This complaint (that The Forge of Fury included monsters who were “too tough” according to the CR/EL guidelines in the DMG) had quickly become part of the meme-sphere back in 2001. As a reviewer, I either felt pressured to include this “everybody knows” criticism of the module or simply bought into the meme. The only problem? It wasn’t true. First, including these encounters was actually completely in keeping with the DMG encounter guidelines. Second, the entire concept of “every encounter must be carefully tailored for the characters’ precise level” was a toxic concept. (I’ve written about this at greater length in articles like Revisiting Encounter Design. And it’s still relevant to D&D and other RPG adventure design today.)

So, important lesson to take away from my younger self: If you’re going to be a reviewer, your job is not to simply parrot the “common wisdom.” (Nor to reject it as a reactionary.) It’s to develop your own point of view, reflect on that point of view, and present it to others in a way that’s useful and insightful.

The Forge of Fury is one of those modules that’s difficult for me to accurately assess: When I ran it, I did a big expansive remix, adding a bunch of extra levels plus additional factions with conflicts and agendas that were baked into my campaign world. It also played a vital role in the development of adversary rosters. Running the adventure was one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had at the RPG table. But, perforce, it can be difficult to separate my memories of experiencing the adventure from my memories of the book itself.

What I can say, is that I honestly don’t know if I would be the GM I am today if not for this module. And I highly recommend it. It was adapted to 5th Edition in Tales of the Yawning Portal.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Back in 2007, I wrote D&D: Calibrating Your Expectations, an article which analyzed D&D 3^rd Edition’s mechanics with a particular eye towards what characters of various levels were truly capable of.

(The short version: If you think Conan or Aragorn are 20^th level D&D characters, then you’ll be disappointed and frustrated because 20^th level D&D characters can routinely perform superheroic feats far beyond what Conan or Aragorn should be capable of. To avoid that dissonance, you need to either embrace awesomeness of high level play, cap your campaign at a lower level, or find an alternative solution for dialing in your personal sweet spot.)

A few years later, I wrote a similar article called Numenera: Calibrating Your Expectations, which did a similar breakdown for Monte Cook’s Numenera (and, by extension, the Cypher System).

These articles were fairly popular, and it’s perhaps unsurprising that I’m frequently asked to update my original article for D&D 5^th Edition.

The reason that article has never been written is that, when you sit down and try to calibrate D&D 5^th Edition, you’ll quickly realize that there’s nothing to calibrate: The D&D 5^th Edition skill system, in particular, is a very shallow and hollow mechanic that is, at best, running on vibes.

The first thing I would do when attempting to calibrate a system looking at how a character’s action check results correlate to the real world. But the DCs in D&D 5^th Edition aren’t pegged to anything in the real world: Walking across a balance beam could be DC 0, DC 5, DC 20, or DC 30. And the same could be true of running across the treetops while balancing on the leaves.

The next thing I’d do is compare the performance of skilled and unskilled characters. Particularly interesting values here include what characters consider routine (i.e., tasks they can automatically succeed at no matter what they roll on the dice) and also what tasks a skilled character can potentially achieve that an unskilled character cannot.

In D&D 5^th Edition, however, skill proficiency bonuses are so tiny compared to both the range of the d20 roll and ability score bonuses that there’s no meaningful information to be gleaned. It’s quite likely, for example, that an unskilled character will actually have a higher bonus on a skill check than a character proficient in that skill, particularly at low levels.

This is, of course, intentional. For reasons I’ve previously discussed, D&D 5^th Edition embraced the concept of “bounded accuracy.” The best way to think of bounded accuracy in this context is that everybody is basically equally skilled at pretty much everything, and stuff like natural ability and proficiency only indicate slight differences between characters. (It’s the difference between two people who went to the same university, got the same degree, and both graduated in the top 25% of the class, rather than the difference between a PhD in a subject and the average layperson.)

Bounded accuracy also pretty severely curtails the useful insights that can be gleaned from comparing characters of different levels. The differences between 1^st and 10^th and 20^th level characters can be quite minute.

Oddly, though, D&D 5^th Edition features a handful of class abilities which hilariously break bounded accuracy in ways which are almost absurd compared to the otherwise tiny differences in the system. I refer to these as Fuck Bounded Accuracy abilities, and these FBAs simply obliterate whatever marginal insight calibration might otherwise reveal.

So all you can really do is arbitrarily peg X to a DC, where X is some given task. But if you try to relate that back to a calibration question like, “What is a skilled vs. unskilled character capable of?” you’ll just end up frustrated because the system, again, doesn’t really distinguish one from the other.

CALIBRATING 5th EDITION

If you kind of flip this around, however, the formlessness of D&D 5^th Edition offers you the opportunity to calibrate the system for yourself. In fact, it essentially demands this. Most DMs, however, only tackle this task blindly – groping in the dark and sort of arbitrarily throwing out DCs that “feel” right.

If you’d like to grasp this bull by the horns and instead make some conscious, deliberate choices about what you want the game to be, here’s what I would recommend.

First, define the maximum possible result you can imagine a 1^st level PC ever achieving. Peg this as a DC 26 task. (Roughly speaking, this is a natural 20 (die roll) + 4 (ability score) + 2 proficiency bonus.)

Second, think about the minimum difficulty you would ever even remotely consider making a check for (and most of the time you probably wouldn’t). Peg that to DC 5.

Third, provide a spectrum of results between your DC 5 and DC 26 tasks. Keep in mind that at DC 17+ it’s technically possible to have a 1^st level character who can NEVER accomplish those tasks. (If there were non-proficient and had a -4 ability score penalty.) DC 21, which is a task an average person could never achieve, is another useful benchmark to keep in mind.

Fourth, ask yourself what the most amazing thing you could ever imagine any PC doing at the highest levels of your campaign. Peg that at DC 36, then add spectrum values at DC 28 and DC 32 to bridge the gap.

Note that the tasks you assign to these DCs are entirely arbitrary, and will have a huge impact on the feel of your campaign.

For example, consider the ability to run across the top of the forest canopy like a character of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This could just as easily be:

• Impossible
• DC 36 (most amazing thing you’ll ever see)
• DC 26 (a 1^st level character can technically do it!)
• DC 18 (actually, it’s something everyone in Naruto can do)

Of course, if canopy running is DC 18 in your campaign, then you’ll need to figure out a DC 36 which is even more awesome than that. (Maybe being able to walk on clouds?)

Once you’ve calibrated your DCs, you need to accept that the FBAs will routinely allow PCs to punch way above the “intended” thresholds you’ve set. Consider this a feature, not a bug. Magic is awesome and the function of an FBA is to say, “Holy shit! Look at that guy!”

Finally, whatever you’ve set as your DC 36 touchstone is the cap. There’s nothing beyond that. If a player can string together some crazy string of bonuses and a natural 20 to roll a 52, that’s great. But the result will be no different than if they’d rolled a 36. They’ve reached maximum human potential, or however else you want to think of this. (This is necessary because the system’s issues – skill bonuses barely mattering; FBA abilities; etc. – make it impossible to calculate a coherent mathematical cap.)

Back to Surveyor’s Headquarters

AREA 7 – ANTECHAMBER OF ARTIFACTS

A vault of white marble.

AREA 8 – BOOK OF INFINITE SPELLS

Scribal stalls line the long walls of this chamber to the right and left. At the far end of the room, there is a stand of bloodwood holding the Book of Arkath.

BOOK OF ARKATH: Each page of the Book of Arkath contains a random spell. Once a page is turned, it can never be flipped back – paging through the Book of Arkath is a one-way trip and, as far as anyone has been able to determine, once a spell has appeared, it does not reoccur. If the book is closed, it always opens to the page it was on before the book was closed.

Once per long rest, a reader attuned to the Book of Arkath can cast the spell to which the book is opened. If the reader is a spellcaster and the spell appears on their spell list, they can cast it up to four times per day. Each time a spell is cast, there is a 1 in 6 chance that the page of the book will automatically turn.

In addition, each time a page is turned (whether willingly or not), there is a 1 in 20 chance that the book vanishes.

The book currently displays protection from energy.

SCRIBAL STALLS: A number of freshly copied scrolls can be found among the scribal stalls.

• scroll of creation
• scroll of teleport
• scroll of control winds
• scroll of kin curse*
• scroll of call of the topaz*
• scroll of harroc adulese (hunter serpent)*

* Exotic spells, see The Spells of Arkath.

GM Background: Under Guildmaster Essetia’s guidance, arcane members of the Brotherhood copy the spell currently displayed in the Book of Arkath. The page of the book is then turned.

AREA 9 – NECROMANCER’S STONE

Upon a platform of substarrae within a bulging cylinder of transparent arenak, sits the Necromancer’s Stone.

CYLINDER: A small plaque written in Old Prustan read, “The Necromancer’s Stone, wielded by the Squirming Horde, cleaved by the vanguard of Nulara Aretari during the Ghulwar.”

• Substarrae: A purplish black metal. The secrets of its creation were lost long aeons ago, but it’s stronger than even adamantine.
• Transparent Arenak: A silvery-black metal with a hundred times the strength and durability of normal steel. It has been alchemically treated to become transparent, but retains all the properties of adamantine.

NECROMANCER’S STONE: The Necromancer’s Stone is one of the primal stones – like the alchemist’s Philosopher’s Stone, Sorcerer’s Stone, God’s Stone, Druid’s Stone, and so forth.

In game terms, the Stone has XX charges and regenerates 2d10+4 charges daily at dawn. While holding it, the wielder can use an action to expend 1 or more of its charges to cast one of the following spells from it, using their spell save DC + 10: animate dead, blight, command undead*, create undead, death knell*, gentle repose, halt undead*, and soul bind* (trapping the soul within the Necromancer’s Stone). For spells that can be cast with higher spell slots, the wielder chooses which “slot” to use and spends a number of charges each equal to the “slot” level.

The wielder can also cast raise dead (5 charges) – whether the normal time limit has expired or the soul resists.

The Stone can also be used to create an undead hallow (4 charges) for 24 hours. An area 60 feet around the wielder is imbued with necromantic energy, although the spell fails if the radius includes an area already under the effects of a hallow spell. Undead creatures within the area are immune to turning and non-undead creatures (other than the wielder) cannot enter the area unless they succeed at a saving throw. For each additional charge expended, the wielder can also imbue the undead hallow with one effect:

• Courage. Undead cannot be frightened while in the area.
• Darkness. Darkness fills the area. Normal light, as well as magical light created by spells of a lower than 5^th level, can’t illuminate the area.
• Energy Protection. Undead creatures have resistance to one damage type of the wielder’s choice, except for bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing.
• Fear. Non-undead creatures (other than the wielder) are frightened while in the area.
• Silence. No sound can emanate from within the area, and no sound can reach into it.

The wielder of the Stone is permanently under the effects of death ward and gains advantage on skill checks and saving throws related to necromantic spells or effects.

This particular Necromancer’s Stone was created during the Ghulwar and was wielded by the legions of Ghul before being captured by Nulara Aretari’s army in the Field of Moonsilver. It’s tainted and bestows two levels of exhaustion to any non-chaotic or non-evil character carrying it.

COMMAND UNDEAD
Level 3 Necromancy (Sorcerer, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V

You speak a one-word command to all undead creatures you can see within range. Any target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or follow the command on its next turn. The spell has no effect if the target is living, if it doesn’t understand your language, or if your command is directly harmful to it.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. The range of the spell can be increased by an additional 10 feet for each additional spell slot level.

DEATH KNELL
Necromancy Cantrip (Cleric)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: Touch
Components: V, S
Duration: Instantaneous

You draw forth the ebbing life force of a creature and use it to fuel your own power. Upon casting this spell, you touch a living creature who is currently making death saving throws. If the subject fails a Constitution saving throw, it dies and you gain 2d4+4 temporary hit points.

HALT UNDEAD
Level 3 Necromancy (Sorcerer, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 120 feet
Components: V, S, M
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute

Choose up to three undead creatures you can see within range. Each creature must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed for the duration of the spell. The effect on a creature is broken if it is attacked or takes damage.

Using a Higher-Level Spell Slot. You can affect an additional two undead for each additional spell slot level.

SOUL BIND
Level 9 Necromancy (Cleric, Sorcerer, Wizard)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 60 feet
Components: V, S, M (a black sapphire gem)
Duration: Permanent

You draw the soul from a newly dead body and imprison it in a black sapphire gem worth at least 1,000 gp per level or CR of the creature whose soul is to be bound. The subject must have been dead no more than 1 minute and can attempt a Wisdom saving throw to avoid imprisonment.

The soul, once trapped in the gem, cannot be returned through raise dead, resurrection, or any similar spell or effect, not even a wish or miracle. Only by destroying the gem can one free the soul (which is then still dead).

Necromancer’s Stone is covered by the Open Game License.

AREA 10 – THE STATUE OF VLADAAM

A massive statue standing at one of this chamber depicts a hulking creature of black demon-flesh. Its skull seems to push out from the skin of its face, depicting a bone-white countenance with two flaming coals for eyes.

STATUE: The base of the statue is labeled in Old Prustan – VLADAAM, VESTED OF THE GALCHUTT.

• DC 24 Intelligence (Investigation): By pushing the V’s in both “VLADAAM” and “VESTED” simultaneously, a panel opens in the base of the statue. It contains The Ritual of Flessh (see handouts).

SEARCH – DC 18 Wisdom (Perception): To detect the secret door leading to Area 11.

GM Background: This statue depicts Vladaam, a Vested of the Galchutt and the founder of House Vladaam.

AREA 11 – DARKENING ENTRANCE

This area is affected by a darkness spell.

COMMAND PHRASE: Those speaking the command phrase (“let us hold and send forth the eye of all knowledge”), which can be found in the Oath of the Brotherhood, can perceive the room as if the darkness spell were not present.

CURSE: Anyone dispelling the darkness spell or passing through the room without speaking the command phrase must succeed on a DC 24 Wisdom saving throw or become cursed: Their shadow becomes animate. Although it remains attached to the victim, it dances wildly, causing the victim to suffer disadvantage on Hide checks unless they’re in an area of total darkness. The effect is permanent, although a remove curse spell ends the effect.

AREA 12 – CRYPTS OF THE BROTHERHOOD

Each of these crypts contain a former, high-placed member of the Brotherhood. This includes all of the guildmasters of the Red Company of Surveyors since the 7^th century.

AREA 13 – FONT OF ASCENSION

This is a natural cavern. Carved stairs at the rear of the cave lead down to Area 12. The far side of the cavern opens out onto a cliff face on the edge of Oldtown, providing a breathtaking vista across Ptolus and down to the sea.

ILLUSION: The cave entrance is masked by an illusion from the outside.

FOUNTAIN: A burst of water from the wall softly falls in a burbling cascade through a complicated, multi-tiered fountain of gilded, glinting gold. Each tier of the fountain contains a small, golden sculpture depicting an animal with a rune or sigil on its chest: An eagle, a stag, a bear, a cat, an owl, a wolf, a dolphin, and a hawk.

• DC 15 Intelligence (Religion): These holy animals were associated with the Elder Gods before those strange deities vanished from the world.
• DC 25 Intelligence (Arcana): To recognize the runes as being an ancient antecedent of modern dreamspeaking notation. (Advantage on this check if the character is proficient in the Dreaming Arts.)
• DC 20 Intelligence (Investigation): There’s a hidden compartment at the base of the fountain. It contains The Passing of the Jewels of Parnaith (see handouts).

GOLDEN ANIMALS: The golden statuettes can be removed. Once removed, touching the sigils will cause them to glow. If all of the sigils are activated, each statuette will transform into a cunningly wrought piece of gold. These can be joined together to form an illitor (Ptolus, p. 485).

An illitor is a complex item encompassing a golden belt, armband, and bracelet, each connected to the others by thin golden chains.

GM Background: Only someone wearing an illitor can access the pergolas which lead to the Jewels of Parnaith.

Go to Part 14D: Inner Sanctum Handouts

DISCUSSING
In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 46B: Into the Asylum

Elestra reached out to the memories of Zairic’s corpse through the Spirit of the City. In a horrible, gurgling voice Zairic’s head spoke from it lay atop his corpse, attached by only a slim flap of flesh.

I love speak with dead almost as much as my players do. It’s an essential part of their toolkit whether they’re scouting a dungeon, unraveling a mystery, or probing the depths of a conspiracy. The In the Shadow of the Spire group actually keeps a “dead-icated bag” — a bag of holding for the important corpses they want to hold onto and question again after the one week waiting period has expired.

This means that I need to be prepared for all of their speak with dead antics, which is something I talk about in more detail in Random GM Tip: Speak With Dead Mysteries. (I also talk about how I keep track of the bodies in the dead-icated bag in Campaign Status Module: Trackers.)

But the fun part is figuring out all of the gruesome ways these mangled and half-rotten corpses speak under the influence of the spell.

Zairic, as seen here, is a fairly mundane example (although miming his head hanging on by a flap of skin had a pretty great effect on my players when combined with the gurgling voice), but I try to bring a little bit of flair to these, as seen with Silion back in Session 40:

“We can still ask her a few questions,” Elestra asked. “I can force her body’s memories to speak through the Spirit of the City. But we’ll only be allowed three questions, so we should choose them carefully.”

Tee nodded. “Let’s make sure we get it right.”

They debated the list of questions for the better part of half an hour and then Elestra wove her magic. Silion’s decapitated head rose into the air, its blood dripping in a sickly, coagulate gore down onto its own corpse below.

If speak with dead is a common part of your campaign, you could certainly prep a list of these to use as needed. Personally, I enjoy improvising them — taking into account the dead NPC, the circumstances of their death, their wounds, and even the surrounding scenery wherever the PCs are casting the spell.

A few things to think about in improvising your own speak with dead moments:

• How does their wound affect their voice?
• What unnatural position could the body be contorted into?
• How could the strangeness of the spell impact the surroundings (e.g., spattering blood, rattling bones, the corpse’s severed arm trying to crawl back to the torso from across the room)?
• Is there an overtly supernatural effect (e.g., the body floats into the air or an eery glow emanates from the corpse’s mouth)?

The goal is for the players to viscerally appreciate that what they’re doing is anything but natural or ordinary. (Is it evil? Morally grey? That depends on your morality. But, regardless, it shouldn’t be easy for them to feel comfortable about what they’re doing. It should feel like weird shit, and they probably wouldn’t want their mothers walking into the room while they’re doing it.)

There’s no need to overdo it, though. Just one or two key details are enough to bring the scene to vivid life. Less is more, and if you’ve got a really cool idea… well, there’s always the next corpse.

Campaign Journal: Session 47A – Running the Campaign: False Assumptions
In the Shadow of the Spire: Index