jdnd/Deck of Many Things.md

# Introduction

## Backstory

This campaign tells a new story about the Deck of Many Things. The
following information is for the DM only!

In this universe, the deck is an enigmatic artifact that appears once
every couple of hundred years. It shows up somewhere in the multiverse,
it dispenses chaos, and then it vanishes again before anyone has a
chance to make sense of it. The stories that have been written about it
have been passed down for generations, and they have been distorted in
the telling. Because of this distortion, many of the things you have
read about the deck turn out not to be true.

Recently, a man named Green came into possession of a deck. Knowing the
hazards, Green decided not to draw cards himself. Instead, he advertised
for *other* people who want to draw cards. He allows anyone to draw
cards, with the following stipulation: if they draw three wishes, they
are expected to make one wish on Green’s behalf. If they draw gems,
Green gets a cut.

Green’s scheme has turned out to be very profitable: Green gets an
endless stream of wishes and gems, and he pawns off the risks on others.
Green is using his wishes to make himself smarter, stronger, and more
magically talented. So far, he doesn’t seem to have any intention of
stopping.

Green is greedy, but he’s not entirely evil: he truthfully warns his
applicants of the danger, and he advises them that drawing cards is too
big of a risk. Most people listen to that advice: Green pays them a
token sum for their time, and sends them on their way. But even though
most leave without drawing, there are a lot of desperate people in the
multiverse. Green has been able to find hundreds of applicants to take
him up on the offer.

The news of Green’s activities has spread. Historians are worried. In
the past, a Deck would show up, a few people would draw cards, and a day
or two later, the Deck would disappear again. But this time, hundreds of
people have drawn cards, and the Deck is not going away. It has flooded
the local economy with a glut of gems. It has created a mountain of
magic items. It has granted enough wishes to seriously warp the fabric
of reality. How is it possible that one small magic item can wield such
power? Why is the Deck not vanishing after a few uses, like it did in
the past?

Tymora, the goddess of Good Luck, has been watching this all unfold with
consternation. The Deck is obviously a luck-based magic item: it gives
out blessings and curses at random. But Tymora did not create the Deck,
and she’s sure that Beshaba, her sister goddess of Bad Luck, didn’t
create the Deck either. But that’s a problem. The deck is too powerful
to have been created by a mortal. But if it was created by a god, then
that means that somewhere out there, there might be a god of Luck who is
more powerful than Tymora. That possibility has Tymora genuinely
frightened that her place in the cosmos is not secure.

Hundreds of desperate travelers are crossing the multiverse, arriving at
Green’s castle hoping for a chance to turn their lives around. A handful
of them will draw the card *Donjon*, which casts the victim into an
inescapable prison. When a group of these victims find themselves
imprisoned together, their quest to escape the Donjon will take them on
a path that crosses the multiverse. They will try to help the people
whose lives have been impacted by the deck. They may take sides with one
of the powers who are fighting over the deck, they may seek to broker a
peace. They will challenge Green himself. Finally, they will claim
possession of the Deck, and when they do, they will learn why it exists,
who created it, and what purpose it serves.

## Who Will Enjoy this Campaign

In order to play this campaign successfully, you will need three things:

-   You need players who are willing to accept help from NPCs. The
    > players will need *lots* of help. There are many situations where
    > NPCs have special skills without which the PCs have no hope of
    > success. The PCs will absolutely, positively need to build
    > friendly relationships with as many good-aligned NPCs as they can.
    > If they don’t, the PCs will not have the resources they need and
    > will get completely stuck.

-   You need players who *care* about NPCs and their happiness. There
    > are lots of NPCs in this campaign who are struggling, suffering,
    > or in danger. You need a group of players who are motivated to
    > protect the NPCs they care about. If your players don’t care about
    > helping NPCs, they will just walk away from most of the quests in
    > this campaign, uninterested.

-   You need players who like asking questions. This campaign is
    > jam-packed full of mysterious magical artifacts to investigate,
    > strange beings with mysterious motives, and places with
    > inexplicable phenomena. Letting players explore these mysteries is
    > half the fun of this campaign. If the players aren’t interested in
    > solving mysteries, this will all fall flat.

As for combat: there are plenty of foes to fight in this campaign. But,
there are likely to be many sessions with no combat at all. If the
players want to be engaged in a *lot* of combat, then this probably
isn’t the right module for your group.

## The Key Players and their Motives

This campaign revolves around the aspirations of three gods: Omta (the
god of the Deck), Tymora, and Beshaba. It also revolves around the
actions of two mortals: Rennick, and Green. To run the campaign well,
you need to know who these NPCs are, and what their core motives are. Do
not reveal any of this to your players! This campaign is in large part a
mystery, and all of this must unfold gradually as the players reveal
clues. But you, the DM, need to know what’s really happening.

**Omta, Inventor of Randomness**

Omta is an ancient deity who witnessed the creation of the multiverse.
In the beginning, the universe obeyed strict rules, and was 100%
predictable. In Omta’s eyes, that made it a little boring. Omta decided
that what the universe needed was a little unpredictability to spice it
up. So Omta invented the concept of *randomness*, which is deeply tied
to the concept of *unpredictability*: a random event is an event whose
outcome can’t be predicted.

However, Omta knew that the creator god was very possessive and
territorial, and that the creator wouldn't want anyone messing with his
creation. Omta was tiny compared to the creator, and he knew that the
creator could and would crush him like a bug. But Omta felt compelled by
his own ideology: he snuck into the multiverse under cover of darkness,
planted the tiniest seed of randomness that he could plant, and then
fled the scene of the crime. He snuck away to the farthest reaches of
the cosmos and hid, hoping that nobody saw him. Long story short, he got
away with it. Eventually, he relaxed in his faraway corner, and fell
asleep. He has been sleeping in the far reaches of the cosmos ever
since.

In his sleep, he unconsciously monitors the multiverse, making sure that
randomness is not removed from the multiverse. Whenever he senses a
threat, whenever somebody introduces too much predictability, Omta sends
his avatar, the *Deck of Many Things*, to reintroduce as much randomness
as possible. That is important: the Deck is not an “artifact” in the
usual sense of the word. It is the avatar of a god. That is how it can
wield so much power.

Protecting randomness is Omta’s one and only passion. However, because
Omta is asleep, his actions are often more instinctual than logical. His
response to any threat to randomness is to just add more randomness,
using the Deck, but that doesn’t always solve the problem.

When Omta planted the first seed of randomness, he was a tiny, fragile
god. He could have been trivially snuffed out by the immense powers that
ruled in those days. But randomness spread in the universe, and now
almost everything in the multiverse is governed by rolls of the dice. As
his idea grew, so did his power. Omta does not know it, but he is now a
greater god. Yet he still sees himself as tiny and fragile. He is scared
of his own shadow, when he doesn’t need to be.

**Tymora, Goddess of Good Luck**

Tymora is the goddess of good luck, a kind and generous soul who wants
good things to happen to people, and who uses luck magic to ensure that
they do.

She is also a very young goddess, and she is not entirely confident of
her place in the universe. She perceives the *Deck of Many Things* as a
threat: she thinks that it is an immensely powerful artifact, and that
therefore, it must have been created by an immensely powerful god. She
is convinced that this other god, whoever he is, is angling to be the
new god of luck. Otherwise, why would he be parading around the most
powerful luck-based artifact in the universe, apparently showing off the
immensity of his power?

She’s not wrong that the threat is real: people really are saying that
whoever created the deck is a more impressive luck-god than Tymora. She
really is losing respect. That’s lethal for a god.

Tymora doesn’t want to fight. She’s not an violent deity. But she can’t
let some other god steal the title of god of luck, leaving Tymora as
second best. A goddess has to protect her portfolio, or she dies.

**Beshaba, Goddess of Bad Luck**

Beshaba is the sister of Tymora. Everybody loves Tymora. Everybody wants
to worship Tymora. Tymora is loved, good, and everybody is her friend.
Beshaba absolutely *despises* Tymora. Beshaba’s only real emotions are
despair, envy, bitterness, and spite. She lives for one thing, and one
thing alone: to hurt Tymora.

Beshaba doesn’t even care about worshippers. Yes, she knows logically
that she has to maintain some level of worship, so she does - she
threatens people that if they don’t occasionally say a prayer for her,
she will cause bad things to happen. Her worship is a giant protection
racket. Half her priestesses are slaves, forced to serve under threat of
eternal bad luck, and half are crazy. So yes, she maintains a following.
But her heart isn’t really in it, because who cares about those idiot
mortals anyway? The only thing that matters is hurting Tymora.

Unlike her sister, Beshaba doesn’t see the deck’s creator as a threat.
Beshaba is entirely used to living in the shadow of Tymora, a goddess
who is more respected than Beshaba, more loved than Beshaba. What
difference does it make if she is overshadowed by some other god
instead? In fact, so much the better if it’s some other god. At least
the new god won’t be the smug self-satisfied little worm that Tymora is.

As for the deck - that could be useful bait. If Beshaba can draw Tymora
into her realm in the Abyss, where Beshaba is at her strongest, maybe
she can finally kill Tymora after all.

**Rennick, Theoretical Fortunologist**

Rennick is a member of Sigil’s Fraternity of Order. His day job is as a
casino regulator: he visits casinos and makes sure the games work as
advertised, no cheating. If the games are fair, the Fraternity of Order
will sell the casino a *certificate of fair play*. If Rennick can’t
confirm that the games are honest, or if the casino can’t afford a
certificate, then the casino can still operate - it’s a free city - but
no certificate. Establishing that the games are fair requires Rennick to
have a deep knowledge of probability and statistics.

But regulating casinos is just his day job. His real passion, like most
members of the Fraternity, is understanding the laws that govern the
universe. Specifically, Rennick is interested in how randomness works.
He’s been at it for forty years, and he’s had a breakthrough - he has
gained the ability to predict the outcome of random events. Roll a dice,
and he can tell you before the dice stops what it’s going to land on.

Omta knows about this breakthrough, and he feels that his entire concept
of *randomness* is being destroyed: a random event is an event whose
outcome can’t be predicted. If Rennick can predict random events, then
they’re not unpredictable, are they? Which means they’re not really
random any more.

Rennick isn’t happy either. When he was working on his method, he was in
the mindset of a scientist: pursuit of knowledge for the sake of
knowledge. But now that he’s figured it out, he regrets it. He feels as
if he’s unintentionally invented a weapon of mass destruction, and that
it’s only a matter of time until some bad actor learns his technique and
uses it for evil ends. Worse yet, he imagines a future in which his
technique is common knowledge, and everyone can predict random events.
In such a future, everything is predictable - and that would be an
incredibly boring universe.

The day he made his breakthrough, Rennick found a small box on his
nightstand. It contained cards. He held onto the deck for several
months, studying it. The deck never vanished, because it had not
achieved its objective: to eliminate the threat to randomness. But
Rennick never drew cards. Instead, he studied the deck, and he came to
understand who Omta is. He also figured out that Omta is asleep, in a
corner of the universe, reacting to events in his sleep.

Rennick believes that if he could just talk to Omta, then he could show
Omta how to fix the problem with the universe and make random events
truly, completely unpredictable.

But if he wants to talk to Omta, Rennick will have to wake Omta up. But
as it turns out, waking Omta up is extremely difficult. Rennick has been
trying for some time, and has not succeeded. Rennick has gotten
progressively more and more aggressive about trying to agitate Omta, in
the hope that if he provokes Omta enough, that will wake him up. Of
course, deliberately agitating a god is a dangerous move for a mortal,
but Rennick feels as if the fate of the multiverse depends on it, so
he’s willing to take the risk.

Rennick’s first attempt to prod Omta out of his sleep was to
deliberately misuse the deck. Rennick knows the purpose of the deck is
to make the universe *less predictable.* Rennick hoped that if he could
use the deck to create a *predictable* income stream, that would go
against everything the deck stands for, and that would force Omta to
wake up to deal with the situation.

**Green, Exploiter of the Deck**

Green was an entrepreneur running a casino in Sigil, who naturally has
had dealings with Rennick, the casino regulator.

One day, Rennick came to Green and offered to just *give* him a Deck of
Many Things. The only thing Rennick asked in return was that Green
follow instructions: “Just have *other* people draw cards. Never draw
cards yourself. Take a cut of the gems, and let other people deal with
the good and bad things that happen.” That sounded like pure profit to
Green, and it fit with his casino-owner mentality, so he accepted.

Green came up with the idea of not just taking a cut of the gems, but
also when somebody received *three wishes*. But that put him in an
interesting position - he now had a supply of wishes. So what should he
wish for? At first, he wished for the obvious stuff: money,
intelligence, health, long life. But he still had an unlimited supply.

He eventually figured out what he *really* wants: to be a dragon, a big
one. He understands that one wish isn’t enough. It will take many.

## Character Creation

This is a campaign for newly-created characters of Level 2, and they
will probably rise to level 8 or so during the campaign. The campaign is
set in the Planescape campaign setting.

The adventure begins in a medium-sized town in the Outlands called Saint
Parnas, about 1 day travel spireward of tradegate. The party members do
not know each other yet. All of the PCs will see a job posting:

> JOB OFFER - EXTREME PAY - EXTREME RISK
>
> One day only, 5000 gp pay minimum. Very substantial risk of death.
>
> Only apply if you're willing to risk it all for the chance at a new
> life. Apply at Castle Green.

If the PC doesn’t accept the job offer, then they aren’t part of the
campaign. You should show this job posting the players before they
create characters. Give them these instructions:

> Please design a character who *absolutely will* take this job offer.
> Your character should have a backstory reason why they’re willing to
> take an extreme risk. Perhaps they’re in a desperate situation,
> perhaps their faith assures them they’re be fine, perhaps they’re just
> extreme gamblers. Regardless, they *must* take the job offer in order
> to be part of the campaign.

The players should not be allowed to create flying characters: doing so
would bypass some fun quests. It is okay if they learn the fly spell
when they get higher level, but they shouldn’t start with that ability.

## The Players Draw Cards 

In this introductory chapter, the PCs haven’t met each other yet. You
should pick a single PC, and roleplay this initial chapter solo while
the other players watch. It won’t take long.

The DM must set up some kind of situation where the PC encounters the
job posting. The situation could be as simple as “you are walking down
the street and you see a sign on a lamppost,” but feel free to improvise
something that makes sense for your character’s backstory. The job
posting is:

> JOB OFFER - EXTREME PAY - EXTREME RISK
>
> One day only, 5000 gp pay minimum. Very substantial risk of death.
>
> Only apply if you're willing to risk it all for the chance at a new
> life. Apply at Castle Green.

At the castle, the PC discovers a line of people waiting. Apparently,
5000 gp is enough to attract a lot of job applicants, even given the
risk of death. The people are mostly not from in-town: they have come
from all over for the opportunity. They are an eclectic mix of races.

The PC notices a bunch of hastily-erected booths, with signs that say
“Pawn Shop.” The booths are manned by traders from Sigil’s Bazaar,
Tradegate, and other places. The reason for the pawn shops is that
sometimes, the Deck conjures a magic item. Many people emerge from
Green’s castle with magic items they don’t need, they’d rather have
money. Hence, an economic opportunity for a pawn shop.

The PC will get in line with the other job applicants, and eventually be
led inside to Green’s “office” - a large, very sturdy stone room, with
absolutely nothing in the middle, and a desk in one corner with Green
seated at it. There are four bodyguards in the room, resting calmly
behind blast shields around the periphery of the room. There are scorch
marks on the floor and on the blast shields.

The player takes a seat facing Green at his desk. In front of Green is a
decorated hardwood box which contains the Deck. On the cover of the box
is a logo: a pair of dice in front of a sunburst. Green also has a
scale, some small empty cloth bags, and a brush and a dustpan. If the
player asks about any of that stuff, Green says, “It will all become
clear.”

Green then explains the job: to activate a magic item called a *Deck of
Many Things*. He explains that it’s a magic item that grants a random
combination of blessings and curses. At this point, Green then
specifically explains his terms and conditions:

> If you receive three wishes, you must use one wish for my benefit, as
> I instruct you. You can use the other two as you wish. If you receive
> gems, I will take 25% by weight without sorting the gems. If you get
> any other boon or blessing, such as a magic item, or a castle, or a
> skill improvement, then it’s entirely yours, I don’t get a cut. If you
> get no material wealth, I’ll give you 5000 gp out of my own pocket. If
> you get a bad card - and you probably will get at least one - then I
> probably won’t be able to help you. If you die, are banished, or are
> incapacitated, I’ll make sure your possessions get delivered to your
> next-of-kin.

The PC may ask Green any questions he wants. Green will answer most
questions willingly, but he keeps a few things a secret, like where he
got the Deck, and he also won’t tell about what he’s using his wishes
for. Most anything else, he’s open about. If they ask about the scorch
marks on the floor, and the blast shields, Green explains that
sometimes, the device summons a monster, and the bodyguards have
occasionally had to use fire spells.

Then, Green makes a short speech about how the PC should probably not
activate the device. Green has a code of ethics that dictates that he
provide fair warning about the risks. He wants his profit-making scheme
to continue, but he feels it’s unfair unless the people drawing cards
know what they’re getting into. So he is clear about possible risks:
mainly, banishment to far-away places, being attacked by monsters, or
losing strength or intelligence.

You already told the players at character creation time that they *must*
take Green up on his job offer. If they seem to hesitate now, remind
them that if they walk out, then their PC is not part of the campaign.

During all of this, it is very important that you convey the fact that
Green is morally grey:

-   There’s no question that what he’s doing is exploitative. Many of
    > the people who draw cards end up suffering. It is also true that
    > many of the people who draw cards are doing so out of desperation.
    > At some level, Green knows this scheme is not entirely ethical,
    > but his greed overrides his qualms.

-   He has a code of ethics that requires that he provide transparent
    > disclosure about the risks. He feels that people must choose to
    > draw cards of their own *informed* consent. He is strict about
    > this.

-   Green is diligent about adhering to the terms of any deals he makes.
    > For example, if he promises you 5000 gp, and you aren’t physically
    > able to collect the money (say, because you’ve been banished to a
    > *donjon*), Green won’t just keep the money. Instead, he’ll have it
    > delivered to your next-of-kin. Green will take great lengths to
    > honor his contracts.

Given all that, Green is neither pure good nor pure evil. He is selfish,
but he’s not “the Big Bad Evil Guy.” The reason you must convey this to
the PCs is that later in the campaign, the PCs will have to appeal to
Green’s conscience about certain things. They need to know that
negotiating with him is not hopeless - Green does not want the world to
burn.

If the PCs confront Green about the exploitativeness of his business
venture, Green will openly confess that he has some qualms. He makes the
usual libertarian argument that the people who draw cards are choosing
to do so, and that Green is not forcing them, and therefore, it must
make sense for them given their life situation. In the end, he says, “I
know it’s a gray area, but I’ve decided to continue for now.”

When the player is ready, Green gives instructions: take the entire deck
out of the box, and walk to the center of the room. Then, toss the
entire deck into the air.

The “cards” are ivory tablets, which are completely blank on both sides.
When the PC tosses them into the air, they form a ring hovering in the
air, spinning around each other. Green tells the PC to touch three of
the cards. When the PC touches a card, that card rises above the rest of
the ring. After choosing three cards, the unchosen tablets zip back into
the wooden box. The three chosen tablets remain hovering in the air,
spinning.

The physical description of this deck is different from what you may
have read in the DMG. The reason we gave the Deck a strange appearance
is to effectively put the players on notice: anything you think you know
about the Deck might be wrong.

The next thing that happens is that one of the cards flies forward, and
presents itself to the player. An image appears on its surface, and the
PC immediately knows what that image means.

At this point, the DM must pull out a small deck of eight good cards.
The cards are all beneficial, and they are pre-chosen so as to not
unbalance the game. The good cards are listed in the upcoming chapter,
*Cards of the Deck*.

The DM must spread the good cards out in front of the player, face down.
The player should pick three at random. The DM should show the 3
selected cards to the player, and then let the player choose the one he
likes best.

The card takes effect. The Deck is patient: it waits for the player to
finish dealing with the first card. If it’s gems, for example, the gems
will go all over the floor. Green will offer the brush, the dustpan, and
a small cloth sack to the PC. There is plenty of time to collect and
weigh the gems, and give Green his cut, before the next card takes
effect.

When the first card is completely done, the second card flies forward.
This time, the DM will pull out a small deck of eight bad cards. The
cards are all negative, but they are pre-chosen so as to not wreck the
player’s character. Again, you will find the bad cards in the upcoming
chapter, *Cards of the Deck.* The player will choose three at random.
Then, the player will look at the three, and choose the one he hates the
least.

If the bad card is the one that summons the avatar of death, Green asks
the player to fight. But if the player starts losing, Green will have
one of his bodyguards intervene. This will cause another avatar of death
to appear. The bodyguard is more than up to the task of killing two
avatars of death. The player gets off scott-free.

After the second card is fully done, the third flies forward. This time,
the card says *Donjon*. The PC instinctively knows what it means: they
will be cast into a prison, a dungeon from which there is no escape.
Everything fades to black.

Many of the cards that the players will draw are cards that are
described in the DM guide. But some of them are brand-new. This is a
second clue that anything the players think they know about the Deck
might be wrong.

You must now roleplay the same thing with the other players, one at a
time. This time, hurry things along. Skip the exterior of the castle,
and fast-forward to the part where they’re at Green’s desk. Skip the
speeches. Let them ask Green anything they want, and then let them draw
cards. Each PC gets one good card, then one bad card, and then *Donjon*.

## Cards of the Deck

This section lists cards that can be drawn from this particular Deck of
Many Things. The cards are divided into three groups: Good Cards, Bad
Cards, and Story Cards.

The Good Cards and Bad Cards are the lesser cards. These cards have
positive or negative effects, but they’re not game-breaking. Some good
cards grant reasonable amounts of wealth, some give modest bonuses to
character stats or ability scores, some grant new feats that are useful
but not overpowered. The bad cards do a little bit of damage to
character stats or abilities, they bestow minor curses, or they create
enemies that are feasible to defeat. When the PCs draw cards, they will
draw one good card and one bad card, semi-randomly.

The Story Cards, on the other hand, are the cards that transform
people’s lives. That includes the one story card that all the PCs will
draw: *Donjon*. It also includes a variety of other cards that NPCs will
draw. Anybody who draws a story card is “deck-touched,” which means they
are deeply impacted by the deck. Deck-touched individuals will suffer
from deck side effects. Deck side effects will be discussed later.

The cards of the Deck are not the same as the ones listed in the DM
guide. That’s because the Deck doesn’t have a fixed set of cards that it
draws from: it makes up new cards periodically, and it changes the rules
for existing cards periodically. You cannot assume that what has been
true about the Deck in the past will always be true.

The negative effects of the bad cards cannot be canceled easily. Spells
like *remove curse, restoration*, and the like have no effect. A *wish*
spell will usually remove a Deck curse. A god can generally do it as
well. It may be possible to remove deck curses through some elaborate
quest, at the DM’s discretion.

In this manifestation, the deck always dispenses three cards. The first
two are usually, but not always, lesser cards (good or bad). The third
card is often a lesser card (good or bad), but it is sometimes a Story
Card.

For each card, we list the following:

-   Effect: Summary of what happens to you when you draw the card.

-   Symbolism: The card can be used as symbolism, to communicate ideas.

-   NPCs: Names of some NPCs who will draw that card.

-   Detailed effect: Same as effect, but with more information.

IMPORTANT: You may tell the players the symbolism of the two cards that
they drew randomly, and the *donjon* card, but you must *not* tell them
anything about the cards that they didn’t draw! This is essential,
because figuring out the symbolism of those cards will be an important
quest later in the campaign. Obviously, don’t tell them the names of any
NPCs either.

### Good Cards

**Owl.**

> Effect: Increase your Int, Wis, or Cha.
>
> Symbolism: Smart, Wise, Charismatic, Owl, Bird, Flight.
>
> NPCs: Asatya (the Astral Sleepwalker)
>
> When you draw this card, Increase your Int, Wis, or Cha by 2, your
> choice.

**Tiger**.

> Effect: Increase your Str, Dex, or Con.
>
> Symbolism: Strong, Dextrous, Healthy, Tiger, Wild Animal, Hunter.
>
> NPCs: Alyssa Varn (the Squatter)
>
> When you draw this card, Increase your Str, Dex, or Con by 2, your
> choice.

**Knight**.

> Effect: You receive magical weapon or armor.
>
> Symbolism: Weapon, Armor, Knight, Defender, Protector, Nobility,
> Quest.
>
> NPCs: Alyssa Varn (the Squatter)
>
> When you draw this card, receive a magical weapon or armor whose value
> may not exceed 5000 gp. Interpret “weapon” and “armor” loosely: for
> example, a ring of protection could be considered a kind of armor.
> Choose, then seek DM approval.

**Star**.

> Effect: You gain a wondrous magical item.
>
> Symbolism: Wondrous Item, Star, Beacon, Guidepost.
>
> NPCs: Sam Link (the Chosen One)
>
> When you draw this card, gain a wondrous magical item whose value may
> not exceed 5000 gp. Choose, then seek DM approval.

**Vizier**.

> Effect: You can divine hidden knowledge.
>
> Symbolism: Questions, Answers, Divination, Knowledge, Diviner,
> Scholar, Researcher.
>
> NPCs: Brunna (the Antiquarian)
>
> When you draw this card, gain a new ability: once a month, you can
> meditate on a question, and gain a truthful answer from the fates.
> Answers will be one short sentence only. To the DM: if the question
> would short-circuit the campaign, use your judgement about how cryptic
> an answer to give.

**Key**.

> Effect: Learn a new useful career.
>
> Symbolism: Career, Skill, Ability, Learn, Teach, Key, Lock, Unlock.
>
> NPCs: Pig (the Ogre King)
>
> When you draw this card, you gain a permanent +5 to all skill rolls
> related to a single mundane career of your choice. By *mundane
> career*, we mean such careers as would be held by zero-level NPCs.
> That includes such things as carpenter, actor, doctor, gemcutter,
> shopkeeper, or the like. Careers that require level advancement, such
> as mercenary, may not be chosen. You only get the +5 when you are
> doing something specifically relevant to your career. For example, if
> you choose “carpenter”, you would get +5 to an insight roll to
> determine how a building was built, but *not* +5 to all insight rolls.
> If you chose “gemcutter,” you would get +5 to a persuasion roll to
> persuade somebody to buy some cut gems, but *not* +5 to all persuasion
> rolls.

**Gem**.

> Effect: A shower of gems fall at your feet.
>
> Symbolism: Gems, Money, Gold, Wealthy, Precious, Rare, Beautiful.
>
> NPCs: Borghan (the Caged Beast), Balanestra (the Wish-Keeper)
>
> When you draw this card, a shower of gems fall at your feet. After
> giving Green his cut, what remains is worth 5,000 gp.

### Bad Cards

**Euryale**.

> Effect: Fear of Monsters.
>
> Symbolism: Fear, Paranoia, Anxiety, Panic, Irrational Fear.
>
> NPCs: Rackle (the Punching Bag)
>
> You tend to see terrifying monsters everywhere, and you may be
> paralyzed with fear when you encounter monsters. In combat, the first
> time you attack a creepy or alien species (using weapon, spell, or
> special ability), you must make a WIS saving throw DC 12. If you fail,
> you are paralyzed with fear and lose your attack action. The next
> round, you may try again (or do something else). Once you succeed at
> the saving throw, you are no longer afraid of that species, forever.
> It is up to the DM to determine what counts as sufficiently creepy or
> alien.

**Idiot**.

> Effect: Reduce your Int, Wis, or Cha.
>
> Symbolism: Stupid, Unwise, Ugly, Foolish.
>
> NPCs: Brunna (the Antiquarian)
>
> You lose 2 points from either Int, Wis, or Cha, your choice.

**Cripple**.

> Effect: Reduce your Str, Dex, or Con.
>
> Symbolism: Weak, Clumsy, Unhealthy, Cripple, Crippled.
>
> NPCs: Sam Link (the Chosen One)
>
> You lose 2 points from either Str, Dex, or Con, your choice.

**Fool**.

> Effect: You lose an important feat.
>
> Symbolism: Forget, Forgetfulness, Loss, Disappearance.
>
> NPCs: Asatya (the Astral Sleepwalker)
>
> You lose an important feat or skill. Lose a feat or skill that means
> something to you, but not one that would cripple your character.

**Ruin**.

> Effect: When you touch a precious item, it may be destroyed.
>
> Symbolism: Destruction, Destroyed, Destroyer.
>
> NPCs: Rackle (the Punching Bag)
>
> Each time you hold a item valued at 500 gp or more, roll a D20. On a
> 1, the item is destroyed. This includes most magic items. If you
> successfully attune a magic item without destroying it, it is immune
> from that point forward. Merely touching something doesn’t trigger the
> effect - you have to actually hold the object. Living things are not
> affected. The DM may also, at his discretion, decide that certain very
> special items are immune - especially quest-related MacGuffins. The DM
> should use this exception rarely.

**Skull**.

> Effect: You summon an avatar of death, and must fight.
>
> Symbolism: Death, Dead, Murderer, Psychopath.
>
> NPCs: Balanestra (the Wish-Keeper)
>
> You summon an avatar of death, and must fight.

**Jester**.

> Effect: Nobody takes you seriously.
>
> Symbolism: Joke, Joker, Laughter, Dismissive.
>
> NPCs: Pig (the Ogre King)
>
> Nobody takes you seriously. You get -5 to persuasion and intimidation.
> Note: you are not necessarily disliked.

### Story Cards

**Sun.**

> Effect: You are granted a divine spark. You have the potential to
> ascend to godhood.
>
> Symbolism: Divine Ascension, Godhood, God, Goddess, Sun, Light,
> Bright, Daytime.
>
> NPCs: Sam Link (the chosen one)
>
> You are granted a divine spark. You have the potential to ascend to
> godhood. You may immediately gain certain divine abilities, such as
> healing.

**Moon**.

> Effect: You receive three wishes.
>
> Symbolism: Wishes, Desires, Fulfillment, Moon, Moonlight, Nighttime.
>
> NPCs: Balanestra (the Wish-Keeper)
>
> You receive three wishes. Your wishes are interpreted as intended,
> there is no malign force trying to misinterpret your wishes. Wishes
> have limited power - DMs discretion - but they’re more powerful than a
> normal Wish spell. If you wish for more than what is possible, the
> wish does its best to give you a portion of what you want. For
> example, if you wish for a trillion gold pieces, the wish will give
> you 50,000 gp.

**Throne**.

> Effect: You are made king or queen of a small nation or city-state.
>
> Symbolism: King, Leader, Leadership, Rule, Domination, Throne, Chair.
>
> NPCs: Pig (the Ogre King)
>
> You are made king or queen of a small nation or city-state. This card
> often takes time to complete - for example, you may be surprised to
> learn that you are the heir to a throne, and that the old king is
> dying.

**Bricklayer**.

> Effect: The deck builds an impressive structure for you, which you
> must now live in.
>
> Symbolism: Building, Construction, Creation, Ownership, Possession,
> Possessive, Home, House.
>
> NPCs: Alyssa Varn (the Squatter), Borghan (the Caged Beast)
>
> The deck builds an impressive structure for you, which you now
> consider “home.” The structure is something appropriate for you: for
> example, if you’re a priest, the building might be a temple with a
> rectory. You feel an overwhelming compulsion to live in your new
> structure. You aren’t a prisoner, the building is your home, but you
> can take trips away from home like anyone else. Once per month, you
> get a WIS save DC 15, and if you succeed, the compulsion to stay in
> your new structure diminishes and you can move out if you want to.
> However, you will always feel a certain fondness for the building.

**The Void**.

> Effect: You fall into a sleep from which you cannot awaken.
>
> Symbolism: Sleep, Coma, Unconscious, Emptiness, Silence, Darkness.
>
> NPCs: Asatya (the Astral Sleepwalker)
>
> You immediately fall asleep, and nothing can wake you up. You still
> need food and water and must be cared for by a nurse. While you sleep,
> you have dreams in which you can observe other people who also drew
> cards from the deck.

**Beast**.

> Effect: You are transformed into a beast.
>
> Symbolism: Beast, Wild Animal, Animalistic, Hunger, Reproduction.
>
> NPCs: Borghan (the Caged Beast)
>
> You are transformed into a beast. You become a hybrid of your original
> race, and an animal species, and you become much larger. You lose the
> capacity for rational thought, becoming a wild animal. You are driven
> by powerful animalistic urges.

**Donjon**.

> Effect: You are cast into an apparently inescapable prison.
>
> Symbolism: Prison, Dungeon, Cavern, Bunker.
>
> NPCs: None, but all the PCs draw this card.
>
> You are cast into an apparently inescapable prison. There are endless
> prisons throughout the multiverse, the Deck picks one for its own
> incomprehensible reasons.

**Comet**.

> Effect: You gain a new ability to see the past.
>
> Symbolism: The Past, History, Time, Ancient, Comet, Shooting Star.
>
> NPCs: Brunna (the Antiquarian)
>
> You gain a new ability to see the past. When you touch an object or a
> person, make a DC13 wisdom check to learn something of the history of
> that object or person. You can only do this once for a given topic.
> You do not choose what you learn, the DM does.

**Rogue**.

> Effect: You are perceived as a criminal.
>
> Symbolism: Criminal, Crime, Thief, Assassin, Accusation, Sneak, Prowl,
> Lurk.
>
> NPCs: Rackle (the Punching Bag)
>
> Everywhere you go, you are accused of crimes, often with negligible
> evidence. You are extremely likely to end up in jail, regardless of
> whether you’re actually a criminal. Organized crime syndicates will
> perceive you as a potential recruit. You do not gain any crime-related
> skills.

## Deck Side Effects

Anybody who draws a story card (including the PCs) is deeply affected by
the deck. Such people are called *deck-touched*, they will experience a
variety of side effects. This section lists the three most important
deck side effects.

### Deck Awareness

When a deck-touched individual looks at another deck-touched individual,
they immediately know what cards the other person drew, because they see
them as illusionary cards hovering over the other person’s head. The
effect is mutual: both people can see the other one’s cards. People who
aren’t deck-touched can’t see the cards.

*Deck Awareness* is actually a form of telepathy. The deck-touched
individuals are all linked by a common telepathic connection. They are
continuously broadcasting their cards to each other.

### Deck Immunity

After you have drawn cards from the deck, you are permanently unable to
draw from the deck, ever again. The deck has already decided what
effects it is going to apply to you. You already received your judgment.
It is not going to do anything more to you, no matter what.

One weird consequence of this is that if somebody else draws a card,
their card cannot affect you. For example, if I draw a card that
conjures a sword, and I try to cut you with it, the sword will pass
right through you without cutting you. You also cannot receive any
benefit from my weapon: if you try to hold it, your hand will pass
through it.

You aren’t immune to indirect effects. For example, if the deck gives me
a magic item that can unlock doors, and I unlock a door, then when you
try to open that door, it’s unlocked. That’s because my magic item
wasn’t really affecting you, it was affecting the door.

Another example of an indirect effect: if a card grants me gems, I can’t
hand you those gems. They will pass through your hands. But if and I use
those gems to buy a weapon, then I *can* cut you with that weapon. The
deck didn’t create the weapon.

If the deck conjures a weapon for me, and I sell that weapon to a
pawnshop, it isn’t my weapon any more. Once ownership passes to a third
party, deck immunity no longer applies. From that point forward, the
weapon can cut you, and you can buy it and use it. To use this loophole,
the item must go through the hands of a third party who didn’t draw
cards.

Philosophers debate about whether items created by a deck are illusions,
given that they sometimes appear to pass through other people’s hands.
If they are illusions, they are exceptionally solid illusions most of
the time.

Once you have drawn cards, the deck won’t do anything more to you.
Another consequence of the rule is that you can’t be magically charmed
by somebody else’s card. For example, if I drew the *rogue* card, this
makes people think I’m a criminal. The card effectively casts an
enchantment, not on me, but on all the people who approach me, warping
their minds into falsely believing that I’m a criminal.

But because you drew cards from the deck, you are immune to any further
effects of the deck. So if you approach me, you are not charmed into
thinking I’m a criminal.

Again, the underlying principle of Deck Immunity is that you gain the
benefit and the harms of your *own* cards. Having received those, the
deck refuses to do anything else to you. You can gain no benefit or harm
from somebody else’s card.

There is one exception to the deck immunity rule: *three wishes*. If you
get three wishes, you can use those wishes to affect other people who
drew cards from the deck. It is not known why *three wishes* override
the deck immunity rule.

### Deck Dreaming

After drawing cards from the deck, you will experience dreams in which
you see through the eyes of other deck-touched individuals. This is
actually another manifestation of the telepathic connection that exists
between deck-touched people.

In the upcoming chapter, the PCs will be far away from Green and his
deck for a while. During this time, Green will continue to let people
draw cards from his deck. Many NPCs will draw cards. So, whenever the
PCs take a long rest, you should give one PC a dream from the following
list. They will be seeing through the eyes of these NPCs who drew cards.

If the PCs don’t take enough long rests to experience all of these, then
consider giving two dreams per night on some nights. If the players
still haven’t received all the dreams by Chapter two, continue giving
them deck dreams until they’ve received all these dreams.

In Chapter two, the PCs will meet all the people on this list. If, as a
DM, you’d like to know who these people are, skip ahead to chapter two,
and read the section *Deck-Touched NPCs*. But of course, don’t give your
players any spoilers!

Here are the dreams that the PCs experience:

*Seeing through Borghan’s Eyes:*

> You are ravenously hungry, but you’re in an empty corridor, there’s
> nothing to eat. You run down the corridor, turn, run some more, turn
> again, and run some more, but there’s nothing but corridors. You see a
> door, already smashed - you feel like you’ve been here before. You
> pass through the broken door, and on the other side, there’s more
> corridors. You’re so hungry, and there’s no food.

*Seeing through Sam Link’s Eyes:*

> You are walking through the streets of St Parnas. You see several
> buildings with broken windows and minor damage. You see a woman on the
> ground. You run up to her and ask, “are you hurt?” She says, “my leg.”
> Looking more closely at her leg, you can see that it’s bent at a weird
> angle, and there is severe bruising. You put a hand on her leg, and
> you allow energy to flow. The leg straightens, and the bruising fades.
> She says, “thank you, cleric.” You say, “I’m not a cleric, but you’re
> welcome.”

*Seeing through Alyssa Varn’s Eyes:*

> It’s nighttime. You’re standing next to a sturdy stone building, which
> has a narrow vertical window, like a castle window. You try to squeeze
> yourself through the window, and you almost make it - you’re an
> unusually thin woman, and you’re really flexible, a contortionist. A
> male voice behind you says, “stop it, you’re being absolutely crazy.”
> You say, “This is my castle!” He says: “It’s not yours, you sold it!”
> You cram yourself into the window again, and this time, you actually
> succeed in getting through. The male voice says, “You’re nuts, and I’m
> done. Goodbye.”

*Seeing through Balanestra’s Eyes:*

> Green, at his desk: “I can’t fight a goddess. What do we do if she
> attacks?”\
> Balanestra: “We teleport away, of course.”\
> Green: “Sure, but she’s a goddess. She can follow us anywhere.”\
> Balanestra: “She can follow us *almost* anywhere.”
>
> Green: “Where could I go that she can’t follow… oh, shit. No, no no no
> no!”
>
> Balanestra: “Trust me.”

*Seeing through Pig’s Eyes:*

> You sitting in the market square. You see that you are not human, you
> have enormous legs and arms, and huge clawed hands. You are playing
> the mandolin expertly, and you are telling a sad story about how you
> became sick, and your bride left you. You are surrounded by a crowd,
> they laugh at everything you say, even though your story is sad. They
> keep coming up to you and dropping coins at your feet, and fruit, and
> meat, and they tell you what a great comedian you are. You don’t
> understand, but you like the fruit and meat.

*Seeing through Brunna’s Eyes:*

> You are holding a rusty saber, which is resting across your two palms.
> You say, “This saber was made by a man named Jorrell. It was one of a
> set of three, one of which was sold to your grandfather.”

*Seeing through Asatya’s Eyes:*

> You are wandering through an orchard. There are a few other people
> walking along the paths of the garden. You feel confused, your mind is
> foggy. You notice a weed that needs pulling. You bend over to pull it,
> but you don’t seem to be able to. In your confusion, you don’t know
> why you can’t pull the weed.

*Seeing through Rackle’s Eyes:*

> You are lying on a wooden floor, inside a tiny round stone building.
> Your wrists have been slit, and you’re bleeding out. You are almost
> unconscious. A woman is in front of you, wearing purplish priest
> robes. She casts cure wounds (you recognize it using arcana, it’s very
> easy to identify because you’ve been cured tons of times yourself).
> Your wounds close up.

# The Museum of Orethys

### About the Museum

The PCs drew the card *Donjon,* which imprisons the victim in an
apparently inescapable prison. For reasons known only to the deck
itself, the deck has chosen a strange prison called the *Museum of
Orethys*.

About a hundred years ago, a powerful Wizard named Orethys took in
interest in collecting *people*. He gathered interesting and strange
folk from around the multiverse, and brought them to his hometown, and
paid them to be exhibits in the original *Museum of Orethys*. However,
the bigger his collection got, the harder it was to keep his exhibits
from quitting, rebelling, or unionizing. Eventually, he got tired of the
hassle, and he decided to start over.

By this time, he was a much more powerful wizard, so instead of building
the museum in his hometown, he created a demiplane to house his
collection. He carefully designed the demiplane to make it perfect for
storing people. His exhibits would “live” in the demiplane, but they
would be frozen in a living stasis that would make it impossible to
rebel or quit. They would always be the same strange, interesting people
that they were when they were placed into the museum.

When Orethys found a person worthy to be an exhibit in the Museum, he
would take not only the person, but the building they were in, and the
patch of land the building was standing on. That way, he wouldn’t just
have an interesting person. He’d have a whole diorama, a person in their
natural environment.

About sixty years ago, Orethys died: he tried to make an exhibit out of
somebody who was tough enough to fight back. Although Orethys is dead,
the Museum of Orethys still survives. After his death, the Museum
received no new exhibits, and no further guests showed up in the museum:
apparently, only Orethys knew how to get there. The exhibits remain in
stasis, sixty years later, more or less exactly as they have been the
whole time.

The demiplane appears as several hundred islands hovering in an immense
cavernous space. Most islands consist of a patch of land, and one
building. The patch of land is just big enough to hold the building and
its yard. Some islands hold something larger, like a university, or a
monastery, or a farm. A few islands have no building, only a geographic
feature. Each building contains, on average, 1 or 2 people.

The people in the exhibits are not frozen, motionless. They are allowed
to move around and talk in order to make the exhibits more life-like.
They go about their daily business as they did in their original lives.

Yet, the people are in both a physical and a mental stasis. They are
fundamentally incapable of doing or thinking new things, or changing in
any meaningful way. They are trapped living the same day over and over.
They cannot remember anything that has happened since they were
captured. They still believe themselves to be at home. They have no
ability to learn that they are no longer at home - or to learn anything.

The physical stasis means their bodies can’t change, either. If they
were injured at the moment when they were captured, then they’re still
injured today. If you heal them, they’ll be injured again an hour or two
later. If you kill one of them, they’ll reappear on their island back in
the same state they were in when they were captured. They won’t remember
that you attacked them, because they don’t remember anything that
happened after their capture. They are utterly incapable of change as
long as they’re in the museum.

The buildings and the islands are also in stasis, incapable of change.
If you break a door down, then a few hours later, the door will be back
where it was. Even if you burn a whole building down, then if you stop
paying attention for a while, the building will be back. If you try to
build something on an island, it will remain for a few hours, and then
vanish.

If you approach the people, they will react as people do. Many are
willing to answer questions. Some are friendly, offering food and water
and assistance. A few are scared, and some are hostile. In other words,
they’re people, with all the personality variation that implies.
However: If you talk to them and leave, and then come back, they will
not remember you. They will react exactly the same way as the first time
you met them, right down to saying the same phrases.

That doesn’t mean they’re not intelligent: they’re just as smart and
creative as they were in life. They tend to be pretty interesting
people. These individuals are here because Orethys thought that they
were distinctive, and that they ought to be saved. You can talk to them
and learn a lot: in fact, that’s what guests of the Museum used to do,
back when there were guests.

Exhibits come from everywhere: prime worlds, outer planes, inner planes,
you name it. The people are of every imaginable race. Most are either
low-level or zero-level: Orethys didn’t attempt to capture powerful
people who could fight back.

The people here only interact with other people in the same diorama.
They don’t notice other islands, even if those other islands would
normally be considered “attention grabbing.” For example, there could be
a raging fire on one island, and the people on the next island over from
that will be completely uninterested. If you deliberately draw their
attention to some other island, they will be surprised that other
islands even exist. But then, a mental block will take over, and they
will direct their attention back to their own island, quickly forgetting
that other islands exist.

The people here can produce material goods, but those goods are
transient. For example, if an island contains a baker, he may bake a
loaf of bread. But remember, the island is in stasis, and that loaf
wasn’t on the island when the island was captured, so it has to vanish.
The loaf will cease to exist an hour or two after it is put down.

Despite the absence of any real production, there is no shortage of
supplies here. If somebody’s house is put in stasis at a time when its
pantry is full, then that pantry will always be full. If you remove the
food, then the pantry will return to its full state as soon as you stop
paying attention to the pantry. The food you took won’t disappear from
your inventory. You can eat it without difficulties. But if you put the
food down and then look away, it will only remain on the ground an hour
or two, and then vanish.

The people here may talk about the future, but the future never comes.
For example, a farmer who is busy tilling the fields in spring may talk
about what he’s going to do at harvest-time, in the fall. But on his
island, it will be spring forever, and he will be tilling every day,
forever.

The floating islands are hovering in a big cavern, whose “walls” are
made of mist. The edges of the outermost islands just barely poke into
the mist. Nothing will stop you from entering the mist. The mist does
not smell of anything, and it doesn’t feel like anything either. If you
enter the mist, you find yourself in what seems to be an endless expanse
of mist. In the mist, there’s no gravity or wind, and you lose track of
time. You also lose track of anyone around you. After being in the mist
about 10 minutes, the mist around you will dissipate, and you’ll find
yourself back on the island where you first appeared in the demiplane.
From anywhere in the cavern, reaching the mist only takes a few minutes
(assuming you have a way to cross from island to island). The cavern
isn’t that large.

Each island has its own weather. If you’re on an island with clear,
sunny weather, then the entire cavern will appear clear and sunny to
you. If you’re on an island with a blizzard, then the whole cavern will
appear to be in a blizzard to you. The weather on a given island never
changes. Each island has the terrain that it had before it was ripped
from the multiverse. Some are grassy, some are rocky, some are sandy.
Some might be permafrost, or desert, or you name it. It all depends on
where they came from.

The passage of time in the Museum feels normal. But the passage of time
is not strictly tethered to the passage of time in most other parts of
the multiverse. Time here sometimes passes faster than in the
multiverse, sometimes slower. The reason for this is that the Museum
doesn’t care about the passage of time. Nothing ever happens here, no
matter how much time elapses. Nothing ever changes. When time has no
meaning in a place, then that place gradually starts untethering itself
from time.

Arcane and divine magic work normally here. Gravity and falling damage
are normal here. Most of the physical properties of the world here are
normal, as they would be on a prime world.

The Museum of Orethys has caretakers. These are aarakocras, they can fly
around the cavern easily. Their job, sixty years ago, was mainly to
attend to the guests. Orethys used a ‘geas’ spell to force them to keep
doing their job forever. As long as they do their jobs, they can
otherwise do as they wish. They eat at tavern and restaurant exhibits
and they sleep wherever they like. They gain the benefit of the plane’s
physical stasis: they can’t age, they can’t stay injured long, and they
can’t die. But they can remember what happens from day to day. Now that
there are no guests, they really don’t have much work to do. But the
geas forces them to patrol the museum.

### The Party is United

The PCs have all been imprisoned in the *Museum of Orethys*. But even
though they’re all in the Museum, they haven’t met each other yet. The
DM should choose a PC, and run them solo. At this point, it will only be
a few minutes until the party is united.

The PC knows that they are standing on a strange floating island. They
also know they drew the card *Donjon*, so they can infer that this must
be some kind of prison. But aside from that, they don’t know much about
the place. They certainly have no idea it’s a museum, or that they’re
supposed to be an exhibit.

The PC should start exploring the museum. As soon as they round a
corner, or enter a building, have them spot one of the other PCs.

When the two PCs see each other, they both experience a new special
ability: *Deck Awareness*. When they look at each other, they see cards
hovering over each other’s heads: each one knows exactly what cards the
other one drew from the deck. They will experience this effect
consistently every time they meet somebody who has drawn from the Deck.
Let the PCs know they all have *Deck Awareness*. Do not tell them about
the other deck side effects, let them learn about them over time.

A few minutes after the first two player characters get together, they
notice another group on another nearby island, staring at them. This is
the rest of the PCs. Everyone can start roleplaying together now. The
two groups are physically separated by being on two separate islands,
but the two islands are only about ten feet apart. They can easily talk
to each other. They have to find a way to cross from one island to
another. This is not particularly hard: ladders, ropes, and the like
work fine. These items can be found nearby. The Jump spell is also
useful. One way or another, the party is united.

It’s odd that the players all arrived at the museum at the same time, in
roughly the same place. There is nothing on the card *Donjon* that says
that these people should end up in the same prison, yet they did.
Although they don’t know this, they did not draw cards on the same day,
yet with the help of the Museum’s loose connection to time, they were
able to appear in the museum on the same day. The deck isn’t just giving
these people cards, it’s tying them to each other, bringing their lives
together.

Now that the party is united, the players will want to know where they
are and what the heck is going on. To find out, they will need to
explore the museum.

### Ropes and Ladders

For simplicity, we can describe the museum as consisting of “floors.” A
“floor” is a bunch of islands that are all hovering at more or less the
same elevation.

Islands on the same floor are separated by gaps about 8 feet wide on
average. Some acrobatic characters may be able to jump it without
assistance. It is also possible to use the spell *jump*. Otherwise, a
makeshift bridge may be needed. Never leave your PCs stranded. There is
always something in the exhibit that will enable one to cross a gap. A
rope could be tied to a tree near the edge of an exhibit. There might be
a wooden fence that could be repurposed. There’s always something.

To climb from a floor to the floor below, the most obvious method is to
use a rope. This will require a rope of about 30 feet, which will have
to be tied to a tree or a lamppost and then dangled down over the edge
of the exhibit. It is also possible to use the spell *feather fall*.

The islands are not perfect circles, they are irregular. There are good
spots to climb down, and bad spots to climb down. Good spots have
something to tie a rope to, and they have a bit of island sticking out
below that the players can descend onto. To find a good spot, the
players will have to go around the periphery of the island.

You must not let your PCs climb upward yet. We have provided several
obstacles to stop them:

-   When the players created their characters, they were not permitted
    > to create flying characters.

-   Most people don’t have the physical strength to throw a rope 30 feet
    > upward.

-   When throwing upward, you need the rope to catch on something on the
    > island above. But of course, you can’t *see* what’s on the island
    > above you. You’re throwing blind.

-   The floor above the PCs consists of one exhibit: *The Harpy Eyrie*.
    > The harpies will deliberately cut ropes, and anyone clinging to a
    > rope is a sitting duck for harpy attacks.

Since the PCs start on the 5th floor, and since they can’t climb upward,
they are currently limited to the 5th floor and below. We have provided
a map called *The Bottom Floors of the Museum*, including everything
from the 5th floor on down. As you can see from the map, the cavern
narrows substantially at the bottom, so there are fewer and fewer
islands at each level as you go down. Do not show the map to your
players. It is for the DM only. The map includes exhibit names. You can
find the corresponding exhibit descriptions in the upcoming chapter,
also titled *The Bottom Floors of the Museum*.

At first, let your players explore randomly. They don’t really have a
goal or a destination yet, and they don’t have a map yet, so they really
can’t do any better than random exploration. There are lots of strange
and interesting things to find in the museum, so they should be
entertained by this for a while. As the PCs travel from exhibit to
exhibit, refer to the *The Bottom Floors of the Museum* for instructions
on running individual exhibits.

As the players climb downward, they may leave ropes dangling down, to
make it possible to get back up. But if they leave a rope somewhere,
then the rope only stays for about an hour after you stop paying
attention to it. Then, it vanishes. This is because of the stasis
effect: the rope is resetting back to its original location. If the rope
belongs to a PC, then the rope returns back to the PC’s starting
location. If it’s a rope that they obtained from an exhibit, then the
rope returns to that exhibit.

If ropes are disappearing, you should have the players make perception
checks to notice that one of their ropes is gone. They might freak out,
and wonder how they’re ever going to get back up. Let them worry: it’s
an interesting part of the puzzle that is the museum.

If the players fall while climbing, then falling damage in the cavern is
normal. The average distance between floors about 30 feet. You can
easily hurt yourself badly by falling, especially if you fall more than
one level. Fortunately, travel in the demiplane is inherently safe: the
stasis effect makes it impossible to die permanently.

### No Death in the Museum

Everything in the museum is in stasis, and that includes the health of
your PCs. If they get injured or die, then the injury or death is
impermanent. Their bodies will eventually reset back to the conditions
they were in when they first entered the demiplane. If a PC dies, that
PC fades out of existence, and reappears at the exact spot where he
first entered the demiplane, back by the tavern of the south gate.

That makes the Museum a perfect place for inexperienced D&D players who
are still learning the ropes. The stakes are reduced, so new players can
learn without fear.

###  Learning about the Stasis Effect

After exploring three exhibits, the PCs should be well on their way to
figuring out that everything and everyone is in stasis. Physical objects
revert to their original positions. Enemies killed pop back to life.
People say the same things each time you return. There are tons of
clues. You should look for many opportunities to show the stasis effects
to them.

### The Mist at the Edge of the Cavern

At some point, the PCs may try going to the edge of the cavern. Let them
try escaping via the mist. Each time they enter the mist, they drift for
a few minutes, then the mist clears around them and they find themselves
right back at the exact spot where they originally arrived in the
demiplane. If they are attentive, they will realize that this is useful:
the mist is a shortcut to the 5th floor.

However, the mist is not a way to leave the demiplane. If they want to
escape the demiplane, the key to success is this: they need to start
asking the inhabitants about ways to escape. They need to ask for help.

If the players fall into the mist, then they take no damage at all, and
they reappear at the exact spot where they entered the demiplane. This
effect is actually quite useful: it makes it so that it is always
possible to get back to the starting location. You can’t ever really be
stuck in the museum.

### Figuring out How to Escape

At some point, the PCs should start thinking about how they’ll get out
of this prison. Realistically, to escape, the PCs need to ask the NPCs
for help. If the players don’t think of asking for help, wait until one
of them asks you something about escaping. Then, just answer
in-character: instead of speaking as the DM, speak as the bartender the
PCs are standing next to. Let him say something semi-useful. That should
nudge the PCs to start asking around.

If the players tell the residents that they’re trapped in a demiplane,
the residents will be skeptical at first, but it’s very easy to convince
them: just point out the window at the floating islands. They will be
shocked, then agitated, and then a mental block will kick in that forces
them to turn away from the sight and reenter the safety of their own
exhibit. As soon as they do this, the inhabitant will lose their train
of thought, and then they will forget that anything is out of the
ordinary.

This makes it difficult to ask the inhabitants about escaping. For
example, saying, “we are stuck in a demiplane, how can we get out” will
inevitably lead to a freak-out, and they will lose their train of
thought again. But if you say, “hypothetically, if somebody were stuck
in a demiplane, how would they get out,” you can avoid the freak-out and
have a productive conversation.

Many of the residents are quite smart. If you ask them (in general
terms) about planar travel, one will eventually make three
straightforward suggestions:

1.  They might suggest the *plane shift* spell, as a way to travel out
    > of a demiplane.

2.  They might suggest the *sending* spell, as a way to call for help.

3.  If you can’t cast these spells yourself, maybe there’s somebody else
    > who can.

These three suggestions are sufficiently straightforward that pretty
much *any* knowledgeable person could make them. A bartender might know
about these spells because in his life, he had planar travelers come
through his tavern. A butler might know about these spells because his
boss used to be a planar traveler. Let the players ask around, and make
sure that it takes them no more than 2 or 3 tries to find somebody who
can make these three suggestions. It’s important to emphasize *both*
spells, because in fact, both spells are part of the solution.

Spoiler: the actual process for escaping is as follows: the PCs will
call a friend for help, using the *sending* spell. It doesn’t matter
*which* friend they contact. It could be a relative, a business partner,
a spouse - anything that makes sense given the PC’s background story.
The friend is not able to *plane shift*, but the friend will talk to
somebody, who will talk to somebody else, and eventually, they will find
somebody powerful who is able to cast *plane shift* and who is willing
to help. Do not tell the PCs that this is the way out. Figuring it out
is a substantial part of the puzzle that is the Museum.

However, the PCs do know that *sending* and *plane shift* are useful. As
they explore the museum, the PCs should constantly be on the lookout for
people who can cast *sending* or *plane shift*.

### Caretakers and their Guidebooks

At times, the PCs may see man-sized flying creatures. These are the
museum caretakers, who are all aarakocras. Do not let the PCs interact
with the caretakers until “the time is right.” The time is right when
the PCs are getting tired of exploring randomly, and they’re starting to
feel the urge for a little more direction. Alternately, if the PCs never
get tired of exploring randomly, then the time is right when the PCs
reach the 3rd floor or below.

At the appropriate time, have two caretakers land in front of the PCs:
Keira, and Qurak. They are among the dozen or so caretakers of the
Museum. Keira does almost all the talking.

Keira asks: “Who are you? Are you museum guests, or are you part of an
exhibit?” The players will give some answer, but of course, they don’t
really know anything, and this will become obvious to Keira and Qurak
fairly quickly. Of course, the PCs may have all sorts of questions.
Keira is happy to answer questions, but first she wants to know who the
PCs are. When Keira realizes that the PCs don’t know if they are guests
or exhibits, Keira will sigh, she’ll point at one PC, and say, “What’s
your full name?”

If the player refuses to give their name, Keira gets frustrated, but
Qurak says, “give them time.” Qurak seems to have the ability to calm
Keira down. Keira says, “I’m not trying to hurt you. Please, could
somebody just give a name?”

If the players persist in refusing to give their names, Keira will say,
“Fine, just wander for all I care. When you get tired of that, flag us
down.” The two caretakers leave. The players can bring them back by
doing something attention-grabbing. Force the PCs to be as inventive as
they can in this regard.

If a player gives a full name, the Keira will pull a *guidebook* from
her belt. The guidebook is a magical book that lists all the people in
the exhibits, and tells about what’s in the exhibits. It also tells the
spatial position of each exhibit.

Keira looks up the PC’s name in the guidebook: “Let’s see… here’s your
name in the index. Your exhibit is called *The Deck of Many Things*. Let
me find it in here… Flip, flip, flip… oh… crap.” Qurak says, “What?”
Keira says “look.” Then they both peer at the book. Then Keira shows the
book to the PCs. The guidebook says:

> **The Deck of Many Things**
>
> Exhibit will be located inside Castle Green. The arrival of Castle
> Green has been delayed.

Keira says: “You’re supposed to be in your own diorama, but your diorama
isn’t even here yet. That explains why you’re wandering around.”

At this point, the players can ask questions. Keira will answer general
questions about the museum truthfully. She’ll answer about the nature of
the museum, about who created the museum, about why there are no guests,
and so forth. If asked, she’ll say there are no portals out. If asked if
anyone can cast *plane shift* or *sending*, she says she doesn’t know.

If asked why she works for the museum, Keira tells the PCs about the
*geas*. When Orethys needed caretakers, he used a *geas* spell to force
people to serve. The caretakers *must* do their best to care for the
museum, or they will be tortured and eventually killed by the *geas*.

The geas does not prevent Keira from express her contempt for Orethys
himself. The caretakers hate Orethys, they all consider themselves
prisoners for eternity in a pointless museum where nothing ever happens
and no patrons ever arrive. They have been bored for decades now.

The PCs can ask lots of questions, but what Keira won’t do is describe
the contents of specific exhibits. If you ask her about a specific
exhibit, she’ll say, “There’s just too many exhibits for me to stand
here all day telling you what’s in them. Get a guidebook.” If the
players ask what a guidebook is, Keira will flash the guidebook she’s
been using. She says the players can get a guidebook from guest
services, on the bottom floor.

At some point, Qurak says: “These guys remind me of Diometron. Same
deal.” If the PCs follow up on this, Keira says, “he’s another exhibit
who won’t stay in his diorama. Spends most days exploring the museum. We
can’t get him to stay on his island.” If the PCs are smart, they might
realize that Diometron is a potential resource: he is very familiar with
the museum.

Now the players have three reasons to want a guidebook: so that they can
look up Diometron, to see where Castle Green is, and to find people who
might know the spells *plane shift* or *sending*.

If the players ask Keira for her guidebook, she says “No, sorry, I need
it to do my job.” If they ask her to go down to guest services and get a
copy for them, she says, “You guys are trapped here for all eternity
with nothing but free time. In a few years, you’ll wish you had
something to occupy your time. Believe me, I’m doing you a favor by
giving you something to do.”

When the players seem like they’re running out of questions, Qurak says
“OK, so what do we do with them?” Keira says, “I guess we just check on
them again in a while.” Then she tells the players: “Have fun for now.”
The two depart.

The most important result of this visit is that now, the players have a
mission: get a guidebook. To get one, they need to descend to the bottom
of the cavern, to the “bottom floor,” to guest services.

### Repetition in the Museum

Because the NPCs cannot remember the PCs from visit to visit, the PCs
will have many repetitive conversations with the NPCs. They will have to
introduce themselves every single time. This can get old fast. To make
it less tedious, say to your players:

> DM: In the museum, it’s often necessary to introduce yourself a second
> and third time. I’m not going to ask you to roleplay the same
> conversation over and over. I’m going to take it for granted that when
> you visit somebody for the second time, that you introduce yourselves
> the same as you did the previous time. If you want to introduce
> yourselves differently than the previous time, just tell me what
> you’re doing different.

There’s another kind of repetition that happens in the museum. The PCs
often have to climb from one floating island to another. This involves
ropes and ladders. The first time they do this, have them roleplay how
they improvise a ladder out of scrap wood and whatever they find lying
around the exhibit. Have them make acrobatics checks to make sure they
don’t fall, make it exciting. But the third time they need to improvise
a ladder, tell them:

> DM: By now, you guys have gotten the hang of improvising ladders and
> finding ropes to get from one exhibit to the next. You’ve crossed two
> bridges, and you’ve figured out how to do it without falling. It would
> get boring to keep roleplaying the construction of ladders. From now
> on, just say to me, “we’re crossing to the next exhibit,” and I’ll
> take it for granted that you’re finding an improvised ladder and doing
> whatever it takes. I’ll take it for granted that you can accomplish
> that without further difficulty.

After they’ve climbed around on islands for a bit, you might hear the
PCs say, “we can’t go *all the way back* to that exhibit, it’s too far
away!” Respond like this:

> DM: Moving around the museum is pretty time-consuming, what with all
> the rope-climbing and ladders. But you guys have all the time in the
> world: you’re trapped here for eternity. So if it takes several hours
> to climb from one exhibit to another, it’s not really an issue. Just
> accept that in the museum, moving around takes a few hours, and that’s
> not a problem. If you want to climb from an exhibit to another
> exhibit, just say you’re traveling there, and I’ll take it for granted
> that you make the trek, no problem.

Another thing that can get repetitive is that in the Museum, you can
obtain duplicates of objects by entering an exhibit and taking an
object, then leaving the exhibit, letting the exhibit reset, then going
back into the exhibit and taking the object again. Naturally, this would
be a time-consuming process. Tell the PCs:

> DM: Yes, obtaining duplicates of items is time-consuming. But once
> again, you have all the time in the world, you’re stuck here for
> eternity. So I want you to roleplay the first time you take an item
> from an exhibit. The second time, just say, “we’re doing the same
> thing again to get a second one,” and I’ll take it for granted that
> you can do the same steps again, no problem.

The point is this: the magic of the museum can make certain things
time-consuming and repetitive. But that doesn’t mean that the roleplay
has to be repetitive.

## The Bottom Floors of the Museum

This section lists all the exhibits on the 6th floor and below. That
includes guest services, which is on the bottom floor. This section
contains all the information you need to run the PCs through the bottom
floor exhibits.

If the PCs decide to bypass one of these exhibits, that is fine, with
one exception: the Dreaming Ghost. The PCs will need his help to solve
problems in later chapters. Make sure the PCs meet the dreaming ghost.
If necessary, rearrange and reposition the exhibits so that the PCs
stumble upon him.

### 6th Floor: Harpy Eyrie

From the Guidebook:

The singing voice of the Harpy is magically beautiful, apparently a gift
from a perverse elven god. It is quite difficult to listen to the song
and enjoy it. If one isn’t getting one’s eyes scratched out by harpy
talons, one is getting charmed off the edge of a cliff. It makes for a
poor concert-going experience.

Fortunately, the harpies in our exhibit lived not far from a school of
martial arts. They rapidly learned that fighting the monks was a
mistake, so instead, the harpies would keep their distance and use their
song.

This presents an opportunity for you. By donning one of the monk robes
in the chest in guest services, you can trick the harpies into singing
for you without physically attacking you. That only leaves the risk of
getting charmed. That chest also contains a potion to help boost your
will-power a little. With these aids, hopefully, you can enjoy the music
the way the elven gods intended.

When Orethys captured some harpies to be in his museum, he also captured
the cliffs that they live on. This makes for a rather large exhibit. The
Harpy island spans the entire width of the cavern. The harpy exhibit is
the entirety of the 6th floor of the museum. When the PCs first arrive
in the museum, they are on the 5th floor, directly *below* the harpy
exhibit.

When the PCs look upward, they see the harpy island hovering over their
heads. They can see some flying creatures swooping out over the edges of
the island, but it’s hard to get a good look. They probably won’t know
that these are harpies until later.

The harpies serve an important purpose: they prevent upward travel until
after the PCs are “ready for it.” To ascend to where the harpies are,
the PCs will need some means of levitating or flying. To be able to
defeat the harpies in combat, the PCs will need the monk robe and potion
described in the blurb. Trying to get past the harpy exhibit without
these items is extremely dangerous, as anyone on a rope is a sitting
duck. But if you’re wearing the monk’s robe, the harpies won’t come near
you - not even if you’re hanging from a rope.

Note: do not read any of the guidebook blurbs to the PCs until the PCs
have a guidebook.

### 5th Floor: Tavern of the South Gate

From the Guidebook:

If you enjoy a good drinking contest, this is the tavern for you!

Be aware: Liver damage is a real possibility.

When the PCs materialize in the museum, they appear next to the Tavern
of the South Gate. Therefore, the tavern is the exhibit that they’re
most likely to interact with first. Because of that, it is important to
roleplay the tavern very carefully.

Bart Wyntell spends his days in the Tavern of the South Gate. He makes
his living by betting on drinking contests. He will challenge the PCs to
a contest, but he won’t play unless they make a bet of at least 5gp. The
“trick” is that he can drink an unlimited amount of liquor. Literally
unlimited. We have no idea why this is the case, and he doesn’t know
either. Doesn’t matter. He always wins drinking contests.

According to the Guidebook, Bart is the “point of interest” here. But
for the PCs, the bartender Kellia Meeks is actually far more helpful.
Kellia has been a bartender in the Tavern of the South Gate for quite a
long time, and she gets a lot of planar travelers in her tavern. She
likes to eavesdrop on stories about planar travel, and she knows all
about the spells *plane shift* and *sending*. She can’t cast them, but
she can advise the players that those are the spells they need if they
want to escape from a demiplane.

When the PCs go in the front door, give Kellia’s opening speech: “You
walk in, and you see a fairly typical bar. The bartender says: Heh, you
guys don’t look like you’re from around here. Sit wherever you want,
I’ll be with you in a moment.”

If the players sit down, say this, *exactly*: “The bartender walks over
and says: I’m having a promotion where first-timers get a free drink.
Just one drink, just this once. What can I get you?”

It is important to get these two lines just right, for reasons we’ll
explain shortly.

If the PCs are in the tavern and there’s a lull in the conversation,
Bart comes up to the PCs and says, “You guys want to try a little
drinking challenge? I can out-drink anyone. You interested in a bet?” If
the PCs play along, have a drinking contest. Partway through the
challenge, Bart fumbles an entire flagon of beer on himself. He is
soaking wet: that is important. Let the contest play out - by the end of
the contest Bart is slurring and staggering, but he never goes down no
matter how much alcohol he drinks. For details of the contest, you will
have to improvise.

The above are the basics of what happens in the bar. But where it gets
interesting is when the PCs leave and come back. If they do, Kellia says
her opening speech, in *exactly* the same words, in *exactly* the same
tone of voice: “Heh, you guys don’t look like you’re from around here.
Sit wherever you want, I’ll be with you in a moment.” She continues:
“I’m having a promotion where first-timers get a free drink. Just one
drink, just this once. What can I get you?”\
\
This behavior should seem extremely odd. The players will be wondering:
“does this bartender have a memory problem?” Which of course, she does:
she’s in stasis, and her mind has been reset back to the state it was in
when the PCs first arrived.

If the PCs had a drinking contest with Bart, have them make a perception
roll, DC 8 (that’s so easy that at least one of the PCs should succeed -
but making it a roll makes players think it’s important). When they
succeed, point out to them: “Bart is no longer soaking wet.” If they
talk to him, he is no longer slurring and staggering. His physical
condition has been reset to the state it was in when the PCs first
arrived.

What we’re trying to do here is expose the PCs to the strangeness of the
stasis effect. We should really rub their faces in the fact that these
two characters keep getting “reset” every time you leave and return. You
should also look for opportunities to reset the bar itself. If the PCs
break a chair, they return and the chair is fixed. If they empty a
whiskey bottle, they return and the bottle is full. Look for
opportunities to point such things out to the PCs.

If the PCs try to discuss this stuff with Kellia or Bart, they are met
with disbelief. For example, if they say to Kellia “we were just here a
minute ago,” she will say, “Don’t mess with me, I’ve never seen you
before. I assure you, I’d notice a bunch of strange characters like
you.”

If the PCs ask the bartender where they are - which seems likely, the
PCs have just arrived in a demiplane they don’t recognize - then Kellia
Meeks says, “You lost? Just go out the front door, turn right, follow
gate street for about two blocks, and you’ll be at the south entrance to
the city.” This answer is weird. The tavern is on a floating island.
There’s a little chunk of cobblestone road out front, but it just leads
off the edge of the floating island. Yet the bartender seems to think
her tavern is still in a city. She seems to not be aware that anything
is out of the ordinary.

If the PCs lead Kellia outside, and show her the floating islands, she
says, “That’s weird, that definitely wasn’t like that before. There used
to be a city here. I shouldn’t leave Bart alone with the liquor, he’ll
drink it all - I need to go back inside.” Then she dashes back inside.
She is very uncomfortable looking at anything that’s not on her island -
the compulsion to ignore it is strong. She’s just looking for any excuse
to look away from the floating islands.

If the PCs follow her back inside, she gives her opening speech again:
“Heh, you guys don’t look like you’re from around here. Have a seat
anywhere, I’ll be with you in a moment.” That should really drive the
players nuts.

This bar is a good environment for the PCs to experiment with the stasis
effect. Give them every opportunity.

Aside from just being a good place to learn about the stasis effect, the
bar is also a good place to learn about the spells *sending* and *plane
shift*.

If the PCs talk about the outlands, or being in a demiplane, or any
other plane for that matter, Kellia overhears them talking about it, she
comes over and asks “Are you guys planar travelers? I get a lot of you
guys in here. Are you outsiders?” She is curious about planar travel.
She injects herself into the conversation. She is happy to talk about
such things. Look for excuses for Kellia to mention *plane shift* or
*sending*. For example, she might say “How long have you guys been away
from home? Doesn’t it get lonely? Do you use magic to talk to your
families back home?” That could lead to a point where Kellia suggests
casting *sending*.

It is difficult to discuss escape plans with Kellia. The problem is that
she has a mental block against knowing she’s not at home any more. If
you show her the floating islands, she gets agitated, runs back inside,
and tends to reset. At some point, though, the PCs will get the
*stabilization iron*, which can make it much easier to talk to Kellia
(or any NPC). If they stabilize Kellia, she will lose the mental block
and will be able to stand outside her tavern, talk about being stuck in
a demiplane, and make plans to get home. If the PCs don’t think of
stabilizing Kellia, they’ll just have to converse with Kellia without
showing her that she’s trapped in a demiplane. It is perfectly possible
to do that: just speak to her in generalities, she will be happy to
discuss hypotheticals.

The tavern can also be a useful source of mundane supplies. There is a
storeroom with plenty of food (the tavern serves dinner at night), and
it also contains a bunch of odds and ends that can be used for repairing
things around the bar. That includes about 50 feet of rope, which might
turn out to be useful. Getting Kellia to part with these items might
take some creative deception (or money).

Speaking of money: any coins the PCs spend in the museum will eventually
“reset” back to where the PCs first appeared in the museum. If the PCs
travel the museum and spend money in some exhibits, and then they return
to the tavern of the south gate, they will find their coins scattered on
the ground just outside the tavern. In planescape, gold coins are minted
by organizations all over the multiverse. Every gold coin has somebody’s
face on it, or the holy symbol of a temple, or something to indicate
where the coin was minted. When the PCs find their coins on the ground,
point out that the coins were minted in the PC’s hometown. These aren’t
somebody else’s gold coins: these are the coins that the PCs brought
into the museum, and they can be identified as such by the faces on the
coins.

Kellia can be a useful source of information and supplies. But even more
important than that, she can be an NPC that the players care about. But
you should play her in such a way as to make the players like her. When
players care about NPCs, it makes them feel invested in the world and
what happens to it.

### 5th Floor: Golden Goats

From the Guidebook:

These goats come from the slopes of Mount Olympus, at an elevation where
the cold forces them to grow thick, lustrous coats. But most remarkable
is the fact that the divine nature of Mount Olympus has caused these
goats to evolve hair made from real Gold. The sight of a tribe of these
goats is breathtaking.

Some of our more enterprising guests have attempted to shear the goats.
Be warned: goats can be ornery. Also remember: is is physically
impossible to remove a piece of an exhibit from the demiplane. If you
attempt to plane shift away with a pocket full of pure gold hair, then
when you go home, you will find your pocket to be empty. Perhaps
shearing the goats is an exercise best left to the imagination.

You can fight the goats to get some hair, but this is largely pointless.
The total value of the hair is only about 100 gp. Like almost everything
taken from an exhibit, it vanishes after an hour or two, or upon leaving
the museum.

There is nothing particularly useful about the golden goat exhibit. But
there’s some important information in the blurb: it is physically
impossible to remove a piece of an exhibit from the demiplane, even
using plane shift. This will be important later.

### 4th Floor: Library of Dame Kenere

From the Guidebook:

Dame Kenere once possessed one of the finest personal libraries in the
multiverse. Now that library is part of the Museum!

Of particular interest are the books that she authored herself. Some
people say that there’s nothing safe to eat in the Abyss. That’s
*mostly* true. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. For decades,
Dame Kenere has been writing survival books about how to find food in
the most hostile environments.

Her manor also contains her butler, who can be a bit of a nuisance. If
you tell him you work for Shiny Stone Publishing House, and are there to
read her latest manuscript, he’ll leave you alone with her books. Or you
can just chop his head off, but if you do, you’ll have to repeat the
process every fifteen minutes.

This exhibit consists of Lord Kenere’s manor. The only thing of any real
interest inside the manor is the library. The library does indeed
contain a large collection of abyssal recipe books. Here’s an example
entry:

> *The Plane of Thorns* - on this plane, it is possible to hunt meat,
> which does provide nutrition. But eating local meat will almost
> immediately cause a burning rash in the back of the throat, which can
> only be eased by drinking water. Surprisingly, water found here is
> safe to drink, and it does provide relief from the burning. But the
> relief is short-lived, lasting only seconds. Consuming the water
> continuously to neutralize the itch leads to constant urination, which
> in turn leads to burning in the nether regions. The key to avoiding
> this cycle is to learn how to properly neutralize the meat before
> eating it. Doing so requires a mixture which can be concocted from
> local flora.”

It is not likely that Dame Kenere’s recipes are of any immediate use to
the PCs. The real utility of Dame Kenere’s library is that the PCs can
research almost anything here. Of particular relevance is a book called
“An Index of the Spells of the Multiverse.” The author of this book
wrote down summary descriptions of every spell he could find. The book
doesn’t teach you how to cast spells - it’s just a listing of spell
names and spell descriptions. In particular, it is possible to look up
*sending* and *plane shift*.

If they players do look up *sending* and *plane shift*, give them the
spell descriptions from the players handbook. Tell them that they should
read the descriptions very carefully. Tell them that to succeed at
escaping the museum, they will need to truly understand the spells they
are trying to use. This is actually only half-true. They will have many
more opportunities to learn about the limitations of these spells, so it
isn’t crucial that they learn now. But they will enjoy the campaign more
if they feel like they have a handle on how things work and what’s going
on.

There is one problem with accessing Dame Kenere’s library: the butler,
Nolan Levant. He opens the door, and asks the PCs what they want. For
almost all possible answers, he replies: “I’m sorry gentlemen, Dame
Kenere is not interested. Goodbye.” Then he slams the door. Because he
is in stasis, he immediately forgets doing this. If the PCs knock again,
he will open the door again in the exact same way, and ask the PCs what
they want, in exactly the same way. Again, for almost all possible
replies, he says “I’m sorry gentlemen, Dame Kenere is not interested.
Goodbye.”

There is really only one thing that can get him to take interest: if the
PCs claim to be from Shiny Stone Publishing, then Mr. Levant will
hesitate for a moment. This is the course of action recommended by the
guidebook. But there’s a catch: Mr Levant will take one look at the PCs,
and say, “Gentlemen, you give the impression of being mercenaries, not
publishers. My apologies if I am mistaken, but I cannot let you in.”
Then he slams the door again.

To actually get in the front door, the PCs will have to do all of the
following:

-   They have to claim to be from Shiny Stone Publishing.

-   They have to look like professional publishers, not mercenaries (ie,
    > not armed to the teeth).

-   They must convince Mr Levant that they have an appointment.

The deception is quite difficult. The PCs may have to hide some of their
group members (the ones who can’t look normal), and they may have to
“borrow” some clothes from another exhibit. They will also have to
choose their words carefully. Fortunately, the PCs can try over and
over, because Mr Levant is in stasis and doesn’t remember anything. If
the PCs fail to convince him, they can simply alter their approach and
try again.

The other approach to dealing with Mr. Levant is to kill him or tie him
up. He’s not good at combat - he’s a butler. He fights with a dagger. He
doesn’t know how to use defensive stances: he attacks all-out, which
means he usually hits, but he leaves himself wide open. If he hits, he
does 3HP of damage. He rarely survives long enough for a second attack.

When he dies, which should happen quickly, he will respawn elsewhere in
the mansion 15 minutes later. When he sees the PCs in his house, he
attacks again. The downside of this approach is that the PCs will
probably have to fight Nolan several times, and these repeated fights
will slowly chip away 3HP here, and 3HP there. But this is a feasible
approach, if it’s your style.

Much later in the campaign, the PCs will be visiting a plane of the
abyss. Perhaps they will remember the recipes of Dame Kenere. Dame
Kenere herself was not captured into the museum. She continued writing
books, and those books can be found in libraries all over the
multiverse.

Because Dame Kenere was never captured into the museum, she is still
“out there” in the multiverse. That means that when the players finally
gain the ability to cast *sending*, they have the option of trying to
contact Dame Kenere. If they do, they will successfully reach her, and
she will respond that her mansion disappeared sixty years ago. She is
now very elderly, 101 years old. She is no longer able to help in
person. However, she says she will contact some powerful friends and
that a rescue attempt will be arranged. She says the PCs should sit
tight and wait to be contacted again. The upshot is that just like
contacting any other friend, contacting Dame Kenere will lead to a
rescue party being sent.

### 4th Floor: Breakneck Chariot

From the Guidebook:

Here’s a fun money-making scheme: build the fastest chariot in
existence, then charge people for rides. Now that the chariot is part of
my museum, you get to experience the joy and terror of it!

Of course, it’s not *really* the fastest chariot in existence - that’s
just marketing - but it is hellaciously fast. It *feels* even faster
because you feel like you’re definitely going to die.

A ranger named Viggart was traveling through the feywild when he was set
upon by a half-dozen quicklings. This turned out to be a mistake on the
quicklings’ part. Viggart killed several of them, and the quicklings
fled. But Viggart wasn’t satisfied. He hunted the quicklings back to
their home base, snuck in, and drugged their wine. When the quicklings
were all unconscious, he bound them, threw them in his saddlebags, and
carried them home. In this way, he collected two dozen squirming
quicklings.

When he got home, Viggart’s wife was furious - she demanded to know
exactly what he intended to do with several bags full of angry
quicklings. Viggart thought fast, and a money-making scheme was born.
Viggart had a friend build a kart and yoke, and the quicklings were
bound into servitude, as “horses” for a racing kart. The yoke has four
rows of six quicklings: 24 total.

Needless to say, the quicklings are not happy with this state of
affairs, but there’s not much they can do about it. Viggart keeps them
under control primarily by binding them tightly to the yoke: it is a
rigid design that keeps them physically in front of the chariot while
still allowing them to move their feet and hands. Viggart can also pull
a “choke-rope” which is tied to the quicklings’ necks, to motivate them
to cooperate.

At night, the quicklings discuss their escape plans. They have two
ideas. First idea: if one of them could just grab a knife from
somewhere, they’re sure they could cut their neighbor free from the
harness. Then, they could hand the knife to the freed quickling, who
could (very quickly) free more. From there, all hell would break loose.

Second idea: if they could get Viggart to fall off the chariot, then
they could all just start running. They could be half a mile away (with
the chariot) before Viggart could even pick himself up. With no Viggart
to pull on the choke-rope, they’re pretty sure they could find a sharp
rock or something and cut themselves free.

When the PCs look down at the exhibit, they see a barn. In front of the
barn is a packed earth road that snakes around and then comes back to
where it started. It also has a branch that leads right off the edge of
the exhibit.

The dirt road is a racetrack, and the barn is being used as a parking
garage. The barn contains the chariot, the quicklings, Viggart, and a
paying passenger named Althune. They are getting ready to go for a ride.
Viggart has to do many preparatory steps: Althune must be given a
briefing, and then Althune must be strapped to the chariot so that he
doesn’t fall off. Viggart doesn’t need straps, he has done this enough
times to be able to keep his footing.

All the players see when looking down is the dirt road, the barn, grass,
and a scattering of trees. The best place to climb down (a place where a
rope can be tied to a tree) leads the players descending to a spot just
inside the racetrack. Nothing interesting happens until they are on the
exhibit. Suddenly, they hear the quicklings shrieking, a clattering of
wood on dirt, and Althune yelling his head off, and they see the entire
contraption hurtling down the track. The quicklings are not a blur -
they’re encumbered by the kart, so they’re not moving as fast as usual.
The PCs can clearly see what’s coming at them.

The quicklings also see the PCs and they immediately recognize that
they’re armed. This is the perfect opportunity to grab a dagger and
execute their escape plan. The quicklings steer the cart directly toward
the PCs - the plan is just to ram the party at speed. You see, the kart
is going “fast” from the perspective of a human, but it’s not especially
fast to a quickling. The quicklings are sure that as the PCs are bowled
over, they will be able to pick up weapons dropped by the PCs.

When the cart goes off-road, Viggart starts yanking on the choke-rope,
but the quicklings stubbornly keep going: this is their one and only
shot.

The PCs have one melee round to prepare before the kart crashes into the
party. If the PC are bunched up, the kart will ram the party as a whole.
If they’re spread out, the kart will pick the biggest bunch of PCs and
ram that bunch. The kart is 10 feet wide at its widest point (the front
of the yoke).

The PCs who are rammed must make a DEX save DC13. Any PC who succeeds is
next to the kart, rather than in front of it. The quicklings will reach
out and try to grab a weapon from such a PC. They will not attempt to
wrestle a weapon out of a PC’s hand: the quicklings are not strong
enough to win a tug-of-war. But if the PC has a small sharp weapon
(dagger, shortsword, ninja star) that is still in a holster, a quickling
will easily grab it. Large weapons are too much for the quicklings -
they can’t grab longswords or larger. The quicklings have no interest in
bows or other weapons that they can’t use to cut themselves free.

Any PC who fails his DEX save against being rammed is knocked prone and
trampled, taking D4 damage. Such a PC is also subjected to the quickling
weapon-grab attempt. But they might also drop their weapon, DEX save DC
13, which would give the quicklings an additional opportunity to grab a
weapon without a tug-of-war.

Any quickling who has a weapon gets one of the following actions on his
turn:

-   If the quickling is still tied to the kart, the quickling will cut
    > himself free.

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-   If the choke-rope is intact, the quickling will cut the choke-rope.

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-   Otherwise, the quickling will cut one other quickling free.

Any quickling who is free and who does not have a weapon can try to grab
one.

If the plan to grab a weapon fails, the quicklings may at your
discretion bring the kart around and try again. But this time, the DEX
saves are only DC10, because the PCs know what to expect.

If three or more quicklings get weapons, they’ll immediately try to stab
Viggart to death, and will very likely be successful - Viggart doesn’t
have his weapons on him.

If the plan to grab a weapon is a total failure, the quicklings will go
for plan B: crash the cart into a tree, knocking Viggart off. Then,
they’ll try to head for the hills, but they will stop short at the edge
of the exhibit. When they realize a chasm prevents them from leaving,
they’ll turn around and try to run Viggart over with the kart, as many
times as possible.

If Viggart is killed and all the quicklings get free, then the
quicklings will begin mocking the PCs for being so slow and stupid.
Eventually, they’ll lose interest in this and will grab some rope from
the Kart, and escape from the edge of the island.

The quicklings are highly atypical in that they are willing to leave
their exhibit. Most museum NPCs have a mental block against leaving
their exhibit. The quicklings have that mental block too, but the
quicklings were desperate to escape from Viggart long before they were
captured into the museum, and escaping from Viggart necessarily means
they have to leave Viggart’s island. Their intense desire to escape
overrides their mental block against leaving their island. If the
quicklings do escape into the museum, they will eventually reset back to
being in their own exhibit.

The only thing really useful about this exhibit to the PCs is the
supplies it contains. For example, the kart’s “choke-rope” is actually
25 separate lightweight but strong ropes that go to 25 quickling necks.
The total amount of rope is 25 x 6 feet = 150 feet of rope. That’s
enough rope to descend 5 floors of the museum. Viggart’s shed may also
contain a variety of other shed-typical items, at your discretion.

If the PCs leave the exhibit and come back, then naturally, everything
will be back in the shed where it all started. One way to avoid having
to fight the kart again is to simply time it so that the PCs don’t climb
onto the exhibit until the race is done and the kart is reentering the
shed. That will give a full 20 minutes before the cycle repeats. Another
way to avoid the confrontation is to yell to Viggart “don’t start
racing, there’s an obstacle on the track,” or something to that effect.

### 3rd Floor: Claren’s Tapestries

From the Guidebook:

Take it from me, making magic items is *hard*. So I always find it
amazing when people can craft magic items without even trying.

Claren weaves tapestries, and when she’s done, the tapestries can create
remarkable phantasms. Those phantasms can persist in the physical world.
Try it out! Surprisingly, the phantasms are more stable than other items
taken from exhibits.

Claren Lusk is a weaver who makes tapestries, and she invests a lot of
effort into each one. Her tapestries are magical. If you stare at one
for several minutes, you will find yourself in a dream-like trance where
you think you are “inside” the tapestry. This is just an illusion. You
are still actually sitting on a chair in front of the tapestry, staring
at the tapestry, but the illusion feels real to you. If two people both
stare at the tapestry at the same time, then both people can enter the
tapestry-dream at the same time.

When you’re experiencing the illusion, you feel like you’re in a world
made of woven fabric. Even though things look like fabric, they work
like normal items. For example, a soup bowl that looks like it’s made of
fabric can still sit upright on the table and hold soup. The soup itself
looks like yarn, but you can eat it and it tastes like soup.

Anything pictured in the tapestry can be explored. For example, if the
tapestry shows a cabin, then you can enter the cabin, and there’s normal
furniture in the cabin, even though the inside of the cabin wasn’t
visible from “outside” the tapestry.

The tapestries all have fringes around the edge. If you are inside a
tapestry, and you walk outside the area which is pictured in the
tapestry, you find yourself in a “grassy” but otherwise empty field,
where the grass is actually tapestry fringes. From there, you can easily
walk back to the area pictured in the tapestry.

To exit the illusion, all you have to do is tell the DM that you want to
go back to reality. Just wanting it makes it happen. When you exit,
anything that you were holding in the illusion is still in your hands.
For example, suppose you’re in a tapestry, in a cabin, eating soup, and
you decide you want to exit the illusion. You find yourself back on the
chair in front of the tapestry, but now you’re holding a fabric bowl of
soup. The bowl, which is now in your hands, is an illusion/phantasm.
However, everyone in the room can now see it, and they can taste the
soup if they want. If you bring a tool out of the tapestry, it is solid
enough to actually be used as a tool.

Phantasms stick around for anywhere from 6 hours to 3 days, depending on
how emotionally invested you are in them. Mundane household objects
typically don’t create emotional investment, so they usually last about
6 hours.

Many of the tapestries contain living animals - squirrels, birds,
butterflies, the like. Sometimes a small animal will exit the tapestry
with you, depending on the situation. The animal will be drawn to the
person who conjured it and will stay nearby. The animal is, for all
practical purposes, alive. It will vanish in the same 6 hours to 3 days
time frame.

Claren’s tapestries do not contain any people. This is deliberate on
Claren’s part. She does not want to know what would happen if she caused
a fabric person to exist, she dreads the thought of creating an
intelligent person with a 6-hour lifespan.

It is possible to hurt yourself inside a tapestry, but the damage
vanishes when you exit.

Claren’s shop is a well-built, well-maintained wooden building. The
inside is single large room, which is a gallery. All of the walls are
covered in tapestries, and in front of the tapestries are wooden
benches. In the middle of the room is a work area consisting of a large
loom and work-table covered in yarns and paper sketches. Claren is at
the loom, working.

Claren is an aged elven woman. Her demeanor is gracious and warm, but
she is also serious about selling tapestries, she wants to make a sale.
This is difficult for her - even though the tapestries are amazing,
they’re also expensive, and there just aren’t that many people who can
afford them. She evaluates the PCs and if they don’t seem like people
who can afford magic tapestries, she may get a little impatient.

When the PCs enter, Claren says, “Here to buy tapestries?” If the PCs
say yes, she says “Why don’t you try them out - sit on a bench, and just
gaze at one for a while. Don’t worry, the effect is safe.” If the PCs
conjure a phantasmal object, Claren says “Keep it, it’s yours. It will
vanish in a few hours, though.” If the PCs say they’re thinking about
buying and they’ll come back later, Claren is fine with that.

Claren has no idea how she does what she does. It just happens. If the
PCs discuss something other than tapestries with Claren, she’s an
intelligent woman who can discuss a variety of subjects. Feel free to
give her a detailed backstory, and an interesting personality.

The following tapestries are present in the gallery, among others:

-   A cute log cabin on a hill overlooking a beach, with seagulls.

-   A well in a clearing in the woods, with sunlight streaming through
    > the trees.

-   An apple orchard, with ladders, fruit baskets, a cart, a wooden
    > fence, and more.

-   Waves crashing on a rocky shore, with a scraggly tree.

-   A view of a forest from on top of one of the trees, with
    > butterflies.

Claren’s tapestries is here as a catch-all place where PCs can find
objects that they need. If there’s some specific object the PCs have
been looking for, then you have the option of adding a tapestry to the
list, in order to give the PCs the item they want.

In the gallery is an aarakocra named Algion. He is mesmerized, staring
at the forest/butterfly tapestry. Tapping him on the shoulder doesn’t
wake him up. To get his attention, you have to enter the tapestry with
him.

Algion is a medium-wealthy merchant who is in the business of
transporting wines. He’s friendly and curious, and he likes nice things.
He is a potentially useful NPC because he can fly, which means that he
can facilitate travel upward in the museum. Algion can’t carry a PC (not
strong enough), but he can carry a rope upward, tie it to a tree, and
dangle it down for the PCs to climb up.

If you encourage Algion to come with you, he is initially enthusiastic:
it sounds like fun! But as soon as he sees the edge of the exhibit, the
mental block kicks in. He freaks out and returns to the building, then
his memory resets, forgetting that anything happened. This is utterly
unproductive.

However, later in the campaign, the PCs will discover a magic item
called the “stabilization iron” which prevents objects from resetting,
and a “potion of willpower” that gives a +5 to wisdom saves. The
stabilization iron can be used on Algion, this prevents his memory from
resetting. He still freaks out at the edge of the exhibit, but when he
returns to the building, he says, “That was weird. I felt like I was
compelled to turn around, like I was under the effect of a charm spell
forcing me to turn around. Let me try again.” Then he goes back to the
edge again, and he tries to grit his teeth and overcome the compulsion.
But moments later, he turns around again and reenters the building, and
he says, “Ugh, that magical compulsion is strong! I don’t know what to
do.” At this point, if the PCs think of giving Algion the potion of
willpower, then Algion will be able to overcome the magical compulsion.

Once you do both of these things, Algion can join the party. He is
surprisingly good at taking the strangeness of the museum in stride.
Apparently, Algion is a person who is comfortable with change. Algion is
curious about the museum and is happy to explore with the PCs. He is not
a combatant, he will not fight.

### 3rd Floor: Wasted Wino

From the Guidebook:

Take it from me, making magic items is *hard*. I always find it amazing
when people can craft magic items without even trying. But Rixmort is
the only person I’ve ever found who can make a magic item in less than a
minute.

He’s a bartender, and when he improvises, you never know what the drinks
are going to do.

Rixmort is a green slaad bartender. The sign over the front door of his
bar says: “The Wasted Wino: a Purveyor of Artisan Cocktails.” The bar
used to be in Acheron before it was pulled into the museum. Rixmort can
indeed make drinks with magical effects. However, it’s not because he’s
an amazing bartender. It’s because he sometimes spits in the drinks.
When he does spit in the drinks, some of his chaos essence mixes with
the alcohol making a potion.

Rixmort is pretty good at sleight-of-hand, so he usually manages to spit
without anyone noticing (Orethys didn’t notice). He only does this when
he’s in the mood to be funny, and he doesn’t care at all what his
patrons want him to do.

The potions aren’t especially useful magic items, though, for one
reason: the ‘identify’ spell identifies the drink as a “potion with a
random effect.” That’s all that the identify spell tells you. The reason
for this is that the chaos essence that makes them work is constantly
shifting and changing, so the potion might be a potion of giant strength
one minute, and a potion of water breathing the next minute. You have to
roll randomly at the moment the person drinks it.

Rixmort is a terrible bartender. He just mixes ingredients randomly, and
the taste is usually disgusting. However, he *does* always include a lot
of alcohol. No matter what you order, he just gives you whatever he
feels like giving you. But, in Acheron, most people don’t really care.
They’re there for the alcohol, and the entertainment value of seeing the
random potion effects.

The bar is usually pretty busy, but in order to capture the bar into the
museum, though, Orethys had to clear out the patrons, so in the museum,
the bar is empty except for Rixmort.

Rixmort is useless at conversation. No matter what you say to him, he
*immediately* goes off on a tangent, and then goes off on another
tangent, ad infinitum. To make matters worse, he uses pronouns in a
confusing way. For example, if you say, “which way to the bathroom,” he
might say, “You see that hallway, with the paintings of mushrooms? They
\[mushrooms\] go great in kobold stew, you should simmer it a long time.
They \[kobolds\] buy a lot more drinks than you would think for their
size.”

If for some irrational reason the PCs decide to fight Rixmort, use the
standard green slaad stat block.

Rixmort serves no real purpose in this chapter other than just to
entertain the PCs.

### 3rd Floor: Orb Conclave

From the Guidebook:

> One large hovering eyeball, and ten small hovering eyeballs.
>
> Although it doesn’t look like a beholder, I’m pretty sure this thing
> is beholder-kin, because of its eye rays. If aggravated, it will
> attack you with death, disintegration, telekinesis, charm, sleep… and
> an anti-magic cone from the large eye. That combination of rays just
> screams “beholder.”
>
> The personality, however, is very unlike a normal beholder. I find
> that it just looks at me, impassively, no matter what I do - unless I
> touch it or attack it, in which case it rains death. I advise you to
> leave it alone unless you are prepared to deal with its destructive
> energies.
>
> I would love to know what this thing is thinking, why it exists, or
> what its purpose is. But I can’t get any reaction, other than staring
> and all-out attack.

The *orb conclave* doesn’t look like a beholder, because its “body” just
consists of the eyes. There is no mouth, no skin, no scales, no
eyestalks. Just hovering eyes. Each eye looks like a perfect white
sphere with an iris and cornea, but nothing else - no optic nerve, no
veins, no imperfections.

If an eye is captured and dissected, the inside is just clear jelly,
with no retina, no blood vessels, nothing that would suggest that this
being has any kind of biology. It is more the abstract impression of an
eye, than an actual eye from a living animal.

The orb conclave is hovering calmly above a patch of icy tundra. It is
quite cold, but the PCs don’t need protective equipment for a short
visit, it’s not *that* cold. It is rare to find a beholder outside of an
extremely well-defended lair, but this entity doesn’t seem to be in any
kind of lair, and it isn’t surrounded by defenses. This is very atypical
of beholders.

Talking to the *orb conclave* has no effect - it stares, but it doesn’t
respond. Telepathic contact is possible, making it obvious that the
entity has a mind, and that it is receiving your message, but it doesn’t
respond. Spells like *message* provoke no reaction other than staring.
It will look at visual illusions, making it clear that it can see them,
but again, no response.

Doing damage to the *orb conclave*, or even just physically touching it
with your hand, will provoke an all-out attack. Likewise, spells that
alter the *orb conclave* without doing damage, such as a shrinking
spell, or a teleport spell, will provoke an attack. Provoking an attack
is the only way to get the conclave to move.

Spells that don’t do damage, and which don’t directly affect the *orb
conclave*, may or may not provoke an attack. For example, if you were to
cause it to rain, that would not damage it, but it might provoke an
attack - but that’s not 100% certain. Or, it might just hover calmly in
the rain.

Normally, the smaller eyes hover about three feet of the large central
eye, moving in a slow dance around the central eye. But if attacked, the
eyes will spread out. They can spread to any distance away from the
central eye - they can move around the area as individuals. Spreading
out is a tactic to protect against area-of-effect attacks.

Eyes can be destroyed in a fight. Each eye can survive on its own, even
if the large central eye is destroyed. If the *orb conclave* appears to
be losing a fight, the eyes will flee, they will all go in different
directions in order to make it difficult for the party to catch them
all. If any one eye survives, the *orb conclave* survives. The remaining
eyes will regroup, and then they will slowly conjure more eyes at a rate
of 1 small eye per day, and then another 5 days for the large central
eye, until the *orb conclave* is fully regenerated.

If the PC provoke a fight, use the standard beholder stat block, with
the following alterations:

-   The eyes move independently, and can fan out around the room.
    > Although the eyes appear independent, they act collectively, like
    > a beholder. They only get one collective initiative roll. Like a
    > beholder, the OC fires three rays per turn. Like a beholder, it
    > chooses its attacks unpredictably.

-   Each small eye has 5 hit points. The large eye has 50 hit points.
    > The PCs must specify which eye they are attacking. If they destroy
    > an eye, the OC is still alive, but it (obviously) cannot use that
    > eye any more. As long as the OC has at least three eyes remaining,
    > then it will continue to make 3 ray attacks per turn.

-   Each small eye has a different color: charm=pink, paralyzing=purple,
    > fear=green, slowing=brown, enervation=blue, telekinesis=yellow,
    > sleep=white, petrification=grey, disintegration=red, death=black.
    > This makes it possible for the PCs to announce, “I am attacking
    > the red eye.”

The *orb conclave* does not hold a grudge. If you attack it, leave, and
then return later, it will just stare at you as it stares at everyone.
This is not just because of the stasis effect, this is how the OC would
act if it were somehow released into the multiverse.

The *orb conclave* is indeed beholder-kin. It was generated during a
strange dream of a particularly odd beholder. At the time of this
writing, there is only one *orb conclave* in the multiverse. So far,
nobody has figured out what it is thinking of, why it stares, or why it
doesn’t respond.

If the PCs fight the *orb conclave*, given that the PCs are low-level,
it seems likely that the creature will annihilate the PCs almost
immediately. If that occurs, the PCs will respawn in the same way that
they would for any other death in the museum. The OC is much weaker than
a normal beholder, though, in that it is sometimes possible to destroy
an eye in a single hit (only 5 HP). If the PCs are smart and target the
most dangerous eyes first, they may be victorious.

If the PCs provoke an attack and then attempt to flee, the conclave will
not leave its floating island. It is bound by the rule that all museum
NPCs refuse to pay attention to things outside their exhibit.

In the unlikely event that the PCs do substantial harm to the *orb
conclave*, the conclave flees, scattering in all directions. In this
event, the conclave will leave its exhibit. It doesn’t want to pay
attention to things outside its exhibit, but if its life is on the line,
it will overcome that hesitation. In this event, the conclave doesn’t
need to regenerate in the way that it normally does. Instead, the stasis
effect of the museum will respawn the conclave in its original condition
in its original location in a matter of an hour or so.

The PCs can learn from this exhibit: they can learn that death in the
museum is not permanent, and that they respawn back at the Tavern of the
South Gate.

### 2nd Floor: Dreaming Ghost

From the Guidebook:

A shack with a man asleep on a bed. Nothing much to see… unless you wake
him up. Then, there’s even less to see. If you wake him, he vanishes,
and he will reappear, asleep, about 15 minutes later.

I cannot figure out what is happening here. I’ve included him in the
museum as a curiosity. If you figure out what’s causing this, let me
know. - Orethys

Here’s what’s happening here: the sleeper, a man named Johann, enjoyed
sleeping and dreaming so much that he made a deal with a powerful fey
creature. He would gain the ability to explore other people’s dreams,
and affect them. The price he paid, however, is that he lost the ability
to enter the waking world, and affect the waking world.

For Johann, being in the museum has been a boon. His physical body is in
stasis, he cannot age, and his shack and bed need no maintenance. But
his *mind* is not in stasis - because his mind is not in the museum. It
roams the planes, visiting the minds of other dreamers throughout the
multiverse. This has worked out to Johann’s liking.

If you wake up Johann, he vanishes. But he *knows* he has been awakened,
and he knows which PC did it. The next time that PC takes a long rest,
the PC has a dream:

> The sleeping man from the shack is walking toward you - you recognize
> him. He stops in front of you, and he says, “Did you want something?
> You tried to wake me up, when I was sleeping in my shack.”

At this point, the PC can have a dream-conversation with Johann.

Johann knows a trick: he can make you have a lucid dream. That way, the
PC can have a clearheaded conversation with Johann, and remember it in
the morning. The PC can say whatever he wants to Johann, and ask
questions. Johann is willing to have a nice chat. Johann explains that
his existence is just exploring the dreams of people all over the
multiverse. If the PCs ask for specifics, Johann laughs and says, “oh,
you know how dreams are. A lot of crazy stuff.”

Johann is potentially quite useful to the PCs. One of the things that
the PCs need to do to escape the museum is to call for help, using the
spell *sending*. But there is an alternative to casting *sending*. You
can ask Johann to visit somebody in their dreams. Johann can deliver a
message for you. He asks no payment for this, he’s happy to help.

There is a catch, though: most people don’t pay much attention to their
dreams. You will need to send the message to somebody who is in the
habit of listening to their dreams, otherwise the message won’t be acted
on. In general, priests are a good choice in the D&D universe. Gods
often communicate with their servants in dreams, so priests try to
remember their dreams. Another good choice would be a fortune-teller or
soothsayer - they take signs and portents seriously.

After Johann tries to deliver a message, Johann will once again enter
the PC’s dreams. He will report on whether or not he was successful on
getting a message through. If the recipient was paying attention to
their dream, Johann will know. He will tell the PCs that their message
got through. But if the recipient was the kind of person who ignores
their dreams, Johann will apologize, saying “some people just don’t put
much stock in dreams, there’s not much I can do about that.”

The PCs will need Johann’s help not just in the museum, but in later
chapters. Make sure that you roleplay Johann in a particularly friendly
and outgoing manner. Make sure the PCs get to know him a little. If
necessary, make Johann a little nosy - he pops into their dreams whether
the PCs call for him or not.

### 2nd Floor: Reggie’s Boots

From the Guidebook:

Take it from me, making magic items is *hard*. So I always find it
amazing when people can craft magic items without even trying.

Reggie Drum’s family thought he was a normal human child. They were
wrong: Reggie’s mother had been deceived by a clever fae, and Reggie was
conceived. The wild magic of faerie runs in his blood. Yet, he has the
most boring life imaginable. His father was a shoemaker, and Reggie was
apprenticed at an early age. He spent his days sitting in a gray room,
making shoe after shoe after shoe.

The enchantment of faerie calls to Reggie, but he loves his family, and
his sense of duty is strong. So he stays in his shop, and provides for
his family. But while he works, his mind drifts. Reggie does not
deliberately enchant the boots he makes. He simply allows his hands to
craft, while his mind wanders to the fey realms.

Reggie’s workshop is a sturdy building on a cobblestone street. The door
has a sign that just says “Boots and shoes, Reasonable prices, Please
come in.” Inside is a workshop: a big workbench, piles of leather and
catgut, lots of tools in good condition. It’s obvious that Reggie is
making good money. Reggie’s bedroom is upstairs. Reggie is standing by a
bench, working on a pair of boots.

Reggie is all business. When the PCs walk in, Reggie doesn’t even look
up, he just says, “Here for quality shoes, or magical shoes?” If the PCs
say “quality,” Reggie says, again without looking up, “rack’s over
there, try them on until you find a pair you want.” The rack is full of
normal shoes. If the PCs say “magical,” however, Reggie finally looks
up. He says, “They’re expensive. You have money?”

All of Reggie’s boots, even the so-called “non magical” ones, have one
minor effect: if you’re wearing them, your legs never get tired. You can
be on your feet all day. In addition to this one minor effect, Reggie
has a few pairs of boots with major effects:

-   Boots of Speed. 4000 gp.

-   Boots of Elvenkind. 2500 gp.

-   Boots of Levitation. 4000 gp.

-   Boots of Striding and Springing. 5000 gp.

The boots of levitation can be used to climb upward in the museum. These
are important quest items.

The boots are all *very* expensive - the PCs do not have the money to
buy a pair of boots. If one of the PCs drew the *Gem* card from the
deck, they may have gems worth thousands of GP. But if they show the
gems to Reggie, he says, “I don’t know anything about appraising gems. I
have no idea what those are worth. Go sell them to a jeweler and bring
me gold coins. I won’t accept anything other than gold.”

Some PCs might think about raiding other exhibits to get the coin. That
is impractical. There are very few exhibits that have a lot of gold
pieces. Remember also that items taken from exhibits are transient, and
will vanish in an hour or two - and scraping together thousands of GP by
finding 50 gp here, 50 gp there would take a very long time. You can
stabilize gold coins using the stabilization iron (see the chapter on
*Magic Items of the Museum*), but if you do that, every coin will have a
glyph on it. Merchants are always on the lookout for conjured coins that
might vanish when the conjuration spell wears off, so they carefully
look for warning signs that suggest that a coin might be of magical
origins. A glyph is a huge red flag that would make any merchant refuse
to accept coins.

Like it or not, if the PCs want the boots, they’ll have to steal them.
Of course, it’s not really immoral to steal the boots: they are just
going to reappear in the exhibit anyway. Reggie will be completely
unaffected by the theft. If necessary, point this out to your players.

The magical boots are not out in the open. Reggie doesn’t want people
stealing his boots, and he figures the best way to avoid the problem is
if people don’t know where the boots are. They are under some
floorboards, under a cabinet. If you pay for some boots, Reggie will ask
you to step outside for 5 minutes. Then he will lock the door, retrieve
the boots from under the floorboards, unlock the door, and hand the
boots to you. If you say you won’t pay without seeing the boots, he
says, “Anyone in town will tell you I’m honest. Go ask around, and when
you trust me, come back.”

Here are some things the PCs can do:

-   There are windows in the shop. It is possible to spy on Reggie. When
    > he finishes the boots he’s working on, he stashes them under the
    > floorboards.

-   If you can get Reggie to be fatigued, he will go to his bedroom and
    > take a nap.

-   It is possible to kill Reggie, but he’s a tough opponent.

If the PCs decide to fight Reggie, he’s a fourth-level fighter with a
longsword and leather armor. He is wearing “Boots of Kicking and
Jumping.” These boots grant two useful abilities:

-   As a bonus action, after attacking with his longsword, Reggie can
    > also kick with the boots for 1D6 damage. He can kick any target,
    > it does not necessarily need to be the same target he attacked
    > with the longsword. He can do this every melee round.

-   As a bonus action, Reggie can take the dodge, disengage, or dash
    > action. If he uses this ability, his jump distance is also
    > doubled. After using this ability, Reggie cannot use it again for
    > two melee rounds.

> Reggie Drum
>
> Level 4 fighter with longsword, leather armor, wearing magical boots of
> kicking and jumping.
>
> Armor Class 13
>
> STR 14 (+2) DEX 13 (+1) CON 16 (+3) INT 10 (+0) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 10 (+0)
>
> Hit Points 40
>
> Speed 30 ft.
>
> Passive Perception 14
>
> Longsword: Action, +6 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) slashing
> damage.
>
> Kick (because of boots): Bonus Action, +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. Hit: 4
> (1d6 + 1) blunt damage.
>
> Dodge, Disengage, or Dash (because of boots): Bonus Action, two melee
> rounds cooldown.

To get the boots, the PCs will need to execute an interesting heist. Let
them plan anything they want. You will have to improvise the layout of
Reggie’s workshop. Note that fighting Reggie doesn’t automatically get
you the boots: you’ll still have to find them.

### 1st Floor: Tiny Men

From the Guidebook:

> Most people think sprites are the smallest humanoids. Turns out,
> that’s not even close. I don’t know what these things are called, but
> they’re less than two inches tall. (They’re hiding in the rocks.)

The ground on this floating island is very rocky terrain. Cut into some
of the bedrock rocks are small caves, with wooden doors. The doors are
only about three inches high, and they’re positioned to make them hard
to notice. When the PCs first arrive, describe the island as “completely
empty, except for dirt and rocks.” Only if the PCs get down on hands and
knees and root among the rocks do they notice the doors.

Behind the doors are a miniature cave system containing tiny men. They
are a primitive hunter-gatherer society. If you manage to get them out
of their holes, and do something about the language barrier, you can
talk to them about hunting insects and foraging for seeds. They don’t
have much else to say. The tiny men are not important to the main quest.

What makes this island interesting, for the PCs, is its size and its
position. Orethys only captured as much land as he needed to fully
capture these tiny men and their underground lair - and that’s not much
land. So this island is only about ten feet in diameter.

This floating island is positioned about thirty feet below Reggie’s
Boots. If you’re on Reggie’s island, you can peer over the edge and see
this tiny island below. But actually getting *onto* this tiny island is
a tricky problem. If you dangle a rope down from the edge of the large
exhibit, it will not reach the tiny island. It will just hang down into
empty space. If you extend the rope too far, it will dangle down into
the mist at the edge of the cavern. See the diagram below, showing the
large island, this tiny island, and a rope dangling from the large
island.

### ![](media/image2.png){width="2.3387674978127735in" height="2.3387674978127735in"}

If the rope touches the mist, that’s not a big deal, it is unaffected by
the mist. But if a person enters the mist, they will vanish and respawn
back at the Tavern of the South Gate. That’s probably not what the PC
wanted to do. Swinging the rope is not helpful - the PC hanging from the
swinging rope will swing into the mist before they swing onto the tiny
island. The most likely solution will involve tying a rope that hangs
underneath the large island, like this:

![](media/image1.png){width="2.307292213473316in"
height="2.307292213473316in"}

Actually getting a rope installed like that is tricky. The easiest way
to do it is to walk around on the underside of the large exhibit using
*spider climb*. But it is possible to do it without any magic at all. If
two people hold the two ends of the rope, and they push the middle of
the rope off the edge of the large exhibit, and then the two people walk
to opposite sides of the large exhibit, they can get the rope into
position.

Another possible issue is that some PCs may not be strong enough to
“hand-over-hand” down the rope. In that case, it may be necessary to rig
up some sort of harness.

Of course, it may also be possible to invent other solutions entirely.
Give the PCs room to be inventive here, and try to respect their
solutions, even if those solutions aren’t entirely logical. If the PCs
come up with a solution that makes sense to *them*, then let them have
their small triumph. They need to succeed here, so make sure they do
succeed.

### Bottom Floor: Guest Services

When you enter the front door of guest services, you are in the dining
hall. There is a dinner table with seating for eight, and a nicely
stocked buffet table. On the rear wall, there is a ten-foot-tall
painting of Orethys, who as it turns out, was an aarakocra. In the
corners of the room are pedestals with busts of Orethys. He did not have
a small opinion of himself.

The fact that Orethys was an aarakocra explains a few things. Aarakocras
originate from the elemental plane of air. Any land in the elemental
plane of air naturally forms a floating island. When Orethys created
this demiplane, it naturally took on several of the characteristics of
the plane of air, because that’s what Orethys was familiar with. The
fact that he, his guests, and his caretakers were aarakocras explains
why he did not provide any mechanism to fly from one island to island:
they could already fly.

Around the dining room are other areas. A door leads to a clean
restroom. A corridor leads to a row of bed chambers with well-made beds.
An open archway leads to *Featured Exhibits*. All three areas are
clearly labeled.

Guest services is in stasis, like everything else in the demiplane. The
bathrooms always return to their clean state, the buffet table
replenishes itself, and the beds remake themselves. Convenient!

The archway labeled *Featured Exhibits* leads to a large room. Just
inside the archway is a pedestal, with a guidebook on it. Like
everything else in the museum, the pedestal is in stasis. If you take
away the guidebook, then next time you look, there will be another
guidebook on the pedestal. With the help of this magic, you can get as
many guidebooks as you want. The guidebook is described in the chapter
*Magic Items in Guest Services*.

Also close to the archway is a second pedestal containing what looks
like a tiny branding iron. The *stabilization iron* can apply a glyph to
any object taken from an exhibit. Whereas an object taken from an
exhibit will tend to vanish if you stop paying attention to it for an
hour or two, an object with a stabilization glyph will last three or
four days. The iron is described in *Magic Items in Guest Services*.

The back of the *Featured Exhibits* room divides into two showrooms.

One showroom is labeled *Monsters of Divine Beauty*, which contains
readable information about three of the floating islands: *The Harpy
Eyrie*, *The Golden Goats of Olympus*, and *The Medusa’s Visage.* All of
these exhibits are described in subsequent chapters*.* The walls of the
showroom are covered in paintings of the three creatures, and there are
three large posters containing the guidebook blurbs for these three
islands. There is also a chest containing stuff meant to be used at the
harpy exhibit.

The other showroom is *Innately Magical Craftspeople*, which contains
information about *Claren’s Tapestries*, *Reggie’s Boots*, and *The
Wasted Wino.* There are paintings of the three craftspeople at work,
paintings of their work, and again, three posterboards containing the
guidebook blurbs.

Most of those exhibits have already been listed in this chapter, *The
Bottom Floors of the Museum*. The exception is the medusa exhibit, which
is listed a little later, in the *Escaping the Museum* chapter. This
book includes an appendix, *The Posters in Guest Services*, which
contains copies of the relevant blurbs. You can easily print out the
appendix and hand it to your players.

In the back of the *Featured Exhibits* room is a locked door that says
“caretakers only.” In the event that the players manage to pick the
lock, they will find a closet containing a small pedestal. On the
pedestal is the *Capture Device*. The PCs can’t do anything useful with
the capture device yet, because it doesn’t work inside the museum, but
if they want to examine it, they can. It is described in the upcoming
chapter *Magic Items in Guest Services*.

Because guest services has bed chambers, it is an excellent place for a
long rest. If the players do take a long rest, they experience their
next deck-related feat: *Deck Dreaming*.

People who have drawn cards from the deck are all telepathically linked.
A *deck dream* is actually a true vision of what is happening to
somebody else who drew cards from the deck, as seen through the eyes of
that person. If the players remember the deck dreams they have, this
will give them a preview of several of the NPCs they will meet later in
the campaign. It will also allow them to have insights into how to
handle those NPCs. The deck dreams that the PCs can experience are all
listed in the upcoming chapter, *The Deck Dreamers*. Feel free to skip
ahead and look over the options.

Now that the players have a guidebook, the most obvious next step is to
go talk to Diometron.

## Magic Items in Guest Services

Guest services contains four interesting magic items that the PCs can
take.

### Item: The Guidebook

The guidebook is a leather-bound magical volume. It is found on a
pedestal in guest services. It has several features:

-   One page for each exhibit. Every exhibit has a name, such as “The
    > Tavern of the South Gate.” Exhibits are sorted alphabetically by
    > name. The page has a blurb about the exhibit, just a paragraph or
    > two.

```{=html}
<!-- -->
```
-   An index of residents. If you know the name of an person, you can
    > find the name of the exhibit they’re associated with.

-   A Cover with a painting of a compass. The compass is initially
    > pointing due north.

-   The Cover shows the name of the exhibit you are closest to, along
    > with a danger rating. In guest services, the book says “Closest
    > Exhibit: Guest Services. Danger: None”

-   A bookmark, attached to a string, attached to the guidebook’s spine.
    > The back of the guidebook explains that if you put the bookmark
    > into the page for an exhibit, the compass on the cover will point
    > toward that exhibit.

The guidebook is very useful for finding an exhibit if you know the
exhibit name or a person’s name. Unfortunately, it’s not useful for
finding exhibits by content. If one of your players says, “I’m just
going to read all the exhibits until I find one that has a spellcaster
who knows *plane shift*,” say, “you read for a while, but the blurbs
aren’t giving the information you need.” Give them the blurb from *The
Radiant House* as an example. Point out that this exhibit definitely
contains a wizard, Dardannon, but the blurb tells you next to nothing
about him. There’s no information about whether he can cast *sending* or
*plane shift*. There’s no mention of what magic items he might have in
his house. It doesn’t even say what level of spellcaster he is. The
point is: trying to use the blurbs to search for specific things just
isn’t working.

The rule for the guidebook is: if you know a person’s name or an exhibit
name, the guidebook will help you locate the exhibit, and will also tell
you a bit about the exhibit. But if you don’t have a name, it can’t
help. Be upfront with the players about that simple rule.

The other thing the guidebook can do is tell you what exhibit you’re
standing on. This can be useful, for example, if you find an exhibit
that contains a building, and you aren’t sure whether it is wise to
enter or not.

### Item: The Stabilization Iron

When objects are taken from exhibits, they tend to stick around for
about an hour, and then they vanish - in some sense, returning to their
exhibit. They never vanish while you’re actively thinking about them or
using them - they vanish when your attention turns elsewhere. This is
the stasis effect in action.

The stabilization iron looks like a tiny branding iron. Used like a
branding iron, it will apply a stabilization glyph to any object taken
from an exhibit. This will cause the object to last several days,
instead of an hour. The stabilization iron can be found on a pedestal in
guest services.

Since both the guidebook and the iron are part of the guest services
exhibit, they will both vanish after about an hour unless they are
stabilized. This is advisable. To stabilize the stabilization iron
itself, you will need two stabilization irons, so that the two can apply
glyphs to each other. To get two irons, you have to take one from the
pedestal, leave the room, and come back. Let the PCs figure out this
little puzzle.

The iron can be used an unlimited number of times per day. It can
stabilize any object, animal, or person taken from an exhibit.

Using the iron to stabilize a *person* who is part of an exhibit will
have a surprising effect. NPCs in exhibits tend to forget new things
very quickly. That is particularly true when you show them other
islands: they have a mental block against thinking about other islands.
These limitations make it largely impossible to have a productive
conversation about the museum with an NPC. The stabilization glyph
eliminates both these limitations. A stabilized NPC can remember
everything you tell them for several days, and can observe and think
about other islands. They can even travel with the party (if they’re
able to climb ropes).

The PCs may try to stabilize themselves. If they do, the stabilization
glyph is indeed applied, but there is no effect.

### Item: The Capture Device

The *Capture Device* is used to create new exhibits in the museum. If
there were written instructions, which there aren’t, this is what they
would say:

> Leave the museum, taking the capture device with you. Then, look for
> an interesting person to add to the museum. Put the capture device in
> the building with the interesting person. Activate the device, which
> begins a countdown. Evacuate the building before the countdown
> expires. When the countdown finishes, the entire building will be
> captured as an exhibit.

The device is found in guest services, in a locked closet. It can also
be given to the PCs by the caretakers.

The Capture Device is a metal cylinder, about three inches in diameter,
and two inches tall. The cylinder has two halves, separated by a
hairline crack. It radiates magic strongly. The two halves can be
rotated relative to each other.

If you activate it by rotating it, it says, “Exhibit capture in five
minutes. Evacuate the building.” Then it starts a verbal countdown. At
the end of five minutes, it tries to collect an exhibit. If it fails, it
says one of the following error messages:

-   “Capture failed. Cannot capture inside the museum” - The device
    > simply doesn’t work inside the museum. You can’t capture what’s
    > already been captured.

-   “Capture failed. Powerful force resists capture” - The person being
    > captured gets to make a wisdom saving throw, DC15. If they make
    > the saving throw, then the capture fails. There are other
    > situations where a being or a place might be too powerful to
    > capture.

-   “Capture failed. Must be inside a structure” - The device is meant
    > to be placed inside a building or similar structure. It will
    > capture the whole building. It can also work inside a fenced-in
    > area. If it’s not inside a structure, the device doesn’t know what
    > area to capture.

-   “Capture failed. Exhibit does not contain an exotic person, animal,
    > or anomaly” - The exhibit must contain something worthy of the
    > Museum. This is up to the DM’s discretion.

-   “Capture failed. Exhibit may contain at most two people” - This
    > version of the device can only capture two people, maximum.

If one of these errors occurs, it will be spoken at the end of the
countdown, and again when somebody picks up the device. But if
everything goes right, there will be a “whoomp,” and the area will get
sucked into the Museum, along with its inhabitants. What is left behind
is typically a crater.

Of course, if you try to use this device inside the museum, you just
keep getting the message “cannot capture inside the museum.”

There is only one *Capture Device* - it is a rare object in the museum
that is *not* in stasis. When you take it from its pedestal, the
pedestal doesn’t refill. Unlike other things found in the museum, you
can take it out of the Museum. When it successfully captures a new
exhibit, the capture device goes to the Museum along with everything
else in the exhibit. Then, the caretakers will put it back on its
pedestal, and it will take several months to recharge.

After the party finally escapes from the museum, they will have the
capture device with them. If they activate the capture device and then
fail to evacuate the building, then in theory, some of the party members
could get pulled back into the museum. That would not be fun. Don’t
allow this to happen: just make up an excuse. There are several excuses
built-in to the device: it can’t capture more than two people (and the
party is probably more than two people), and it allows a saving throw
(at least one party member can probably succeed at the save). If those
excuses don’t work, make up a different excuse.

### Item: The Potion of Willpower

In guest services, there is a small chest designed to help you with the
harpy exhibit. The chest contains a monk robe and a “potion of
willpower.”

Orethys provides the potion as a means to resist the charms of the
Harpies. But the potion is actually a general-purpose potion that gives
a +5 on wisdom saving throws, for an hour or so. The PCs can
successfully use it for anything wisdom-save related.

## Escaping the Museum

After exploring the bottom floors of the museum, the PCs will be ready
to escape the Museum. The escape process is fairly linear. There’s a lot
to do before the PCs can actually leave!

### Meeting Diometron

Diometron is a rogue modron. Orethys’ interest in him is purely because
rogue modrons are rare. Here is what the guidebook has to say about
Diometron:

\<WRITE BLURB ABOUT DIOMETRON\>

Diometron became a rogue modron when his traveling party encountered a
group of slaads. One slaad infected Diometron with slaad reproductive
essence. Fortunately for Diometron, modrons are very resistant to
elemental chaos. The slaad essence has not been able to take him over.
But it’s still in there, trying.

When Diometron was infected, he asked his superiors what to do. They
decided that he was too badly damaged to repair, so they instructed him
to report for incineration. Diometron did not comply, instead, he fled
and went into hiding. He was hiding in a garden shed when Orethys
captured him. He now sleeps in the garden shed, but he explores the
museum when he is awake.

When Diometron first went rogue, he was a duodrone. Contrary to popular
belief, duodrones are not stupid: they just lack independence. If it
were not for the slaad essence inside him driving him toward
independence and free-thinking, he would have submitted to incineration.

It is well known that most rogue modrons become quadrones. You might
wonder how this is possible. It is because modrons come from the factory
with the hardware necessary to change their own configuration. When a
modron is given a promotion, the modron automatically transforms into
the correct shape for their new rank. Most people don’t realize it, but
modrons are actually shape-changers: people don’t realize it because
modrons only change their shape in response to promotion.

When a modron shape-changes, they always do so with an approved
blueprint. Modrons come from the factory with four blueprints
preinstalled: monodrone, duodrone, tridrone, and quadrone. To upgrade
beyond that point, they must obtain a higher-level blueprint from their
superior.

When a modron goes rogue, they already have everything they need to
self-promote to quadrone. They cannot promote beyond that point, because
they don’t have a blueprint for anything beyond quadrone.

A healthy modron would never, ever consider making up their own
blueprint. The results would be utterly unpredictable, and modrons
loathe unpredictability. But Diometron is modron corrupted by slaad
essence. When he realized he was trapped on a floating island, he
started wishing that his quadrone wings were not vestigial. The more he
thought about it, the more it occurred to him that it would be a fairly
simple modification to the blueprint to make the wings functional. He
agonized over whether or not it would be lawful to invent one’s own
blueprint. But in the end, he succumbed to temptation. Diometron can now
fly around the exhibits.

Diometron is resistant to the stasis effect: unlike all the other museum
denizens, he does not forget everything he sees. He explains this as
follows: “My memory systems have multiple layers of redundancy to
prevent data loss. The museum keeps trying to reset my memory, but my
systems keep restoring my memory from backup. This has been going on for
seventy years. I am confident that I will not experience data loss.” It
is a side effect of the “axiomatic mind” power that all modrons possess.

Diometron knows that he is corrupted by chaos, and it terrifies him. He
believes that he is not a force for good in the universe - he believes
that he is likely to spread chaos, and that’s the worst thing a being
can do. For this reason, he is very glad that he lives in the Museum of
Orethys. He knows that everything the museum is in stasis, and
therefore, it is not really possible to harm anyone in the museum.
Diometron is afraid to interact with anyone who is not in stasis,
because he is afraid that he will spread chaos and corruption to them.
Periodically, Diometron will say that he “should have reported for
incineration.” He has a severely damaged sense of self-esteem.

Diometron’s name is a name that he gave himself. It is a combination of
the following words:

-   Di, meaning two.

-   Metric, meaning measurement systems.

-   Tron, meaning a mechanism.

So he views himself as a mechanism with two different, incompatible
value systems: one, his original modron value system, and two, the value
system of the slaad inside him. He does not think these are separable:
like it or not, he is part slaad now. So he must constantly struggle to
balance his modron values with his slaad values. In reality, he is far,
far more modron than slaad. Probably 90% modron, 10% slaad. He is not
overtly chaotic at all. But the slaad influence does enable him to act
with some independence from the modron collective.

Diometron is an intensely curious person. He has studied everything
there is to study in the museum. He has read every book in Dame Kenere’s
library multiple times, and he is proud of what he has learned. He will
point out, whenever given the opportunity, that he is an “excellent
swordsman,” an “excellent wizard,” an “excellent musician,” an
“excellent bartender,” an “excellent weaver,” and everything else under
the sun. He proclaims his skill in a matter-of-fact way, but he is quite
proud. In reality, he’s good at several of those things, and he
overestimates his ability at some of them.

The fact that Diometron brags a little is essential to the plot:
Diometron must tell the players, “*I am an excellent Wizard*.” That way,
it will occur to them that maybe he can cast *sending*.

Diometron is lonely. He talks to everyone in the museum, but of course,
nobody can remember him, and that makes him feel disconnected. He does
sometimes talk to the caretakers, but there’s a problem: the caretakers
are obligated, by geas, to try to keep him in his exhibit. Whenever
Diometron talks about what he has been doing, the caretakers are forced
to respond, “you shouldn’t be doing that, you should be in your
exhibit.” They never give him any encouragement, because they *can’t*.
So it’s not much fun for diometron to talk to the caretakers, and the
caretakers don’t enjoy stomping on Diometron’s spirit either. So they
don’t talk that often.

Diometron has a strange verbal tic: he doesn’t use contractions. He
always says “do not” instead of “don’t,” he always says “I will not”
instead of “I won’t.” When he talks, he repeatedly tilts his head from
side to side. He says, “I am an excellent speaker of your common
tongue.”

Even when Diometron is saying something sad, like “I am corrupted by
chaos, I should have been incinerated,” he speaks in a bright, cheery
voice. His emotions are not expressed through tone of voice.

If the PCs look for Diometron, the guidebook will guide the PCs to the
shed. Diometron may or may not be there (flip a coin.) If not, the PCs
can wait around and Diometron will eventually show up. If the PCs ask
the caretakers about Diometron, the caretakers will tell the PCs that
this is the right way to find him - just wait at his shed.

The shed itself is utterly uninteresting: a completely mundane gardening
shed. Diometron sleeps while standing in a corner. He sleeps in his own
exhibit as a concession to the caretakers: they wanted him to stay in
his exhibit, he wanted to explore the museum, so he compromised and
agreed to sleep in his exhibit - at least that way, he’s there some of
the time. The caretakers acknowledged that they had no power to force
him, so they eventually just shrugged and accepted the deal.

When Diometron first sees the PCs, he is terrified (because he is afraid
he’ll spread chaos), but he is also fascinated - these are the first new
people he’s seen in decades. Then he notices something that is very
important to him: He says, “I have sensors that can detect the presence
of elemental chaos. The level of chaos in your bodies is elevated. You
are corrupted by chaos. I am also corrupted by chaos.” Suddenly, he
feels a strange kinship for the PCs. He is also less afraid of
corrupting them, because they are already corrupted.

Of course, the chaos that Diometron detects is a side effect of using
the Deck of Many Things. The deck is one of the most powerful chaos
artifacts in the multiverse, and it leaches elemental chaos into
everything it touches.

Diometron loves to talk. He is happy to explain anything that the PCs
care to ask him.

If the PCs suggest that Diometron could escape the museum with them,
Diometron will balk. Diometron is terrified of the idea of spreading his
chaos outside the museum. If the PCs are persuasive enough, they may be
able to move Diometron to warm up to the idea.

Diometron is relevant to the PCs for two reasons:

-   He is a 6th level wizard who can cast *sending*.

-   Other than the caretakers, he is the only NPC in the museum who can
    > remember the PCs.

But aside from that, Diometron is designed to be a likeable NPC. He is
friendly, he is cheerful, and he is enthusiastically helpful.
Furthermore, he has some qualities that should tug at their heartstrings
a little bit. It is intended that the PCs should relatively quickly
develop a friendship for Diometron. This is important to the plot: later
in the campaign, the PCs will be given the opportunity to dismantle the
entire museum. If the PCs care about the NPCs in the museum, if they
have emotional investment in their well-being, then freeing the NPCs
from the museum will be a goal that feels important to them.

### Sending a Distress Call

The PCs will want to contact a friend outside the museum, to ask for
help escaping the museum. The most likely way to do that is to ask
Diometron to cast *sending*.

If the PCs ask Diometron to cast *sending*, he points out there’s a
catch: “In order to cast *sending*, I have to be familiar with the
recipient. All my colleagues used to be modrons, but I cannot safely
contact them, because they want to incinerate me. There is nobody
outside the museum that I can contact, because I lack familiarity with
everyone outside the museum.”

The PCs can work around this in several different ways:

-   The PCs could try to tell Diometron about a friend outside the
    > museum. For it to work, the PCs must do at least two or three of
    > the following:

    -   Use *Disguise Self* to make themselves look like the friend.

    -   Make a good performance roll to act like the friend.

    -   Use the *Encode Thoughts* cantrip to give Diometron a thought of
        > the friend.

    -   Ask Diometron to cast *Detect Thoughts*, then visualize the
        > friend.

    -   Use telepathy to communicate an impression of the friend.

    -   Give a detailed, compelling verbal description of the friend.

    -   There may be other ways.

-   The PCs could ask Diometron to contact Dame Kenere. Diometron has
    > read all her books, and has seen her portrait many times. That is
    > familiar enough.

-   The PCs could ask Johann, the Dreaming Ghost, instead of asking
    > Diometron. Johann can enter the dreams of people all over the
    > multiverse, and Johann, being inside the PCs’ dream, can easily
    > see who the PC is thinking of. The only catch is that Johann can
    > only talk to people in their dreams. If the friend is somebody who
    > pays attention to dreams (priests usually do, and so do mystics),
    > great. If not, there is a chance they might ignore their dream.

Once the PCs figure all this out, they send the message. The actual
content of the message isn’t that important. “We’re trapped in a big
weird cavern, we can’t get out” is sufficient. It also isn’t especially
important who they send the message to: we can just assume that whomever
they contact will eventually pass the message on to the right person.

One person the PCs could try to contact is Green. If they try, Green
says, “We’ve been trying to find somebody who can plane shift to where
you are, with no luck. Now that you’re in verbal contact, maybe there’s
new options. I’m going to talk to my diviner, just hold tight.” Green
and his diviner end up passing the message on to the right person, and
the rescue is underway.

One challenge here is that the players did very little roleplaying
outside the museum, so they may not be able to think of anybody to send
the distress call to. So during character creation, when you ask your
players to create background stories, make sure they include at least
one living friend in their background story. That way, they’ll have
somebody to send to.

Regardless of the details of how they do it, the players will eventually
get a message out.

When the players send their distress call, the message gets passed from
person to person. As a DM, it will be on you to invent a chain by which
the message ends up in Tymora’s ear. Maybe the PC sent a distress call
to his wife, and the wife talked to her priest, and that priest talked
to another priest, who happened to be a priest of Tymora. It doesn’t
matter what the exact sequence of communication was, it’s only important
that somehow, the PC’s distress call reaches Tymora.

Shortly after sending the distress call, the PCs get a *sending* from
somebody they don’t know:

> “Hi! I’m Joycie, I can probably get you out. I need you to try to find
> a teleportation circle. If you find one, use *sending* to send me the
> sigil sequence - that’s the series of arcane runes that surround the
> circle. As soon as I get that sigil sequence, I’ll be there. Also,
> give thanks to Tymora!”

The message is from Joycie, a powerful priestess of Tymora who can cast
*plane shift*. She will be the one to eventually get the players out of
the museum. So next, a brief digression, about why Tymora is getting
involved.

### What Tymora Wants

Tymora is very upset about the Deck. She feels like the god who created
the deck is trying to steal the portfolios of Good Luck and Bad Luck.
The PCs will soon meet some priestesses of Tymora, and the priestesses
will be direct about Tymora’s problem. Here is how they will explain it:

> Let me ask you something: Who do you think created the Deck? Most
> people would assume that it was Tymora and Beshaba. After all, the
> most powerful luck-dispensing magic item in the universe would surely
> have been created by the gods of luck, wouldn’t it? But as it turns
> out, Tymora and Beshaba didn’t create the deck. So who did?
>
> We know it wasn’t created by a mortal, because it’s just way too
> powerful. Think about it: it’s been conjuring dozens of magic items,
> it’s granted tons of wishes. No magic item created by a mortal could
> do that. So it has to have been created by a god, and a powerful one
> at that. But which one? We don’t know.
>
> But people are starting to say that there’s a “new” god of luck in
> town. People are saying, “If you want good luck, go to Tymora. But if
> you *really* need good luck desperately, go to the Deck of Many
> Things.” People are saying that whoever created the deck is a more
> powerful luck god than Tymora. She’s losing a lot of respect in the
> eyes of the population.
>
> Funny thing is, Tymora’s a young goddess, only a few thousand years
> old, we think the deck is much older. Ancient records mention it a
> long, long time ago. Yet despite that, this hasn’t ever been a problem
> before.
>
> In the past, the deck used to appear once every hundred years or so.
> It would turn somebody’s life upside down, and then it would vanish,
> not to be heard from again for another hundred years. It never stuck
> around longer than two or three days. People tried to put it into
> vaults, they tried to guard it, but nonetheless always disappeared
> after just a few days. By the time the news got out to the public that
> the deck had made an appearance, it was already gone. So the public
> never had a chance to actually see the deck, and there was always a
> lot of skepticism about whether it even existed at all or whether it
> was just a bedtime story. People used to hear about it, and then
> realize it was already gone, and they would forget about it just as
> quickly.
>
> But this time, the Deck has been sticking around. Green’s been running
> his little draw-cards business for several months now. We have no idea
> why the deck isn’t vanishing this time, but it’s not. So this time,
> it’s really entered into the public imagination in a way that it never
> has before, and that’s what’s threatening to Tymora - public
> perceptions are essential to a goddess keeping her worshippers, and
> being perceived as “the second-best goddess of luck” would be deadly
> to her.
>
> Now, as for me, as a priestess of Tymora, I actually don’t care who’s
> more powerful. I trust Tymora. She isn’t just a goddess of luck, she’s
> also a kind and caring goddess and I just think it’s best for the
> universe if she’s the goddess of luck, as opposed to some cold and
> amoral god who just likes randomness. So that’s why I’m sticking with
> Tymora to the end. But other people might not see it that way.
>
> So now Tymora finds herself in the position where she has to defend
> her turf. She’s not an aggressive goddess at all, she doesn’t want to
> start a war. But she can’t let another god position himself as the
> most powerful god of luck. If you’re a god, protecting your portfolio
> is mandatory - if you don’t, you’ll fade out of existence.
>
> So now Tymora wants to try to negotiate with this other god. That’s
> where you guys come in. Tymora can see lines of telepathic connection
> radiating out from you - she can see that you’re connected to some of
> the other people who drew cards from the deck. She also thinks you
> might be connected to the god who created the deck. She hopes she can
> trace those lines of force to find the other god. But to do that, she
> needs you to strengthen your telepathic connection to the god who made
> the Deck.
>
> We also want to buy the Deck from Green. Tymora doesn’t want to take
> it by force, that wouldn’t be right. So she isn’t going to appear in
> her full glory in front of Green, that would be a show of force, and
> Green might interpret it as a threat. She doesn’t want to do that. So
> she wants to send a low-level ambassador instead. She thinks you guys
> would make great ambassadors, because you already know Green. We also
> think you can escort one of our priestesses to Green.

Of course, you won’t be able to remember this whole monologue. Just
remember these bullet points:

-   About the Conflict between Tymora and the God who made the Deck:

    -   Tymora didn’t create the deck.

    -   People are saying the deck’s creator is the “new” god of luck.

    -   Tymora isn’t going to allow some other god to take over her job!

-   About Tymora and the Deck:

    -   Tymora is a young goddess. The deck is much, much older.

    -   In the past, Tymora never had a conflict with the deck, because
        > it never stuck around.

    -   This time, the deck has been doing its thing for months and not
        > disappearing.

-   About Tymora and the Telepathic Channels:

    -   Tymora can sense a “channel” connecting the PCs to the god who
        > created the deck.

    -   Tymora wants to track the channel to find that god, but the
        > connection is too weak.

    -   Tymora wants the PCs to strengthen that connection by
        > interacting with the deck some more.

-   About Tymora and Green:

    -   Tymora wants to buy the deck from Green.

    -   She thinks the PCs will make good negotiators, because they know
        > Green.

Tymora’s desire to help the PCs is, to a degree, self-serving - she’s
helping because she needs something in return. But Tymora is still a
good goddess, and she isn’t going to do anything to hurt the PCs. She
really is going to rescue them from being imprisoned in the Museum, and
she’s not being unreasonable in asking for help with her problem.

### The Teleportation Circle and the Medusa

Joycie needs the PCs to find a teleportation circle. There is only one
teleportation circle in the museum, in the medusa exhibit. From the
Guidebook:

The face of a Medusa is amazingly beautiful, in a strange and
otherworldly way. Some people say it is a blessing from the gods, other
say it was her beauty that led to her being cursed. Sadly, few ever get
to see her face and tell the tale.

Fortunately, you can look at a Medusa in a mirror without getting
petrified. The traditional approach is to shine your shield to a
mirror-like finish, then walk up to her backward while looking at her in
your shield. If the arrows in your back make you question the wisdom of
the traditional approach, do not worry: your friend Orethys is here!

I built a hall of mirrors, and I teleported a Medusa into the back of
it. You can enter the front. I have timed it: it takes her 16 minutes to
get to the front of the mirror-labyrinth. That gives you about 14
minutes to enjoy her beauty and 2 minutes to flee the exhibit. Of
course, I could have just given you a potion of protection against
petrification, but where would be the fun in that? This is so much more
entertaining.

By the way, some people say that if a Medusa sees her own reflection,
she will be petrified. I can assure you that is not the case. The
reflection of a Medusa is safe, for you and for her as well.

The sigil sequence for the teleportation circle is, in rune-script,
“*put medusa here*.” Most PCs probably can’t read rune-script, but
Diometron can: he learned it from a book in Dame Kenere’s library.

Creating this exhibit was a multi-step process. Here is how Orethys did
it:

-   Step 1. Build a hall of mirrors.

```{=html}
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```
-   Step 2. Put a teleportation circle in the back of the hall.

-   Step 3. Give the sigil sequence to a friend.

-   Step 4. The friend teleports a medusa into the circle.

-   Step 5. The instant the medusa arrives, Orethys captures the hall
    > into the museum.

The outside of the exhibit is a rectangular stone building - a sturdy
bunker designed to keep the medusa contained. The inside of the building
is a mirror maze. The building has about a dozen steel doors around the
outside of it. Each steel door has a sturdy deadbolt that can only be
operated from outside the maze. The medusa cannot get out unless the PCs
open a door. One of the doors is marked, “use this door,” and another is
marked, “do not use this door!”

The PCs might wonder why there are so many doors. Here’s why: Orethys
didn’t know which path the medusa would take inside the maze. Rather
than try to guess, he accounted for every possibility: he built entry
doors all over the maze. Then, he waited until the medusa was in the
museum, and he observed her. She always follows the exact same path,
because she is in stasis. Because she always follows the exact same
path, there is a door that she reaches first, a door she reaches second,
and so forth, until the one door she reaches last. Orethys made a note
of which door she reaches last, and marked it “use this door.”

There is also a door right by the teleportation circle where the medusa
is initially standing. That door is marked, “do not use this door!”

There are several ways that the PCs can find out that the medusa exhibit
contains a teleportation circle. One is to enter the medusa exhibit. As
soon as you’re in the exhibit, the circle is quite visible, reflected in
the mirrors.

Another way to find out is to look carefully at the pictures of the
medusa exhibit on the wall in guest services. When the PCs are in guest
services, if they do the museum in the usual order, then they aren’t
specifically looking for a teleportation circle at that time. So of
course they won’t consciously notice it.

Later, when the PCs learn they need a teleportation circle, let them
make an easy insight roll. When they inevitably succeed, tell them
“you’re sure you’ve seen some kind of magic circle in the museum… you’re
just not 100% sure where.” Let them enjoy a little hunt. If they go back
to guest services and check the pictures, they automatically spot it.

To get the sigil sequence of the teleportation circle, you will have to
get the medusa out of the way. One way to get her out of the way is to
kill her. That’s pretty hard for low-level characters. But it’s not
actually necessary. Instead, you can have one party member enter the
maze through the “safe” door. Then, the party member waits until the
medusa is about halfway between the back and the front. The party member
signals a friend, who enters the “unsafe” door, and memorizes the sigil
sequence of the teleportation circle. Then both people get the heck out.
They can then relay the sigil sequence to the rescue party, warning the
rescue party that they will have to tangle with a medusa. The rescue
party is high-level, they are not worried about a medusa.

If the PCs ask whether they can figure out the layout of the exhibit
from the pictures in guest services, just say, “yes, easily,” and hand
them the map of the medusa exhibit.

The PCs can safely study the door mechanism. It takes the medusa at
least two minutes to reach any door other than the one she starts at. So
the PCs have time to open a door, examine the mechanism, and close and
lock the door before anything bad happens. There is not much to see:
ordinary hinges, and an ordinary deadbolt, very sturdy. The door frame
has a metal flange to make it impossible for the medusa to poke a
thieves tool between the door jamb and the door. It is designed to be
only openable from the outside.

When the PCs are inside the maze, they can easily see the medusa moving
around in the mirrors. It’s impossible to tell where she is - the
reflections of reflections are just too disorienting - but it’s easy to
tell how close she is, because the largest reflection in the mirror will
keep getting larger as she gets closer.

It is possible that a character might have some means of sensing the
medusa other than sight. If so, that’s a nice victory for that
character.

Some players may try to reason with the medusa. Bear in mind that the
medusa was attacked by a wizard who teleported her into a mirror maze.
Because she is in stasis, she thinks this just happened five minutes
ago. She is and always will be both panicked and angry. But if you’re
persuasive enough, it is possible.

### The Priestesses Arrive

When the players get the sigil sequence from the teleportation circle,
and send it to Joycie, Joycie immediate uses *plane shift* to come to
the teleportation circle, and she brings her friend and coworker, Lada.
If the medusa is in there, Joycie is more than tough enough to handle
the medusa.

Joycie is a powerful lv 14 Cleric of Tymora, she works at Tymora’s
primary temple in Brightwater. Her life is very busy: when a lower-level
priest needs help with something particularly difficult, they often go
to Joycie. This month, Joycie is on *plane shift* duty - she’s pretty
much spending the whole month ferrying people around the multiverse. She
will get the PCs out of the demiplane, but that’s as much help as she
can offer. She’s an essential worker at the temple in Brightwater, and
she can’t be spared for long.

Lada is only a lv 3 cleric, but she’s Tymora’s best theoretical
fortunologist. She has a huge passion for research into how magical luck
spells work. Another favorite topic of hers is the Deck of Many Things,
though she’s never been able to research one except through dusty tomes.
Tymora specifically asked Lada to spend time with the players: Tymora
knows that Lada will investigate the Deck with great enthusiasm.

Both Joycie and Lada are genuinely good allies for the players to know.
They are trustworthy and smart and will do their best to help in any
situation. This is not just because Tymora assigned them this task, it’s
also because they’re just plain good people.

Joycie is bubbly and friendly, she has a happy-go-lucky attitude. She
assumes things are going to go great, and she’s usually right - after
all, serving Lady Luck has its benefits. She likes to flirt with cute
guys, but she’s not actually looking for a date, she’s just playing.
She’s also quite busy, she can’t stick around long. Joycie appears
human, but quite tall: 7 feet tall, and her forehead is prominent. She’s
one-eighth hill giant.

Lada is very shy and awkward, but once she finally feels comfortable
around you, she becomes quite warm. She is very passionate about her
research. She thinks that magical luck is much more strange and powerful
than it appears to be. She has devised dozens of experiments to test
what magical luck spells are capable of doing. She knows exactly how
they impact probability and statistics. Lada is a youngish halfling,
with a mop of wild curly hair.

Joycie won’t stick around long, but Lada will. Lada’s serves several
purposes: first, it’s important for the players to have friendly NPCs
that they care about, so that they feel invested in the world and so
that they feel like the world is worth protecting and saving. Second,
Lada raises weird questions that the players can think about and even
research during the course of the campaign. This will make the world
more mysterious and interesting for them. Finally, Lada can be a channel
through which the DM occasionally gives hints to the players.

In combat, let the players take turns controlling Lada. She strongly
prefers to spend her combat actions healing, blessing, and buffing. She
rarely deals damage directly. If the PCs try to push her around and tell
her to get on the front lines, she refuses. If the PCs mistreat her in
any significant way, she will leave the party, with Tymora’s blessing:
Tymora won’t subject her priestesses to abuse, Tymora will find another
way to research the deck. Lada is always one level lower than the rest
of the PCs, and she is only ever in a support role.

When the two priestesses appear in the teleportation circle, they
introduce themselves. Lada is quiet and withdrawn because of her
shyness, but she’s secretly in awe of the PCs because they have had
contact with the Deck. Joycie is her outgoing bubbly self.

Joycie presents the players with Tymora’s request: “I need to be honest.
We are here to rescue you, but we’re not just here to rescue you - we
were hoping for your help with something.” She gives the explanation in
the previous chapter, *What Tymora Wants*.

The plot of the entire campaign revolves around the PCs joining into the
service of Tymora. They must accept the job. If the PCs refuse, do
whatever you have to do to convince them. The best way to do this is to
make an impassioned but reasoned argument. For example, Joycie could
say, “Tymora is a genuinely good goddess, and she needs help. If Tymora
were to lose her position as the goddess of Luck, I can’t imagine what
terrible echoes that would have for the universe. And don’t forget, she
went out of her way to help you when you were in trouble. If you do
agree, you’ll have the gratitude of our priesthood for the rest of your
lives. Please, we really do need your help.”

### A Failed Departure

When the PCs are ready to leave the Museum, Joycie instructs everyone to
form a circle. She takes out a tuning fork for the Outlands, and casts
*plane shift*. Joycie and Lada vanish, but the PCs are still in the
museum. A few minutes later, the PCs get a *sending* from Joycie: “What
happened? Are you still in the museum? I’m going to take a long rest,
we’ll come try again in the morning.”

Here’s what went wrong: as explained in the *Golden Goats* blurb, it is
physically impossible to remove a piece of an exhibit from the
demiplane, even using *plane shift*. The PCs are part of an exhibit.
They will have to buy their freedom in order to leave.

### Two Divine Visitations

While waiting for the two priestesses to return, the PCs will receive
visitations from two goddesses.

#### Selune

The PCs are sitting around doing not much, waiting for Joycie to return.
Suddenly, the scene shifts: they are in a grassy field, surrounded by
hills, at night. The moon is absolutely enormous in the sky, and
everything is bathed in silvery moonlight. A female figure descends from
the sky, wearing a long flowing dress. She settles on the grass in front
of the PCs. It is Selune. She says:

> Tymora is one of my best friends, and she is as trustworthy and kind
> as a goddess can be. But she is making a mistake. I encourage you to
> work with her, but just be aware: there will come a point in time when
> you have to tell her to stop what she’s doing.
>
> Here is what I ask of you: keep your eyes open. Use your brains. If
> you see her do something that you think is going to cause harm, you
> must speak up. Tell her, or tell her priestesses. Do not be overawed
> by her divine presence. You speaking up at an appropriate moment may
> be all that stands between her and disaster.

The PCs can then talk to Selune. They will probably ask “What *kind* of
mistake is she making? What do you know about this situation? Give us
details.” Selune responds:

> A long, long time ago, I made a promise to keep a secret. I am bound
> by that promise: I could not break it if I wanted to. Because of that
> promise, I cannot give you any more details than I already have. I am
> relying on you to figure out what it is that I cannot say. I have seen
> you in the museum: you are clever, and you are good at figuring things
> out. I trust that you will discover what you need to before it is too
> late.

So here’s the backstory that you can’t tell to your players: when the
universe was young, Omta planted the seeds of randomness, knowing full
well that the creator of the universe would *not* be happy about what
Omta had done. After planting that seed, Omta fled and hid, hoping that
nobody saw what he did. However, somebody *did* see: Selune. Selune
tracked Omta back to his hiding place, and asked: “what did you do, and
why?” After hearing Omta’s explanation, Selune decided it was for the
best: the universe really *would* be better with some randomness. She
promised to Omta that she would not reveal what he had done. She
promised that she would let his existence and his hiding place remain a
secret. Selune has kept his secret for millenia.

So now, Omta is still in hiding, and now Tymora is trying to track down
Omta to his hiding place, in order to challenge him for the portfolio of
Luck. Selune thinks this is a mistake: she thinks there is no real
conflict between Omta and Tymora, and she thinks a war between them
would be a disaster. She approached Tymora and advised Tymora to leave
the Deck alone. However, because of her promise to Omta, she couldn’t
give any further explanation to Tymora. Tymora trusts Selune, but she’s
not willing to simply do what Selune tells her to do with no
explanation. Tymora, exasperated at Selune’s unwillingness to explain
her reasoning, told Selune that she will persist until somebody gives
her a clear, logical reason why she shouldn’t.

When the PCs speak to Selune, let her be soft-spoken and very warm. She
doesn’t stick around long. She gives her warning, answers a question or
two, then says goodbye. The scene shifts back to the museum.

#### Beshaba

Beshaba’s visitation comes immediately after Selune’s, and it
deliberately mocks Selune’s visitation. Once again, the scene shifts,
and the players are in “the same” field, surrounded by “the same”
rolling hills. But this time, the ground they’re sitting on is sharp
obsidian shards, and the sky is filled with roiling black clouds, with
shafts of red light breaking through. This is what Beshaba’s home plane
in the Abyss looks like. Again, a female figure descends from the sky,
wearing the same long flowing dress. Beshaba sits on the ground in the
same pose as Selune. She says,

> “Am I not more beautiful than Selune?”

Let the PCs hem and haw awkwardly for a minute, then have Beshaba give
her speech:

> Tymora is my sister, and as arrogant as a goddess can be. I am here to
> tell you that she is making a mistake. She is trying to find the god
> who made the deck, so that she can challenge him for the portfolio of
> luck. This will inevitably lead to war between gods.
>
> When two gods war, usually, both gods survive. But that’s not true for
> the mortals involved. Very likely, thousands of priests and innocents
> will die in a war between gods. And if one of the gods does die, that
> will cause untold upheavals in the multiverse, with thousands more
> innocents dying.
>
> Of course, I’m not really being altruistic here. I just don’t want to
> get dragged into a war between gods. I figure if this other god
> attacks Tymora, he’s going to attack me too. I don’t know how powerful
> this other god is, or what he can do to me. That’s not a risk I want
> to take. I prefer to let sleeping dogs lie.
>
> So here’s what I want from you: pretend to work for Tymora. But when
> the time comes for her to actually obtain the deck, I want you to
> undermine her. For example, if she asks you to negotiate for the deck,
> negotiate badly. If she looks like she’s going to take the deck by
> force, talk her out of it. Do what you have to do to stop her.

This is 100% lies.

Beshaba’s rationale, “preventing war,” is obviously out-of-character.
Beshaba would *love it* if some other god were to fight Tymora. She
would *love it* if thousands of innocents were to die in a war between
gods. She would *relish* all that. She’s also not really afraid of being
attacked by this other god.

The reason for the lying is that Beshaba has a plan. Gods are most
powerful in their own realm. Beshaba intends to use the Deck to lure
Tymora into her realm, where Beshaba is at her most powerful, and where
Tymora is at her least powerful, so that Beshaba can kill Tymora. To do
that, she needs to make sure that Tymora doesn’t get the deck first.
That’s Beshaba’s goal: get the Deck before Tymora does, so she can use
it as bait. All those reasonable-sounding explanations are just lies
designed to sell the PCs on the whole endeavor.

The PCs may ask, “If you want to stop us from getting the Deck, why not
just give us tons of bad luck?” Beshaba responds matter-of-factly:

> Certainly, I could throw annoying obstacles in your way. I could also
> just kill you. But that wouldn’t stop Tymora. She would just find
> other people to carry out her mission. You’re much more valuable to me
> alive: you have Tymora’s ear, and you can convince her of things.

Again, Beshaba only answers questions for a minute, and then she ends
the visitation.

### The Arrival of Castle Green

After the two visitations, the PCs have to wait the night. In the middle
of the night, they’re awakened by the caretakers Keira and Qurak, who
say, “Castle Green is arriving. Want to come see it?” If the PCs ask
“How do you know it’s coming,” they say, “the guidebook alerted us!” The
guidebook used to say:

Exhibit will be located inside Castle Green. The arrival of Castle Green
has been delayed.

But now it says:

Exhibit will be located inside Castle Green. Castle Green will be
arriving soon.

The PCs may be hesitant to visit their own exhibit, for fear of getting
trapped in their exhibit. Obviously, the PCs do not want to spend
eternity in a diorama. So Keira and Qurak might have to convince the
PCs. They make the following arguments:

-   We can’t actually imprison you in your diorama. We have no power to
    > do that. That’s why Diometron wanders the museum.

-   You don’t actually have to go inside. You can stand on the next
    > island over, and just look. You could send in Diometron to
    > investigate for you, if you want.

If the PCs aren’t interested even after Keira encourages them, don’t
force them. It’s not essential.

If the PCs do travel to the appropriate location, they find a clearing
in the cavern where the new floating island is going to be. The clearing
is filled with thin white mist. Keira explains that’s what it looks like
when an exhibit is arriving.

After staring at the appropriate spot for 15 minutes or so, the top half
of Castle Green appears, including everything from about waist level on
up. The top half of the castle has been sliced off of the bottom half,
and the bottom half was left behind. The main tower is completely
unattached to anything. The chunks of Castle Green sink a few feet, then
start bobbing in space: this is now the first “floating island” without
any island. The pieces of Castle Green are hovering in space, levitated
by the same force that keeps the floating islands floating. There are no
people in the debris.

When Keira sees this happen, she just sighs and says, “Great. Well,
that’s a shitshow.” Qurak says, “Screw this, I’m getting lunch.”

If the players check, there’s very little in the wreckage. There is
nobody in there. Everything of value has been taken. The big room where
the PCs drew cards from the deck is there, hovering at a crooked angle,
with the desk flopped over on its side, and the desk accessories
scattered around the room. The Deck is not present.

This event is here purely to make the players wonder what the heck is
going on at Castle Green.

If the players look at the guidebook under “The Deck of Many Things,”
the text now says: “Exhibit is Out of Order.”

### The Final Departure

Joycie and Lada return to the museum, via the teleportation circle. They
ask the PCs why the plane shift failed. Eventually, the group will ask
Keira and Qurak about it. Keira explains: “You’re part of an exhibit.
You’re the property of the museum. You can’t take any part of an exhibit
out of the museum, even with *plane shift*. It’s just impossible.”

But then Qurak, who has been mostly silent for the entire time the PCs
have been in the museum, steps forward. He says, “It’s not entirely
impossible. We can grant permission.” He explains the following bullet
points:

-   Qurak has the power to set the PCs free, by saying some “magic
    > words.”

-   However, Keira and Qurak are compelled, by geas, to do what’s in the
    > best interests of the museum. Orethys would not approve of giving
    > away an exhibit, no matter how bad the exhibit. Orethys *never*
    > gave anything away. So the geas prevents Qurak from releasing the
    > PCs.

-   Qurak has an idea for a workaround: he could trade the PCs exhibit
    > for a better exhibit. That would be in the best interests of the
    > museum, and therefore, would be allowed under the geas.

-   The actual procedure would be this: Qurak sets the PCs free, and the
    > PCs agree to capture a new, better exhibit within a month or so,
    > using the capture device.

-   There’s a catch: if the PCs fail to follow through and capture an
    > exhibit, the geas punishes Qurak by torturing him. Actually, geas
    > will eventually kill him, but since he’s in the museum, he can’t
    > die, so it will just keep torturing him forever.

-   Qurak is willing to accept this risk, in exchange for a promise: the
    > PCs will try to dismantle the museum, and set Qurak and Keira
    > free. Qurak will take this risk because he is desperate for
    > freedom.

If the PCs object on the grounds that they can’t morally put another
person in the museum, Qurak makes these arguments:

-   You could capture somebody who’s a danger to others, somebody who
    > genuinely deserves to be in a prison.

-   It doesn’t necessarily have to be an exhibit with a person in it. It
    > could just be an interesting place or object.

-   If you’re serious about dismantling the museum, putting somebody
    > into the museum is just a temporary situation.

If the players agree, and accept the capture device, Qurak gives them a
tutorial on using the capture device. Then, he says the magic
incantation: “By the will of Orethys, you are free to go.”\
\
Now the PCs can leave the museum, using *plane shift*. They cannot bring
any exhibit NPCs (including Diometron) with them, because other NPCs
have not been granted permission to leave the museum. When the PCs are
ready, Joycie plane shifts, and the PCs materialize in the market square
of St. Parnas, with Joycie and Lada.

## Bonus Exhibits

This section is here if you just need a few more random exhibits.

### Exhibit: The Organ Player

From the Guidebook:

Fff-huss is the most spectacular organ player I’ve ever listened to.

He has about 40 tentacles, they all move independently - and they’re
fast! A normal pipe organ will malfunction if you try to press more than
about 15 keys at the same time - there just isn’t enough airflow to
power that many pipes. So they built a custom set of 4 independent
bellows in order to make it possible for Fff-Huss to play his music.

It really is something to hear. Mind you, that’s not to say that it’s
*good*. But it is impressive.

The venue is a wealthy playhouse with a pipe organ. Most days, it’s used
for normal theatrical productions. But on Thursday, the day when the
playhouse was captured into the museum, Fff-Huss gets to play his music.
On this particular day, he had no audience at all - the locals know
about Fff-huss, and they are not interested in paying for cacophony.
Fff-huss, by the way, is a flumph.

When the PCs enter the exhibit, Fff-huss is napping in a round bed. When
he hears the PCs enter, he drifts over to them and points at them. Then
he points at chairs. He wants them to sit down.

By the way, Fff-huss cannot speak any verbal language, since he has no
mouth. He also seems to be unable to understand spoken speech, though he
can understand telepathic speech if one of the party members can do
that. Usually, he communicates by pointing and gesturing.

If the PCs sit down, Fff-huss starts his pipe organ music. It is very,
very fast, he plays “chords” of 30 or 40 notes at a time, and it seems
to be mostly arhythmic. It has some patterns but they’re hard to make
sense of. It sounds vaguely like music, for some definition of “music.”
It is mostly not enjoyable, though it can be intellectually interesting
to try to figure out what he’s trying to accomplish.

After the show is over, Fff-huss will go get a bowl which contains a few
silver coins. He will show the bowl to the PCs, one at a time, and he
will hold up three tentacles. He wants three silver coins per person. If
the PCs pay, Fff-huss is satisfied and he goes to take a nap. If the PCs
leave without paying, Fff-huss turns red and hisses, but he doesn’t do
anything else.

### Exhibit: The Mud Sauna

From the Guidebook:

This is the best mud-bath you’ve ever had. I *highly* recommend it. So
relaxing.

Your aching muscles will thank you.

The exhibit is a cave in the side of a rocky slope. The rocks are black
pumice, suggesting that this slope is volcanic. The cave is about 20
feet wide and 30 feet deep, beyond which point it narrows to just a
crack. A steady trickle of muddy water is flowing from the crack, it
flows through the mud, out of the cave, and it forms a small stream that
runs to the edge of the exhibit and vanishes. The water is very warm,
like a hot tub - a natural hot spring. The inside of the cave is
entirely coated in squishy, warm mud.

Soaking in the mud are two mud monsters. No, wait, they’re not
mud-monsters: they’re just people who are covered head to toe in mud.
One is Bartleby, a human, the other, Imbrex, is a half-celestial. They
are both here to enjoy the mud bath. Feel free to give them any
personalities you wish.

There is one other inhabitant in the cave: a mud elemental. He is not
initially visible, as he is down in the mud pit. The elemental has been
trapped in this cave for some time, and he longs for the company of
other mud elementals. But there are no other mud elementals here. He is
lonely.

If the PCs don’t get in the mud, the mud elemental will emerge. He will
try to cover the PCs in mud, in order to make them look like mud
elementals. This makes the mud elemental feel a little less lonely. The
PCs will probably recoil, but Bartleby and Imbrex will say, “don’t
worry, he’s harmless.” If the PCs still don’t let themselves be covered
in mud, the elemental will sadly slink back into the mud pit. If they do
allow it, the elemental will cuddle up to them. He is warm to the touch.
After a while, the elemental will try to lead the PCs into the mud pit.

The mud pit is extremely warm, soft, and relaxing. The elemental will
massage your muscles, because he wants you to stay and he knows that
people like being massaged. He has become quite good at it.

Staying in the mud for 30 minutes is equivalent to a long rest. However,
since you’re not actually asleep, you don’t have any dreams. If the PCs
have gotten injured - say, by falling off a rope - tell them that all
the bruising is gone.

When the PCs decide it is time to leave, it is possible to rinse most of
the mud off in the small stream outside the cave. If the PCs do this,
the mud elemental will poke his head out of the mud and watch for a
short while, and will then slink back into the mud.

# The Castle with the Steel Door

## Chapter Summary

Omta is extremely conflicted about the PCs. On one hand, they are
deck-touched, which means they have a certain bond with Omta. On the
other hand, the PCs have agreed to work with Tymora, and Omta is
terrified of Tymora. So in this chapter, Omta erects barriers that
prevent the PCs from getting too close to the Deck, but he also makes
overtures to communicate with the PCs. He will lower the barriers when
he is confident that the PCs understand his point of view. This chapter
is all about building trust.

When the PCs arrive back at the remains of Castle Green, all that
remains is the basement. Omta has created two lines of defense: first,
he has turned the basement into a complicated labyrinth where movement
is only feasible with Omta’s permission. Second, he has walled off the
Deck behind an impenetrable steel door.

When the PCs enter the labyrinth, they find it confusing and impossible
to get anywhere. But they also feel a presence in the back of their
minds, trying to communicate with them. This is Omta’s first attempt at
communication, using the telepathic bond they share. At this stage, all
the PCs have to do is make an effort, trying to talk to Omta. It doesn’t
matter *how* they try to communicate, or how successful they are, as
long as they make an effort. Once the PCs show that they care about
establishing contact, Omta will start helping the PCs to navigate the
labyrinth: he will take them where they want to go, if they just say
where they want to go.

Once the PCs can navigate the labyrinth, they will start finding Green’s
employees scattered about the labyrinth. An important side quest is
helping Green’s employees get out of the labyrinth, one by one. It can
be quite gratifying to get everybody out safe and sound - with the sole
exception of Green and his bodyguards, who are trapped behind the steel
door.

Eventually, the PCs will reach the steel door. By this time, Omta will
be dissatisfied with his efforts at communication so far. The telepathic
bond is allowing him to send vague impressions and emotions, but it’s
bad at sending detailed information. So Omta comes up with Plan B: if
telepathic communication isn’t working, then we can try writing! He
conjures six parchment scrolls, and drops them at the PCs feet. Then, he
adds six pigeonholes to the door. After the PCs decipher a scroll, they
can put the deciphered scroll into a pigeonhole. When all six scrolls
are deciphered, the door will open.

The scrolls contain a strange form of writing: each scroll contains
several cards from the deck, arranged in little groups. The Deck is
using cards as a form of symbolism. Each card has a symbolic meaning.
The PCs have collectively drawn many cards. They automatically know the
symbolic meanings of any cards that they have drawn. But there are also
many cards on the scrolls that the PCs *didn’t* draw, and they may have
no idea what *those* cards mean.

To learn the symbolic meanings of *those* cards, the PCs will have to
talk to NPCs who drew those particular cards. This becomes the main
quest of this chapter: tracking down NPCs who drew particular cards.
Unfortunately, talking to those NPCs is not always easy. For example,
one of these NPCs has been transformed into a rampaging beast. Another
has been put into a coma. Figuring out how to get useful information
from NPCs who have been drastically warped by the deck can be a
difficult challenge.

Talking to those NPCs, the PCs will discover that many of them are in
crisis. The Deck has turned their lives upside down, for good or for
bad. Many of them need help. The PCs have the opportunity here to build
relationships that will end up paying off in later chapters, when these
NPCs may become powerful allies with deck-granted powers.

When the PCs finally know the symbolic meanings of all the cards, they
will be able to decipher all the scrolls. This allows them to open the
door, which leads to Omta’s hiding place. The PCs can then have a true
conversation with Omta for the first time. When the conversation is
over, the PCs are returned to Castle Green. There is no longer a steel
barrier preventing access to Green and the Deck. The PCs can go talk to
Green, and can negotiate to buy the Deck.

## The Market Square of St Parnas 

The PCs manage to leave the Museum of Orethys, with Joycie’s help. The
entire group plane shifts back to the outlands. They arrive in the
market square in the center of St. Parnas. The market square is full of
shops and stalls with various vendors. You can buy most anything in the
market square, or near it.

### Damage from the Chaos Storm

The first things the PCs notice when they reach the market square is
that there is merchandise scattered all over the ground, and merchants
are busy picking up the mess. The merchants will explain that items were
teleporting around. The merchants have given the phenomenon a name:
they’re calling it a “chaos storm.” The epicenter of the chaos storm
was, of course, Castle Green.

The PCs will not learn the cause of the storm for some time. However,
the DM should know the secret. When Tymora observed a spiritual link
between the PCs and the other deck-touched individuals, she speculated
that a link might also exist to the creator of the deck. She was not
wrong: Omta knows that the PCs can in fact lead Tymora to Omta. When the
PCs agreed to help Tymora with this, Omta had a panic attack.

His panic manifested as objects teleporting around randomly. The biggest
object that got teleported was the top half of Castle Green, it got
teleported all the way into the Museum of Orethys. If this seems like an
odd coincidence, it is… but Gods and Fate are like that.

Lots of medium-sized objects also teleported, chunks of masonry, wagons,
you name it. Most of these items moved 20 to 30 feet in a random
direction. Some of these movements caused real harm: when a wagon
teleports 20 feet in the air, it can really hurt somebody when it comes
crashing down. When a structural support beam of a building teleports
somewhere else, it’s not good for the building. There are many injured
people.

The damage is most severe at Castle Green itself. But the parts of town
that are close to Castle Green also got hit. Places that are farther
away mostly avoided any serious damage, but they did experience a lot of
small-object movement: wine bottles, notebooks, and the like got
scattered. There is quite a mess. In the market square, which is far
enough from Castle Green, there is minimal real damage.

Much of what happens in this chapter will be dealing with the damage and
aftermath of the chaos storm.

### Joycie Says Goodbye, Lada Stays

Shortly after arriving at the market square, Joycie says that she was
glad to have met the PCs, but she now needs to go back to her job at the
temple in Brightwater. She’s very high-level, which means her time is in
very high demand. The temple was only able to spare her for a short
time.

Lada explains that she would like to stay with the party, if they’ll
allow it. Tymora wants her to study the deck, and they both agree that
sticking with the PCs is the best way to do it.

Assuming the PCs allow Lada into the group, let the players take turns
running Lada’s character. Lada will never fight, but she will do support
activities like casting *cure* and *bless* spells. Be strict about that:
the players cannot put Lada on the front line: she is scared of combat,
and she will panic if she is targeted. Lada is always one level beneath
the PCs. The reason she’s so low-level is that she doesn’t aspire to be
a combatant: she’s a scientist, she spends her days in the lab, not on
the road.

### Magic Items in the Market Square

The PCs will notice that there are several merchants selling magic
items. That is not typical of St. Parnas, this is only a medium-sized
town. On a normal day, there would be no more than a handful of magic
items for sale in the entire city (not counting potions, which are
fairly common). But today, there are multiple merchants displaying quite
a few items. Naturally, that’s because the deck has been conjuring lots
of items, and many of them get put up for sale. The merchants try
selling them in St. Parnas first, and then if they don’t sell in St.
Parnas, they ship them to Tradegate where there’s a broader clientele.

If any PC didn’t receive anything of material value from the Deck, then
Green owes them 5000 gp. When the PCs were cast into the *donjon*, Green
assumed they would never be heard from again, so he gave the money to
the PC’s family or friends. When the players created characters, they
were instructed to invent at least one friend. If the PC talks to their
friend, the friend will have the money (unless the friend has issues.)
So again, they will have enough money to buy one serious magic item.

So none of the PCs will feel left out - everyone will have about enough
money for one serious magic item, unless they already received a magic
item directly from the deck.

When the PCs created characters, they were expected to have a reason to
draw cards from the deck. Some of the players may have given their
characters backstories that they needed to pay a debt, or to rescue a
family member. In that case, a PC may have used up their money. This may
make the player feel left out. Try to avoid that situation. For example,
if the PC used their money to rescue a family member, perhaps the family
member in their gratitude raised money to pay the PC back. Try to find
an excuse to make sure that every player still has the money they won
from the deck.

### The Ogre in the Market Square

In the corner of the market square is huge Ogre, just standing there
holding a mandolin. His name is Pig, and he is deck-touched: the PCs can
see cards over his head. A detailed description of Pig is given in the
upcoming section, “Pig: The Ogre King.” The Deck gave Pig the ability to
play the mandolin - just before the chaos storm, Pig was playing music
for a small crowd. When the chaos storm hit, Pig stopped playing and the
crowd scattered. Pig is now just standing there looking perplexed. Pig
has an INT of 6, so when he’s perplexed, he stays perplexed for quite a
while.

If the PCs approach Pig, then Pig is not that hard to have a
conversation with. Refer to Pig’s character bio to know how to play Pig.
At this time, Pig is not willing to leave the market square. Pig will
tell the PCs anything they want to know, but remember that Pig has an
INT of 6, so he can’t tell them anything that isn’t straightforward and
obvious.

## The Deck-Touched NPCs

Throughout the town, the PCs will find deck-touched NPCs: people who
drew cards from the deck. Some of these will show up early in this
chapter, others are hard to find and will not be found until the PCs
search for them. We are putting this list here, early in the chapter
description, because these NPCs will make appearances throughout the
chapter. Finding and speaking to them will become an important goal for
the PCs.

When the PCs do start searching for the deck-touched NPCs, the most
reliable way to get a lead is to pay attention to Deck Dreams. Each
dream comes from a different deck-touched NPC. The dreams contain all
kinds of clues about who these people are and where to find them.

### Pig: The Ogre King

The Ogre King is an ogre named Pig.

Pig is not a standard Ogre: he is a Ysgard Ogre. The giantish races that
live in Ysgard tend to be much larger than the giants in other parts of
the multiverse, and Pig is no exception. He stands a full 10 feet tall.
A stat block for Pig will be given later.

Pig used to be the leader of his tribe, and for good reason. He was very
strong, even by the standards of a Ysgard Ogre, and among ogres, being
the strongest makes you the leader. A few years ago, Pig contracted a
wasting disease which left him physically weak (STR: 13). He became the
target of derision and mockery by the other ogres, his mate rejected
him, and he became the laughing stock of his tribe. Desperate, he left
his home.

Somebody suggested to Pig that he might find a cure if he drew from the
Deck. This was terrible advice. If any of the PCs asks a real medical
professional about Pig and his condition, the professional will
immediately be able to identify the disease that he suffered from,
*Wasting Rot*, and they will know the standard treatment: *Greater
Restoration*. Of course, *Greater Restoration* is very expensive, but
it’s the right treatment. Drawing cards from the Deck, on the other
hand, was extremely unlikely to result in a cure. Pig was not
intelligent enough to realize that. He drew these cards:

-   *Key*: Pig gained great skill as a musician.

-   *Jester*: Nobody takes Pig seriously.

-   *Throne*: Pig is going to become the king of a nation.

That an ogre should be a musician is quite odd. At some point, Pig
picked up a mandolin from a merchant booth and started playing it,
skillfully. The merchant, rather taken by this turn of events, decided
to give him the mandolin as a gift. Pig has learned to use this as a
source of income: he plays the mandolin (quite beautifully) in the
market square, and people give him food.

The Jester card is particularly humiliating for Pig. He used to be the
object of mockery among ogres. Now he can’t even scare humans.

The Throne card says that Pig will be the king of a nation. Nobody has
the first clue how that could possibly be the case. It just seems
utterly implausible that a feeble ogre, that nobody takes seriously,
could be a king. Pig certainly *isn’t* a king: he’s a homeless musician
who panhandles for food. If you ask Pig about the throne card, Pig says,
“Throne card say me king! That’s dumb. Pig not king, Pig weakling.
Weakling can’t be king.”

The monster manual says that Ogres are evil. But for the purpose of this
campaign, we’re taking the view that Ogres are actually too close to
animal intelligence to be really “evil.” Instead, we view them as
dangerous predatory animals. Ogres have simple desires: food and mates.
Like most apex predators, they respect the biggest, strongest
individual. Their approach to problem solving boils down to fight or
flight. Because Ogres are such apex predators, it’s usually fight.

If you encounter an apex predator like a lion, and it is well-fed and
has no reason to feel threatened by you, then it will often just ignore
you. Ogres are the same. Ogres form bonds with other Ogres, and they can
be protective of their mates. If you treat an Ogre well, they can learn
to trust you.

Pig is not that hard to get along with. Like most animals, he prefers an
easy meal, and he has lots of access to easy meals: the people of St
Parnas are providing him with food. Because of this, Pig has no urge to
eat the PCs. Also, Pig knows that he is physically very weak, because of
the *Wasting Rot,* so he instinctively knows he needs to be submissive,
even to humans.

Pig is very unhappy. He’s still physically weak - the deck didn’t change
that - and now everyone laughs at him. The only bright spot in his life
right now is that he enjoys playing the mandolin. When he speaks, it is
in a melancholy, depressed tone.

The PC have the following dream, as seen through Pig’s eyes:

> You sitting in the market square. You see that you are not human, you
> have enormous legs and arms, and huge clawed hands. You are playing
> the mandolin expertly, and you are telling a sad story about how you
> became sick, and your bride left you. You are surrounded by a crowd,
> they laugh at everything you say, even though your story is sad. They
> keep coming up to you and dropping coins at your feet, and fruit, and
> meat, and they tell you what a great comedian you are. You don’t
> understand, but you like the fruit and meat.

Because Pig hangs out in the market square, which is the hub of St
Parnas, Pig is probably the first other deck-touched individual the PCs
will meet. This will probably be the first time their *Deck Awareness*
power allows them to see three cards over an NPC’s head. Pig says “You
have cards on your head! Me too.” This confirms to them that they’re
members of a community who are all experiencing some of the same things.

Pig’s *jester* card warps the perceptions of the townsfolk, making them
think that Pig is funny. But because the PCs drew their own cards, they
have a special power: *Deck Immunity*, which means they are immune to
the effects of other people’s cards. So Pig’s *jester* card cannot warp
their perceptions. They see Pig as he as: a frustrated, sad,
stressed-out Ogre.

At some point, Pig notices that the PCs aren’t laughing at everything he
says. “Why you not laugh! Everyone laugh! Why no laugh?” Pig is
extremely grateful to have somebody, anybody, who isn’t laughing at him.
This immediately ingratiates him to the PCs.

Of course, Pig also has *Deck Awareness*. If Pig sees the *jester* card
above any of the PCs’ heads, Pig immediate commiserates: “You got bad
card! Everyone laugh at you! Pig got bad card!” This makes him feel even
more connected to the PCs. If he sees the *key* card, he asks, “You get
music too?”

If the PCs ask questions, Pig will willingly answer, but remember, Pig
has an INT of 6. He cannot answer any difficult or abstract questions.
Mentally, he’s the equivalent of a toddler. Pig doesn’t know how to use
his inside voice: he yells more or less all the time.

*Asking Pig about Key:*

If you ask Pig about the Key card, he says “Key teach me music! I can do
it now! Watch! (He plays). Now music is job, I work here, play music.”
So Pig has actually mentioned several concepts: teaching, skills,
careers. This is the essence of the key card, and it should be enough.
The PCs won’t be able to get much more out of him than that.

There’s one thing that’s confusing about Pig’s explanation: it might
sound as if the deck gave him a mandolin: it didn’t. Pig was given the
mandolin by a merchant named Brunna, who we will tell you about later.
What the deck did is give Pig the necessary skill.

*Asking Pig about Jester:*

Pig says, “Card make everyone laugh. Pig not like it. You not laugh. Pig
like you.” He really can’t say anymore. Fortunately, none of Omta’s
scrolls contain the jester card.

*Asking Pig about Throne:*

Pig says: “I was big, strong, king of my tribe! Now not king, weak. Card
say I be king again. I don’t understand. Biggest strongest ogre is king!
Pig not biggest, not strongest, so not king.”

There’s a subtle distinction embedded in this explanation. When Omta
uses the throne card as symbolism, it doesn’t mean a king who rules by
authority, or by respect. It means someone who rules by raw power, by
being the biggest and toughest. Pig accurately captures that intention
when he says “Biggest strongest is king!” Pig, with his INT of 6, is not
great at explanations, but he really does grasp the meaning of the
throne card.

*Helping Pig:*

Pig suffered from *Wasting Rot*, which caused his muscles to atrophy. He
now has STR 13, which is pathetic for an Ogre. Before the disease, he
was by far the strongest, toughest Ogre in his tribe - he was the King
of his tribe. The disease has already run its course, there is no need
to get rid of the bacterium. What’s needed is to undo the damage: what
Pig needs now is *greater restoration*. That spell will cause his
muscles to return, gradually, over a few weeks. There is nobody in town
who can cast Greater Restoration. The medics in town say, “you will need
to go to a large city.” If the PCs want to cure Pig, this is something
they can do in Chapter 3, which takes place in a larger city.

Making an ally of Pig can be a big boon for the party. Pig is a heck of
a tank, if he is healed, then he can help the PCs in some big combats
later in the campaign.

However, there is a downside to restoring Pig: if the PCs do this, they
will have an oversized Ogre who is capable of killing a person with a
single blow, who has a short attention span and the intelligence of a
toddler. Disaster could result. If the PCs are going to restore Pig,
they need to have a plan to make sure that Pig is properly supervised.
If they don’t think of this, Lada mentions it.

Healing Pig’s muscles goes a long way toward making him happy. But
fixing the jester card would really make things complete. Fixing that
will take a Wish or the intervention of a god.

### Borghan: The Caged Beast

The caged beast was once a human man named Borghan. He drew cards from
the deck because of his debts. He drew these cards:

-   *Gem*: Borghan received a shower of gems. His debts are paid.

-   *Beast*: Borghan has been transformed into an oversized Grizzly bear
    > with a few humanoid characteristics.

-   *Bricklayer*: The deck has built a labyrinth for Borghan to inhabit,
    > under Castle Green.

Borghan looks like a werebear, but he does not have the curse of
lycanthropy, and he is not a shapechanger. He is permanently in half-man
half-bear form. He has animal intelligence and operates mostly on animal
instinct.

Green wasn’t sure what to do with Borghan, so he temporarily put Borghan
in a holding cell. A few hours later, Borghan bashed open the cell by
sheer strength, and quickly found his way to the labyrinth to which he
was attracted by the compulsion of the Bricklayer card.

There is no food in the labyrinth, Borghan hasn’t eaten in days. But he
can’t overcome the bricklayer card’s magical compulsion to stay in the
labyrinth. He is the “Caged Beast” because he is imprisoned in the
Labyrinth by his own compulsion. With animal intelligence, he is not
smart enough to reason his way out of the situation. If something
doesn’t change soon, he will starve to death in the labyrinth.

The PCs experience the following dream, as seen through Borghan’s eyes:

> You are ravenously hungry, but you’re in an empty corridor, there’s
> nothing to eat. You run down the corridor, turn, run some more, turn
> again, and run some more, but there’s nothing but corridors. You see a
> door, already smashed - you feel like you’ve been here before. You
> pass through the broken door, and on the other side, there’s more
> corridors. You’re so hungry, and there’s no food.

When the PCs are exploring under Castle Green, they will stumble into
Borghan’s labyrinth. They should immediately recognize the labyrinth
from Borghan’s deck dream. If they think back on the deck dream, they
will remember that in the dream, they were ravenously hungry.

Wandering through the labyrinth will eventually cause the PCs to
encounter Borghan. Borghan is ravenously hungry. When he sees the PCs,
he sees food. He will attack with the intention of eating a PC.

The PCs, for their part, will see a werebear-like creature, with three
cards hovering over its head, one of which is “Beast.” They should be
able to figure out that this is a person who has been transformed into a
beast by the Deck.

Very likely, the PCs will have to fight Borghan, unless they are very
clever and prepared. If the PCs reduce Borghan to 0 HP, he doesn’t
immediately die. Instead, like a PC, he gets death saves. If Borghan is
down, and the PCs cast *cure wounds* or the like, then Borghan’s life is
spared. In that case, Borghan will become submissive, even though he is
intensely hungry: he knows he has been beaten.

But even though he’s submissive, he’s still starving to death, and he
can’t think about anything other than food. To enable Borghan to think
about anything other than food, the PCs must sate his hunger. Borghan
will not think of anything else other than eating until he is fed. To
feed him requires a *lot* of food. A few rations from the PCs’s backpack
isn’t even going to make a dent. A whole pig or sheep would do it. If
the PCs manage to sate his appetite, he actually becomes reasonably
cooperative.

Once Borghan has eaten, the next step is to cast *Speak with Animals,*
or something else along those lines. Telepathy might work. If there’s a
druid in the party, they can probably do it. If the PCs don’t have any
way to speak to animals, remember this: the marketplace in St Parnas is
experiencing a glut of magic items because of the Deck. If the PCs look
for a useful magic item, make sure they find one - maybe even let them
rent it. Alternately, the PCs may be able to recruit an NPC helper who
can cast *Speak with Animals*. There are lots of helpful people in St
Parnas.

Once the PCs have some sort of communication channel opened up, the PCs
can try to learn about the cards that Borghan drew.

*Asking Borghan about Gem:*

It isn’t that hard to guess the meanings of the Gem card, so it probably
isn’t necessary to ask Borghan. If the PCs want to ask Borghan, then
coaxing this information out of him can be tricky. Probably the best way
is just to show him some gems. His first reaction, “Gems Beautiful!
Sparkly,” covers the concept of beauty. His second reaction relates to
the fact that he drew cards because of his debts. He says, “I wanted
gems before. I don’t remember why.” The PCs can probably figure out that
he needed money, and that gems represent money.

*Asking Borghan about Bricklayer:*

The PCs can easily guess that the Bricklayer card means “building
things.” They don’t need Borghan’s help to figure that out. What they
won’t be able to easily guess is that the bricklayer card also instills
a compulsion to be possessive and territorial about the structure that
was built. So therefore, bricklayer can also mean “possessive” and
“territorial.”

Borghan cannot explain abstract concepts, with his animal intelligence.
If the PCs ask him an abstract question like “what are the non-obvious
meanings of the bricklayer card,” Borghan will just stare blankly. But
if they ask a simpler, more concrete question like, “what did the deck
build you,” he says “Labyrinth is for me. My territory!” If the PCs ask
any other question about the labyrinth, Borghan gets agitated: “My
territory! My territory! You only allowed because you feed me! My
territory! Mine! Not yours! Mine!”

This reaction is very similar to what Alyssa Varn says about “her”
castle. Perhaps the PCs will put two and two together - both the people
who drew the bricklayer card are being very territorial and possessive.
If the card instills possessiveness and territoriality in everyone who
draws it, then perhaps the symbolic meanings of the card include
possessiveness and territoriality.

*Helping Borghan:*

Borghan is trapped in a maze with no food. He will starve to death.
There are quite a few ways that the PCs could theoretically help him.

The simplest thing they can do is hire somebody to feed him for a month
or two. Over time, the compulsion of the bricklayer card will start to
wear off, and Borghan will be able to go out into the woods and hunt for
himself. Turning Borghan back to a human is probably not feasible: it
would take a Wish or an act of a god. Another temporary solution for
Borghan is to capture him into the Museum of Orethys. This will
effectively put him on ice until later, which will keep him from
starving for now. It may also be possible to find magic items that make
Borghan a little more capable of coping with his situation. For example,
a *headband of intellect* would bring back his intelligence, which would
make it possible for him to figure out that he needs to leave the
labyrinth temporarily in order to hunt.

> Borghan
>
> *Large Monstrosity, Unaligned*
>
> Armor Class 12 (natural armor)\
> Hit Points 200 (16d10 + 112)\
> Speed 40 ft.
>
> STR 21 (+5)  DEX 10 (+0)  CON 24 (+7) INT 7 (–2)  WIS 16 (+3)  CHA 9
> (–1)
>
> Saving Throws Con +10, Wis +6\
> Skills Perception +6\
> Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 16\
> Languages understands Common and Sylvan, but cannot speak\
> Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)\
> Proficiency Bonus +3
>
> Keen Smell.\
> Borghan has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on
> smell.
>
> Multiattack: Borghan makes two claw attacks and one bite attack.
>
> Claw. *Melee Weapon Attack:* +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
> *Hit:* 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage.
>
> Bite. *Melee Weapon Attack:* +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target.
> *Hit:* 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage.
>
> Rage and Hunger (3/Day). Borghan lets out a blood-curdling roar and
> enters a state of primal fury. It immediately ends any of the
> following conditions on itself: charmed, frightened, paralyzed,
> stunned, and any effect causing it to be incapacitated or unconscious
> without reducing it to 0 HP. Until the end of its next turn, it has
> advantage on all attack rolls and cannot be charmed or frightened.

### Sam Link: The Chosen One

The chosen one is a elven man named Sam Link. One day, he felt compelled
to take a few hours off work. He wandered until he arrived at castle
Green. When he got there, he drew cards from the deck. He would not be
able to tell you exactly why he did this. He drew these cards:

-   *Star*: Sam has been given a ring of feather falling.

-   *Cripple*: Sam has developed serious lower-back pain.

-   *Sun*: Sam has been granted a divine spark. He is now on the path to
    > godhood.

Sam knows he now has a divine spark, and Sam is the sort of person who
believes that there’s a reason for everything that happens in the
universe. Therefore, he believes he was chosen for some purpose.
However, he has no idea what that purpose might be. He does know that
his new power can be used for healing, though he suspects there’s more
to it than that. He’s not sure what to do now that he is “chosen,” but
he figures if he was given the gift of healing, he should use it, so now
he’s out on the streets healing people.

He also doesn’t know what to do with his ring of feather falling. He
considered pawning it, but once again, he thinks there’s a reason for
everything, so he decided he better keep the ring. He is wearing it
around town, fully expecting to be thrown off a tower or something.

The PCs experience the following dream, as seen through Sam’s eyes:

> You are walking through the streets of St Parnas. You see several
> buildings with broken windows and minor damage. You see a woman on the
> ground. You run up to her and ask, “are you hurt?” She says, “my leg.”
> Looking more closely at her leg, you can see that it’s bent at a weird
> angle, and there is severe bruising. You put a hand on her leg, and
> you allow energy to flow. The leg straightens, and the bruising fades.
> She says, “thank you, cleric.” You say, “I’m not a cleric, but you’re
> welcome.”

The town of St. Parnas, where this chapter takes place, has experienced
a “chaos storm” (we’ll explain that later). There are broken windows and
injured people everywhere. In the immediate aftermath, Sam was walking
around, healing everybody he could. He does not randomly encounter the
PCs.

By the time the PCs learn about Sam’s existence, the worst of the chaos
storm is already over. At this point, Sam is searching around town
looking for anyone who still needs help. Nobody knows where Sam is,
because he’s moving around too much. The best way to find Sam is to go
somewhere where there are injured people.

One place where you can find injured people is after the basilisk fight,
later in this chapter. When the PCs arrive, several civilians have
already been petrified by the basilisk. The civilians will remain
petrified for 24 hours while the effect wears off. The PCs will fight
and probably kill the basilisk, then they’ll have to figure out what to
do with the petrified civilians. One of those civilians is severely
injured: her hand broke off at the wrist after she turned to stone. When
she turns back to flesh, she will bleed out rapidly.

Sam hears about this injured petrified person, and he goes to help. He
will sit with her for a long time while he waits for her to turn back to
flesh, so that he can heal her as soon as she does. This effectively
locks Sam in one location for quite some time (you, as DM, can decide
how long).

The PCs can learn about Sam’s location in any one of several ways: by
talking to the mayor, by talking to the guards, or by having a deck
dream. If they go to the location right away, Sam is still there with
the petrified woman.

While they sit there, Sam is willing to have a conversation with them,
on one condition: Sam will answer the PC’s questions, but only if the
PCs agree to answer Sam’s questions. He will trade question for
question: Sam asks one, then the PCs ask one, then Sam, then the PCs,
back and forth like that. That’s his condition. If the PC’s question is
about one of the cards, Sam will do his honest best to provide detailed
information about that one card - but only that one card. Before we get
to Sam’s questions, here is what Sam has to say about the cards:

*Asking Sam about Star:*

Sam tells the PCs that the star card is what gave him the ring of
feather falling. He says it always conjures a wondrous magic item. He
then explains that therefore, the card can mean *wondrous magic item*.
He also says it can just mean wonderful non-magical item, or even a
wonderful place, or the emotion of wonderment.

*Asking Sam about Cripple:*

Sam will tell them: “The cripple card gave me serious lower-back pain.”
Sam explains that it can mean any kind of infirmity: lack of strength,
lack of dexterity, lack of health, or the like. It can mean just a
physical flaw in general. If you wanted to say that a teapot is broken,
you would again use the cripple card to represent the state of being
physically broken.

*Asking Sam about Sun:*

Sam tells the PCs that the Sun card is the one that gave him a divine
spark. He explains that therefore, the Sun card can mean divine
ascension, or the state of being a god or goddess, or any variant of
that - it can mean divinity, divine, godlike, etc.

*Helping Sam:\
\
*Sam agrees to answer the PCs questions, if in exchange the PCs agree to
answer Sam’s questions. As it turns out, all of Sam’s questions are
existential questions about the purpose and meaning of life. He
absolutely insists that he won’t accept brief, thoughtless answers. He
wants insights!

Sam is the kind of person who believes strongly that the gods have a
plan, and that there must be a reason for his divine ascension. But he
is utterly baffled as to what the reason might be, or what he’s supposed
to do about it. Here are his four questions, in the order he asks them:

-   Q1: Why do you think I was chosen for divine ascension? Why me?

-   Q2: What is the proper way I should be using the gift I’ve been
    > given?

-   Q3: How can I ascend further up the ladder toward godhood? What
    > should I do?

-   Q4: What the heck is this ring of feather falling for?

In response to Sam’s questions, the PCs are likely to have a
philosophical discussion. The PCs can tell Sam their theories for why
Sam was given a spark, and they may have their own philosophies about
what Sam ought to be doing with his gift. Sam will take these theories
into serious consideration, but he won’t make any hard-and-fast
decisions just yet.\
\
There are no “right” answers to Sam’s questions, but there are wrong
answers: any answer that is glib, or that doesn’t seriously grapple with
the difficult issues, is a wrong answer. If he gets a glib answer, Sam
will refuse to move on to his turn until the PCs really tackle the
question.

In truth, the best way to help Sam is to get him to stop obsessing so
much. He is so fixated on trying to solve the puzzle of why he was
chosen, what he’s supposed to do, and the like, that he’s making himself
crazy. He needs to slow down and just let things unfold naturally.

In my version of this campaign, the PCs put Sam in a situation where he
met a fun and playful woman. That gave him something else to do other
than obsess about his role in the universe.

### Alyssa Varn: The Squatter

The squatter is a tiefling woman named Alyssa Varn. She is a gambler,
and she was deeply in debt. She was one of the first people that drew
cards from the Deck. She drew these cards:

-   *Tiger*: She gained a lot of limberness, she is now basically a
    > contortionist.

-   *Knight*: She received a staff of withering.

-   *Bricklayer*: The Deck built her a castle.

Alyssa quickly sold the staff, she is not a combatant and has no use for
a weapon. That paid off half her gambling debts. However, she did not
want to sell the castle: the bricklayer card instilled a strong
compulsion to live in the castle. Her husband told her that if she
didn’t sell the castle and pay off her debts, he would divorce her.
Under pressure, she sold the castle to Green, and it became Castle
Green.

Alyssa resents being forced to sell, her compulsion to live in the
castle is overwhelming. She has convinced herself that a contract “made
under duress” (the threat of divorce) is invalid, and so therefore, the
sale is invalid, and the castle is still hers. So she keeps sneaking
back in.

The PCs have the following dream, as seen through Alyssa’s eyes:

> It’s nighttime. You’re standing next to a sturdy stone building, which
> has a narrow vertical window, like a castle window. You try to squeeze
> yourself through the window, and you almost make it - you’re an
> unusually thin woman, and you’re really flexible, a contortionist. A
> male voice behind you says, “stop it, you’re being absolutely crazy.”
> You say, “This is my castle!” He says: “It’s not yours, you sold it!”
> You cram yourself into the window again, and this time, you actually
> succeed in getting through. The male voice says, “You’re nuts, and I’m
> done. Goodbye.”

Alyssa is currently living in the basement of castle Green. The castle
came furnished with lots of furniture. Green moved a lot of that
furniture into a storage room in the basement. Alyssa took some of the
bookcases in the storage room and improvised a small hidden “room” (with
bookcase walls) hidden behind a giant pile of furniture.

Green has a lawsuit pending against Alyssa in the courts of St Parnas,
he’s trying to have her committed to a mental institution. However, the
Mayor is slow-rolling it, mainly as retaliation for the fact that Green
and the Deck are upsetting the calm of what was once a safe little small
town. So, for now at least, Green is on his own. From time to time,
Green’s guards catch Alyssa. But Green isn’t cruel: he knows that Alyssa
is just a sad crazy woman, and that her craziness is in part Green’s
fault, so he can’t bring himself to physically harm her. So he just
kicks her out of the castle for the umpteenth time, and he hopes the
courts will take action soon.

Unfortunately for Green, that means that for now, Alyssa can pretty much
harass Green with impunity. Alyssa is a zero-level NPC, so she cannot
take on Green and his guards directly. She knows that if she gets too
close to the guards, she’s going to get kicked out again. So instead,
she harasses Green mainly using traps.

None of Alyssa’s traps are deadly - at least, not intentionally. She is
annoying and even dangerous, but not a murderer. She often will lurk in
the shadows, watching her own traps. The PCs encounter the following
traps set by Alyssa:

-   In the Armory, a tripwire. See the subsequent section on the Armory
    > for more information.

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-   In any room, she puts a bucket of yellow liquid on top of an open
    > door. Dexterity save DC 12 to dodge it. You can determine the
    > in-game effects, if any.

-   In the event that one or two characters separate from the party, and
    > end up in a room, Alyssa jams a triangular wedge into the door,
    > then she nails the door shut. It’s not specified what is required
    > to get the door back open, but make it a not-too-difficult project
    > that takes up 15 minutes of game time. Do not do this if all the
    > party members are in the room, and don’t do it if the party
    > members in the room are strong enough to simply force their way
    > out. Make it interesting, wait until a few party members who don’t
    > have the strength to break out can be trapped.

Her traps usually come with a written note: “Get out of my castle,” or
“Serves you right, trespassing in my castle!”

While the PCs are exploring the castle, they never find Alyssa: she’s
too good at hiding after months of experience. But they may find her
sleeping quarters. If they look in the storage room with the furniture,
they may notice that most of the room is covered in thick dust, but
there’s a path through the dust (perception DC 13). To follow the path
you have to be very small, or a contortionist, or ideally both. It leads
to Alyssa’s hidden room, which contains a matress and some personal
effects. There’s nothing interesting in the personal effects, but the
size of the garments reveals that Alyssa is very small. Inside the
hidden room is a stone wall with one of the stones carved out. If you’re
small, you can squeeze through.

The tiny passage through the wall emerges in Mikhail’s bedroom, into the
back of his wardrobe. She has loosened part of the back of the wardrobe,
she can take it off quickly, pass through the passage and into the
wardrobe, then out the doors of the wardrobe.

Alyssa wants her castle back. However, she has been trying for months,
and now the upper half of the castle is gone. She is losing hope. When
the PCs finally rescue all of Green’s employees from the labyrinth - not
counting Green and his entourage - they will have achieved Alyssa’s goal
for her: get rid of Green and his employees. However, by this time, the
castle is being invaded by giant ants. This causes her to lose even more
hope.

The next time the PCs visit the labyrinth after rescuing all of Green’s
employees, they find Alyssa just sitting on a sofa in the lounge,
watching the ants glumly. The PCs can see her cards using *deck
awareness*. She looks up and says:

> “Hey, you guys drew cards, didn’t you. I’ve seen that effect on
> Borghan and Balanestra (pointing at the cards over everyone’s heads).
> Wait, are you the ones I wedged in such-and-such room?”

If the PCs ask why she’s not in hiding any more, she says:

> “For a long time, I was fighting to get Green out of my castle, my
> home. Well, Green and his employees are finally leaving, but the top
> half of the castle is gone, and now the ants are moving in. It’s just
> getting more and more clear that I’m never getting my castle back. I’m
> on the brink of giving up. That’s why I’m sitting here just taking one
> last look at what remains of my home.”

If the PCs complain about the shit that Alyssa has been doing to them,
she says:

> “Sorry about the traps. I was just getting more and more angry that
> more and more people were in my castle, and I sort of overreacted. I
> guess everything I did was pointless. Sorry I took it out on you
> guys.”

If the PCs say anything to suggest that maybe Alyssa is being irrational
trying to live in a castle that she doesn’t need, when she has a
perfectly good house in town, especially given that she sold the castle,
she completely transforms into a crazed person:

> “This is my home! My territory! It’s mine, the deck built it for ME!
> Don’t be telling me it’s not mine, this is my territory, and I’m going
> to protect it! Get the fuck out of my house!”

Then, she starts screaming at the PCs and kicking and hitting (no
damage). She won’t calm down for about a half hour. This transformation
is magical: it’s the effect of the *bricklayer* card. The card instills
a powerful compulsion to live in the space, to make it your own. Notice
that Alyssa used the word “territory” twice. That’s a word that people
mostly use in reference to animals who mark their territory - that’s
intentional. The bricklayer card is strongly tied in to the concept of
animalistic territorial possession.

If the PCs leave and come back, Alyssa says:

> “Sorry about that tantrum. I don’t know what got into me. Every time
> somebody tells me to leave, I just turn into that crazy woman. I can’t
> control it.”

People who draw the bricklayer card have to make a Wisdom saving throw,
DC 15 in order to escape from the compulsion to live in the building. If
they fail, they get to try again once per month. Alyssa’s wisdom is only
8. She has failed the saving throw multiple times.

To help Alyssa, what the PCs really need to do is:

> 1\. They need to figure out that Alyssa is under a magical compulsion.
>
> 2\. They must help her to escape from that compulsion.

Once they figure out that that’s their goal, interrupt and say, “As your
DM, this is how we’re going to roleplay this. Alyssa gets one wisdom
saving throw to escape from the compulsion. Do what you can to prepare
her, then roll the saving throw for her. You get one and only one
chance.”

There are actually lots of things the PCs can do to prepare Alyssa:

-   Any spell that helps with wisdom saving throws is a good idea,
    > including *bless*, *beacon of hope*, or *resistance*. However, it
    > will be very difficult talking Alyssa into letting some strangers
    > cast spells on her.

-   If the PCs can very delicately help Alyssa to understand that she’s
    > under a magical compulsion, that will help a lot. Nobody likes to
    > be magically controlled. +4 to save.

-   If the PCs (somehow) offer Alyssa a really nice alternative home, +4
    > to save.

-   I said that they get only once chance, but I lied: if they offer
    > Alyssa an inspiration point, they can get a second roll.

-   PCs are inventive. Let them be creative here.

Regardless of whether they succeed at helping her, she will talk to the
PCs and answer their questions willingly, when she’s in a calm mood.

When it comes to answering questions about the cards, Alyssa (being a
low-wisdom individual) is not that insightful. She tells the PCs the
basics, but she may leave out details:\
\
*Asking Alyssa about Tiger:*

FILL ME IN

### Balanestra: The Wish-Keeper

The wish-keeper is an aasimar woman named Balanestra. She is a wealthy
woman who drew cards because she was profoundly dissatisfied with her
life, feeling that it was mundane and boring. She was desperate to have
a more exciting life, even if that meant great risk. She drew these
cards:

-   *Gem*: She received gems, which she didn’t need at all, being quite
    > wealthy.

-   *Skull:* She had to fight an avatar of death. The bodyguards mostly
    > did it for her.

-   *Moon*: She was granted three wishes.

She wished for the following:

-   Wish 1: To be highly skilled at plotting, manipulation, and
    > intrigue: Wish Fully Granted.

-   Wish 2: To gain the ability to magically scry on anyone: Wish Mostly
    > Granted.

The second wish gave Balanestra the ability to look into mirrors and see
the people she’s thinking about. She can do this three times per day,
for 15 minutes. However, her target gets a saving throw, WIS DC 20. All
gods can resist, as can a few powerful people.

Having made two wishes, Balanestra was supposed to make her third wish
on Green’s behalf. Instead, she said to Green, “There are powerful
people all over the multiverse who are scheming to take that Deck away
from you. Now that I have these new talents, you should hire me to be
your advisor. I can keep you one step ahead of those guys.” Green
agreed, but then Balanestra named her conditions: “My price for working
for you is this: I get to keep my third wish.” Green hesitated, but
decided to accept the offer.

Balanestra didn’t make a third wish. Instead, she decided to hold onto
her third wish for a rainy day. She thinks of it as the ultimate
emergency get-out-of-jail-free card.

There is an old trope that says that if you get three wishes, you’ll
somehow end up miserable. Balanestra is the proof that that’s just
moralizing nonsense. She’s loving her new life, she’s ecstatic.

The PC has the following dream, as seen through Balanestra’s eyes:

> Green, at his desk: “I can’t fight a goddess. What do we do if she
> attacks?”\
> Balanestra: “We teleport away, of course.”\
> Green: “Sure, but she’s a goddess. She can follow us anywhere.”\
> Balanestra: “She can follow us *almost* anywhere.”
>
> Green: “Where could I go that she can’t follow… oh, shit. No, no no no
> no!”
>
> Balanestra: “Trust me.”

Balanestra is with Green, in the basement of the castle, on the other
side of Omta’s steel door. Therefore, it is not possible to get help
from Balanestra. Fortunately, for every card that Balanestra drew, there
is no need to seek help from her:

-   *Gem*: The gem card has many complicated meanings. If none of the
    > PCs drew the gem card, they are likely to need help. Fortunately,
    > they can ask Borghan (the Caged Beast) instead.

-   *Skull:* In Omta’s scrolls, he uses the skull card several times. In
    > one case, it means “wants to kill me,” in another case it means
    > “would kill me.” If none of the PCs drew the skull card, they will
    > have to guess the meaning, but *skull=killing* is a pretty easy
    > guess.

-   *Moon*: Lada tells you that the card grants three wishes, and that
    > hasn’t changed. The symbolic meaning of the card is wishes,
    > granted wishes, desires, or fulfilled desires. The PCs will have
    > to guess that, based on what the card does.

The PCs will meet Balanestra, very briefly, at the end of Chapter 2,
after they get through the steel door. She will become an important
figure later in the campaign.

### Brunna: The Antiquarian

The Antiquarian is a Dwarven woman named Brunna. She used to make a
living selling musical instruments. She was quite successful, and lived
a comfortable life. But she wasn’t happy - he was bored and full of
malaise. However, the comfort of her life made it hard to change. She
knew she needed a push, and she thought the deck might give her that
push. She drew these cards:

-   *Vizier*: she can now ask the fates a question, once a month.

-   *Comet*: she can hold an item in her hands and know its past.

-   *Idiot:* she lost 2 points from charisma. She now looks down her
    > nose at people, purses her lips, and speaks in a know-it-all
    > manner.

She has gained two abilities that both allow her to learn about the
past. The *comet* ability lets her hold an item in her hands and know
something about its past. If that isn’t enough, she can ask the fates a
question once a month, because of the *vizier* card.

Meanwhile, her musical instrument business went bad. The charisma loss
made it much harder to land a sale. In the week after she drew cards,
she sold half as many musical instruments as normal. She realized that a
salesperson needs charisma, and she just didn’t have it any more.

She sold the music business, and went into a new line of work:
antiquarian. She figured that coming across as a know-it-all was
expected from an antiquarian, and the *comet* card made it pretty easy
to learn the history of the items she handled. So antiquarian was a
natural choice. She’s actually enjoying the new job, it’s different, a
real change of pace.

The PCs have the following dream about Brunna:

> You are holding a rusty saber, which is resting across your two palms.
> You say, “This saber was made by a dwarven man named Jorrell. It was
> one of a set of three, one of which was sold to your grandfather.”

Brunna is now running a consulting firm in the building that used to be
her music shop. The building is not far from the St. Parnas market
square. The front of the building has the faded outline of a lute on the
brickwork, where the previous sign used to be. In its place is in a new
sign that says “historical research: antique objects investigated.”
Brunna sits in a comfortable chair, with a little coffee table in front,
and a few other chairs across.

As Brunna has settled into her new job, she is starting to really like
it. She thinks it’s kind of fun explaining various facts about history
to people - she enjoys storytelling. Also, since she doesn’t actually
*know* history until she handles an item in her hands, when she tells a
story, she’s learning it herself at the same time as she tells it to her
customer. So she’s enjoying the feeling that her knowledge is expanding
all the time.

The idiot card caused her to act like a know-it-all and look down her
nose at people. She knows that people now perceive her as a know-it-all,
but she can’t understand why: this is the negative effect of the *idiot*
card, she can’t understand her own lack of charisma. Still, she feels
that it’s an acceptable sacrifice for the new job, which she thinks is a
great new direction for her life.

She has not used the *Vizier* power yet. She is excited to try it for
the first time, but she knows she can only use it once a month, so she’s
saving it for a special occasion. Maybe something the PCs ask her will
inspire her to ask her first question of the gods.

If the PCs want to ask Brunna about the cards, they will have to pay her
5 gp consulting fee.

*Asking Brunna about Vizier:*

Brunna explains that the Vizier card gave her the ability to ask one
question per month, and have it answered by the gods. She says the card
can mean, literally, a vizier or seer, or a scholar, or researcher, or
scientist. It can also mean the act of asking questions, or any other
form of investigation. It can also just mean “knowledge,” especially
secret knowledge or hidden knowledge.

*Asking Brunna about Comet:*

Brunna explains that the comet card allows her to hold an object in her
hands and learn its history. The meaning of the card is generally just
“time,” but it also encompasses all kinds of things related to time,
like “the past,” “the future,” or “waiting.” It can also be a reference
to knowledge of the past or the future, ie, history and prophecy.

*Asking Brunna about Idiot:*

Brunna explains that the idiot card somehow made her less charismatic.
She says the card can refer to lack of intelligence, lack of social
skill, lack of wisdom, or any other sort of mental incapacity. It can
also mean “making a mistake” or “a bad decision.” The card can also
mean, literally, an idiot. It can also mean somebody who is intelligent
but with some kind of mental handicap - for example, a smart person with
an alcohol addiction.

*Handing a Scroll to Brunna:*

If the PCs hand Brunna one of Omta’s scrolls, she holds it in her hand,
and she says she knows something important about its history. But she
says: “I’m willing to tell you what I know, but in exchange, you have to
help me with something. I help you with a difficult puzzle, you help me
with a difficult puzzle.” If the PCs agree, then this is what she has to
say about the scroll:

> Well, this scroll itself doesn’t have much history, it’s only a few
> days old. But the communication method that is being used in this
> scroll is very, very old. This goes back before written history.
>
> Language as we know it was invented by mortals. So how did the gods
> communicate before the gods created mortals, and mortals invented
> language? Well, gods can easily conjure little illusions, little
> images. So that’s what they did. They showed each other little
> pictures. There was no standard set of symbols. Each god would make up
> whatever images made sense to them. Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of
> miscommunication. That’s why this form of communication died out when
> language as we know it was invented. The gods learned how to speak
> from mortals, and they stopped using these images.

*Helping Brunna:*

Brunna has a problem: she doesn’t have enough customers. She’s not
making enough money, the business isn’t profitable. Apparently, there
just aren’t enough people who need their family heirlooms read. She asks
the PCs for ways to improve her business.

Brunna’s core problem is that she is suffering from a failure of
imagination. Her *comet* power can be used for so much more than just
investigating heirlooms. What the PCs really need to do is work with
Brunna to brainstorm alternative ways to use her power. Here are some
options:

-   *Crime Investigation*: She can hold a murder weapon in her hands,
    > and tell you who used it.

-   *Private Investigation*: She can hold some underwear in her hands,
    > and she can tell you who slept with your spouse.

-   *Industrial Espionage*: She can hold your competitor’s product in
    > her hands, and tell you how it was manufactured.

-   *Art Authentication*: She can hold a piece of art in her hands, and
    > tell you if it is the original or a forgery.

-   *Archaeology*: She can hold a relic of a past civilization, and tell
    > you something about that civilization.

-   *General Espionage*: She can hold objects stolen from diplomats or
    > politicians, and possibly learn their secrets.

If Brunna branches out and advertises all of these services, she will
have much more business than before.

If the PCs help her brainstorm at least four new ideas for how to use
her power, then she will be grateful and she will perceive the PCs as
friends. She still charges 5 gp per item investigated, though. A
consultant has to eat, you know.

*Using Brunna as a Resource:*

Brunna is a valuable investigative resource. Once the players figure out
that Brunna can do all kinds of useful research, they will probably
visit her fairly frequently. That’s actually a good thing.

Do not let Brunna short-circuit major questlines. If there’s some
information that you don’t want her to reveal, then don’t reveal it.
Instead, reveal something else, like this:

> PC: Can this sword kill the bad guy?\
> Brunna: Here, give it to me. Hmmm. I can see that this sword was made
> by a Dwarven man named Jorell, who works in Moradin’s keep.
>
> PC: Yeah, but can it kill the bad guy?
>
> Brunna: No idea.

As the DM, you decide what Brunna knows, and what she doesn’t. If you
don’t want her to have the answer to a question, then she doesn’t have
the answer to that question. She always knows *something* about an item,
but not necessarily what the PCs want her to know.

The real value of Brunna is that you can use her to feed the PCs exactly
the clues that *you* want to feed them. Try to encourage the PCs to
visit Brunna regularly, by letting Brunna reveal little tidbits of
useful information here and there (without major spoilers.) Then, if the
players ever seem like they’re stuck, and they’re not making progress
solving the major puzzles of this chapter, then you can feed them a big
clue through Brunna.

If the PCs get in the habit of visiting Brunna frequently, and it starts
to get repetitive, then just start abbreviating the interaction:

> PC: We go ask Brunna about whether the sword can kill the bad guy.
>
> DM: OK, you go visit Brunna. She reveals that the sword was made by a
> man named Jorell at Moradin’s keep. You learn nothing else. She
> charges you 5 gp.

That way, it only eats up a few seconds of table-time.

### Asatya: The Sleepwalker

The Sleepwalker is a woman named Asatya, who used to be a gardener in
the orchards. She’s getting older and her hands are getting arthritic.
She didn’t think she could do her job much longer, and she felt she
needed a new direction in life. She drew these cards:

-   *Owl*: She gained a great deal of intelligence, she is much smarter
    > than before.

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-   *Fool*: She no longer knows how to cook, which turns out not to
    > matter very much.

-   *Void*: She fell into a deep sleep, from which she cannot awaken.

Asatya is now a patient at the local hospice. Her body is being
well-tended by the nurses there. She is completely unable to sense any
stimuli or react in any way.

While she sleeps, her spirit is sleepwalking around the city gardens.
Like a sleepwalker, she can see the real physical world - the garden
she’s walking around in. Like a sleepwalker, her thought processes are
delirious and confused. But unlike a normal sleepwalker, she has left
her body behind, and she sleepwalks through the world in the form of a
spirit.

Asatya’s strange state is a reflection of Omta’s own experience. Omta is
also asleep, and Omta also sleepwalks through the multiverse.

The PCs have the following dream about Asatya:

> You are wandering through a manicured garden. There are a few other
> people walking along the paths of the garden. You feel confused, your
> mind is foggy. You notice a weed that needs pulling. You bend over to
> pull it, but you don’t seem to be able to. In your confusion, you
> don’t know why you can’t pull the weed.

If the PCs visit Asatya’s body at the hospice, they will find that she
is breathing deeply, as if in a restful sleep. She is completely
unresponsive to any stimuli. Any attempt to contact her magically or
telepathically will yield the impression that there’s nobody in there.

One of the most surprising things about Asatya’s body is: *Deck
Awareness* doesn’t work on her, there are *not* three cards hovering
over her head! The reason is that the cards aren’t hovering over
Asatya’s body. They’re hovering over her *spirit*, and her spirit is
somewhere else: in the orchard.

If the PCs ask the nurses, the nurses can tell the PCs a little bit
about Asatya’s background, including, crucially, that she was a gardener
in the orchard. This may trigger the PCs to remember the deck dream
about a woman wandering the orchard, and trying to pick weeds.

The PCs may contact Johann, the dreaming ghost from the Museum of
Orethys, and ask him to enter Asatya’s dreams. When Johann reports back,
he says:

> Are you sure she’s in bed? Because as far as I can tell, she’s
> sleepwalking. She’s walking around in an orchard. I can tell that it’s
> a real, physical orchard in the real world, not a garden she’s
> imagining in her head. Dreams are always fuzzy and mutable, but this
> garden is real-looking. That’s why I’m very sure she’s sleepwalking.
>
> I tried to talk to her, but I have a problem with sleepwalkers. When a
> sleepwalker opens her eyes, she gains the ability to see the physical
> world, but she loses the ability to see her imaginary dream world.
> Unfortunately, her imaginary dream world includes me, Johann. So
> whereas a normal dreamer can see me and hear me, a sleepwalker can’t,
> because they’re seeing and hearing the physical world instead. So I
> couldn’t talk to her. I can never talk to sleepwalkers.

If the PCs search the orchard, they eventually find three cards just
moving around, apparently hovering over an invisible ghost. The PCs
cannot see or hear Asatya, but because the PCs can see the cards, they
can tell where Asatya’s ghost is standing, and which direction she is
facing. Using *see invisible* will reveal Asatya’s vague outline, which
can be used to confirm that, yep, it’s the same woman from the hospice.

Here is one way that it is possible to ask Asatya a question: Tell
Johann to enter Asatya’s dreams, and tell him to listen to anything she
says. Then, go to the gardens and stand directly in front of Asatya.
Face her, and ask her a question. Asatya will see and hear the PC, so
she will answer the question. The PC won’t hear the answer, because
Asatya is invisible and inaudible to the PC. But Johann can hear the
answer, and pass it to the PCs.

If the PCs ask Asatya a question in this manner, she gives answers that
are dreamy and drifty, but still basically correct.

*Asking Asatya about Owl:*

She says, “I remember his eyes, the wisdom in his eyes. He is so smart.”
The essential concepts here are intelligence and wisdom.

*Asking Asatya about Fool:*

She says, “He forgot his job… he forgot his name… then he disappeared.”
The essential concepts here are forgetting and disappearance.

*Asking Asatya about Void:*

She says, “An empty place… empty mind… so dark, so quiet.” The essential
concepts here are emptiness, darkness, and silence.

*Helping Asatya:*

After Johann helps get information from Asatya, he tells the PCs that
Asatya is the only other person he knows who is permanently asleep. He
*desperately* wants to meet her, but he can’t talk to her, because she
can’t see him. He is very frustrated.

Up until this point, Johann has been super-helpful and has done
basically anything the PCs asked of him, at no charge. Johann points
this out, and says, “I’ve been helping you. Now you help me. You’re a
resourceful bunch. Figure it out, I want to talk to this woman.”

Making this happen is shockingly easy: just tell Asatya to close her
eyes. If you do that, she stops seeing the physical world, which makes
her able to see her own internal dreamworld - which means she can see
Johann. The minute you do this, the three cards disappear: her spirit is
no longer in the orchard, it’s somewhere else, with Johann.

Another way to get Asatya’s ghost to focus inward is to cast “sleep” on
her. This will cause her to enter a more normal dream-sleep, in which
Johann can talk to her. You can cast sleep on her spirit or on her body,
either way works.

This is a difficult puzzle. If the players come up with another way to
get Asatya to focus inward, allow it, even if it only makes partial
sense. You need this to work, because the PCs will need Johann’s help
later.

Johann knows a trick: he can make you have a lucid dream. As soon as
Asatya starts talking to Johann, he uses his method to help her clear
the cobwebs. She is still asleep, but she can now focus her mind and get
a better grasp on her situation. Plus, she has a knowledgeable soul
there who knows all about being trapped in dreams. She is no longer
alone, she is no longer foggy-headed, and she has somebody who can show
her the ropes.

### Rackle: The Punching Bag

The punching bag is a man named Rackle. He developed a medical condition
that caused him constant pain. Healers were unable to improve the
situation. In desperation, he decided to draw cards:

-   *Euryale*: He is now terrified of monsters.

-   *Ruin*: Items he touches are likely to crumble to dust.

-   *Rogue*: People think he’s a fraudster and a con man, without
    > evidence.

It’s very unlikely to draw three terrible cards from the deck, but
Rackle managed to do it. His life was bad, and now it’s exponentially
worse.

After drawing cards, Rackle tried to find someplace to stay, but
everywhere he went, he was ostracised as a fraud and a con man, because
of the *rogue* card. Lacking any place to stay, he wandered around
outside the city and eventually came across an old abandoned watchtower.

The watchtower is one of a set of five posts that were built around St
Parnas 150 years ago, and abandoned about 80 years ago. They are three
stories tall, and consist of little more than a tall staircase with
landings and a platform on top. The stone parts of the building are in
good condition, but the wood parts are suffering from water damage from
lack of maintenance.

Rackle is living on the middle floor, which is basically just a landing
between the stairs that lead up, and the stairs that lead down. There’s
just enough space to lie down.

Everywhere Rackle goes, he is sure that he is surrounded by demons
lurking in the shadows. This is the effect of the *euryale* card. He has
stolen a bag of salt and he makes salt protection circles on the ground
wherever he goes, to prevent the demons from getting to him. Of course,
there are no demons. But that doesn’t stop Rackle being terrified, all
the time.

Because of his Rogue card, he can’t get an honest job - nobody trusts
him. Rackle tried stealing to make a living, but he discovered that
anything valuable he stole would often crumble to dust, the effect of
the *Ruin* card. So now he survives by stealing low-value items - bits
of food, mostly.

His medical condition persists: he is still in pain, an aching pain all
over his body, with no obvious source or cause.

Rackle’s absurd levels of misfortune have attracted the attention of
Beshaba, goddess of misfortune. She didn’t cause his bad luck: it just
happened on its own. But now that it has, Beshaba considers Rackle to be
a “saint of misfortune.” Beshaba is therefore protecting Rackle - she
has assigned a priestess named Clarissa to watch over him.

Clarissa is a strange woman. She is a human in her mid-fifties. She used
to be a sadist, that is what drew her to Beshaba. But in Beshaba’s
service, she witnessed such vast and terrible misfortunes that her own
efforts began to feel insignificant. No matter how hard she tried to
make people suffer, life did worse — arbitrarily, effortlessly. She kept
upping her game, but the universe always outdid her.

Eventually, she gave up on torturing people and turned instead to
studying the torments life produced without her help. At first, her goal
was to learn more about how to inflict pain. But over time, her study
grew more abstract, and more philosophical. Age crept in. She suffered
some things herself. She still studies suffering, but she’s not sure why
any more. Some days she feels tired. And though she’d never admit it,
she’s begun to care for a few individuals, against her better judgement.

Because of this, Beshaba has given Clarissa the responsibility of
keeping Rackle alive. Clarissa camps near the ruined watchtower where
Rackle lives, and watches from a distance. She does not interfere with
his suffering — that would defeat the purpose — but she steps in if
something threatens his life.

That turns out to be harder than expected. After a month of isolation,
pain, and fear, Rackle tried to take his own life. Clarissa found him
bleeding out and cast *Cure Wounds* just in time. It wasn't the last
time. Eventually, Rackle realized he couldn’t die by the blade — so he
stopped eating. Clarissa tried to force-feed him and nearly choked him
to death in the process. She hasn’t tried again.

Desperate, she turned to the druids of Silvanus, buying *goodberries*,
which are small enough not to cause choking. But the druids have been
growing suspicious, and they keep asking what she’s doing. She lies,
because “I’m keeping a man alive so he can suffer” isn’t a truth that
sells well. The druids are beginning to see through the lies.

The PCs have the following dream, seen through Rackle’s eyes:

> You are lying on a wooden floor, in a round stone room about 10 feet
> across. You are motionless, staring straight up at the ceiling, which
> contains some holes where the wood has rotted. In your peripheral
> vision, you can see a set of stairs leading upward. You can also see a
> woman in her fifties, in purple robes, kneeling beside you. You feel
> weak, lightheaded, and your vision is blurry. You fade out of
> consciousness.

Finding Rackle is a challenge: all you really have to go on is the
dream, which tells you that he’s in a round stone room, about 10 feet
across, with a staircase in it. A fairly easy insight roll (DC10)
reveals that he’s inside a round stone tower. If you ask the Mayor, he
has the insight that it’s probably one of the watchtowers: he says
“Homeless people camp in those all the time.” There’s no easy way to
know which one is the right one, so the PCs will probably have to make
the rounds searching them one by one.

Information about the contents of the five watchtowers can be found in
the upcoming section, “Life in St Parnas: The Old Watchtowers.”

When the PCs finally find Rackle, he is in pretty much the same
condition described in the dream above: passed out on the floor of his
tower, with Clarissa ministering to him. Clarissa has recently given him
her last *goodberry*, the druids won’t sell her any more.

When the PCs come near Rackle, the *rogue* card will attempt to warp
their perceptions to make them think that Rackle is a con-man, but the
PCs have *deck immunity*: they cannot be affected by Rackle’s *rogue*
card. So they see Rackle as he is. Clarissa is also immune, Beshaba
needs her to be clear-eyed in order to do her job properly.

Clarissa knows who the PCs are, because she has been told by Beshaba.
However, she does not reveal this. She will speak to the PCs and will
present herself as a friendly cleric who’s just trying to help. She
says, truthfully, “Hi, I’m Clarissa. This man is starving to death. I’ve
tried using cure spells, but they don’t help against starvation. I don’t
have any way to feed him, it’s not safe to just cram food in his mouth,
he would almost certainly choke. Can you guys do anything to help?”

If the PCs interrogate Clarissa, she decides that there is not much
point in lying to the PCs. She admits that she is a priestess of
Beshaba, and that she has been sent to protect Rackle because Rackle is
a saint of misfortune. She omits the part about keeping him alive to
keep him suffering, though. If the PCs don’t ask Clarissa who she is,
Lada figures it out anyway - as a priestess of Tymora, Lada can sense
the influence of Beshaba.

While talking to Clarissa, Lada gets a grim, tense look on her face and
keeps her mouth shut. Later, when out of Clarissa’s earshot, Lada says,
“That was a priestess of Beshaba. I don’t know what she’s up to, but I
guarantee she’s up to no good. I don’t care what she says, priests of
Beshaba are *never* here to help.”

If the PCs attack Clarissa, have everybody roll initiative. On her first
turn, Clarissa casts hypnotic pattern, spell save DC 16. But then, on
her second turn, she says, “You know what, I can’t do it. I don’t do
this any more.” She puts her hands in the air, and stops fighting. If
the PCs keep attacking, they kill her easily.

The PCs have two strong incentives to help Rackle: one, it would be
morally evil to let him die, and two, they need to ask Rackle questions.
There are several good-aligned temples in town that provide medical
care, for 100 gp per day. If Rackle gets proper medical care, he will
regain consciousness in two days. Clarissa doesn’t interfere, she’s out
of options for keeping Rackle alive and she’s willing to accept help,
even if doing so could reduce Rackle’s suffering.

When Rackle wakes up, he is utterly terrified: there’s no ring of salt
on the ground! The demons are going to take his soul! He won’t do
anything but freak out until somebody puts down a protective ring of
salt. The PCs can get salt inexpensively at a nearby shop.

## 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

```{=html}
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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.

## Castle Green

The PCs will spend a lot of chapter 2 exploring Castle Green. Before we
get to the details of what’s in the castle, we’re going to give you some
general information about what the castle is like, and why it is the way
it is.

### How Castle Green Came to Exist

When Green was first starting out, he didn’t have a Castle. He searched
for people who might be interested in drawing cards from the Deck, then
he brought them out into an empty field to have them draw cards. One
day, one of these people - Alyssa Varn - drew the Bricklayer card. Where
once there was an empty field, suddenly there was a small castle —
technically, a “keep” for a knight. Alyssa sold the Castle to Green.

The keep consisted of a ground floor, a single basement level, and a
small tower.

The basement contained most of the functional rooms, including a
barracks for the staff, a kitchen and dining room, an armory and
sparring room, holding cells, a lounge, a laundry and latrine, a wine
cellar and a root cellar. Here is a map of the basement:

![](media/image11.png){width="5.026042213473316in"
height="3.9483333333333333in"}

The ground floor included a nice dining room for guests, a small
ballroom, an a few general purpose rooms. The tower contained an
observation room and a general-purpose room. Since the ground floor and
tower are gone, we have not provided a map.

Green and his employees used the castle for some time before the next
event: Borghan also drew the Bricklayer card, and it built the
labyrinth, underneath the basement. A trapdoor manifested in the
basement lounge: the trapdoor drops down into the Labyrinth. There is no
map of the labyrinth, it’s a confusing mess of passages, and nobody has
bothered trying to map it.

Both the castle and the labyrinth were created by magic. But neither one
is inherently magical. The castle is a normal castle. The labyrinth is
confusing, but it’s not a magic labyrinth.

The walls of the basement are entirely made of stone blocks. The walls
of the labyrinth are covered by decorative wooden paneling, with
decorative moulding, as one might see in a victorian library. By looking
at the walls, you can easily tell whether you’re in the basement or the
labyrinth.

### The Upstairs is Gone

In the chaos storm, the entire top half of the castle (ground floor and
up) was ripped away. Everything from about knee-level on up is gone.

The floors of the ground floor are still intact, as are the bottom two
feet of the walls. Walking around the ground floor of castle green is a
lot like walking around a floorplan of a castle. There’s very little
left to see on the ground floor. There is, however, a set of stairs
leading down into the basement. The stairs leading to the basement are
entirely intact.

### The Portals that Subdivide the Castle

As a defensive measure against Tymora’s agents, Omta has placed several
portals designed to make it difficult to move around the basement. The
portals all lead into the labyrinth. Look at the map: wherever you see a
red line crossing a hallway, that is a portal to the labyrinth. When a
PC stands in a hallway, looking at such a portal, the PC will see the
hall up to the portal, and the labyrinth beyond the portal. When the PC
walks through the portal, they end up in the labyrinth.

Sometimes, when you’re in the labyrinth, if Omta wants you to, you’ll
emerge from one of these portals and end up back in the basement.

![](media/image11.png){width="5.026042213473316in"
height="3.9483333333333333in"}

Now, let’s talk about how the PCs will perceive the portals. Imagine
that a PC is standing in the hallway just northwest of Mikhail’s
bedroom. (Look at the map above, lower-right corner). If the PC looks
north, they will see the door to Etienne’s bedroom. Beyond that, there’s
a red line crossing the hall: a portal to the labyrinth. When the PC
looks through the portal, they see the labyrinth.

So that means if the PC is standing outside Mikhail’s bedroom, the PC
*can’t* see the door to the furniture storage room. The furniture room
is north of the portal, and therefore, line of sight is blocked by the
portal. Likewise, if the PC walks north, they can’t reach the furniture
storage room. They will walk through the portal first, and end up in the
labyrinth.

So from the perspective of a PC standing outside Mikhail’s bedroom, it
looks like they’re standing in an L-shaped piece of corridor, both ends
of which are connected to the labyrinth. It creates the appearance that
these small sections of hallway are physically inside the labyrinth. It
looks, for all the world, as if the basement has been broken into
pieces, and the pieces randomly inserted into the labyrinth.

Note that on the map, we have drawn red lines not just where the portals
are in the hallways, but we’ve actually drawn red lines around eight
“chunks” of the castle. The PCs will perceive the castle as being made
up of these eight chunks. To move from one chunk to another, they will
have to pass through the labyrinth.

The portals in the basement are in fixed locations, indicated on the map
by red lines. The portals in the labyrinth, however, are in
ever-shifting locations. The portals are being moved around regularly by
Omta. Some of the portals in the labyrinth lead to other portals in the
labyrinth. Some of the portals in the labyrinth lead back to the portals
in the basement. All of the portals in the basement lead to the
labyrinth.

### Navigating the Portals

When the PCs first enter the labyrinth, they will get stuck in there.
They just move in circles: tunnel after tunnel. None of the passages
lead anywhere. Omta is just portaling the PCs around the labyrinth to
keep them confused. He figures: if I keep the agents of Tymora in the
labyrinth, they can’t hurt me.

In the backs of their minds, the PCs can feel the “presence in the
Labyrinth,” Omta, because of their telepathic bond. They can feel his
anxiety and fear. They can try communicating with this presence, and
they quickly realize that the presence is listening, paying attention,
because it reacts when they say things.

To get unstuck, the PCs have to do two things:

**Step 1: Reassure Omta**

When the PCs sense the presence in the labyrinth, and his fear, they
need to say something reassuring, such as “We are not here to hurt you.
We just want to talk.” If the PCs say some things like this, then Omta
will calm down a little. The PCs can feel the anxiety level drop a
little.

**Step 2. Ask for Navigation Assistance**

The following only works *after* the PCs have reassured Omta: to get
around the basement, the PCs can simply ask Omta for assistance in
navigating the labyrinth. Just speak out loud, and say something along
the lines of, “Hey, could you guide us to the Kitchen?” Then, start
walking, in any direction. Omta will rearrange the portals in order to
bring the PCs to the kitchen area. Note that the PCs won’t end up
*exactly* in the kitchen: they’ll end up at the closest basement portal,
in the correct basement region to go to the kitchen.

It’s odd that Omta is putting up portals to confuse the PCs, but then
he’s also helping the PCs to navigate the portals. Omta is asleep, and
he’s using dream logic, and his emotions are conflicted. He wants Tymora
to stay away, but he also wants a relationship with the PCs. So his left
hand doesn’t know what his right hand is doing.

So for now, Omta is both hindering and helping. Whether he can actually
bring you to any particular place depends on a number of factors:

-   In general, if you ask for a room type, like “take me to the
    > Kitchen,” or “take me to the Armory,” that works. Omta understands
    > what a kitchen or an armory is.

-   If you say “take me to the bedroom,” that’s ambiguous, because there
    > are a dozen bedrooms in the castle. In this case, Omta will take
    > you to the bedroom farthest away from the Deck.

-   If you ask for a specific employee, eg, “take me to Zimmi,” that
    > usually elicits no response, because Omta doesn’t know most human
    > names. However, Omta does know the name “Green.”

-   If the PCs ask for an employee by profession, that is more likely to
    > work. “Take me to the wizard’s bedroom” will get you to Etienne’s
    > bedroom.

-   If you ask for “take me to the woman who drew the bricklayer card,”
    > that *does* work. When Omta looks at humans, he is more likely to
    > remember their cards than their names.

-   If the PCs ask for something broad, like “Food”, Omta will do a
    > reasonable job of complying: in response to that query, he would
    > take the PCs to the kitchen. The DM may have to be creative
    > interpreting such queries.

-   If you ask to be taken to Green (who has the Deck), or to the
    > Laundry (which contains the Deck), or to the Lounge (which is
    > close to the Deck), then Omta will project an intense emotion of
    > fear, and will not take you anywhere.

Under no circumstances must you allow the PCs to reach the lounge area
or the laundry area until certain trigger events take place.

### Bypassing the Portals

On the map, there are several red dots, positioned on top of walls.
These represent holes in the walls. During the chaos storm, several of
the stone blocks teleported out of their normal positions in the walls,
and ended up scattered around the castle: as the PCs walk around, they
will occasionally find these stone blocks. A small person like a gnome
or halfling can fit through the hole, but a medium-sized person cannot
fit. The PCs could use spells like *enlarge/reduce* to get the whole
party through a hole.

Interestingly, holes in the wall circumvent the portals. It is possible
to move from one region to another through a hole in the wall, *without*
getting portaled into the labyrinth. Currently, there is only one hole
that crosses a red line. But the PCs could conceivably dig more.

If you use holes to move around the castle, the castle appears much more
mundane than if you try to walk around the halls. The halls have portals
in them, and the portals make everything confusing. But the holes in the
walls have no portals, so you just move around the castle in the normal
way.

However, if the PCs try to dig a hole into the laundry area, a steel
barrier will materialize in the hole, looking much like the main steel
barrier in the hall that leads into the laundry area. Omta really
doesn’t want anyone crossing into the laundry until Omta is ready.

### Green’s Trapped Employees

Several of Green’s employees are trapped in the basement. They are not
in immediate danger, but most of them don’t have access to food and
water, so they do need to be rescued from the castle relatively soon.

When the chaos storm hit, Green yelled “evacuate the castle!” Everyone
upstairs evacuated, however, nobody emerged from the basement,
presumably because the basement had been turned into a confusing magical
labyrinth. Green cares about his employees, he wasn’t about to just let
them rot in the basement. So he and his bodyguards went down in the
basement to round up the employees and get them out. Balanestra went
with them, because she is loving the life of adventure. They vanished
into the basement, and didn’t come back.

They didn’t come back because Omta portaled them to the laundry room
region, and then trapped them inside by building a giant steel door. The
laundry room region now contains Green, his bodyguards, and Balanestra -
and the Deck. They are annoyed and concerned about being trapped, but
are otherwise unharmed. One of the bodyguards, Harkon, is a cleric who
can conjure food and water.

The gate guards, Bran and Inya, watched as Green and his bodyguards went
into the basement. Bran and Inya are much lower-level than Green and the
bodyguards, so they assumed that they weren’t needed. But when Green and
the bodyguards didn’t emerge, Bran and Inya also went down into the
basement, in the hopes of rescuing the others. They too got trapped -
they’re in the sparring room region.

Here is an inventory of all of Green’s employees who are stuck behind
the steel door:

-   Green.

-   Mikhail, Male Half-Orc, Fighter LV8. Natural peacemaker.

-   Etienne Vireaux, Male Tiefling, Diviner LV8. Tries to help people.

-   Siduri, Female High Elf, Duelist LV8. Reserved. Graceful movement.

-   Harkon, Male Dwarf, Cleric of Helm LV8.

-   Balanestra, Female Aasimar, deck-touched.

Here is an inventory of all of Green’s employees who are trapped in the
Basement:

-   Bran, Gate Guard. Male Dwarf. Overly talkative, but helpful.

-   Inya, Gate Guard. Female Tiefling. Has learned to let Bran talk.

-   Zimmi, Cook. Female Gnome. Loud and a little pushy.

-   Edric, Steward and Bookkeeper. Male Bariaur. All business.

-   Penny, Helper. Teen Female Tiefling. Super smart, skill with
    > languages.

Here are the ones that are not in the basement: they are at the Inn in
St. Parnas:

-   Wim, Janitor. Male Kobold. Avoids eye contact.

-   Tommel, Gardener. Male Earth Genasi. Aloof.

Green and his bodyguards are trapped by the big steel barrier. The
others are not physically trapped: they can leave the areas that they’re
in, and go out into the labyrinth. But when they do, they get lost,
wander around for a while, and end up back in the areas where they
started. All of them have tried leaving, and none of them have gotten
anywhere.

To rescue the employees, the PCs will have to find them one by one. The
following section, “List of Basement Areas,” lists every region in the
basement, including which of Green’s employees are trapped in that area.

The reason that Green’s employees are stuck is because they didn’t draw
cards from the deck. Therefore, they lack the telepathic connection to
Omta which makes it possible for the PCs to communicate with Omta. The
PCs are navigating the labyrinth by asking Omta for what they need.
Green’s employees don’t have that option.

### Ants are Taking the Castle by Force

The castle was built very close to an anthill containing intelligent
giant ants.

Prior to the chaos storm, the ants were a minor nuisance at the castle.
Occasionally, a worker would enter the castle via the root cellar, take
some food from a storage room, and leave. Stealing is not actually
sanctioned by the ant queen, but some workers aren’t that bright.
Green’s employees view the ants as a relatively insignificant issue -
pretty much how you would feel if your kitchen had ants.

However, the chaos storm has upended the situation. The chaos storm has
severely damaged the complex series of tunnels in their anthill, it’s
caving in all over the place. The ant queen is angry, and she is intent
on being compensated for the damage: you castle idiots destroyed our
anthill, so we’re taking over yours! The ants are moving into the
castle.

These ants are not, by nature, hostile creatures. Construction,
maintenance, farming: those are the things they normally care about. The
ants attitude toward other ants is “be a productive member of the
community.” Their attitude toward non-ants is “live and let live.” By
that, we mean that if you are not an ant, they won’t go out of their way
to help you, but they won’t do anything to hurt you either. They will
most likely just walk right past you, too busy to talk. Overall, they
are somewhere between true neutral (to outsiders), and lawful good (to
each other). However, the queen is angry about the destruction of her
home. Even so, she is not bloodthirsty. She intends to take the castle
by force, but she is willing to let the humans go away without bloodshed
as long as the humans are willing to depart.

The ants can tell that the PCs don’t live in the castle, and that
they’re not the ones responsible for the chaos. They know that when a
person lives in a house for a long time, the odors rub off on each
other: the house begins to smell like the person, and the person begins
to smell like the house. Because of this, they can tell that the PCs
don’t live in the castle. The queen’s anger is toward the people in the
castle who caused the chaos storm, not toward the PCs. Because of this,
the ants will generally pass the PCs without aggression.

Ants do not perceive mammals or other animals as prey. The ants are
fungus farmers, they eat a fungus that they grow on a substrate of
rotting organic matter.

There are three types of ants: workers, soldiers, and the queen. Workers
are about the size of a small dog, soldiers are about the size of a
large dog, and the queen is the size of a small horse.

The ants are intelligent, and can communicate, but they do not speak
verbal languages: they communicate by waving their antennae. You will
need some tricks if you want to talk to them. Here are some potentially
relevant spells:

-   *Tongues*: This will allow full communication.

-   *Comprehend Languages*: This will allow you to understand everything
    > they say. However, it won’t enable them to understand you.

-   *Speak with Animals*: Doesn’t work. They’re too intelligent to count
    > as animals.

The queen is smart enough to be creative about communication. For
example, if you cast *comprehend languages*, she will say, “That spell
doesn’t enable *me* to understand *you*, so I’ll ask you questions, and
you can raise your right hand for yes, and left hand for no.” The
workers and soldiers are not bright enough to come up with tricks like
that, but if the PCs suggest things like that, the workers and soldiers
are smart enough to play along.

Worker and soldier mentality is extremely task-focused, and very
specialized. For example, the workers will give sophisticated
explanations of the steps necessary to cultivate food fungus, they can
go on at length about the antibiotic properties of the plants they use
to prevent biological contamination. But the workers only understand the
basics about things unrelated to their job. For example, if you ask them
what happened to their anthill: “Things were moving everywhere,
including the walls. It seemed like magic. It’s all crumbling.” No
deeper insight. Soldiers are extremely knowledgeable about tactics. In
combat, they don’t just attack mindlessly: they use their special
abilities and the environment to get the best advantage they can get.
But they really have very little to say about anything that doesn’t
involve defense or security.

Only the queen is smart enough to speak broadly on a range of topics.
She can cast a few spells, too. One of those is comprehend languages.
She can hear and understand what the PCs are saying, even if the PCs
have no way to translate. However, she can’t *talk* to the PCs without
assistance. She can, however, communicate if the PCs suggest things such
as “raise your right antenna for yes, raise your left antenna for no.”

The ants have surprisingly little trouble moving around the castle. They
are just as subject to the portals as anyone else, but they navigate
almost entirely by odor chemicals. For example, if they’re looking for
the queen, they sniff the air for the scent of the queen, and they walk
toward the scent. When the portals move, the scents move, and so they
can easily follow the scents even if the portals have moved. They do
have to go through the portals, but they’re just not as confused as a
human would be.

Another thing the ants can do is form a long line of ants. When they do
this, forming a trail of ants through the labyrinth, Omta seems hesitant
to break the line by moving a portal. He prefers to move portals when
nobody is watching, and the ants are forming a continuous line of
“watchers.” In effect, the line of ants becomes an island of stability
in the labyrinth. You can get to new places by walking alongside a trail
of ants.

The ants could break through stone walls, but it would be a very slow
process of tedious grinding. They haven’t done this yet. Instead, they
prefer to enter through existing openings. The best entrance to the
castle (for the ants) is the root cellar, which has an earthen floor.
The floor of the root cellar is full of ant-sized holes, and the wooden
door of the root cellar has an soldier-ant-sized hole chewed through it.
The queen did not go through the hole in the door: the queen is smart
enough to know how to open human doors.\
\
The ants have selected Green’s bedroom as the queen’s new chambers. They
have a large number of soldiers on both sides of the bedroom door,
blocking all access. You can enter the lounge, but no further. The queen
is their most valued asset, and they protect her aggressively. They are
incidentally blocking access to Edric’s bedroom as well, but that’s only
because the door happens to be in the same hallway as Green’s bedroom.

The ants have selected Tommel, Bran, and Wim’s bedroom as the new brood
chamber. The room is full of eggs. Again, there are soldiers on both
ends of the hallway, because this is a high-value area.

The ants have selected the Kitchen as the new fungus farm. The workers
are swarming in there, moving rotting organic matter into the kitchen.
There are a handful of soldiers in the kitchen, but they’re not blocking
access to the kitchen: the fungus farm isn’t a high-value asset. They’re
just there to protect the workers.

Here are some hallway encounters:

-   Two soldier ants come down the hall, followed by a group of workers.
    > The workers are carrying rotting plant material. The soldiers
    > approach, and move to one side of the hallway. They then look at
    > you, and wait to see what you do. (If the PCs move to the other
    > side of the hallway, the ants will simply walk past).

-   A long line of worker ants carrying eggs come down the hallway. They
    > stop, and start waving their antennae around. Then they turn
    > around, and head back in the opposite direction.

-   A group of six soldiers and four workers come down the hall. Two
    > soldiers are injured (they have been in a fight with Borghan). The
    > workers are helping the injured soldiers. They see you, and pause.
    > Then the four healthy soldiers approach. They close their
    > mandibles, and use them to shove you into a corner. Then, they
    > pass.

Feel free to improvise more.

The ants are not central to the PCs’ quest. They are there to let the
PCs know that the world is alive, and there are people everywhere who
have their own agendas and their own issues.

Although the ants are not central to the PCs quest, they can
theoretically be helpful to the PCs. For example, if the PCs figure out
how to talk to the queen, they may be able to arrange some sort of
cooperative expedition to deal with Borghan (the queen would be very
happy to have Borghan under control.) The PCs may also be able to work
with the ants to dig holes in the walls, to make it easier to navigate
the castle.

\<TODO: Add stat blocks for the Ants\>

## Sections of Castle Green

The following is a list of the areas in Castle Green, in the order that
the PCs are likely to encounter them. Each section describes what’s in
that section, and what encounters the PCs will likely have there.

### The Ground Floor

When the PCs first arrive at the castle, they can see that everything
above knee level is gone. All that’s left of the ground floor is the
floor itself, the bottom few stones of the walls, and the stairs that
lead to the basement.

Rennick is here. This might be a good time to reread Rennick’s
description in the introductory chapter. This is the first time that the
PCs will meet Rennick. He is standing at the top of the basement stairs,
shouting, “Is anybody down there?”

The PCs will probably ask Rennick about who he is. Rennick volunteers
he’s a business associate of Green’s. If the PCs probe further, here are
the facts that Rennick is open about and will easily divulge with even
the slightest prompting:

-   Rennick volunteers that he is a member of the Fraternity of Order.
    > He points out the fact that he’s wearing their logo on his lapel.

-   If asked, Rennick is happy to explain the Fraternity of Order, the
    > fact that they make most of the laws in the city of Sigil, and
    > that their real passion is learning the laws that govern the
    > universe.

-   If asked how he knows Green, Rennick says he’s a casino regulator
    > from the City of Sigil, and Green was a casino owner there.

-   If asked, he is happy to explain how casino regulation in Sigil
    > works - about how the Fraternity will sell “certificates of fair
    > play” to any casino that they can verify is legit. Rennick
    > explains that he manages a team of statisticians and undercover
    > investigators to make sure the casino is legit before he is
    > willing to sell a certificate.

-   Rennick loves to talk about his passion, luck research. It doesn’t
    > take much to get him started: for example, if Lada introduces
    > herself as a luck researcher, Rennick is excited to meet another
    > luck researcher. He volunteers that casino regulation is only his
    > day job. He explains his real passion is studying how luck,
    > randomness, and chance work.

-   If the PCs get Rennick to talk about his research, he will
    > eventually volunteer that he’s discovered a way to predict the
    > outcomes of random events, like a die roll.

Eventually, Rennick starts to feel like he’s said too much, and he
starts to clam up. He realizes he shouldn’t be talking about his ability
to predict random events. He also realizes he shouldn’t be talking about
his relationship to the deck. He starts to be much more circumspect.
Here is what he absolutely won’t tell the PCs:

-   He won’t divulge that he has anything to do with the Deck. If asked,
    > he just says, “I prefer not to say.” However, the fact that he
    > suddenly clammed up is a dead giveaway that he does have
    > *something* to do with the Deck.

-   He won’t say why he’s here. He came to St Parnas to ask Green
    > whether or not he’s noticed anything weird happening with the
    > deck. However, because he arrived during the chaos storm, he
    > already has his answer, a definitive *yes*, a chaos storm is
    > definitely weird. He won’t talk about this.

In the light of the fact that there has been a chaos storm, and that it
appeared to be centered on the castle, Rennick is worried about the
safety of Green and his employees. He’s worried that there might be
people trapped in the basement. He is right about that.

He says that earlier, he went to the bottom of the stairs. He says that
at the bottom of the stairs are a bunch of weird labyrinth passages. He
says that when he saw the labyrinth passages, he NOPED out of there: he
says he isn’t an adventurer, he doesn’t want to get lost in a
potentially dangerous dungeon. But he’s hoping somebody will go in. He
encourages the PCs to try to help Green and Green’s employees.

So now the PCs have two reasons to descend the stairs:

-   To find Green so that they can negotiate to purchase the Deck.

-   To help Green’s employees escape from the labyrinth.

### The Basement Landing

When the PCs come down the stairs from outside, they find themselves at
the bottom of the stairs, in the basement landing. There’s nothing in
the landing but a few potted plants. There are three hallways leading in
three different directions - north, west, and east. All three contain
portals, so looking down any of these hallways, you see a few feet of
stone wall, and then the hallway continues onward as wood-paneled
labyrinth walls. The appearance is surprising:

\<IMAGE HERE\>

When the PCs look at the transition, have them make an insight roll: the
transition from stone to wood doesn’t look man-made, it looks like the
artifact of a magical phenomenon of some sort.

Walking down any of the halls leads the PCs into the labyrinth.

### The Labyrinth

The labyrinth itself is a maze of passages, with the walls covered with
decorative wooden paneling (a lot like a Victorian library). The
passages don’t go anywhere except to more passages.

As the PCs walk around the labyrinth, they will unknowingly be passing
through portals that lead to other places in the labyrinth. The portals
in the labyrinth shift around randomly. As a result, it is impossible to
map the labyrinth. The effective layout is constantly changing.

The PCs will probably try strategies like marking the walls with arrows
that point back toward the entrance. If they do, they will discover that
the labyrinth seems to be shifting: they find their own arrows, but
they’re now pointing in scattered directions, even pointing at each
other. The labyrinth itself isn’t shifting, the portals are, but that
has the effect of connecting hallways that weren’t connected before, and
the labyrinth certainly *appears* to have shifted.

When the PCs stop for a bit, let them know that they are feeling a faint
sense of anxiety and dread. Have them make WIS DC15 checks to realize:
it’s not *their own* anxiety/dread: the sensation is coming from
outside, from somebody else. Of course, the sensation is coming from
Omta, but when you talk to your PCs about where the emotions are coming
from, call it “the presence in the labyrinth.”

To get unstuck, the PCs need to first reassure Omta, and then ask him
for help with navigation. See the previous section, “Navigating the
Portals,” for detailed instructions about what is necessary. Once they
do those things, Omta will probably take the PCs to the next basement
area.

The PCs may find interesting things in the hallways of the labyrinth.
Space out the following encounters semi-randomly, throwing in a random
encounter whenever things seem a little slow.

-   The PCs find scraps of Borghan’s fur scraped off on some of the
    > labyrinth woodwork.

-   They find a single stone block from one of the castle walls. This
    > just teleported out of a wall randomly during the chaos storm,
    > leaving a hole in the wall.

-   They encounter ants (see the previous section on ants).

-   With a difficult perception roll, they see an anomaly caused by a
    > portal. Show them the image below. The anomaly is hard to see, but
    > it is there. The reason for the seam in the following image is
    > that there is a portal stitching together two labyrinth hallways:

> ![](media/image10.png){width="2.932292213473316in"
> height="3.9265748031496064in"}

In the labyrinth, it is possible to encounter Borghan himself. This
should not happen until after the PCs have figured out how to move
around. Give them a chance to get their bearings before encountering a
foe. For information on how to run the Borghan encounter, refer to the
previous section, “Borghan: The Caged Beast.”

### The Sparring Room, Armory, and Cells

When Omta finally allows the PCs to leave the labyrinth tunnels, this is
where he takes them if they don’t ask for any place in particular. In
this location, you can find three holding cells. Across from the cells
are the sparring room and the armory.

All the cell doors have small windows that let you see inside. All three
rooms are empty. All three rooms are held shut by bars across the doors,
which are easily removed from the outside of the cell. Two of the cells
are dusty and clearly have not been used recently. The third has had an
occupant who managed to shatter the bar that held the door shut. The bar
is in splinters on the floor, and the occupant is gone. A search of the
smashed cell reveals bits of coarse brown fur. Of course, don’t tell
your players this, but the occupant was Borghan, the “Caged Beast.”
Borghan has been wandering the labyrinth for about a week.

The armory is full of weapon racks that are empty. This room is to equip
an army, and Green doesn’t have an army, so this room is unneeded.
Alyssa Varn has strung a piece of piano wire across the doorframe at
shin-level. The wire has been there for quite some time, nobody tripped
on it because nobody goes into the Armory. The wire is not connected to
a mechanism: it’s just there to trip and slash shins. First person to
enter the room must make a perception check DC 15 to spot the wire in
time. Failing that, take 6HP damage, dex save DC 15 for half. Stuck to
the wall inside the room, next to where the tripwire is anchored, is a
tiny note: “Get the &\^\$ out of my castle! - AV”

The sparring room is actively used by Green and his guards. It is
currently occupied by the two gate guards, Bran and Inya, who are stuck
here. They are glad that somebody has come to get them out of here. They
can explain the basic story of how Green and some of his employees ended
up in the basement-labyrinth. They can also give an accurate inventory
of who’s in the basement, though they don’t know exactly where these
individuals are in the basement.

It is important that Bran and Inya provide a complete list of all the
missing people. That gives the PCs a checklist to follow. Trying to
locate everyone on the checklist is the main mechanism by which the PCs
will find the rest of the areas in the basement.

If asked about people who drew cards, Bran says, “I’ll tell you
everything I know, but I mostly don’t know. Green doesn’t tell us what
cards people drew - privacy, you know? But, I guess I can tell you about
Borghan and Alyssa, I know about them.”

This is what they have to say about Borghan and Alyssa:

-   They know that the castle came into existence when Alyssa Varn drew
    > “bricklayer.” They know Alyssa sold the castle to Green, and they
    > know that Alyssa has “seller’s remorse” and that she’s causing no
    > end of grief for the castle inhabitants.

-   They know that the labyrinth came into existence when Borghan drew
    > “bricklayer.” They know the labyrinth was originally a separate
    > place, but it got all tangled up in the castle basement when the
    > chaos storm hit. They also know that Borghan is in the form of a
    > Grizzly bear, wandering the labyrinth.

Aside from the basic facts above, they don’t know anything else about
Alyssa or Borghan. They can’t tell you what other cards those two drew.

Bran and Inya can also tell the PCs the following tidbit: Green used to
own a Casino in Sigil, and Bran and Inya were guards at the casino. For
this whole deck of many things venture, Green mostly hired people who
used to work for his casino. Bran and Inya both agree that Green is a
decent boss.

When the PCs try to leave the sparring room area, have them make a
perception roll, DC15. If any PC succeeds, they notice a hole in the
wall that leads into the armory. There is nothing interesting on the
other side of the hole. It is just a hole that randomly appeared in the
wall during the chaos storm.

To get Bran and Inya out of the labyrinth, the PCs need to ask the
presence in the labyrinth to take them to the exit of Castle Green.

### The Kitchen, Pantry, and Dining Area

To get to the kitchen, the PCs pretty much have to ask for it
specifically. The most likely reason that they would do so is to find
Zimmi, the cook, who they know about because of Bran’s inventory of
Green’s employees.

The dining room is a longish room containing dining tables and chairs.
There are far more seats than are necessary for Green and his entourage.
It is obvious that only the dining tables closest to the kitchen have
been used recently. The walls are decorated with some colorful scenes of
the outlands. This sort of decorative art is inexpensive in the St
Parnas market square. There are also some potted plants. Despite the
decorations, the room still looks a little sparse.

The only really interesting thing in the dining room is that the wall
that separates the dining room from the hallway is missing a stone
block. This is easily visible: no perception roll necessary. If you’re
small, or very flexible, you can squeeze through. This is not at all
useful, but it does hint at the fact that there may be other similar
passages throughout the castle.

Across the hall from the dining room is the kitchen. The kitchen has
been taken over by ants. They have covered the entire floor with a
spongy bed of rotting plant matter (leaves, wood chips, etc). These are
fungus-farming ants, and this is their new fungus farm.\
\
Inside the kitchen, there are 10 worker ants and 4 soldier ants. When
the PCs open the door to the kitchen, the soldiers immediately cluster
around the door and form a barrier. They do not attack.

This is a good opportunity to get a close look at the ants. Tell the PCs
that the soldiers are considerably larger than the workers. The workers
have mandibles that act like pliers: the tips are flat and can grab onto
things. The soldiers, on the other hand, have mandibles that are sharp.

If the PCs stand and watch for a minute, they will see that the workers
are crushing up bits of food from the kitchen and are kneading it into
the organic matter on the floor. The ants know that human food makes a
good substrate for growing fungus, so they’re taking advantage of the
kitchen’s supplies.

The PCs can hear a voice: “Help! Get me out of here!” The voice is
obviously coming from the pantry, which is a walk-in closet in the back
of the kitchen. The situation is that the cook, Zimmi, has locked
herself in the pantry because she is scared of the ants. She shoved a
doorstop under the door to keep the ants from coming in. The ants, for
their part, don’t seem particularly concerned with Zimmi. They are
leaving the pantry alone: Zimmi is scared, but her life is not actually
in any danger.

If the PCs try to enter the room, a soldier will close his mandibles so
that the points are touching each other, then he will use the “flat of
the blade” of his mandibles to push the PC back toward the door. This
action is clearly designed not to cause damage, but to send a message:
you’re not invited.

One way to earn the trust of the ants is to offer them food rations. If
the PCs do this, a worker ant will scoot right past the soldiers, accept
the rations, and begin kneading the food into the floor. The soldiers,
seeing this, will get out of the way. As long as the PCs are handing
food to the workers, the soldiers will let them move around the room.
However, the soldiers will stay close to the PCs, encircling them.

If the PCs shout to Zimmi, “it’s okay, unlock the door, don’t worry,
these ants aren’t aggressive,” Zimmi will open the door. Zimmi is a
gnome wearing a chef’s apron. If Zimmi sees that the PCs are standing in
the kitchen unharmed, she will emerge. From there, the PCs can escort
her out of the kitchen without difficulty, and from there, she can be
led out of the labyrinth and to safety.

### The Root Cellar, Wine Cellar, and Furniture Storage

The most likely way to reach this area is if the PCs ask Omta about
Alyssa Varn, the woman who drew the bricklayer card. This is the area
where she lives.

The root cellar is a room with an earthen floor. Depending on their
backgrounds, the PCs may know what this is: the soil floor creates a
humid environment, which keeps turnips, parsnips, and other root
vegetables from desiccating.

The root cellar has been emptied out of any vegetables: the ants took it
all. The ground looks like it has been tilled, and there are multiple
ant-sized tunnels coming up out of the soil. This is clearly how the
ants have been getting into the basement. The door to the root cellar
has a soldier-ant sized hole in the bottom of it. It looks like they
chewed their way through.

The door to the wine cellar is open a few inches. Alyssa Varn has set up
a booby trap: she put a bucket of her urine on top of the door. The PCs
must make a perception roll DC15 to spot it before opening the door. If
one of the PCs has a keen sense of smell, they may be able to smell it
instead. If somebody pushes open the door without spotting the bucket,
they have to make a DEX save DC15 to dodge it. If they fail, the PC is
nauseated. The PC will have disadvantage on rolls until they can clean
themselves. The bucket has words written on it: “This is my Castle! Get
the \$%& Out!”

Inside the wine cellar there are several racks of wine. Most of it is
just table wine, but there are a five bottles of the good stuff. The
ants seem to have left this room alone. There is nothing else of
interest here.

The furniture storage room is jam-packed full of unused furniture. When
the castle was conjured, it was fully furnished, but the furniture
wasn’t to Green’s liking, so Green got some better furniture. The cheap
stuff has been shoved into this room. The furniture is piled to the
ceiling. There is a thick layer of dust.

Hidden in the back of the furniture is Alyssa Varn’s hideout. She has
arranged some bookshelves to make a little room within the big room.
Inside her little bookshelf-room is a sleeping bag, a nightstand with a
candle, and two changes of clothing. It is easy to tell from looking at
the clothing that Alyssa is a very petite woman, and quite thin. There
is nothing to indicate the identity of the person who is sleeping here,
but if the PCs have spoken to Bran and Inya, they can probably guess.
Alyssa is not here.

To find the hideout is challenging. The PCs must first ask some
questions along the lines of, “is there anything hidden in the
furniture,” or “does anything look like it’s been disturbed?” If they
ask something like that, have them make a perception roll, DC15. If they
succeed, they notice an area under a table that has less dust. This is
the path that Alyssa takes to get from the door to her hideout. The
dust-free path leads under a table, through a very narrow gap between a
whole bunch of dressers, and from there snakes around until it finally
reaches the hideout. To get through you either have to be small, or you
have to move the furniture (which is not difficult).

Inside of Alyssa’s hideout is another missing block in a wall. Alyssa
has concealed this passage by leaning the nightstand up against it. To
see it, you have to move the nightstand. The opening looks different
than the one in the dining room: in the dining room, the block was
cleanly extracted, and the mortar is still there. This one looks like
the mortar was carved away painstakingly with a sharp tool. To pass
through the opening, you have to be small.

On the other side of the opening is Etienne’s wardrobe - Etienne is one
of Green’s bodyguards. Alyssa has cut a hole in the back of the wardrobe
so she can sneak into it. Again, to pass through the hole, you have to
be small.

This hole in the wall is one of the very few ways that it is possible to
move from one castle region to a different region without passing
through the labyrinth. The portals to the labyrinth are all in the
*hallways*. But if you go through holes in the walls, you bypass all
that.

### The Bedrooms of the Bodyguards

The most likely way the PCs will reach this area is through the hole in
Alyssa Varn’s hiding place.

This region contains the bedrooms of all four of Green’s personal
bodyguards. Each one has his or her own bedroom, and each one has
personalized their space. From looking at the clothing in the wardrobes,
you can pretty easily tell which clothes are male or female, and which
ones are for humans, half-orcs, or dwarves. If the PCs have a good
memory, they may be able to identify which room belongs to which
bodyguard, but it’s not important that they be able to do so.

None of the bodyguards are actually present in the bedrooms, the only
person present is Alyssa Varn, who is lurking.

*Mikhail’s Room:* Mikhail is a male half-orc fighter. Bedroom contains a
wardrobe, a bed, a shelving unit full of decorative tea sets, and a
reading desk with some books about Sigil politics and factions.

*Harkon’s Room:* Harkon is a male dwarf cleric of Helm. Bedroom contains
a wardrobe, a bed, a shrine to Helm, and a writing desk.

*Siduri’s Room:* Siduri is a female high elf duelist. Bedroom contains a
wardrobe, a bed, a nightstand, and a collection of ornate curvy swords
on the wall. On the nightstand is a collection of books containing
diagrams of fencing maneuvers.

*Etienne’s Room:* Etienne is a male tiefling diviner. Bedroom contains a
wardrobe, a bed, a writing desk, and a number of books mainly about
hunting mushrooms in the outlands. The desk has an unsent letter.

Etienne’s unsent letter is as follows:

> Dear Magert,
>
> I hope you’re doing well! As for me, I’m doing fine. Living in St.
> Parnas is quite a change from Sigil: there’s not much of an art scene,
> and the restaurant options are limited. I’m looking forward to
> returning when this is all over.\
> \
> I’m writing to ask your opinions about two people who drew cards from
> the deck. One is named Asatya. She drew the “void” card, and she
> immediately fell into a coma. My divinations tell me there’s nobody in
> there - she’s not “locked in,” she’s just gone. The doctors at the
> local hospital don’t have a clue what to do.\
> \
> The other is a man named Borghan. He drew the “beast” card, which
> turned him into an oversized grizzly bear. I can talk to him using
> “speak with animals,” he’s fully animal intelligence now.
>
> Deck curses don’t respond to simple spells like “restoration.” I’m
> looking for powerful artifacts or individuals, anywhere in the planes,
> that might help these two. Are you aware of anything that might help?
>
> Your dear friend, Etienne

Alyssa Varn has a trap that she is waiting to spring if some of the
weaker party members find themselves in a room with only one exit: she
will jam a doorstop under the door, then she will nail the door shut.
Getting out should be a 10 to 15 minute project, involving finding some
way to get the nails out.

If the PCs enter Mikhail’s bedroom via the hole in the wall of the
furniture storage area, this may result in an opportunity for Alyssa to
pull her little stunt. She won’t try to trap the PCs in Mikhail’s
bedroom, because that bedroom has two exits (the door, and the hole).
Instead, she will wait until a few of the weaker party members are alone
in a room with only one door.

This hallway is a perfect place for a line of worker ants to suddenly
show up, walking through carrying eggs. They ignore the PCs.

### The Barracks of the Castle Staff

TODO: How do people reach the barracks?

There are two barracks: one for the men, one for the women.

The men’s barracks do not contain anything of any great interest. The
men who live here are Tommel, Wim, and Bran. Nobody is present in the
barracks. Feel free to invent personal effects for these men.

The women’s barracks, on the other hand, has been completely taken over
by ants: they are turning it into an incubator for their eggs.

There are many worker and soldier ants present. The worker ants are
busily creating safe little earth pockets for the eggs, and installing
the eggs inside them. The soldier ants are insistent that the PCs cannot
come inside: they will push back any PCs who try to enter.

However, there’s a female teenage tiefling here: Penny. She’s helping
the ants move the eggs around. The ants already trust her. Like Green’s
other employees, she hasn’t figured out how to get out of the labyrinth,
but she is completely safe, the ants have been providing her with food
and water. When the soldier ants try to repel the PCs, Penny raises her
arms above her head and wiggles them around in a manner similar to how
the ants move their antennae. In response to this, the ants make a path
for the PCs to approach Penny.

Penny has already learned the rudiments of ant-language, even though
she’s only been with the ants a few days. This is a clue that Penny is
exceptional at language learning: she is good at helping out with any
task that involves deciphering messages or languages. If asked about
this, Penny downplays it: “Oh, I’ve only learned a few words. I’m
basically at the ‘where is the bathroom’ stage of learning their
language.” Despite this modesty, she is indeed very good at languages.
She can translate, but it is true that she only knows a few words. She
can translate very basic things like “people not dangerous,” but
anything more complex is impossible.

When Penny sees the PCs, she is cheerful and friendly. If the PCs say
they’ve come to rescue Green’s employees, Penny is grateful: she likes
the ants, but she’s tired of being stuck in the basement. She comes with
the PCs willingly. She is a useful resource for deciphering the scrolls.

### The Lounge, and Green and Edric’s Quarters

The lounge contains Omta’s steel door. Because of that, Omta
deliberately keeps the PCs away from this area until Omta has a little
time to get used to the PCs. This is therefore the last area that the
PCs will find by traversing the labyrinth.

This area contains two large sofas, several comfy chairs, and a few
reading tables. All this furniture has been upended during the chaos
storm, and much of it is in a pile in the southeast corner of the room.
The pile is hiding something important: there is a hole in the wall to
Edric’s room. Like the other holes in the wall, it consists of one
missing stone block. To get through, you have to be small in size.

Edric is here. Edric is the bariaur steward of the castle. A “steward”
is responsible for paperwork: he keeps track of the books, he’s
responsible for ordering deliveries of food, he guards the moneybox, and
the like.\
\
To the east of the lounge is a short segment of hallway which is
jam-packed with soldier ants. They are guarding the door to Green’s
bedroom. Green’s bedroom is the largest bedroom in the basement, the ant
queen has taken it as her lair. There is nothing interesting in Green’s
bedroom other than the ant queen.

Directly across from Green’s bedroom is Edric’s bedroom and office.
Edric’s office contains unremarkable items such as a wardrobe, a bed,
and a writing table. It also contains the vault, which contains a
lockbox with 3500 in gems (conjured by the Deck), 500 gp in gold, and a
bunch of ledgers and records which are important to Edric but which
serve no purpose for anyone else. Getting into Edric’s office is
difficult because the soldier ants won’t let anyone come into the
hallway with the doorway. However, it is also possible to enter Edric’s
office through the hole in the wall in the lounge. The vault is
basically a closet with a solid wooden door with a mundane padlock
(lockpick DC 15). It can also be opened (slowly) by bashing. The lockbox
is inside, with its own lock (lockpick DC 13).

Edric isn’t willing to leave the lounge until he has the lockbox. Once
he has it, he’s glad to get out of the basement.

If the PCs steal the gems, Edric will be angry. He will make an
impassioned plea: “When you drew from the Deck, we dealt with you
fairly. We paid you the gold you were owed, and when you went to a
Donjon, we didn’t just keep your money, we made sure it went to your
next-of-kin. We were fair to you. Are you really going to steal from
us?” Doing this will earn the disapproval of all of Green’s employees.
The PCs will get no cooperation on anything if the PCs treat Edric this
way.

The lounge floor has a trapdoor that leads down into the labyrinth. This
is not a portal, it’s a plain old trapdoor, the labyrinth actually is
physically underneath the basement. The trapdoor has been here ever
since the labyrinth was conjured.

If the PCs enter Edric’s bedroom via the hole, then emerge via the door,
they will pop right out in front of the door to Green’s bedroom - the
queen’s chamber. This will annoy the ants, and they will very
aggressively push the PCs back into Edric’s bedroom. Then, they will
form a line barring passage through Edric’s door. The PCs will have to
exit via the hole.

The soldier ants in the lounge are very strict - whereas the soldiers in
other parts of the castle are assertive, but rarely aggressive, these
ones will fight if the PCs push their way into that hallway. They are
quite serious about defending the queen. The only way to get past them
is with Penny’s help: she can ask for permission to see the queen, and
the queen will grant limited access (just one PC, plus Penny). For
information about what the queen says, see the section on the ants.

To the north of the lounge is a hallway that in more normal times led to
the latrine, the laundry room, and the cistern. When Green and his
bodyguards entered the basement to rescue Green’s employees, Green was
carrying the Deck. Omta portaled this group to the laundry room, then
sealed them in by conjuring a big steel barrier in this hallway. Of
course, Omta isn’t really trying to trap these people: he really only
cares about protecting the deck. The people are collateral damage. Of
course, the group tried to escape, but Omta thwarted them.

When the PCs first arrive in the lounge, they see the steel barrier in
this hallway. Later, this barrier will turn into a steel door. See the
upcoming section, “The Steel Barrier becomes a Steel Door.”

###  The Latrine, Cistern, and Laundry

This area of the castle is inaccessible, because of the steel barrier.
We include it for completeness.\
\
The cistern is a big tank where rainwater from the roof is collected. It
is the castle’s supply of fresh water.\
\
The latrine is basically a room with some watertight boxes that you can
use to relieve yourself. When the castle was functioning normally, Zim
(the janitor) would take those boxes outside and dump them in the woods.
Now that the area is sealed, the boxes haven’t been emptied in some
time, and the odor is seeping into the surrounding areas.

The laundry room is an area containing some big steel tubs which are
used for both laundry and bathing. There is a large hearth with a pot
that can be used to heat water. There is a rack full of towels, and a
few tables for folding laundry. This is where Green and his bodyguards
are staying now that they are trapped.

## Communicating with Omta

When the PCs first enter the castle, they sense anxiety and dread (via
their telepathic link with Omta). Later, a PC will say something out
loud, and Omta will hear what the PC said and will have an emotional
reaction. For example, if the PC says, “let’s go find the deck,” the PCs
will sense a sudden uptick in the fear and anxiety coming from the
presence in the labyrinth. If the PC says something like, “we’re not
here to hurt you,” the emotion might change from anxiety to cautious
relief.

Initially, that’s the extent of the communication: the PCs say things,
the presence in the labyrinth (Omta) reacts with emotions. The fact that
the emotions make sense - the fact that they’re logical reactions to the
things that the PCs say - that tells the players that the presence in
the labyrinth actually is listening and paying attention.

The players will eventually realize that they can talk directly to Omta,
asking for things out loud. As long as those things aren’t a threat to
Omta, Omta will cooperate. For example, if they say, “we need to find
the cook,” Omta will rearrange the portals so that the PCs soon wander
into the kitchen.

This low-level communication should persist for quite a while. Let the
PCs explore the castle until they’ve accomplished quite a few things.
Make sure they’ve met at least two of the employees, and make sure
they’ve had a few interactions with ants. Ideally, they should have had
an interaction with Borghan and an interaction with Alyssa Varn as well.

After the PCs have been in the castle a while, Omta decides to
communicate with them in a more detailed way. Omta reaches out to the
PCs telepathically, and tries to send them an actual message.

### Failed Telepathic Messages

The PCs experience a strange phenomenon. Say to your players, “you feel
the presence in the labyrinth trying to send a message to you. You
receive the following: surprise, then shock, then fear, then
determination, then more surprise, then a feeling of being trapped.”
Then, a minute later, tell them: “You sense frustration.”

What’s happening here is that Omta is trying to send a message through
the telepathic link, but it’s not working. Omta’s way of reasoning is so
alien that it’s just not coming through: all the PCs are receiving are
the *emotions* associated with the story that Omta is trying to tell,
but they’re not receiving any of the *concrete details*. Omta can tell
that the PCs aren’t getting it, so he’s frustrated that his attempts at
communication aren’t getting through.

Omta will sporadically repeat these attempts, always to no avail. If the
players don’t figure it out, let them roll an insight roll to figure
out: the “presence in the labyrinth” is trying to communicate with you,
but it’s not really working.

Tell them that although they can’t figure out what the presence is
trying to say, they do sense two very clear patterns:

-   The emotions they’re receiving contain an awful lot of fear,
    > anxiety, and dread. Of course, this is because Omta is terrified
    > of Tymora.

-   The sequences of emotions always end in frustration. Of course, this
    > is because Omta is aggravated about his inability to communicate
    > with the PCs.

Make sure that Omta repeats this at least three times.

### Omta Decides to try Writing

After several failed attempts at telepathic communication, Omta comes up
with a new idea: maybe I can talk to them in writing!

This is what the PCs experience: they once again receive a sequence of
emotions, followed once again by frustration… and more frustration… and
then suddenly, inspiration! Insight! Moments later, a piece of parchment
materializes in thin air in front of one of the PCs. The scroll contains
images of cards from the deck.

The fact that the scroll is made up of symbols from the Deck is a dead
giveaway that the PCs are talking to the deck itself. Let’s take a
moment to explain why Omta is communicating using images from the deck.

Tens of thousands of years ago, Omta fled to a far corner of the
multiverse and has been hiding there ever since. He went into hiding
*before* mortals existed, and before mortals invented language. Because
of this, Omta has no idea what a “sentence” is. Back in those days, the
gods communicated with symbols, but those symbols were not arranged into
sentences. Instead, symbols were displayed in groups, associated with
each other but without any subject, verb, object relationship. This is
the only way Omta knows how to talk. He never learned how to speak a
language.

Omta likes to use cards from the deck as his preferred symbols. He
thinks the cards represent all the most important ideas, so in his mind,
they make the perfect communication symbols. Each card has multiple
meanings. For example, the gem card can mean “gems.” But it can also
mean “money”, or “wealth”, or even “precious.” It can also mean
“beautiful”, or even “sparkly.” Earlier in this book, the chapter *Cards
of the Deck* lists the symbolic meanings of the cards.

Any PC who drew a card from the deck knows, instinctively, the symbolic
meanings of that particular card. For example, if one of the PCs drew
the gem card, then that PC will know that the gem card has all the
meanings listed above. Of course, every PC drew three cards, so by
working together and sharing information, the PCs will be able to
decipher many of the symbols used by Omta.

But what about cards that the PCs didn’t draw? Nobody in the party drew
the *Sun* card, for instance. If the PCs want to know what the symbolic
meanings of the *Sun* card are, they will have to ask somebody who drew
the sun card.

### Omta Says: “Ask Me Questions, Mortals.”

The first piece of parchment that Omta gives to the PCs looks like this:

![](media/image7.png){width="5.0in" height="3.2416666666666667in"}

It means: “I want the four of you to ask me questions.”\
\
The cluster on the left represents the PCs: four people who drew the
Donjon card. The cluster on the right represents Omta: it contains his
holy symbol, a pair of dice with a sunburst. The PCs recognize the
symbol of the dice with the sunburst as the symbol that was on the box
of the Deck. The middle symbol is the Vizier card. If the PCs ask Lada
about the Vizier card, she says, “in the past, it used to grant mortals
the ability to ask questions of the gods.” As it turns out, that’s still
what it does.

Omta wants the PCs to ask him questions. He thinks that if the PCs start
by asking the right questions, then communicating with them will be
easier.

When the PCs try to interpret the scroll, they will probably say all
kinds of things that are incorrect. When the PCs say something
incorrect, they sense mild confusion from Omta via the telepathic link.
This is their clue that they’re on the wrong track.

When they say something correct, part of the scroll becomes brighter,
bolder, more colorful. For example, if somebody says, “I think this
cluster on the left represents the four of us,” then the PCs sense
excitement from Omta, and the cluster on the left becomes bolder,
brighter, clearer. This is the PCs clue that they’re on the right track.
But the fact that only the cluster on the left became bolder tells them
that they haven’t deciphered the whole scroll, only the part on the
left.

If the PCs get stuck, which is likely, they may get frustrated. In that
case, Lada says, “I think part of the problem is that we don’t know what
this vizier symbol really means. Do we know anybody who drew the vizier
card? Maybe they would know.” That’s the key to understanding *all* of
Omta’s messages: go find the people who drew the cards.

If you go find the people who drew the cards, in general, those people
will know what the cards mean. However, some of those people are very
difficult to talk to. For example, Borghan is in the form of a bear,
which makes it extremely difficult to get any kind of useful information
out of him.

Fortunately, there is a woman who drew the Vizier card: Brunna the
Antiquarian. She is not hard to talk to, and she is very helpful in
interpreting the messages.

Now that Omta has given the PCs this message, he refuses to help with
navigation any more until the PCs figure out what his message means. He
takes the PCs to the basement landing, and won’t bring them anywhere
else. If the PCs reenter the labyrinth, Omta will just bring them back
to the basement landing.

Of course, if the PCs do figure out that they’re supposed to ask
questions, they’ll probably try asking all sorts of questions. But only
three questions will elicit a response:

-   Why are you afraid?

-   What is your goal?

-   Who are you?

These questions don’t have to be phrased exactly like that. For example,
instead of asking “What is your goal,” the PCs could equivalently ask,
“What are you trying to accomplish,” “Why is the deck here,” or anything
along those lines.

Asking any question other than the three questions above will result in
no reaction. Omta won’t answer arbitrary questions, he has specific
things he wants to convey.

Sometimes, the PCs get focused on their *own* goals, and they start
asking questions like, “how can we get to where the deck is.” Omta
reacts to these questions with annoyance. If the PCs get stuck asking
questions about their own goals, Lada eventually gives them a hint: “We
should ask him about his agenda, not about how he can help us with
ours.”

If one the PCs ask one of the three key questions, Omta conjures another
scroll: the answer to the question. As soon as the PCs ask one of the
three questions, Omta will permit the PCs to traverse the basement
again.

### Asking: “Why are you Afraid?”

Omta conjures this scroll if the PCs ask the question, “Why are you
afraid:”

![](media/image3.png){width="5.0in" height="3.225in"}

The meaning of this scroll is: “I’m afraid because Tymora intends to
kill me!”\
\
The cluster on the left represents Omta. It contains Omta’s holy symbol,
the Sun card, and Euryale. In this context, the Sun card means “god,”
Omta is just letting the PCs know that he’s a god. The Euryale card
means “fear,” it represents the fact that Omta is afraid.

The cluster on the right represents Tymora. Again the Sun card means
“god,” because Tymora is a god. The gem card is there because Tymora’s
holy symbol is a coin, Gem is the closest thing in the deck to “coin.”
The skull card conjures an “avatar of death” that immediately tries to
kill you. In this context, it means “a dangerous killer.”

In reality, Omta is overly fearful. This is because in Omta’s past, his
formative experiences involved another god who was much more aggressive
and dangerous than Tymora. Now he expects all gods to be dangerous and
aggressive. Fear and anxiety are not always rational: Omta is scared.

In fairness, to Omta, Tymora is no murderer, but she is very angry, and
she won’t rule out the possibility of a fight. So Omta really is in some
danger.

### Asking: “What is Your Goal?”

Omta conjures this scroll if the PCs ask the question, “what do you
want,” or equivalently, “why are you here,” or “why is the deck sticking
around:”

![](media/image4.png){width="5.0in" height="3.2333333333333334in"}

The meaning of this scroll is: “I have to save the universe from
Rennick, before he ruins everything!”\
\
In this scroll, the upper-left cluster represents Omta. It contains his
holy symbol, and also the knight card, which means “defender,” in this
case, the defender of the universe.

The cluster on the right represents Rennick. It contains the Vizier
card, meaning (in this case) a seer or a scholar: Rennick is a
researcher. It also contains the Idiot card - Omta thinks that Rennick,
for all his knowledge, is a careless idiot. Finally, it contains the
“ruin” card, meaning that Rennick is going to destroy everything.\
\
The bottom cluster represents the entire universe. Omta frequently uses
the combination “Star-Gem” to represent the universe. Star means
“wondrous thing,” and gem means “beautiful thing.” Omta thinks the
universe is a wonderful, beautiful thing. But identifying that star-gem
is a reference to the universe is quite difficult. However, many of the
scrolls contain the star-gem combo. Other scrolls provide clues that
star-gem might be the universe.

Of course, the ruin card in the bottom cluster means that Omta is afraid
that the universe is going to be ruined.

### Asking: “Who Are You?”

Asking somebody who they are is a very open-ended question. When Omta
gets this question, he decides to tell his whole life story, in the form
of four scrolls. To make this clear to the players, Lada should say this
explicitly: “Four scrolls? Is this his entire life story?”

When you look at the four scrolls, you’ll notice that the scrolls have
page numbers: the comet cards. But the page numbering is backward from
what you might expect. The comet symbol represents time, usually the
past. So one comet means “a long time ago,” but four comets means “a
long, long, long, long time ago.”

Here are the four scrolls, in chronological order:

![](media/image5.png){width="5.0in" height="3.234880796150481in"}

Omta is trying to tell the following story:\
\
“A god created the universe. He was the original bricklayer, he was the
king of the gods. But he was a beast, and he was possessive and
controlling. The universe he created was a wondrous item, it was
beautiful, but it was flawed. It was too predictable, too boring. I was
wise, and I knew how to fix the universe. But I knew the creator was
possessive and wouldn’t want me to touch his creation. So I snuck into
the universe, making sure the creator didn’t see me, and I taught the
universe how to use *randomness*.”

That’s a lot to interpret from just a few symbols! Let me walk you
though how the symbols on the scroll tell that story.\
\
The cluster on the right represents the creator god. It contains the Sun
card, meaning “god.” It contains the bricklayer card, which of course
means creator or builder, but it also implies possessive and
controlling. The throne card means “king,” but it also implies that he
rules by sheer might. The creator is the king of the gods because he is
the most powerful god.

The cluster on the right is the best starting point. Since it contains
the king of the gods, the bricklayer, it strongly suggests that this
story is a creation myth. And if this is a myth about the creation of
the universe, well then it follows that the universe must be here on the
scroll somewhere.

Getting your players to realize this is a creation myth can be tricky,
so be attentive for when somebody says something about creation of the
universe. As soon as they do, give them positive feedback in the form of
the entire scroll getting a little bolder. Letting them know this is a
creation myth is essential to them deciphering this.

The cluster in the center represents the universe. It uses the star-gem
combo, which the Deck frequently uses to indicate the universe. Star
means “wondrous item,” gem means “beautiful item.” This is the best Omta
can do to summarize the universe.

The cluster also contains the cripple card, meaning sick or unhealthy.
But it’s not immediately obvious how the universe was sick or unhealthy
until you think about it logically: this is the Deck we’re talking to.
Its whole agenda is *randomness*. If the deck doesn’t like the universe,
it must be because the universe lacks randomness.

The cluster on the left means Omta. It contains his holy symbol, and the
owl card, meaning “wise.” Omta thinks he’s wise, because he thinks he
knows how to cure the universe. The key card means “teaching a skill.”
Omta is teaching the universe how to be random. The rogue card means,
“being sneaky.” In this case, it represents the fact that Omta knew the
creator wouldn’t want anyone messing with his stuff, so Omta knew he had
to sneak into the universe and not get caught.

You will have to give your players *many* hints. The most valuable hint
they can receive is feedback: if they say something that’s on the wrong
track, they receive annoyance from Omta. If they say something that’s on
the right track, parts of the scroll light up to show what they got
right.

Here is the second part of the story:

![](media/image9.png){width="5.0in" height="3.216266404199475in"}

This part of the story is simple:

“I fled the scene of the crime. I hid in the farthest reaches of the
void! I was terrified.”\
\
Omta knew that the creator god was controlling and possessive, and that
he wouldn’t want anybody messing with his creation. So after altering
the universe, Omta fled the scene of the crime and hid. He was terrified
that the creator would find out what he did, and kill him.

In this scroll, there is one cluster, containing Omta’s holy symbol.
Omta is all alone. The dungeon card here means imprisonment or
isolation, in this case, self-imposed. The void card means literally,
“in the farthest reaches of the void.” The rogue card means, “still
being sneaky.” And the Euryale card means, “terrified.”

Then, this happened:

![](media/image6.png){width="5.0in" height="3.234880796150481in"}

This is the story Omta is trying to tell:\
\
“I was trying to be sneaky, but Selune found me out. She saw what I did,
then she found me in the void. I’m such an idiot! I should have been
more careful! Fortunately, Selune was wise. She agreed to keep silent:
she would not tell anyone what I did, or where I was hiding, or even
that I exist.”\
\
Let’s go over that one symbol at a time. The cluster on the right is
Omta. Rogue means he’s still trying to be sneaky. Euryale means he’s
still terrified of getting caught. But Idiot means he’s failed: he’s
been caught.

The cluster on the left is Selune. Sun-Moon means “goddess of the moon,”
ie, Selune. Owl means “wise.” Void, in this case, means “silent.”\
\
Notice that Omta is calling Selune “wise.” That strongly suggests that
Selune “did the right thing” in the eyes of Omta. And obviously, “doing
the right thing” would be *not* revealing Omta to the creator, not
getting him killed. And obviously, Omta is not dead, so obviously, she
*didn’t* turn him in.

Understanding the void card in Selune’s cluster is difficult. When
somebody lists off the meanings of the void card, one of them is
“Silence.” Try to give them the feedback that silence is the right
interpretation here. But what does that mean, Silence?

To really understand, Lada needs to remind the players of the vision
with Selune. In that vision, Selune said: “A long, long time ago, I
promised to keep a secret.” Selune was specifically referring to the
incident in this scroll! She promised Omta that she would not reveal his
existence to the creator. That’s why, when the PCs talked to Selune in
that vision, she couldn’t say any more - if she revealed Omta’s
existence, that would be breaking the promise. So the void card, in this
context, means “keeping silent - keeping a secret.”

Again, you will need to provide *lots* of hints and feedback.

Here is the final page of the story:

![](media/image8.png){width="5.0in" height="3.234880796150481in"}

### Learning the Meanings of the Cards

In order to decipher Omta’s scrolls, the PCs will need to know the
symbolic meanings of all the cards. Many of the cards have some obvious
meanings, and some non-obvious meanings. For example, the Key card can
literally mean, “A Key.” That’s completely obvious. It can also mean,
“To Lock,” or “To Unlock.” That’s not as obvious, but it’s still pretty
easy to guess. But because the Key card can grant a skill, the Key card
can also mean “A Skill.” That’s non-obvious, and to learn that, you may
have to talk to somebody who drew the Key card. They will know all the
meanings.

Anyone who draws a card from the deck gains a magical awareness of what
that particular card means. Since each PC drew three cards, each PC
knows the exact meanings of three of the cards. By pooling their
knowledge, the PCs can figure out the meanings of quite a few of the
cards. However, there are still quite a few cards that the PCs will not
have drawn. To find out those meanings, the PCs will have to seek out
NPCs who drew those particular cards.

Another thing the PCs can do to learn the meanings of the cards is to
ask Lada. Lada is a researcher into Luck, and the Deck is one of her
most favorite research topics. However, all of her knowledge comes from
historical records. That’s a problem, because Omta constantly changes up
the cards and their meanings. Lada’s knowledge is just plain
out-of-date. If the PCs ask Lada the meaning of a card, you should read
the description of the card from the DM’s guide! If the card isn’t in
the DM’s guide, then Lada says she’s never heard of the card before.

Lada is crystal clear about the fact that her knowledge is not
trustworthy. She explains that her knowledge might be out-of-date, and
she explains that some of the historical records she’s using might be
entirely made up by liars. She says that her information is potentially
useful, but that it should be taken with a big grain of salt. In fact,
the descriptions in the DM’s guide *do* match the ones in this module
for some of the cards, but most cards have at least some differences.

### Help your Players Decipher the Scrolls

You will have to help the PCs decipher the scrolls. You will need to
give them *lots* of hints.

The scrolls contain symbols which have many meanings. Because of this,
interpreting a scroll is an incredibly open-ended puzzle. That’s fun,
but there’s a downside: it means that it’s very easy for the PCs to go
off on a tangents with wild misinterpretations.

The first step to keeping your players on track is to repeatedly remind
them: *talk to the NPCs who drew the cards*. You need to impress this on
your players: it’s fun to try to guess what the cards represent, but
until you talk to the people who drew the cards, you’re just guessing.

For example, some player might convince himself that he just *knows*
that the Sun card must mean fire and flame and destruction. It
absolutely doesn’t mean that at all. If the PCs spend hours trying to
make sense of a scroll, starting with the assumption that “Sun” means
fire and flame and destruction, they’re going to go down a rabbit hole.\
\
When the PCs do this, you can try to bring them back down to earth in
two ways: one, you can have NPCs speak up. Lada might say, “I am not
sure that’s what the Sun card means. That doesn’t seem consistent with
the historic effects of the Sun card, it didn’t burn or destroy
anything. Maybe we should go talk to somebody who drew the Sun card.”

You can also have Omta react, via the telepathic link. When the PC says,
“this card means fire and flame,” have Omta react with mild annoyance.

Another thing you will have to do is provide positive feedback. When the
PCs are talking about the scrolls, they will say lots of things that are
wrong, and occasionally, something that is right. When they say
something right, they should get positive reinforcement. Omta should
react with enthusiasm via the telepathic link, and the relevant portion
of the scroll should become brighter, bolder. Of course, there’s a risk
of giving too much away this way, so use your judgement about how much
you reveal, and how accurate the PCs need to be before they get positive
feedback.

During the deciphering of the scrolls, the PCs are likely to do some
twenty-questions style guessing. For example, when deciphering the
scroll “what are you afraid of,” the PCs might just start listing
everyone they can think of: “Are you afraid of Rennick? Of Green? Of
Beshaba? Of Tymora?” That last one is right, but not because the PCs had
any insight. That’s not really how we want this puzzle to be solved.
It’s up to you how to react to this. If the players do this just a
little, you might have the Tymora section of the scroll light up anyway.
If the players do it too much, Omta gets annoyed and closes the
telepathic connection for an hour or two. The PCs can sense that he’s
not listening right now, and that guessing was just annoying him.

If the PCs do solve a portion of a scroll through a wild guess, have the
relevant section of the scroll become bolder, but only barely. For
example, if somebody makes a wild guess that the cluster on the right of
the “what are you afraid of” scroll represents Tymora, have that cluster
get a little bolder, but the three cards inside do not illuminate.
Explain that to fully illuminate the cluster, the PCs will have to
decipher the specific meanings of each piece of the cluster.

The last thing you can do to help the players is to have NPCs give
hints. You should use your judgement about how many hints you want to
give: enough to get the players to make progress, but not so many that
it feels easy. You will definitely need to give some, though.

There are several NPCs who can provide hints, chief among them: Lada and
Penny. Lada is insightful about the deck because she’s researched it her
whole life. Penny is insightful because she just has a natural affinity
for languages.

You, the DM, can use Penny to give the PCs exactly the amount of hinting
that they need, and no more. When the PCs show the scrolls to Penny,
Penny should stare at them and make some basic observations (like, “So
you guys drew three of these cards, but two of them are unknowns.”)
Then, after a few basic observations, have her say something seriously
insightful.

From that point forward, dish out the insightful observations at a pace
that works for your PCs. If they need more help, give them more
observations. If they seem to be getting it on their own, give them
fewer.

Penny really enjoys studying the scrolls: she really likes foreign
languages! She’s always bright and perky, but when she’s working on the
scrolls she’s especially happy. She says: “This is fun! If you get any
more of these scrolls, please show them to me. Oh, and if you learn the
meanings of any more cards, please let me know.”

Here is a list of things the two NPCs could say:

**Observation**:

How many cards are there in the deck? Roughly 20, we think? Think about
it, if you’re writing in a language that has only 20 words, then every
word is going to have to have lots of meanings.

**Observation:\
**Look, I know a lot about languages, but that doesn’t mean that I can
tell you the meaning of a symbol without any context. Of course, some
meanings are obvious. The gem card can obviously mean, “a gem.” But does
it also mean wealth in general? Can it mean “money?” Probably, but I
won’t know for sure until we talk to somebody who actually knows.

**Observation:**

I hear you guys trying to solve these scrolls, without first leaning the
meaning of the cards. For example, this scroll has a Sun card on it, and
you haven’t spoken to anyone who drew the Sun card. So I think it’s too
early to try to solve the scroll. I wouldn’t try solving a scroll, until
you know the meanings of all the cards on it. You could make yourselves
crazy.

**Observation:\
**Penny: Imagine you’re expressing ideas with drawings. If you wanted to
say “candle,” what would you draw?

PC: A candle.\
Penny: Ok, now let’s say you wanted to say, “candlelight.” What would
you draw?

PC: Uh, I guess a candle with rays of light coming from the flame?

Penny: OK, now let’s say you wanted to say, “wax.” What would you draw?

PC: Uh, I guess a candle with some wax pooling?

Penny: If you looked at somebody else’s drawing of a candle, would you
be entirely sure which concept the artist was trying to communicate? I
guess my point is, if you see a symbol, don’t be so sure that you have
the right meaning. Every image, like candle, could have many possible
meanings.

**Observation:\
**I see that this scroll has a cluster containing “star, gem, ruin.”
That one contains a cluster containing “star, gem, cripple.” That one
contains “star, gem, tiger.” I feel like these all represent the same
thing - in this one, star-gem is sick, in this one, star-gem is healthy,
and in that one, star-gem is in danger of being ruined. So whatever
star-gem is, I bet it’s the same in all these scrolls.

**Observation:**

Using picture-based languages, it’s really hard to express abstract
concepts. If I wanted to express the concept of “love,” I might draw a
puppy, because I really love puppies. But that’s subjective. Somebody
else might use a puppy to represent the idea of “delicious.” I think
that to really fully decipher these scrolls, you’re going to have to get
to know this being a little. You’re going to have to learn what concepts
he associates to what images.

**Observation:\
**The common tongue is written left-to-right, in the order subject,
verb, object. But remember that not all languages use that order. Some
languages don’t have any order. My point is: just because something is
on the left side of the scroll, don’t assume it’s the subject. It might
not be consistent.

**Observation:**

It’s easy to get fixated on a meaning for a card. In this first scroll,
the vizier card means “asking questions.” But I think if we’re not
careful, we’ll assume it means the same thing in the next scroll too. It
might not. Don’t accidentally get locked in to a single meaning just
because it worked for you once.

**Observation:\
**I notice that on this scroll, the Ruin card appears twice. I bet one
of them is for the person who’s doing the ruining, and the other is for
the thing that’s being ruined.

**Observation:**

Never forget about the literal interpretation. In some places, the sun
card might mean, literally, “the sun.” In some places, the vizier card
might mean literally, “a vizier (a seer).” In some places, the gem card
might mean literally, “gems.”

**Observation:\
**The ogre Pig drew the throne card. But if you go ask him what the
throne card means, he probably doesn’t have the necessary intelligence
to verbalize all the possible interpretations. My point is: if you’re
asking somebody about a card, keep in mind who you’re talking to, and
bear in mind that they may not want or be able to tell you everything
there is to know.

**Observation:\
**If I wanted to represent the concept of werewolf, I might choose
“moon” and “beast.” But if you saw “moon” and “beast” together, would
you think of a werewolf? Maybe, but you might think of an owl instead. I
guess what I’m saying is, be open to the possibility that there might be
another interpretation.

### The Steel Barrier Becomes a Steel Door

The lounge area contains the steel barrier that separates the lounge
from the laundry area. Initially, the steel barrier is just a barrier.
But once the PCs receive the scrolls, it physically changes: three
hinges appear, transforming it from a barrier into a door. Six
pigeonholes appear in the surface. A brass plaque appears, bearing the
symbols: *Vizier, Key*.

The meaning of the inscription *Vizier, Key* is: “Knowledge is the Key
to opening this door.” More specifically, Omta won’t let you through the
door until you’ve read all six scrolls. He isn’t going to let the PCs
approach the Deck until they have heard Omta’s side of the story.

It’s completely obvious that to unlock the door, you have to put
something into the holes. The PCs may try jamming random objects into
the holes. If they do, the objects just pop back out. If the PCs keep
that up too long, they start to sense frustration from Omta. However,
nothing bad happens.

If the PCs try inserting a scroll into a pigeonhole, they will notice
that it fits *perfectly*. Unlike other random items inserted into the
pigeonholes, the scrolls slide back out much more slowly, making it
obvious that the players are getting closer. If none of the players
figure it out, Lada will tell them what they have to do: “Maybe we’re
supposed to read the scrolls before inserting them in the door.”

To unlock the door, the PCs must ask all three of the key questions in
order to obtain all six scrolls. Then, they must decipher all six of the
scrolls. Once a scroll is properly deciphered, it can be inserted into
the door, triggering the sound of mechanical tumblers. The scroll will
remain in the pigeonhole. When all six scrolls are deciphered and in
their pigeonholes, the door opens, and the PCs can finally meet and talk
to Omta directly.

## The Conclusion of the Chapter

### Meeting Omta

When the steel door opens, it reveals an extradimensional space, a black
emptiness. Within the space, the PCs observe a very vague humanoid form
- just a blurry outline. The form is resting on the vague outline of a
bed. It is very obviously asleep. This is Omta.

The black emptiness is the part of the void where Omta hides. The PCs
can walk out into this emptiness, and approach Omta. They’re not walking
“on” anything, there’s nothing there. But they can move around
nonetheless. Lada cannot cross the threshold - only the PCs.

As soon as the PCs cross the threshold of the door, they immediately
sense that their telepathic connection with Omta has gotten a lot
stronger. Tell them that they find it much easier to sense what Omta is
feeling and thinking.

As soon as the PCs approach, Omta speaks. Cards cards appear over his
body, in groups, just like on the scrolls. He is again communicating.
However, this time, the PCs have no trouble understanding what he’s
trying to say. They don’t need to “decipher” the cards - they just
understand. This is because of the much stronger telepathic link. Tell
your players that from this point forward, the PCs will never have
difficulty making sense of card-language again.

In card-speak, Omta introduces himself:

> I am the roll of the dice, the turn of the cards. I am
> unpredictability without chaos. I am the Deck, and the Deck is me - it
> is my avatar. It wants what I want. What I want, is for the universe
> to remain unpredictable and unknowable. I want to preserve the
> surprise and wonder.
>
> The situation is dire, and I need help. You are the only ones who have
> made any real effort to understand me. So I will ask you for your
> help.”

Omta wants two things from the PCs:

1.  Rennick cannot be allowed to destroy randomness itself. Help me stop
    > him.

2.  Don’t give my avatar, the Deck, to Tymora. She will use it to kill
    > me.

At this point, the PCs can ask anything they want to Omta. Before
answering anything, Omta demands: “Promise you won’t betray me to
Tymora. I don’t want to die.” Assuming the PCs agree, Omta will answer
any questions the PCs have to the best of his ability.

If the PCs ask why Omta is trying to take away Tymora’s worshippers,
Omta replies: “I have no interest in worshippers. I don’t need them. It
is true that some of her former worshippers are directing worship
towards me now. This is something they have done of their own
initiative, and I find it odd and confusing.”

If the PCs ask what Omta means by “I am unpredictability without chaos,”
Omta explains: “If you roll a die, it could come up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6.
It is random. But the die will not turn into a mouse and walk away,
because it is not made of Limbo’s pure chaos. Pure chaos reduces the
universe to nonsense. I harnessed chaos, chained it, and turned it into
randomness. Randomness adds unpredictability without destroying
meaning.”

If the PCs explain that the Deck’s presence and the Deck’s power are
what is attracting worshippers, Omta will say, “I sent the Deck to stop
Rennick. By its own rules, the Deck cannot vanish until its goal is
accomplished. If you want the Deck to go away, help me stop Rennick.”

If the PCs ask what Rennick has done, Omta explains that Rennick has
devised a way to predict the outcome of random events, and that if
random events can be predicted, then they’re not random at all. Omta
wants this technology gone. If the PCs suggest killing Rennick, Omta is
fine with that.

If the PCs ask why Omta hasn’t taken a more direct approach, like just
killing Rennick, Omta seems puzzled. He says, “I did act directly, I
sent the Deck, and the Deck is me. The Deck might kill Rennick, or
imprison him, or stop him in any one of a number of other ways. That is
as direct as I can be. Anything else would not be random.” Omta is tied
up by his own ideology.

Assuming the PCs ask a lot of questions (which they should), the
conversation with Omta should clear up just about everything about
what’s really been going on. The only puzzle piece that’s still missing
is Rennick’s perspective: the PCs still don’t know exactly what Rennick
has done, or why.

At the end of the conversation, Omta again pleads that the PCs not to
lead Tymora to his doorstep. He is clearly terrified of Tymora.

When the conversation with Omta is over, the PCs must exit the void
through the steel door. As soon as they do, the steel door vanishes.

### Negotiating with Green

After the steel door vanishes, all that remains is the hallway to the
laundry room. A moment later, the bodyguard Mikhail sticks his head
around the corner and then shouts, “HEY! The Barrier is GONE!” Within
moments, Green and his entire entourage is there in the hall.

Green asks, “Are my employees safe? Where is Penny? Where are Tommel and
Zim?” He won’t talk about anything else until he is reassured that
everyone who works for him has been delivered to safety. If there’s
anybody who hasn’t been saved, then Green will immediately ignore the
PCs and go searching for the missing employees.

When Green’s employees are safe, Green profusely thanks the PCs for
helping. He gladly offers them a cash reward. Green will answer any
question, but he doesn’t have any new information: he’s been trapped in
the laundry room ever since the chaos storm, along with his entourage.
They tried everything to get out, but the barrier was impenetrable.

At this point, Lada does the job she was sent to do. She makes Green the
following offer:

> “Excuse me sir, I am here as a representative of Tymora. I have been
> authorized to make you an offer for the Deck. If you sell it to
> Tymora, Tymora will grant you five wishes. Bear in mind, that’s five
> wishes from a trustworthy goddess who will do her best to make sure
> you get exactly what you truly desire.”

Balanestra, Greens’ advisor, immediately weighs in:

> “Boss, I know we’ve been trying all this time to hold on to the Deck,
> but that’s a damn good offer. The Deck has been getting more and more
> chaotic, and if you try to extract five more wishes from the Deck, who
> knows what could happen. This could be a much safer way to get wishes.
> I think you should very seriously consider it.”

Green says:

> “Huh. I’m pretty surprised. I thought Tymora was going to try to take
> the deck by force. Instead, she sends a representative to buy it fair
> and square. I guess I misjudged her. Let me think about it for a
> minute.”

Then, Green insists that people leave him alone for a bit, while he
ponders. This creates a window where the PCs can talk to each other, and
to Lada.

At this point, the PCs have a problem. It looks like Lada might soon be
successful at buying the Deck for Tymora. Remember, Lada wasn’t there in
Omta’s void-space, and she didn’t hear Omta say:

“Don’t give my avatar, the Deck, to Tymora. She will use it to kill me.”

Lada doesn’t know that the Deck is sentient, and that it doesn’t want to
be given to Tymora. So it’s up to the PCs to deal with this situation.

At this point, the PCs have to negotiate with Lada. Let the PCs do their
best to talk Lada out of buying the Deck. But, in the end, Lada has
explicit instructions from Tymora, and Lada is a loyal priestess. She is
not going to disrespect her patron. She says:

> “I cannot oppose my goddess, but we can talk to her. She has always
> been reasonable. Maybe if we talk to her, we can come up with a plan
> that works for everyone.”

This is such a reasonable request that the PCs are almost certain to
agree. Lada says, “I am going to pray now.” She bows her head, and
softly speaks: “My mistress, negotiation for the Deck has had a
complication…” \<THUNDERCLAP\> Lada doesn’t get any farther with her
prayer. Tymora appears, in person, in the room. Green shouts “oh shit,”
and vanishes, along with the Deck, his bodyguards, and Balanestra.

If the players are on the ball, they may remember Balanestra’s deck
dream:

> Green, at his desk: “I can’t fight a goddess. What do we do if she
> attacks?”\
> Balanestra: “We teleport away, of course.”\
> Green: “Sure, but she’s a goddess. She can follow us anywhere.”\
> Balanestra: “She can follow us *almost* anywhere.”
>
> Green: “Where could I go that she can’t follow… oh, shit. No, no no no
> no!”

When Green and his entourage teleport away, Tymora looks around, and
says, “I see. They were afraid I would attack, and they prepared a
contingency some time ago. They cast a spell so that if I got too close,
they would all automatically teleport away to my sister’s realm.”

Tymora then says, “No matter. I don’t need the Deck any more. I wanted
the Deck because I thought it might help me to find the God who created
it. But I had a backup plan. I asked you to strengthen your telepathic
link to this God, so that I could trace the telepathic link. You did
exactly that. Instead of using the Deck to find him, I can use your
telepathic link, which I can see clear as day. I will now go and
challenge him.”

This should be an “Oh Shit” moment for the PCs. They promised not to
betray Omta to Tymora, and they already *have*, unintentionally. This
moment is the moment that Selune warned the PCs about:

> “Tymora is one of my best friends, and she is as trustworthy and kind
> as a goddess can be. But she is making a mistake. I encourage you to
> work with her, but just be aware: there will come a point in time when
> you have to tell her to stop what she’s doing.
>
> Here is what I ask of you: keep your eyes open. Use your brains. If
> you see her do something that you think is going to cause harm, you
> must speak up. Tell her, or tell her priestesses. Do not be overawed
> by her divine presence. You speaking up at an appropriate moment may
> be all that stands between her and disaster.”

The PCs must ask Tymora not to pursue Omta. They should be making these
arguments:

-   Omta means you no harm.

-   He is not deliberately taking your worshippers.

-   He will go away as soon as Rennick is dealt with.

-   He is absolutely terrified of you.

-   His purpose is legitimate: he is trying to protect the universe.

-   Selune, your friend, specifically asked us to tell you not to do
    > this.

In truth, Tymora is somewhat relieved. She isn’t warlike, she didn’t
really want a fight, and now she has an alternative path:

> “I will pause my pursuit of this God. If this God will go away when
> Rennick is dealt with, then we need to deal with this Rennick. I would
> like you to find him, question him, and do what is necessary. He is in
> the city of Sigil.”

Assuming the PCs agree, Tymora offers a boon:

> “I wish to thank all of you, you have served me honorably. You did the
> things I asked you to do. You protected my young priestess, Lada. You
> also helped to preserve peace. I believe you deserve a boon. As a
> party, I would like to to make a collective request - one boon for
> all.”

One boon that the PCs might ask for is a boon of luck - after all, this
is a goddess of luck. If the PCs ask for this, they all get the “lucky”
feat, which grants advantage 3x day on almost any die roll.

Another boon they may ask for is the destruction of the Museum of
Orethys. If the PCs ask for it, Tymora says she does not have the power
to destroy the Museum itself, but she says she *can* free everyone
inside. She snaps her fingers, and then she says, “The prisoners have
been sent to my domain. My priests will help them to find new homes.”

If the PCs ask why she can’t destroy the museum itself, Tymora explains:
“The Museum represents an ideology: that ordinary people exist for the
amusement of rich and powerful men. That ideology has many followers, it
has power. So therefore, the Museum has power. It is empty now, but it
will fill again.”

Selune also has a boon for the PCs: all members of the party can now
cast the “Selune’s Light” cantrip. This differs from a regular light
cantrip in that it lasts 8 hours, is a little brighter, and looks like
moonlight.

# A Warning from Chronepsis

The PCs have been tasked with finding Rennick, who is in Sigil. There is
no portal to Sigil in St Parnas, so the PCs have to leave town -
probably, they’ll walk toward Tradegate, which does have a portal to
Sigil. There are other places in the Outlands that also have portals to
Sigil: it doesn’t matter where the PCs decide to go, what matters is
that they will be traveling through the Outlands.

The Outlands are a strange place. The farther one gets from
civilization, the more “unmoored” and “unrealistic” the landscape
becomes. At one point, the PCs walk past a section of forest which is
covered in cobblestone: not just the road, but also the forest floor,
and some of the tree branches. If the PCs are traveling with somebody
who is native to the Outlands, then this person remarks: “We’re standing
in the middle of nowhere. But this land doesn’t want to be nowhere, it
wants to be somewhere. The land is dreaming of all the different kinds
of places it could be. Tomorrow, it will look different.”

Eventually, the PCs will have to build a campsite and bed down for the
night. During the night, the entire campsite moves. This sometimes
happens in the Outlands: patches of land shift from one place to
another, or even, to another plane of existence. Sometimes, it’s random,
but in this case, it’s not: a god, Chronepsis, wants the PCs to pay a
visit. So Chronepsis moved their campsite close to his realm.

Chronepsis is the *Dragon God of Time and Fate*, and he is an enigmatic
god. He literally *never* talks to anyone, mortal or god. He does
occasionally leave his realm, but it’s rare. When he acts, it’s always
subtly, and nobody is ever entirely sure whether or not he acted at all.
This is the case here: Chronepsis did move the campsite, but he isn’t
giving the PCs any clues that it was him, and he will never do anything
to confirm or deny it. As a DM, you must treat Chronepsis as a permanent
enigma. Divination spells that try to determine a being’s purpose or
intent simply don’t work on Chronepsis. The PCs can make educated
guesses: they can be 90% sure that Chronepsis did something, based on
the evidence, but they should *never* receive any unambiguous
confirmation.

The PCs don’t notice the movement of the campsite until they wake up.
The campsite and the immediate environment look completely unchanged,
which is why nobody sounded the alarm during the night. But when the
light comes up, it is possible to see that the spire used to be on
*that* side of the campsite, but now it’s over *there*. Furthermore,
Moradin’s Keep (a mountain range) looks a lot closer. A survival roll is
enough for the PCs to figure out what happened: the campsite has moved
across the outlands. They’re still on the “good” side of the great
wheel, but they’re a lot closer to chaos now.

The players discover that there’s still a road running past the
campsite. The road used to connect St. Parnas to Tradegate, but now it
probably goes somewhere else. The PCs aren’t entirely sure where it
goes, but their best estimate is that if they travel rimward, they’ll
end up near Sylvania or Faunel. Tell them that both of those cities
probably contain gates to Sigil.

Wherever the PCs decide to go, as they walk down the road, they pass
beside a huge clearing in the woods, large enough to hold a city - but
there’s no city inside, just some old ruins. If the PCs ignore it and
keep walking, they eventually see it again, and again, and again.
Meanwhile, they never actually *get* anywhere. No matter how long they
walk, the spire seems just as far away, and the scenery starts to feel
like it’s repeating, and they keep on seeing the clearing.

### The Realm of Chronepsis

The clearing is actually the realm of Chronepsis. His realm consists of
a ruined city above ground, and an underground system of passages and
chambers, known as the “Mausoleum.” Chronepsis himself is in his
Mausoleum.

If the PCs enter the realm and then try to leave, they end up back on
the road, and they again find themselves walking past the clearing over
and over. Again, they get nowhere. They cannot really leave yet.

The ruined city contains only the foundations of buildings. The walls
have all fallen. Almost all the buildings are made of white stone blocks
that have been eroded by the millenia. The blocks used to be sharp and
square, but rain, wind, and time have rounded the corners and
sandblasted any surface details away. It is obvious to anyone that this
city was abandoned millenia ago. The scale of the buildings is
considerably larger than normal human buildings: the doorways are large
enough for a creature of large size.

Weather in the city is always cool and dry, and surprisingly, the PCs
can see the Sun! This is unusual for the outlands, which doesn’t
normally have a sun. This is because this city is an echo of a far away
time, a far away place, a place that did have a sun. There is plant life
here, mostly scrub vegetation and grasses. Small animals like birds,
squirrels, and the like are plentiful. If you wish, you may place
wildlife here, to give the PCs a random encounter.

Throughout the realm of Chronepsis, there are tens of thousands of
hourglasses. Most are down inside the Mausoleum, but the players will
encounter a hundred or so while traveling the ruined city. The
hourglasses appear to be made of glass, but with decorative trim made
out of miniature dragon hide with little tiny scales. The miniature
dragon hide trim comes in various colors - for every color of dragon,
there are hourglasses of that color. Attempting to touch an hourglass
reveals that they’re intangible illusions. The players probably don’t
know this yet, but each hourglass represents the lifespan of an actual,
living dragon.

There are no hourglasses near the periphery of the ruined city. The PCs
will have to walk inward into the city for a good 10-15 minutes before
they see their first hourglass. It is hovering a few inches above the
ruins of a stone wall, a few feet from the ground. Let the PCs examine
it, but they can’t touch it. If they cast *identify*, they can learn
what it is: the countdown of the life of a dragon. If the PCs get close
to the center of the ruined city, they will start to see more
hourglasses.

Close to the center of the ruined city, the PCs encounter a dragonborn
with golden skin, named Laeros. Laeros is actually an young adult gold
dragon who travels in the form of a dragonborn. Laeros is a philosopher
who is trying to understand how dragons are bound by fate. He isn’t a
worshiper of Chronepsis, but he has found that he has more insights
about fate when he’s in Chronepsis’ realm. He doesn’t know if this is a
magical effect, or maybe it’s just an inspirational place. Either way,
he’s happy sitting in the ruined city. He says the city is pretty, the
weather is cool and pleasant; and it’s conducive to meditation.

Laeros is quite surprised to see the PCs, the first thing he says is:
“Are you dragons?” If the PCs say, “obviously, we’re not dragons,”
Laeros laughs and says, “Most dragons take other forms when they
travel.” If the PCs ask, “why do dragons take other forms,” Laeros holds
up his hands and says, “Hands. Hands are very useful. Dragon claws just
aren’t made for delicate work. Writing, for example: much easier with
hands.”

Laeros asks: “So, what are non-dragons doing *here,* in the realm of a
dragon god?”

Of course, the players only know that they were pressured into coming
here by the clearing that kept chasing them. Laeros considers this to be
an interesting mystery. He explains that the PCs are in the realm of
Chronepsis. He says that hardly anyone ever comes to the realm, and that
it’s particularly odd for a bunch of non-dragons to show up.

He says: “I assume that if you’re here, it’s because Chronepsis probably
wants you here. But why would he want you here? There’s not much to do
here. He’s definitely not going to talk to you, he literally never talks
to anyone. I really have no idea why he would bring you here. There’s…
just nothing here, except old stone blocks, some old sculptures,
hourglasses, and Chronepsis himself. And Chronepsis definitely won’t
interact with you.”

### Exploration of the Mausoleum

The players may decide to explore the realm, to see if they can figure
out what they’re supposed to do here. Laeros says, “Exploring seems like
a good idea, you might figure something out. I must warn you though: if
you see Chronepsis, don’t try to get his attention: if you bother him,
he will cause you to cease to exist. However, you can look around
safely, he does not object to people walking around the city and the
mausoleum. He doesn’t even mind people walking around his chamber, as
long as you’re quiet. Be respectful and silent, and you should be fine.”

In the city, the PCs have pretty much already seen everything: ruined
foundations, scrub vegetation, the occasional hourglass, and little
else. In the very center, however, is the mausoleum.

The mausoleum consists of a small above-ground building of white stone,
containing a stairway down, and an underground complex. The small
above-ground building is the only building that still stands in the
entire city. The doors are wide open. The building is featureless white
stone. There may have been decorations once, but they have been
sandblasted away by the aeons.

When the PCs descend into the mausoleum, they see corridors stretching
in all directions. It looks like a museum: the floors and walls are done
in marble, and there are magical lights at regular intervals. There are
sculptures throughout the place - this artwork represents the lives of
the dragons who used to live in the city. Many are in the form of
dragonborn, but some are in full dragon form. They are doing all the
things that people do: working, resting, eating, making art, and
spending time together. The artwork is unmarred by erosion or time.
Examining the art reveals little.

The walls also contain niches that contain hundred of hourglasses each.
These niches are in every room and passage. The passages go in many
directions, and eventually one will find the chamber of Chronepsis. He
is here, resting in his chamber. He is an absolutely ancient dragon,
with ash-grey scales. He is bony and undernourished, so much so that he
initially appears to be skeletal, but a closer inspection reveals he
still has flesh, just not much of it. He is resting on a dais with a
raised pedestal for his head. He does not bother to look at the PCs when
they enter. His eyes stare into the distance.

The chamber with Chronepsis contains an immense number of hourglasses,
and more art. There is nothing else to discover here. In the long run,
the exploration reveals little. There is nothing much to be done inside
the mausoleum. Chronepsis will not react to the PCs unless a PC gets
aggressive or destructive, in which case that PC stops existing: roll up
a new character.

### Talking to Laeros about the Deck

A player might mention the Deck of Many Things to Laeros. When they do,
Laeros perks up, and says, “Everyone’s been talking about the Deck. It’s
big news all over the multiverse. People think it’s some kind of portent
of big changes. There’s also a rumor that some adventurers who drew
cards from the deck are working with Tymora to find the deck… and I see
you have a priestess of Tymora with you. Are you the guys from the
rumor?

If they agree that they are, then Laeros says, “Well that’s exciting!
You guys are famous, and I got to meet you! Good story for the kids.”

Laeros is intellectually curious, and will ask a variety of questions
about the Deck. But in the long run, he doesn’t have any immediate
insight about things.

### Asking Laeros about Hourglasses

The players may ask Laeros about the hourglasses. Laeros explains: “Each
hourglass represents the lifespan of an actual, living dragon. There’s
an hourglass for every dragon in existence. The color of the hourglass
matches the color of the dragon.”

“By the way, the sand only tells you how much time remains in the
dragon’s natural lifespan. But if a dragon gets killed before it has a
chance to grow old, then it dies while a lot of sand still remains. So
the sand isn’t a prediction of when the dragon will die. It only
indicates how old the dragon is.”

He says, “I tried to find my own hourglass, but in the end, I couldn’t
figure out which one was mine. Obviously, I’m a gold dragon, so my
hourglass is going to be gold. I’m a young adult, so I would expect the
sand in my hourglass to be about one-third used up. So I can rule out
99% of the hourglasses based on color and sand-quantity, but that still
leaves dozens of hourglasses that could be mine. I just don’t know how
to narrow it down further.”

### Why are the PCs Really Here?

Here is the real reason the PCs are here, in the realm of Chronepsis:

Green is a dragon. He didn’t start out that way: he was originally
human. He used wishes to transform himself, bit-by-bit, into a dragon.
Of course, he still takes the form of a human most of the time. One wish
wasn’t powerful enough to turn him all the way into a dragon, so he
divided the process into multiple steps. Each wish made him a little
more dragon-like, until finally, he used a wish that made him a true
Dragon - a steel dragon. Once he became a dragon, his hourglass appeared
in the realm of Chronepsis.\
\
Green was a 35-year old man, so when he became a dragon, he became a
35-year old dragon. That’s a very young, small dragon. Green wasn’t
satisfied with that, he wanted to be more powerful. So he used a wish to
age himself. That wish added some years, but not as many as Green
expected. He plans to use more wishes to add more years.

If a dragon makes a wish to be older, that dragon is breaking a strict
dragon code of conduct. Aging oneself artificially is not allowed. In
fact, normally, it’s not even possible: the dragon gods have limited
mortal magic so that it cannot be used to age a dragon. But the Deck
isn’t mortal magic, the deck is a god in its own right. It has the power
to make Green older, but the dragon gods resist, which is why the wish
didn’t age Green by very much. Chronepsis, the dragon god of time, is
particularly annoyed.

So Chronepsis has a message for Green: Do not use any more wishes to age
yourself! If you do, there will be consequences.

However, Chronepsis cannot deliver this message. By his own rules, he
cannot speak to anyone, and he cannot act in any overt way. He must be
so subtle that nobody knows for sure if he acted at all. So here is his
plan:

First, Chronepsis arranged for Green’s hourglass to be directly in front
of Laeros, and made sure Laeros was watching when Green aged himself.
Laeros saw the sand in Green’s hourglass jump ahead. Laeros knows that
this kind of sand movement represents artificial aging, and he knows
that this should be impossible. He has been pondering it ever since.

Second, Chronepsis brought the PCs into his realm, forcing them to meet
Laeros. Now Chronepsis is just waiting for Laeros and the PCs to
exchange information. He knows that eventually, if the two parties talk
enough, they will figure out what they need to do.

When the PCs understand their mission, then they will be released from
the realm. But they’ll have to figure it out, with Laeros’s help.

### Solving the Mystery

When the PCs have finished exploring the realm, Laeros eventually brings
the subject back to: “So why did Chronepsis bring you here? You’ve
already explored everything. You’ve already looked at the hourglasses.
You’ve already looked at the sculptures. There’s nothing left to do.”
Then, in a joking tone, he says, “Well, other than talk to me.”

Hopefully, one of the players will say, “hey, maybe we *are* supposed to
talk to you about something.”

Give the players a little time to suggest this. When they do, Laeros
exclaims “Of course! We must have important information for each other!”
If none of the players suggests this, Laeros suggests it.

Laeros says, “OK. Let’s just tell each other what we’ve been doing. I’ll
start. I’m supposed to be here writing a book, but honestly, I’ve mostly
spent the last month pondering a mystery - a weird hourglass.”\
\
He goes on to tell about how he was just relaxing one day, and staring
absent-mindedly at the hourglass which was in front of him, when all of
a sudden, the sand in the hourglass jumped ahead. He says:

> “If the sand jumps ahead, it means a dragon suddenly got older. Some
> kind of premature aging. But that shouldn’t be possible.
>
> You see, when dragons age, they get more powerful. So if you’re a
> dragon, magically aging yourself would be a cheap shortcut to power.
> Because of that, the dragon gods have decreed that dragons aren’t
> allowed to magically age themselves - dragons have to *earn* their
> years.
>
> For example, there are undead who can cause premature aging. If an
> undead like that attacks a dragon, the dragon might get sick, but it
> won’t get older. Getting older isn’t allowed.
>
> So how is it possible that I saw an hourglass jump ahead? Doesn’t make
> sense. But I’m sure I saw it. It would have to be some very powerful
> magic. I’m pretty sure only a god could do it.
>
> So I’ve been wondering about that ever since. I just keep thinking
> about it.

If the PCs ask what color the hourglass was: Steel.

> “Steel dragons? They fit in very well with human culture. They often
> take the form of humans and live in human cities. It’s common for them
> to form relationships with humans. They are often interested in art
> and culture. Of course, they’re individuals - don’t assume they’re all
> the same.”

If the PCs ask how old the dragon was, based on the amount of sand:
Before the aging, juvenile. After the aging, young adult.

So after explaining all this, Laeros says: “OK, somehow, this must all
fit in with what you’ve been doing. There must be some sort of
connection.” Of course, the connection is this: the hourglass that
Laeros saw was Green’s hourglass, and the magical aging was caused by
the Deck.

It is up to the PCs to figure out at least this much: the Deck has been
used to magically age a dragon. Just let them sweat it out until they
figure it out.

When they say this to Laeros, Laeros says:

> “Well, if somebody’s using the Deck to age a dragon, somebody needs to
> tell them to stop. Otherwise, they’re going to really piss off the
> dragon gods.”

As soon as Laeros says this, the PCs feel a weight lift, and they
instinctively understand that they’re free to leave the realm. They have
the message they’re supposed to deliver.

Of course, Green is in Beshaba’s realm at this point. The PCs can’t talk
to him directly, but they could possibly use the *sending* spell. If
they do, Green will respond “Understood. Thanks for the warning.”

If the players don’t deliver the message right away, they will hopefully
remember it later, when they see Green try to use the Deck to age
himself again.

### To Sylvania, and then Sigil

After solving the mystery and leaving the realm of Chronepsis, the PCs
have no trouble following the road, which eventually leads to Sylvania.
We are providing a simplified version of Sylvania, mainly because the
PCs won’t be here long. They’re really just entering the town to use the
portal to Sigil. If you want to replace this version of Sylvania with a
more complex version, you can. You can even set some of your own
adventures here.\
\
As the PCs travel down the road toward Sylvania, the trees start getting
bigger and bigger, until eventually around evening the road is snaking
around the bases of absolutely *enormous* trees.

The road leads underneath a living wood archway. At the top of the
archway, a hand-carved sign says, “Welcome to Sylvania.” At the side of
the arch, a bored attendant looks up from the book he’s reading and
says, “Please state your business.” If the PCs say, “Here to find a
portal to Sigil,” the attendant puts a tally mark on a notepad, and
says, “OK, move along,” while pointing toward the city. Then he goes
right back to his book.

A few minutes later, the road becomes main street Sylvania. On both
sides of the road are establishments built against or into the giant
trees. The establishments are mainly restaurants, bars, music venues,
dance clubs, theaters, and the like. Imagine bourbon street New Orleans
on mardi gras, but wedged between giant trees.

If the PCs stop for dinner at a restaurant, they have to make difficult
WIS save DC18 (use the party average) or else they start having a great
time talking and socializing. They stay at the restaurant way too long,
eat way too much, drink a lot of wine, and don’t leave until midnight.
They spend 5X as much money as they intended. They wake the next day
with an exhaustion level. This is the mood-altering properties of
Arborea leaching through into Sylvania.

If they ask an innkeeper about a room, rooms are available. If they ask
the innkeeper about a portal to Sigil, the innkeeper says: “To get to
Sigil, you need to talk to the scrap metal dealer in the flea market.
They open at 8 in the morning.”

The next day, the PCs wake, and the character of the city has completely
changed. People are working hard, it’s bustling. The people know that if
they want to party at night, they have to get their work done during the
day, and they’re pushing themselves so that they can celebrate again.
This is life in Sylvania.

The flea market contains some permanent buildings, some large tents,
some people who just have tables by the side of the walkway. The scrap
dealer has a big round tent. Inside, there are bins with metal
classified by type: tin, copper, iron, steel, and alloys. The bins are
full of all kinds of metal junk, bought and sold by the pound.

If you ask the merchant about the portal to Sigil, he says, “OK, I’ll
take you there. 10gp each.” He collects the money. Then, he says “First,
I have to do this.” He reaches into the steel bin, and pulls out a roll
of steel wire. He makes a loop out of wire - an impromptu bracelet. He
says “This ring of steel has an affinity for the city of Sigil, because
the city of Sigil is like a ring of steel. Here, put this on.” He hands
the bracelet to a PC, and then makes one for each PC. When everyone has
a bracelet (except him), he says, “OK, time to go.” He ushers everybody
out of the tent. When the PCs step out of the tent, they’re back in the
flea market. But then they realize: it’s not the same flea market. It’s
bigger — much bigger! Looking behind them, they see there’s no tent.
They just traveled through a one-way portal.

Welcome to the Bazaar, in Sigil.

# The Barrens of Doom and Despair

-   Travel through The Barrens of Despair

    -   Travel to Sigil

    -   Portal to the Domain of Bane

    -   Travel to Kuralyek’s Lair

    -   

-   Kuralyek’s Lair

    -   Present: Green, Kuralyek, R39-Delta

    -   Discussions with everyone

    -   Kobolds draw cards

    -   Chaos strikes again, Emergency Exit

    -   Kuralyek makes a grab for the deck

    -   Green strikes at Kuralyek, Kuralyek summons Beshaba

    -   Tymora appears to counter Beshaba

    -   Multi-way battle with deck exchanging hands

    -   One of these people gets deck: Tymora, R39-Delta, Kuralyek,
        > Beshaba, or Players

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