The Reward

 Last week's game session saw the players run through the Warlord's Vault. I based this on the Creations' Edge Games adventure of the same name. I kept the concept and the rewards but I came up with a new map and added magical summoned monsters rather than a bunch of monsters sitting in rooms waiting for the players.

One player has dropped out of our regular group. He noted that he felt the game rules were too bare-bones for his liking. But another player has been able to drop in more often so we still had three players.

I posted the map I created below. I have been using Blender to create all of the maps I use in Roll20. I find it gives it a pretty good look. The maps are 3D so I can also picture how the rooms are connected, and I can easily create images for Handouts or action shots.

My version of the Warlord's Tomb Map

As I noted I kept the rewards as written in the adventure. One issue with using published adventures is that the amount of magic items tends to be high. But I decided to leave them in.

Session 41: The Warlord’s Vault

Players: Lakima (Magic-user), Eathwund (Fighter), Alonso (Human Fighter), Domago (Human cleric NPC), Lantosh (Human Fighter NPC), Fenris (Human Thief NPC).

Eathwund and Domago spend the night in the Blue Dragon Inn in Caster’s Ford. In the morning at breakfast, they meet their friend Alonso who has ridden overland from Edgerton over the past two days to join them. Eathwund fills Alonso in on what has become of the group. The rest of the company is trapped behind a rockfall in the Temple of Medamellara in the Valley of Heroes.

The trio packs up and heads over to the Greenstone brother's shop where Otto Greenstone and his six dwarven brothers are waiting. The Dwarves load up a large metal wagon pulled by four oxen. The entire group head out of Caster’s Ford bound for the Valley of Heroes. Progress through the snow is slow as the oxen are not very fast

Meanwhile, at the Temple of Medamellara, the evening before Lakima, Moonshadow, and Lantosh take turns through the night keeping an eye on Fenris the thief. The silver dragon Lethnearinos has wandered off deeper into the temple looking for a suitable resting chamber. Earlier that day Lethnearinos had dug the front of the temple out. When Lakima and Lantosh wake they find Fenris is cooking breakfast over a brazier of hot coals. Moonshadow has vanished and taken her equipment and sleeping gear with her. Lantosh checks his pack and tells Lakima that the silver necklace they found on the wizard’s corpse is also gone. He says it loud enough for Fenris to hear. Fenris says, “Oh that? I picked her pack after I saw her lift it from your pack”. He holds up the necklace and tosses it back to Lantosh.

Seeing as Fenris had every opportunity to leave, rob them, or kill them in their sleep and did not, Lakima decides he can be trusted. He accepts Fenris into the adventuring company. For the rest of the morning, Lakima straightens up the library and workshop in the Temple. Lantosh stands to watch at the busted front doors and Fenris sticks close to the fire.

Around noon the two parties of adventurers meet up again. Eathwund and Domago are surprised to see that the debris has been cleared from the front of the temple. But they call out and Lantosh answers. The two groups exchange stories. Otto Greenstone and his brothers immediately set about inspecting the damage to the temple and taking measurements. Otto carefully makes notes in his journal. Throst Greenstone ventures deeper into the temple and comes running back yelling “Dragon, dragon!” All of the dwarves with the exception of Otto scramble for weapons (Otto yawns). Lakima quickly settles them down, explaining that the silver dragon is a friend and the new guardian of the Temple.

The dwarves and Lakima go over detailed plans for a few hours detailing changes to be made to the Temple. They agree on a price and a discount if the Company of the Black Dragon can clear the nearby Warlord’s Vault of a manticore problem. Lakima tells Fenris that they have an immediate job that will give him a chance to show his worth. The Warlord’s vault is a trap-filled dungeon protecting the treasures of the warrior Uther Grimwulf from unworthy recipients. The dwarves are responsible for the dungeon's upkeep but cannot do their work with a manticore in the entrance chamber. The Company of the Black Dragon set out immediately for the Warlord’s Vault further up the Valley of Heroes. The dwarves set out with them but quickly fall well behind. The next day they arrive.

A large statue of a wolf rests in the snow outside the entrance to the vault. A huge pair of bronze doors that once protected the vault lie on the ground in the entrance. Lakima tells Fenris to scout ahead. The scout moves forward into a large octagonal chamber. A fifteen-foot tall stone statue of Uther Grimwulf dominates the chamber. To his left, he sees a collapsed wall into a room beyond. Ahead are two closed bronze doors with no handles. Fenris motions everyone forward. They quickly deduce that the manticore is in the side chamber beyond the rubble. Eathwund and Alonso move to flank the opening. Fenris readies his heavy crossbow. As light from Lantosh’s lantern and Lakima’s staff is cast into the chamber they hear a large beast getting to its feet. Then the manticore lets out a roar and comes into view. Fenris fires first and the iron bolt thuds solidly into the manticore’s chest near the heart. Blood sprays onto the floor and the beast rears up on its hindquarters. Alonso casts a spear and misses. Then draws his two-handed sword and advances. Eathwund closes on the manticore and strikes it with his flaming sword. The manticore desperately slashes out at Eathwund with its claws but Eathwund gets his shield up and blocks the attack. Then the manticore fires a spray of spikes from its tail. A few strike Eathwund’s shield and one flies true and strikes Lantosh in the chest. Alonso and Eathwung both attack from opposite flanks with their swords and strike the manticore down. The beast cries out and topples to the stone floor.

Alonso, Eathwund, and Fenris check through the manticore’s nest of leaves, branches, and gnawed human bones. They find some gems, a scroll case, a full potion bottle, and a battleax. Eathwund offers the battleax to Alonso but he shakes him off, “I prefer a sword, thank you.” So Eathwund gives the two-handed battleax to Lantosh.

Their mission accomplished, the group pauses in the chamber while Domago cares for Lantosh. Lakima suggests they try to defeat the tests of the Vault. Several magic weapons that were the property of the hero Grimwulf are rumored to lie in the vault. The group decides to take the test of the Vault. Lakima carefully examines the walls and after a lengthy check finds no fewer than five secret doors. He waves Fenris over and asks him to check the door on the north wall. Fenris declares the trigger for the door safe and depresses it. A stone door slides back into the wall revealing a large chamber with a fountain. Everyone enters the room and approaches the fountain. The walls are painted with frescoes depicting a human hero saving a merfolk town from a sea serpent. The hero is given a statue of a mermaid by the merfolk after saving them. The statue in the frescos looks like the statue of a naked mermaid standing in the dry fountain. Fenris spots a riddle written on the edge of the fountain’s basin:

Three lives have I. Gentle enough to soothe the skin, Light enough to caress the sky, Hard enough to crack the rock.

The heroes debate the meaning of the riddle and Fenris examines the statue and the fountain closely but finds no clues. Lakima pours some water from his waterskin into the basin. As soon as the bottom of the basin is covered in water they see a silver key appear in the water. Fenris reaches out and picks up the key. It is a simple, flat silver key with a Moon Rune engraved upon it. Fenris heads over to the doors but sees that there is no keyhole. Lakima suggests that they try another secret door.

Fenris opens another secret door and this time they see a much smaller chamber. A short hall leading to a stone block upon which rests a blue cloth. On top of the cloth is a silver key. Lakima and Fenris both say, “that looks like a trap!” at the same time. Fenris approaches the key carefully. The other delvers wait in the main chamber. Lakima calls out to Fenris to use a thread to pick up the key. Fenris nods and produces a silver thread. But he is unable to get the thread under the flat edge of the key. He reaches over and picks up one edge of the key and slips the thread through the end. Just then there is the sound of a thunderclap in the main chamber. The heroes in that chamber spin about to look at the source and see a flaming, humanoid, figure striding towards them. The creature looks like a humanoid figure engulfed in flames.

Fire Phantom

Eathwund is closest to the figure and he swings and hits it with a solid slash with his sword. He feels the sword impacting a solid object like a body but no injuries are visible. Alonso rushes over and swings as well but misses, Eathwund also misses on his second strike. Domago and Lantosh fire sling bullets missing wildly. Fenris fires and hits the creature with an iron bolt. The creature swings repeatedly at Eathwund with flaming fists but Eathwund manages to keep his shield between him and the strikes. The creature extends a hand and blasts Eathwund with a bolt of flame. Then Alonso and Eathwund both strike the creature one after the other and its flames go out. The creature staggers and crashes to the floor, a blackened cinder.

Fenris shows Lakima the second key, the rune of a cup is engraved upon it. Lakima tells everyone that the next door will likely have another guardian. Fenris opens another secret door and again sees a small chamber with a stone stand and a key. Fenris grabs the key and there is another crack of sound. Appearing 10 feet off the ground flapping wings of ice is an Ice Drake. The creature rears back and lets out a high-pitched cry. Lakima yells at everyone to get back and then he casts a fireball on the creature. The creature melts and rains down on the floor completely disappearing.

Fenris tells everyone that the third key has the rune of a sword upon it. Eathwund suggests that they battled fire and water. The next creature may be earth. Everyone nods. Lakima asks if the runes could signify the suits in a deck of cards. Fenris agrees - but notes it is more like a tarot suit. Lantosh points out the bas-relief carvings on the walls. They depict Uther Grimwulf’s many heroic deeds. Near the door to the fountain, he can be seen negotiating with a mermaid, fighting fire elementals near the door leading to the second key, fighting a White Dragon near the door to the third key. The next secret door shows him fighting a four-armed demon. Lakima tells Fenris to open the next door. The scout does and again there is a small room with a key. When he lifts the key there is a thunderclap and a nine-foot-tall, four-armed stone gargoyle appears next to Lantosh and Domago. The creature immediately attacks the two startled adventurers with a flurry of attacks. Clawing with all four arms, rearing back, and attempting to gore them with a single horn on its forehead. Lantosh is in fact clawed twice and then gored directly in the chest with the horn. He slides to the floor in a heap, unconscious. Eathwund and Alonso rush over to defend their fallen friend while Domago drags his body to safety. Lakima hurls his magic dagger at the gargoyle striking it in the back. Then he hits it with his Staff of Striking. Eathwund slashes the gargoyle repeatedly with his sword - which reverberates in his hands as it strikes the stone. His blow slashes into the chest of the gargoyle and it breaks apart and collapses. Domago does a prayer of healing over Lantosh and manages to revive him. Lantosh weakly gets to his feet. It is clear he will not be able to continue to fight. Lakima checks his pack but finds he has no more healing potions. Alonso comes over and hands Lantosh a healing potion and Lantosh drinks it recovering much of his wounds. He thanks Alonso.

Fenris opens the last secret door that Lakima had found. Inside is another small chamber. A stone display covered with a blue cloth rests at the far end. But there is no key! Fenris rushes forward and carefully checks the display. Patting the surface checking for an invisible key. Nothing is found. Lakima suggests that maybe some other adventurers found the key and they will find it further in the vault. He walks over to the bronze doors and gives them a shove. The doors do not move. The hinges are rusted solid.

It takes Alonso, Domago, and Eathwund working together to push one door open far enough to step through. Beyond is a long hallway. But every ten feet the hallway is blocked by a translucent barrier of prismatic energy. To either side of each barrier are alcoves. In each alcove rests a strange, short stone statue holding a shield and sword. Fenris examines a metal post in the center of the barrier and tells everyone that there is a keyhole with a diamond rune above it. They now have keys with a mace, moon, cup, and sword rune. But no diamond rune. Lakima examines the barrier closely and becomes convinced it is made of prismatic energy and will be deadly to touch. They are at a loss as to how to proceed.

Prismatic Walls

Heading back into the chamber, Lakima leads everyone over to the manticore’s chamber. Spending some time putting the busted stones back into a pattern to show the ruined bas relief they find it depicts Uther fighting a band of trolls. Lakima suggests that the key must be in the chamber somewhere. Since they have searched everywhere he suggests searching inside the manticore. Eathwund takes his sword and slices the belly of the manticore open. Entrails spill out onto the stone floor. Slicing open the stomach he spots a silver key. Fenris cleans it off and proclaims that it is marked with a diamond rune - the key they were looking to find. Going back to the barrier Fenris uses the key and the barrier vanishes. But he cannot pull the key back out of the lock so they leave it in. Ahead of them is another barrier and two more statues. Lakima examines the statues but they are inanimate as far as he can tell. He tries moving one but it is massively heavy and does not budge. Fenris calls out that the next barrier lock has a Moon rune. He uses the key and another barrier disappears. But there is another barrier before them. Fenris checks the keyhole and exasperatedly says, “we need a key with a sun rune!” They do not have this key.

Everyone heads back to the main chamber to take a rest and debate where the next key could be hidden. Alonso and Eathwund lift up the fallen bronze doors at the entrance but find nothing underneath. After a lengthy pause, Lakima checks the chamber that had no key in it at all. He yells out, “A secret door!” Fenris comes over and checks for traps and then opens the door. A short, narrow hallway is revealed. It looks undisturbed for ages. The hall ends in a dead-end so everyone checks the walls and floor for secret doors or levers. Lantosh finds one along the south wall and Eathwund finds one at the dead end. They decide to open the south one first. Inside Fenris sees a small crypt. A stone coffin rests on the floor. As they watch, four small braziers burst into blue flame lighting the chamber. Five hooded statues with heads bowed surround the tomb. On the iron surface of the tomb rests a silver key.

The Sun Key

Lakima asks Eathwund and Alonso to follow him into the tomb to protect him. Then he reaches out and picks up the key. At first, they do not hear anything - then one statue in a dark corner begins to move. It lifts its head and the robe falls away to reveal a creature with the lower body of a serpent and the upper body of a woman. Her face is hideous and she has snakes writhing in her hair. Everyone immediately looks away as the medusa steps into the light. Alonso and Eathwund avert their eyes and swing wildly with their swords but miss completely. Lakima reaches into his pack and pulls out a small, metal mirror. He hears the medusa recoiling from him and stepping toward Eathwund. Eathwund puts up his shield and blocks the creature away. Fenris reaches into the chamber with his crossbow and fires blindly but misses. The medusa stands beside Eathwund looking upon him but does not directly attack. Lakima tries calming it down but it just hisses at him. Lakima casts Phantasmal force and makes an enormous mirror appear between Eathwund and the medusa. The creature backs away into a dark corner. Lakima yells, “everyone out!” and all three run from the chamber. They immediately shut the secret door and Fenris grabs a mallet and some iron spikes to attempt to jam the door shut. Everyone steps back from the door and waits but nothing happens. Fenris heads down to the dead end and opens the secret door. He finds it leads back into the hall of barriers. Lakima takes his small mirror and mounts it on the wall facing the secret door into the small tomb.

Lakima hands the silver key to Fenris and says, “the sun rune”. Fenris nods and uses it in the barrier. Another wall falls. Ahead they see another wall, using the mace rune they lower it. Than the Sword rune key to lower another wall. Finally, they are before a final wall. On the other side, they can see a large chamber bathed in blue light. The final key is marked with a cup rune. The barrier drops. Lakima tells everyone to be cautious he expects more monsters.

The heroes fan out into the large chamber. A large tomb dominates the center of the room. False moonlight spills in from illusions on the wall designed to look like windows. They see six display stands. On each stand rests an object. A sword, a suit of plate mail armor, a shield with a lion image upon it, a necklace with a medallion, a helm, and a plain leather bag.

The Reward

Alonso reaches out and picks up the helm. Immediately, the illusion of a helm replaces the object he has taken. He places the helm on his head and feels more powerful. Once everyone sees that nothing bad happens to Alonso they all pick items off the displays. As each item is picked up an illusion of the item replaces it. Eathwund picks up the armor, Lakima takes the necklace, Fenris takes the bag and discovers it is an empty bag of holding, Lantosh takes the shield but decides to give it to Domago. Domago takes the shield and suddenly a Lion appears beside him. The lion nods to Domago. In shock, Domago takes off the shield, and the lion vanishes. Lantosh takes the sword and puts it in a sheath over his shoulder. After one last check around the chamber, the group heads back toward the entrance.

As they step outside they see it is late afternoon. Coming toward them they see the Greenstone brothers on their enormous iron cart. Otto Greenstone hails them. “I see you have succeeded where many have failed” Lakima and Eathwund nod. “Tell me, did you find the diamond-rune key?” Lakima tells Otto it was in the Manticore’s stomach. The old dwarf laughs, “that is why we could never find it”. The dwarves explain that they were paid to maintain the Vault after each foray by adventurers but the manticore prevented them from doing their jobs. Now that the treasures have been taken from the vault - it was their employer's wish that it be turned into a memorial tomb. They will remove the traps and set up the tomb for safe viewing. One dwarf carves a message above the entrance, “The treasures are gone but the hero remains.” The dwarves thank the heroes and set to work on the vault. The heroes mount up their horses and Lakima allows Fenris to ride with him. They set out for the Temple of Medamellara again and arrive early the next day.