jdnd/sections/11-The Castle with the Steel Door - Life in St Parnas.md

## Life in St Parnas


This chapter will take place in two primary locales: inside Castle
Green, and in and around St. Parnas.

This section lists some of the interesting things you’ll find in St.
Parnas.

### A Summary of St Parnas

Saint Parnas is a small town in the Outlands. It sits about a day’s
journey spireward of Tradegate. It is a law-abiding, good-aligned town.
Given its proximity to Tradegate (and therefore Bytopia), the
predominant moral code in town is that a good person is a person who
works hard, is diligent, and who contributes to his community. People
look out for each other, and people have a strong sense of civic virtue.

St Parnas has a definite small-town feel. The kinds of amenities you
find in big cities aren’t available here. If you want to hire a
high-level wizard or cleric, you’re out of luck. There are a number of
one-room churches and temples to various good-aligned gods, but there
aren’t any big, showy temples. Much of the employment is small-town
employment: mainly farmwork and small craft workshops. Most of the
people of St Parnas prefer the quiet small town lifestyle, and are glad
that they aren’t in a big city.

Overt evil is not tolerated here. You will not find any temples to evil
gods. Of course, people are people, and everyone is flawed, even in a
good place like this. You will certainly find people who are selfish, or
greedy, or lazy. You might even find a few truly dark individuals hiding
in the shadows. But for the most part, this genuinely is a town full of
decent, reasonable people.

It’s the kind of town where if the PCs are not overtly destructive,
they’ll get along just fine.

### Where to Sleep in St. Parnas

The first thing the PCs will probably look for in town is someplace to
sleep. They can find lodging at an inn called “The Unnamed Inn.” Lodging
for a party of 4 is 2 gp per night, it includes two rooms and meals for
everyone.

The unnamed inn has a common room where people can relax, eat food
prepared by the innkeeper, and occasionally, listen to music. It is not
really a “tavern.” Yes, you can get a drink, but service is mainly
intended for people staying at the inn. There are eight bedrooms
upstairs. When the PCs arrive, there are a handful of randos staying at
the inn (feel free to invent some).

There is one other inn in town: the Named Inn, in the nicer part of
town. Depending on how scruffy the party looks, they may not be welcome.

Another option is that there are some unoccupied grassy fields on the
outskirts of town. If they want to, the PCs can set up tents, and nobody
will bother them.

### The Legend of St Parnas

If anyone asks where the name “Saint Parnas” comes from, any local can
tell them this story.

About 200 years ago, a party of settlers came from the Tradegate area,
looking for someplace to build farmsteads. They found a lovely clearing
where the town of St Parnas now sits, and they started to build.
Unfortunately, the entire area was inhabited by a clan of druids who
viewed the area as theirs. The druids despised the fact that the
settlers were cutting down trees, tearing up nature, and domesticating
the area.

Gradually, tensions between the settlers and the druids escalated, and
it seemed like battle might be inevitable. Into this fray came a man
named Zell Parnas, a man with a silver tongue and a decent heart.
Somehow, Parnas managed to negotiate an agreement between the settlers
and the druids.

The step that finally got the druids to back down was choosing a modest
radius beyond which the city would never expand. The settlers would be
allowed to do as they pleased inside the boundary, but they would leave
nature untrammeled outside the circle. The boundary would be marked by
an orchard that completely encircles the town. This is a huge orchard,
and building it would be expensive, Mr. Parnas financed the planting out
of his own pocket. The druids and the townsfolk are both allowed to pick
fruits from the orchard.

Because of the boundary, the village never grew beyond “small town”
status. About a hundred years after his death, Zell Parnas was declared
a saint, and the town was renamed after him.

### The Mayor, Elar Mossbrow

When the PCs start to gain some notoriety in town, the mayor may
introduce himself. You should not introduce the mayor until the PCs have
been in town a while.

The Mayor is a firbolg named Elar Mossbrow. It is unusual for a town
mostly populated by medium-sized people to have a giantish mayor, but
Elar is highly worthy of respect, and when he ran for election, he won
easily.

Most firbolg think that money is evil, so it is strange for a firbolg to
be mayor of a human town. Humans use money for everything. The reason
for this is that Elar Mossbrow is a bit of a free-thinker among firbolg,
he eventually concluded that commerce is not a force for evil, he
concluded that commerce binds people together. He uses the expression,
“the bridge to the next village is the merchant’s cart.” Because this
view is in conflict with normal firbolg culture, Mossbrow decided to
move close to tradegate, where the view that commerce is an affirmative
good is the norm.

The town has a manor for the mayor, which contains a residential quarter
and also offices. Mayor Mossbrow doesn’t fit inside the manor. He can
squeeze through the doorways and, crouching, shuffle down the hallways
if he has to, but it’s very awkward. The only time he goes inside is
when he needs to get some papers from the filing cabinets. Instead, he
built a pagoda in the back yard of the manor, which is where he lives
now. It is open air, but has a roof. He jokes: “I’m the mayor, and I
don’t fit in the mayor’s office. Heavy is the head that wears the
crown!”

Mayor Mossbrow is not happy with Green. He says, “St Parnas used to be a
quiet little town, and I liked it that way. Now we’ve got randos from
all over the multiverse overrunning the place. And now a chaos storm! I
wish this was all over.” After the chaos storm, the Mayor decided it was
time to kick Green out of town. However, Green is trapped in the
basement of the castle, so the Mayor hasn’t been able to tell him yet.

At some point, the PCs may help the town guards contain a threat. If so,
Mayor Mossbrow becomes their friend. He will help them with town records
and other things like that.

Sometimes, Mayor Mossbrow likes to clear his mind by going out to the
orchard and doing maintenance work. He says it’s a good way to get back
to the basics.

### The Orchard

The town is surrounded by an orchard. The orchard contains every
imaginable type of fruit or nut. Many of the trees are picked over (the
townsfolk and the druids use them regularly), but there’s still a bit of
ripe fruit for the taking. Anyone is allowed to pick fruit, which is why
the orchard is usually pretty picked over.

Asatya is a woman who drew the “void” card from the deck. As a result,
her spirit was banished from her body. Her spirit now wanders the
orchard. At some point, the PCs will have a deck dream about Asatya, and
they will see her standing among apple trees. That is a dead giveaway
that she’s in the orchard.

To find Asatya, the PCs should search the orchard for apple trees. That
narrows it down: only a small percentage of the orchard is dedicated to
apples. From there, it’s just a questions of brute-force search. If you
look hard enough, you will find three cards hovering over an invisible
person.

More information about Asatya can be found in the preceding section,
“Asatya: The Sleepwalker.”

### The Old Watchtowers

The easiest way to learn about the watchtowers is to ask one of the
locals about the deck dream with Rackle. “A small round tower” is pretty
much all it takes to get the locals to mention the watchtowers.
Alternately, if you’re exploring the orchard, you’ll stumble on a
watchtower.

Just inside the orchard are five old watchtowers, evenly spaced around
the town. Each one is a cylinder of stone about 10 feet in diameter.
Inside the cylinder is a spiral staircase that goes up the entire tower.
The staircase has four landings: the ground floor, the lower landing,
the upper landing, and the roof. The interior landings are only there
for safety. The point of the staircase is to get to the roof, which is
where a watchman would stand and survey the countryside.

The towers were built about 90 years ago by an overzealous mayor who
thought this was necessary for some reason. They were abandoned 60 years
ago, when that mayor retired, because everyone realized there was
nothing to watch for. Without maintenance, the stone outer structure is
still in good condition, but the wooden parts are starting to rot.

The towers are often used by homeless people and drifters as temporary
shelter. Many of them contain graffiti, and junk discarded by drifters.
Here are the specific contents of the towers. Note that “tower 1” is not
in any particular location. It’s just whichever tower the PCs explore
first.

Tower 1: *Religious Icon.* The roof has an abandoned campsite - the cold
remains of a burnt-out fire and a pile of garbage. If the PCs are
searching for Rackle, then the campsite contains a crudely carved wooden
statue of Ilmater. Ilmater instructed one of his worshippers to carve it
and leave it here. It is intended as a simple message, meaning
basically, “I am Ilmater, don’t forget I exist.” Rackle will need
Ilmater’s help.

Tower 2: *Bats*. On the upper landing is a swarm of aggressive bats.
They remain motionless until a PC pokes his head into the upper landing,
then they attack.

> Swarm Combat

-   Initial swarm size: 100 bats

-   Every round, every PC must roll two saves:

    -   DEX save DC 13 → on fail, take 10% of bats remaining as damage

    -   CON save DC 13 → on fail, take 10% of bats remaining as damage

-   AOE spells kill ⅓ as many bats as damage dealt, e.g., 30 damage → 10
    > bats dead

-   Single-target melee attacks kill 1–2 bats max (unless very clever)

-   AOE spells kill multiple bats. Typically, about ⅓ as many bats as
    > damage dealt, eg, 30 damage means 10 bats dead. However, you must
    > make a judgement call for each spell: would this particular spell
    > be more or less effective? That is up to you as a DM.

-   When swarm is reduced to 30 bats, it disperses.

> Bat Movement Rules:

-   Bats move as a single swarm — they prefer to stay clustered around
    > the party

-   If a PC moves away from the group, they can exit the swarm and avoid
    > damage

-   If all PCs leave the tower, the bats follow outside

-   If the party splits, the bats stay with the larger group

> Player Movement Rules:

-   Moving while inside the swarm = difficult terrain

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-   Climbing stairs while in the swarm: DEX save DC 12 or Prone.

-   Stairwell is narrow: single file, if somebody is prone, stairs
    > blocked.

Tower 3: *Collapsed*. This entire tower has been knocked over by an
enormous falling tree. The stone blocks are strewn where the tower fell,
and weeds are grown up among them.

Tower 4: *Rackle and Clarissa*. This tower contains Rackle, one of the
deck-touched NPCs, and the priestess of Beshaba who is protecting him.
See the section “Rackle: The Punching Bag” for more information about
him.

Tower 5: *Empty*. Aside from graffiti and garbage, there is nothing
here.

### The White Ward

The white ward is the hospital. It is a joint project between some
priests of several good-aligned gods, and also some non-magical doctors.
It was originally called the white ward because the building is covered
in white stucco, and also, because the doctors wear white. Eventually,
the name stuck and they just went with it.

\<FINISH ME\>

Asatya’s unconscious body is here. It will probably be necessary to
bring Rackle here.

### Magic Items for Sale

A small town like St Parnas would normally not have any magic items for
sale. However, because the deck has been conjuring items left and right,
it is possible to find magic items in town. The selection is extremely
*random*. Here are the items:

Envenomed Shortsword — *3,500 gp*

-   Three times per day, target takes D8 poison in addition to normal
    > damage

-   No save. If resistant to poison, no damage.

Javelin of Lightning — *3,000 gp*

-   Once per day, becomes a bolt of lightning when thrown

-   Deals 4d6 lightning damage in a line

Headband of Warning — *3,500 gp*

-   Advantage on initiative

-   Can’t be surprised while worn

-   Wearing any other hat, helmet, or headgear will prevent this item
    > from working.

Cloak of Protection — *4,000 gp*

-   +1 bonus to AC

-   +1 bonus to saving throws

Decanter of Endless Water — *2,200 gp*

-   Pours out an unlimited supply of fresh water

Key of Curious Locks — *3,000 gp*

-   Casts *Knock* once per day

-   Can tell you exactly why a door isn’t opening (e.g., rusted, barred,
    > etc.)

-   Warns about trapped doors (only trapped doors, not traps in general)

Navigator’s Compass — *2,800 gp*

-   Can point toward any landmark. A “landmark” is any point of interest
    > that is known to the locals, and that has been there for at least
    > 5 years. “Joanne’s Restaurant” is a valid landmark, for example,
    > as would be “The Nearest Temple of Lathander.”

Lens of Far Seeing — *3,000 gp*

-   See clearly up to 1 mile, even through mist or light foliage

-   Once per long rest, cast *Clairvoyance* (sight only)

Pouch of the Burrowing Familiar — *3,000 gp*

-   Contains a badger familiar

-   Can be summoned for up to 1 hour

-   Burrows through dirt or loose stone at 10 ft speed

-   Follows simple commands

-   Does not fight

Ring of Hopping — *3,500 gp*

-   Three times per long rest, cast *Jump*

-   Once per long rest, cast *Misty Step*

Lantern of the Firefly — *3,000 gp*

-   Endless Light: At will, sheds dim green light in a 100-foot radius

-   Once per long rest, cast *Faerie Fire* (DC 15) as a bonus action

Staff of the Potent Caster — *7,500 gp*

-   Functions as a quarterstaff and a spellcasting focus

-   Grants +1 to spell save DC

Wand of Silent Casting — *5,500 gp*

-   Functions as a spellcasting focus

-   Allows you to cast any spell with verbal components using only
    > somatic components

### The Collapsed Lizardman Temple

The collapsed temple is a combat event that you can bring out whenever
you think your PCs might be in the mood for a little smashy-smashy.

In the poorer part of town, a small group of lizardmen built a temple to
their god, Semuanya. The temple is ramshackle (for a temple). It was a
wooden building two stories tall. On the second story, the lizards had
an unauthorized menagerie containing dangerous reptiles. The reptiles
were smuggled into town, nobody knows they’re there except the
lizardmen.

A few days after the chaos storm, the building collapsed, and two
reptiles escaped: a basilisk, and a mirage serpent. The two beasts are
now wreaking havoc throughout the poor quarter.

The PCs are walking somewhere (anywhere) when they see two guards
running toward the poor quarter. If they’re curious, they can follow.
The will soon find some petrified people. Then, they will find the two
guards from earlier firing crossbows at the *mirage serpent*. The guards
are not very skilled: this town is too safe and nothing ever happens
here, and the guards have gotten complacent. They have not been training
as much as they should.

The mirage serpent is an electric blue snake which is capable of
projecting illusionary images of two additional snakes. The challenge in
fighting it is knowing which snake is the real snake. Shooting at an
illusory snake is just a waste of an action. When the PCs join the
fight, roll initiative. The turn order will include the PCs, the two
guards, the real snake, and the two illusory snakes.

> **Mirage Serpent**
>
> Large Monstrosity, Unaligned
>
> Challenge: 4 (1,100 XP)
>
> AC: 14
>
> HP: 68 (8d10 + 24)
>
> Speed: 30 ft., climb 10 ft., swim 30 ft.
>
> STR: 16 (+3) DEX: 14 (+2) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 4 (-3) WIS: 12 (+1) CHA: 6
> (-2)
>
> Saves: DEX +4, WIS +3
>
> Skills: Stealth +6, Perception +3
>
> Resistances: Psychic
>
> Immunities: Charmed
>
> Senses: Blindsight 10 ft., Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 13
>
> The serpent always fights alongside two illusory duplicates. The DM
> will declare that the PCs are fighting 3 serpents, and will not reveal
> that there is actually only 1 serpent and 2 illusions. The DM must
> place three serpents on the battlefield. They should be scattered
> about: for example, one might be in a tree, another on a roof, and
> another on the street. The DM must roll initiative for each of the
> three serpents, so there will be three entries for serpents in the
> turn order.
>
> The DM must keep track of which serpent is real. If a PC hits the real
> serpent with an attack, it takes damage. If a PC hits an illusory
> serpent with an attack, the attack passes right through the illusion,
> obviously not causing damage. The illusory duplicates cannot be
> damaged, and are difficult to dispel (use your judgement).
>
> When it is a serpent’s turn, regardless of whether that serpent is
> illusory or real, the serpent can choose one of two actions:
>
> **Psychic Lash.** Ranged Spell Attack: +5 to hit, range 15 ft., one
> creature per lash. Hit: 6 (1d10 + 1) psychic damage. When an illusory
> serpent uses mirage lash, the attack is actually coming from the real
> serpent, but the illusory serpent rears up in order to give the
> impression that the attack is coming from the illusion.
>
> **Shuffle.** All three serpents (the real and the two illusions) all
> teleport up to 15 feet to new visible locations. The DM reassigns
> which token is real, in secret. The illusions update their appearance
> to match the appearance of the real serpent, including any wounds the
> real serpent has taken.
>
> The serpent is tactical about choosing *psychic lash* vs *shuffle*.
> The more it shuffles, the less damage it does (because if it is
> shuffling, is isn’t lashing). So it only shuffles when it notices that
> the PCs are focusing all damage on the real serpent.

After beating the mirage serpent, the PCs will hear screaming coming
from elsewhere. If they hunt around a bit, they can find the basilisk
and the one remaining non-petrified guard who is fighting it.

This basilisk is thematically similar to the basilisk in the monster
manual, but the rules are completely different. The PCs can quickly
identify this as some subtype of basilisk by the fact that it has four
legs on each side: lizard with eight legs is a dead giveaway for
“basilisk.”

> **Basilisk (Modified)**
>
> Medium Monstrosity, Unaligned
>
> Challenge: 4 (1,100 XP)
>
> AC: 16
>
> HP: 65
>
> Speed: 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
>
> STR: 18 (+4) DEX: 10 (+0) CON: 16 (+3) INT: 2 (-4) WIS: 12 (+1) CHA: 7
> (-2)
>
> Saves: CON +5, WIS +3
>
> Skills: Perception +3
>
> Resistances: Poison
>
> Immunities: Poisoned
>
> Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., Tremorsense 10 ft., Passive Perception 13
>
> **Bite (action).** Melee attack, +5 to hit, reach 5 ft, one target.
> Hit: 2D6 + 10 piercing damage.
>
> **Lock On (reaction, one per eye per turn).**
>
> The basilisk has two independently-pivoting eyes, like a chameleon.
> Each eye can “lock on” to a single target creature, paralyzing that
> creature.
>
> Lock-on is a reaction: when a creature is about to take its turn in
> the initiative turn order, and the basilisk sees this, the basilisk
> can use a reaction by aiming one of its two eyes at the creature. The
> creature must make a DC 15 constitution saving throw. If the save
> succeeds, the basilisk fails to establish a lock. The creature may
> continue taking its turn in the normal manner.
>
> If the creature fails the saving throw, the basilisk has locked its
> gaze onto to the creature. The creature is instantly paralyzed, and it
> loses its action. From that point forward, the creature remains
> paralyzed as long as the basilisk keeps its eye locked on. The
> creature cannot move at all, and it cannot take any actions that
> require any kind of movement, including moving one’s mouth. Though
> paralyzed, the creature is still aware. On the creature’s next turn,
> will need to resist petrification, by making another CON save DC 15.
> It takes a minimum of three turns for a creature to be petrified:
>
> Turn 1: Creature attempts an action, and the basilisk reacts by
> locking on.
>
> Turn 2: The creature attempts to resist petrification and fails,
> getting dangerously close.
>
> Turn 3: The creature attempts to resist petrification and fails again,
> and turns to stone.
>
> If the creature succeeds at the save against petrification (turn 2 or
> turn 3), the creature is not freed: the creature is still paralyzed,
> and the basilisk is still locked on. The creature just didn’t get any
> closer to turning to stone, which means that the process of
> petrification will take longer. A paralyzed creature cannot free
> itself, unless it has pure mental actions such as a spell with no
> material, somatic, or verbal components. To free the paralyzed
> creature, the companions can do anything that breaks the basilisk’s
> gaze. That would include:

-   Blocking the line of sight with smoke, darkness, a wall of fire, or
    > any other opaque obstacle.

-   Grappling the basilisk and forcing it to turn its head (strength vs
    > strength).

-   Draping a cloak over the basilisk’s head (counts as a net, with -2
    > to hit because it’s not weighted).

-   Interposing your body between the basilisk and its target, if your
    > body is large enough.

-   Using spells like “compelled duel” that force the basilisk to look
    > at something else.

-   Anything that incapacitates the basilisk, like hypnotic pattern.

-   Draping a cloak over the targeted creature’s face (no to-hit roll
    > needed).

-   There are undoubtedly other ways. Allow your PCs to be inventive.

> If anything breaks the basilisk’s gaze, the paralysis immediately
> dissipates, and the basilisk’s gaze is no longer locked-on. There is
> no recovery period, the creature can act as soon as its initiative
> turn order comes up. This is the key to beating the basilisk: just
> keep interrupting its gaze, over and over.
>
> The basilisk has two independently-pivoting eyes. DM must keep track
> of who each eye is locked on to. Each eye that isn’t already locked-on
> can use the “lock on” reaction once per turn. The DM must keep track
> of which eye has used its reaction.
>
> Interestingly, if a creature doesn’t take an action, then the basilisk
> can’t react. The basilisk’s vision is motion-sensitive, if you stand
> perfectly still, the basilisk can’t lock on to you!
>
> If a creature is petrified, it goes unconscious. It remains a statue
> for about 48 hours, after which it turns back to flesh.

After the PCs defeat the basilisk, they will probably look around and
see several petrified commoners. Other commoners are already sending for
medical help. The PCs do not have to babysit the statues.

Shortly after the reptile attacks, Sam Link hears about the chaos, and
comes running to help. This is one way the PCs can connect with Sam
Link: if they realize that Sam Link is searching for injured people,
they might be smart enough to just wait for him here.

One of the petrified commoners has had a hand broken off. When they turn
back to flesh, 48 hours later, they will bleed out very, very fast. Sam
Link can’t heal the person while they’re stone, so Sam waits with the
statue. His plan is to use his power, fast, as soon as they turn to
flesh. The statue is surrounded by Sam and by family members, who are
keeping careful watch for any sign the body is turning back to flesh.

Because Sam is trapped in one place for 48 hours, and because the Mayor
and the guards all know about this and can tell the PCs where Sam is,
this gives the PCs additional opportunities to track him down.