The Vengeance of Malazor (5e Quest)

Vengeance of Malzor

• Characters start waking up in The Three Oars with the intention of attending the festival of the tides in the Temple of Habbakuk that afternoon. o The festival is celebrating the bounty of the ocean and praises Habbakuk • Give them the morning to shop, etc • If they don’t go to the festival then they hear the keep bell ringing and see smoke rising. • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDlPnExilKc

The Festival of the Tides

• Listen to Bishop Yarin give a sermon for a bit.

• Middle of the sermon Yarin is struck by two crossbow bolts and then a blast of fire, killing him.

o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRpOmWKFb_M&index=28&list=PL-vDfa8SAwEyG4c3Spg-tOwXeNd5njjhd

• Fight one Drow Assassin (in the rafters) and one Malzor Cultist. During the battle the Cultist starts fires. The building has 150 HP and takes 1D8 damage per round for every instance of burning. At 50 damage the building starts collapsing, characters pass acrobatics checks DC16. On failure they go prone and take 1D6 fire damage per turn they’re under. Strength check DC16 to get up.

• If it looks like they could be captured, the Assassin and the cultist will commit suicide by drinking poison. Or the Cultist could cast self-destructing magic.

• Acolyte Pim will be outside treating the wounded, he’ll approach the party. He’ll beg you to find who did this. • On examination the cultist can be found to have a tattoo of a knife through a skull, but if his body is trapped inside then this is likely to be lost.

If they miss the body and tattoo

• Given that one was a drow, they’d stand out.

• Samantha Stone at The Three Oars can confirm the assassins stayed there and that they left early in the morning (well before the festival).

• Asking around will confirm seeing the Drow down by the docks talking to Theon Yarinson.

• Sailors will know that Theon Yarinson is a fence for smugglers.

• During the days Theon is loading down by the docks and in the evenings he often drinks at The Three Oars.

• Upon approaching Theon, he will run pulling down crates, etc as he goes. A chase scene will happen with a few acrobatics checks, a strength checks, and perception checks as he dives into a crowd. Generally speaking this will be made quite easy so as to lead to success. o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAYL0nG_ZfU&list=PL-vDfa8SAwEyG4c3Spg-tOwXeNd5njjhd&index=24 o If he does get away speaking further to people about Theon will reveal Midnight Cove as an old smuggler’s holding place. The party can then take a boat to the cove if necessary and there’ll be a small fight.

• Theon will not need persuading to give you his contact, a hooded woman. He had arranged to meet him in the Port Niben dockyard at midnight three nights from now to collect the rest of his payment.

• At the docks you will meet the hooded woman who had the same tattoo as the cultist. o Fight her. CR4 Malzor Cultist. o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwkMgYZ8crQ&index=29&list=PL-vDfa8SAwEyG4c3Spg-tOwXeNd5njjhd

If they find the tattoo

• Acolyte Pim does not recognise the symbol but suggests Bishop Satail in Port Niben might.

• Tempest Keep has a library in which “On Religious & Arcane Symbology” can be found

• The Book “On Religious & Arcane Symbology” by Cicero suggests that skull symbology is often associated with necromancy or with gods of death and recommends Marcaro’s “Investigations into Black Cult Rituals” for further information on the subject. This book is not in Tempest Keep. Lots of people could suggest trying the Library in the Temple of the Niben. At Port Niben

• Speaking to anyone with relevant knowledge will point you in the direction of Bishop Satail for working out what the symbol means.

• Satail will recommend Marcaro’s “Investigations into Black Cult Rituals” but will say that the book was stolen by a student Azimogo of hers who stole several books and a powerful wand belonging to the church and fled to Starbreak Cave. o Why haven’t the authorities chased him down? He’s not exactly causing any trouble, they’ll get round to it. By Land they have to wade into the cove and when wet have a disadvantage on initiative. o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-hrBhA4XkM

• If they travel to Starbreak Cave by land, have them attacked by small group of animals, by sea just let them get there. Starbreak Cave

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyDKezDLGTM&list=PL-vDfa8SAwEyG4c3Spg-tOwXeNd5njjhd&index=4

• Coming towards the cave the party must make an effort to row in stealthily. o A high perception roll will notice that the moon illuminates half the cove but not the other half (where the reeds are). Sailing in the light will confer disadvantage on the stealth roll. o Whoever’s rowing/sailing takes a stealth roll to see if they get in undetected. o If they go into the reeds they can stay stealthy automatically, if they land on the beach get them all to roll stealth as they get off the boat.

• Fight a CR3 terramancer wizard and a CR3 terramancer paladin o Possible to sneak past the fight.

• Inside the cave in dimly lit, fight a CR5 Pyromancer o Possible to sneak past, but harder.

• Finally get to Azimogo (CR6 Aquamancer)

• Azimogo is paranoid so a diplomatic solution is possible but unlikely to be reached. o Mentioning Satail will cause a bad reaction. o Offering some kind of a trade with another magic book will cause a good reaction and may lead to a persuasion roll.

• If necessary, fight Azimogo.

• Azimogo may try to take the boat. He could cast an invisibility spell to escape and do this

If Azimogo takes the boat then: Burrowburn farm

• Climb out of the cove or swim round (or any other solution your players come up with!)

• You come across a farm

• You discover that the farm has been destroyed. o Closer investigation will notice that the small family grave appears to be in the most ruin. A high roll of perception will notice that the graves seem to have been destroyed from below…

• Medium difficulty combat with undead or cultists (the players might be ambushed) o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5QzroijYfY&list=PL-vDfa8SAwEyG4c3Spg-tOwXeNd5njjhd&index=6

• Investigation on the bodies will show the same dagger-skull mark. If Azimogo has not stolen the boat or they travel by river

• Travel by river o If they use magic a Chuul will attack when they camp

• Else they will see smoke rising, if they investigate then this is Burrowburn farm. Back at Port Niben

• Satail will translate the text and will have deciphered the mark as belonging to an ancient Necromancer Malzor the Dark. Malzor lived 500 years ago and last time amassed a terrifying army of the undead. He would have turned Niben into a kingdom of the dead, had it not been for Fulcrum Wayland and the Redfists defeating his forces in the open field and driving him back into Külddbad, his cave fortress. Fulcrum followed Malzor into the cave where he killed him. Wait that’s a mistranslation… here it says that Malzor disappeared and was never seen again… not that he died… We have to see the High Thane

• Satail will take the party to see High Thane Konrad Jorganerson. Satail will explain the situation. The High Thane will remain unconvinced, believing that some hedge mage has simply taken up the symbol for dramatic effect. He can’t spare any troops as they are all committed protecting villages from these bandits.

• Satail will encourage the party to go to Külddbad and kill Malzor before he regains full power. She’ll mark Külddbad on the map up in the Niben Spine. o If asked about fighting the undead, she’ll suggest trying to find some silver weapons. This can be bought at Basher’s Hut. o She’ll tell the party that Marcaro built three doors to stop people getting access to Malzor’s inner sanctum. The Bard’s Door, The Liar’s Door and the Door of the Word. Behind each door is a lever, activating all three levers will open the Sanctum Door.

• Party will not have trouble travelling to Külddbad and can do so by road or by river. Külddbad

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I&list=PL-vDfa8SAwEyG4c3Spg-tOwXeNd5njjhd&index=7

• Fight three Malzor skeletons

• Far Left. Trap arrow ahead.. Then Solve the Bard’s Door. Each barrel on the floor has a gem on top that when touched emits a sound. The markings above the door can be interpreted by a bard as musical notation. The party has to “play” the barrels to the tune for the door to open.

• Middle left. Avoid spike pits. 12 zombies will come up the stairs to the sides. When the room clears then approach the Door of the Word: o See “Door of words” document for the puzzle o Down one of the flights of stairs a box containing half a dozen large mirrors can be found. o There are four statues, see other document for details. o When the description on each of the statues is met, it will begin to glow.

• Right side. Liar’s door. The door has a face on it and will answer any question put to it with a lie. Force the door to say something that isn’t a lie and the door will open. E.g. “is this question false”

• When all gates are opened and the levers activated, the sanctum door will open.

• Continue into the sanctum to fight Malzor the Dark.

• There is a ritual taking place and as you arrive Malzor places his staff into the centre of a pentagram. No way to talk your way out, this is going to be a fight! o The ritual will summon 1D4 Skeletons between every round. o Walking over the pentagram may, depending on how the battle’s going, require an acrobatics check as undead hands grab at your ankles! o If the Malzor Skeletons are too powerful then I’ll just start summoning normal zombies. o If the party is getting swamped then the ritual will just start to pulsate. o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBITTCjsFY4&index=37&list=PL-vDfa8SAwEyG4c3Spg-tOwXeNd5njjhd o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAdtHu5dPiI&list=PL-vDfa8SAwEyG4c3Spg-tOwXeNd5njjhd&index=33

• Upon victory the ritual will explode in a flash of light

• Searching Malzor will find a note reading: o “My friend Malzor. It was not an easy task to call your astral form back to this plain… I trust you will make the most of this opportunity I have afforded you. My servant will have also delivered a staff of intriguing properties, I believe you shall find it useful in your “experiments”. Your Patron.” o The Staff used in the ritual is a “Staff of Arcane Channelling”. Initially it acts like a quarterstaff in combat and allows you to cast cantrips with double the range or for double the duration. o In the boxes will be a little silver raven statue…

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