I'm going to try and hide this from my players, but if you're a player and have opened this, please stop! I'm copying from my previous post to expand upon it. Now though, I'm going to focus on the opening adventure. Expanded world notes are here and more Thanatos notes are here.
Opening adventure
- Ideas for how the party could meet (choose after character creation)
- Drinking contest at one of the taverns
- They're taking in a show at the tavern
- Open day at the academy
- Festival at the temple
- They're at the zoo
- They're checking out the job board at a tavern
- Shopping together
- Graverobbing
- They're all visiting dead loved ones in the Thanatos Graveyard
- They're taking a tour of the coast
- They're arriving at the gates at the same time
- There's a fighting competition that they're all in
- Some of the dead are rising every night
- Wherever the party is, they start by seeing some crawling claws and stomping feet (4 of each)
- The other people around are concerned and suggest reporting to the council
- The council is a bit squirrely about things but will finally admit that the dead have been rising every night and graverobbing seems to have increased lately and hires the party to deal with the problem discretely
- The main person speaking is Vassilis Pappas, deep gnome, 73, served for 25 years, male, chief counselor
- Wiry and lean with a body as hard as a slab of rock. Completely bald and beardless. 3'6" 45 lbs. Dark brown skin with dark gray eyes.
- When investigating, there is a new ghost story in town that there is a woman who comes to life and wanders the town in search for her lost love, but you can't tell she's dead at first
- Some will say she seems to wander near the zoo
- When investigating, they'll learn that the temple used to have portions all under the city, but many have been abandoned
- Can be learned from temple, academy, or tavern/inn/care home owners
- Ultimately it will be discovered that a necromancer was trying to raise their dead love, but tried a few experiments first and then things went wrong causing some dead to rise every night
- Necromancer
- Sibylla Papati, female, half-orc, 38
- She was led to make a deal with a fiend to save her dying love Jelayne
- While making suspicious inquiries throughout Nesoi, she ran into Vlassis who told her how to make a deal with the fiend
- Vlassis knew the fiend was a trickster and would lead Sibylla astray
- Sibylla's family never approved of Jelayne and though Sibylla was too obsessed with the relationship when Sibylla went off to investigate how to save the sick Jelayne, her family hired Bear to find Sibylla and make sure she was okay
- Dungeon crawl to get there
- Dungeon below the zoo in an old portion of the Thanatos temple
- Animals at the zoo:
- First battle/encounter as they enter the zoo
- Skeletal giant owl
- Undead cockatrice
- First puzzle is to open the locked to the inner maze DC 15 survival, investigation, religion, perception, or insight to find the door
- The door speaks a riddle: "Some are cherished, some are hated, and even if lost they remain with you." They must answer "memories" before the door unlocks
- Three paths to take
- Left
- Dead end chamber
- Net trap (ctrl f here)
- Some skeletal parts in heaps and crumpled pieces of paper in various languages--all appear to be spells
- Some scorch marks and broken apothecary set
- Middle
- Continues to another chamber with swarm of zombie limbs
- Left
- Dead end chamber
- Has three skeleton statues in it: a warrior, an archer, and an unarmed skeleton (in that order)
- Right
- Leads to a chamber with three exits (outlined below), but has a shovel in it as well as various pieces of jewelry that have the stench of death on them
- Left
- Chamber that leads to middle chamber but has a door on it with a skeleton hand clutching a sword, a skeleton hand clutching a bow, and a skeletal hand reaching out
- Has hidden pit in it (ctrl f here)
- Middle
- Chamber that leads to left chamber but has a door on it with a skeleton hand clutching a sword, a skeleton hand clutching a bow, and a skeletal hand reaching out
- Treasure chest with magic items (customize to each character)
- Right
- Seemingly empty chamber that has a poison dart trap init (ctrl f here)
- Left
- Dead end chamber that the necromancer has been sleeping in
- Basic adventuring supplies
- Scraps of love letters addressed to Sibylla and Jelayne
- "Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, Be calm – love me – today –yesterday – what tearful longings for you – you – you – my life – my all–farewell. Oh continue to love me – never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved. Ever thine. Ever mine. Ever ours."
- "My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you – I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again – my Life seems to stop there – I see no further. You have absorb’d me…I would be martyr’d for my Religion – Love is my religion – I could die for that – I could die for you…"
- Right
- Dead end main chamber with Sibylla and Jelayne.
- You feel the air get unnaturally cold despite the room being lit with dozens of candles. In the center is an altar with a freshly dug up corpse on it, but there is no foul odor. A half orc stands next to what looks to be a zombie.
- Right
- Left
- Empty room with hidden door to final room DC 20 investigation to find
- Requires spoken password to unlock (password is Jelayne)
- Right
- Dead end chamber with treasure puzzle box that has the gestures for how to praise Thanatos (marking a theta in front of your chest) on it DC 10 religion check (advantage if they're from Thanatos) to know what the gesture is. The players must
- Third battle/encounter is the Sibylla and Jelayne
- Possible monsters/creatures to encounter
- Crawling claw, 0
- Stomping feet, 0
- Ash zombie, 1/4
- Jelayne, 1/4--the love of the necromancer
- Female, fire genasi, 50
- Skeletal giant owl, 1/4
- Skeleton, 1/4
- Zombie, 1/4
- Death's head (gnashing), 1/2
- Skeletal alchemist, 1/2
- Undead Cockatrice, 1/2
- Warhorse Skeleton, 1/2
- Husk zombie, 1
- Returned sentry, 1
- Swarm of zombie limbs, 1
- This relates to a larger issue that each city and town is seemingly being plagued by their namesake
- A faction is trying to have a single ruler so they created a network to wreak havoc to create the need for a dictator
- However, the larger plan isn't fully revealed at the end of this adventure
- At the end of this adventure, they get led to another town (Hemera) where the person who influenced the necromancer, Vlassis Lambrelis, was last seen
- This can come from Sibylla herself and then they get the name Vlassis or they can get told that Hemera has called for aid from the council
(Prompt by me)
"Ready to Roll" by Benjamin Esham. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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