The Feywild is the following cease on our tour of the adventures options within the Keys from the Golden Vault anthology sequence, Social gathering at Paliset Corridor. This time round, the PCs get to steal a doubtlessly very harmful necklace from a retired elf adventurer throughout a Winter Solstice occasion. This journey is for Tenth-level adventurers.
Spoiler Warning
Of the 100% of stuff current on this journey, I will likely be pertaining to >1% of that stuff, which can be 1% greater than you wish to know if you’re taking part in on this journey. Contemplate this notification that your invitation to this evaluation is revoked, in your personal enjoyment.
The Hook
The PCs are both requested by the Golden Vault to take part on this mission or they obtain a messenger from the husband of the retired adventurer throwing the Winter Solstice gala within the Feywild. There isn’t an entire lot fleshed out for PCs that aren’t linked to the Golden Vault, so DMs could must construct their very own connections to the retired adventurers in the event that they wish to skip the Golden Vault framing mechanism.
One factor that’s attention-grabbing about this opening is that the individual sending the messenger is particularly tied to the Golden Vault. Eliphas, the werebear married to Zorhanna and anxious concerning the impact of the necklace on his spouse, is the character that creates the music bins and keys for the Golden Vault. We additionally get a bit extra data on the Golden Vault on this part. Along with arranging for heists that additional the higher good, additionally they acquire and retailer doubtlessly harmful magic objects, which type of suits in with the entire “we’re paying you in magic objects” motif we’ve seen to date.
The Setting
This journey takes place within the Feywild, and encompasses the native institutions (inns, companies) and the placement the place the gala takes place. Oh, and possibly a pocket dimension influenced by the Far Realm.
Heist Tropes
This one will get twisty! Eliphas needs the PCs to steal a necklace being worn by his spouse, as a result of he’s afraid that she’s being influenced by it. However the necklace teleports again to a vault when it’s eliminated. So you have already got a built-in “shifting location” for the maguffin.
As well as, the vault itself is hidden in a non-traditional place and relying on who the PCs discuss to, they’ll guess the place that vault is.
Past the shifting location and discovering the vault and opening it, you even have the added complication of the coven of evening hags, the earlier homeowners of the necklace, displaying as much as steal it again.
Particulars
Not solely can we get some data on the native inhabitants of this portion of the Feywild within the type of enterprise homeowners, we even have a chart that particulars potential company to the gala, in addition to some character particulars of the employees on the property. Relying on how and when the PCs work together with the employees, their concern and connection to the adventuring couple that owns the property goes to assist reveal what’s going on and the place to seek out issues.
Creatures
Past the usual humanoids attending the gala, and the assemble guarding the vault, you could have the fey (which might be stunning of their exclusion for a Feywild-themed journey), and winter wolf bouncers. Technically you even have an aberration within the type of a Far Realm entity that resides within the necklace, however its stats come up.
After Motion
There’s a plot level hard-wired into the journey, the place even when the PCs are profitable, the necklace cracks open and the Far Realm entity escapes. I’ll contact on this a bit extra within the subsequent part.
This is without doubt one of the adventures that provides a bit extra element to the Golden Vault’s response. They don’t simply need the necklace to be stolen, additionally they don’t pay up until Eliphas and Zorhanna each survive, and no harmless lives have been misplaced on the gala. I type of want that there have been a number of extra notes like this for the Golden Vault in a number of the different adventures.
Along with the Golden Vault paying out one other uncommon magic merchandise, there’s a listing of magic objects that Eliphas presents the PCs for efficiently doing the job, based mostly on some objects they’ve on show from their days as adventurers.
Ideas
I take pleasure in how this journey is type of a shifting goal. Zorhanna’s simulacrum (the one sporting the necklace . . . the actual one is trapped inside) can seem in a lot of locations, taking part in hostess. The PCs can be taught so much in the event that they handle to seek out Eliphas proper off the bat, however he didn’t give them a location to satisfy up. The employees is fearful about Eliphas and Zorhanna’s relationship and relying on how the PCs work together with them, they could drop some clues as a result of they’re extra more likely to wish to see them secure and sound than to do their jobs.
The evening hags have a spy on the gala, so the PCs could run into them. The evening hags themselves can present up and complicate issues. Basically, the journey provides you a scenario, and a few instruments to trace who’s the place and at what time, however every thing else goes to be improvisation based mostly on the actions that the PCs take, within the context of a number of the random occasions happening. This suits the theme of heist adventures very effectively, however I additionally assume it’s value mentioning that I don’t assume that is going to be a straightforward journey for newer DMs to run. Whereas there are some random tables and charts displaying areas, I feel the journey may have used a extra formalized approach of monitoring when totally different occasions occur, and what which means total.
That each one brings me to the a part of this journey that I want have been a bit totally different. The Golden Vault shops harmful magic objects, however as written, even when the PCs are profitable, the necklace’s gem will crack and let the entity out. It’s only a factor that can occur in some unspecified time in the future within the journey.
I perceive that that is truly a helpful course correction to provide the PCs an opportunity to nonetheless pull a win out of the jaws of defeat if the evening hags handle to steal the necklace, or in the event that they find yourself getting trapped inside it, however I really feel like if the PCs succeed within the heist and handle to steadiness every thing to tug it off, they shouldn’t narratively face a narrative beat that looks like a failure. Sure, they receives a commission for stealing the necklace and getting it away from Zhorhanna, however even in case you receives a commission, being instructed a harmful entity escaped from the factor you stole doesn’t really feel like a victory, and there isn’t a approach to forestall that improvement as written.
