In this chapter, the characters will encounter a walking castle they can take control of to journey through the Outlands. The characters must travel to multiple gate towns to add memories to a mimir that will eventually help them find R04M.
Look here for posts about part 1 of the adventure.
The Walking Castle
When the characters emerge from
the gate into the Outlands, read the provided box text. However, instead of
needing to track down the castle, just have it be visible and nearby rather
than the characters needing to track it down.
The castle is the home of the sage Zaythir but has
recently been taken over by fiends looking for R04M. Unbeknownst to the fiends,
they were hired by Shemeska through an intermediary to track down the modron.
I would note that it seems likely W3, W5, and W6 will turn into one long running battle. This combat will be fairly tough, especially if the characters do not have magic weapons.
- W1: Terrace
- Summary: Entry terrace around the perimeter of the
castle.
- Secrets: DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check to notice
perch and door to W4c.
- W2: Library
- Summary: Library focused on esoteric philosophies
and multiversal theories.
- Secrets: The mummy’s eyes look in the direction of
location of information if asked.
- Rewards: candle
of invocation. I used Lawful Neutral as its alignment.
- W3: Main Room
- Summary: A pair of tieflings debate betraying their
yugoloth bosses in a main room that has clearly
been pillaged.
- Threats: Two tiefling gladiators are itching for a fight. They can be convinced to
turn on their bosses with a DC 18 Charisma (Persuasion or Intimidation)
check or a payment of 1000 gold. Otherwise, they fight to the death.
- DM's Notes: Gladiators are straightforward
combatants. They will chuck spears until they are within one movement of
a foe, and then will move to that foe and use Multiattack. If a foe gets
knocked prone, they will focus all attacks on the foe since they have
advantage. They use parry the first time they are successfully hit in a
round to get the guaranteed benefit.
- W4: Bedrooms.
- Summary: Simple bedrooms for visiting scholars,
including one that seems to have been occupied by an Avian.
- DM’s Notes: If any of the characters are searching
for someone as part of their backstory, put it here instead of the Avian.
If not, make it clear the Avian was here to research Gzemnid, the
beholder god of deception, gases, and obscurement, as foreshadowing for
the future. The characters find some of the avian’s writing and learn his
name is Talonswift.
- W5. Study
- Summary: Study where Thlaarsh the Gore Drinker is
trying to figure out how to pilot the walking castle.
- Threats: Nycaloth
that casts invisibility on itself if it hears the characters in
combat in the next room and joins the fight one round after.
- Rewards: Calligraphers supplies on the desk, and a
broken mimir that is an important quest item.
- W6. Castellan Chamber
- Summary: Chamber with a table and statue that can
be used to operate the castle, though that isn’t immediately obvious.
- Threats: Two mezzoloths
that cast darkness if they hear the characters coming. They
will chase the characters into W3 if they try to avoid the darkness and
will cast cloudkill at the first opportunity.
- Secrets: DC 18 Intelligence (Investigation) check
to find a secret door.
- Rewards: Behind the secret door is a necklace of prayer beads with
1d4+2 beads.
- W7. Meditation
Chamber
- Summary: Incubation chamber occupied by a fiend who
will try to trick the characters.
- Threats: Incubus
named Arcis who will pose as a gnome and will try to lead characters
to other fiends nearby. If Ancris realizes the other fiends have been
defeated, he will negotiate with the characters to secure his freedom any
way he can.
- W8. Signal Tower
- Summary: Prison of the castle’s caretaker, githzerai uniter named Zaythir.
- Rewards: A gem
of brightness affixed to a pedestal.
Victory
Once the characters defeat the fiends, Zaythir is
indebted to them.
- Zaythir is a scholar of the planes and has been the castle’s caretaker for years.
- The castle is called Iedcaru.
- The Castellan is a magical being Zaythir uses to control the castle’s movement.
- Zaythir was recently visited by a monodrone named R04M. He had been using a mimir to follow the path of the last Great Modron March, looking for the truths of the multiverse.
- After visiting all the gate towns, the mimir told R04M where it needed to go, so he left it at the castle.
- The mimir was damaged during the fiend’s attack.
- The characters should realize they too need to visit the gate-towns with the mimir to figure out where it sent R04M.
- Zaythir and Iedcaru offer to be the characters’ mode of transport as they explore the Outlands and its gate-towns.
- The mimir can be repaired with a DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check. Zaythir can help if needed.
- Once repaired, it is clear the mimir is missing data on the following gate-towns:
- Automata
- Curst
- Excelsior
- Faunel
- Glorium
- Rigus
- Sylvania
- The mimir is also missing data on the last Great Modron March.
- The mimir must be within 5 feet of a gate-town’s portal. At that time the character attuned to the mimir must record their impressions of the situation at the gate and the gate-town itself. You’ll note whether they recorded truthful or skewed information. Recording skewed information will have major implications at the end of the adventure.
- For example, if the players skew the recordings such that it appears the balance of power in the multiverse is tipping towards good, the modrons will ally with demons and devils to launch assaults on the upper planes, or vice versa.
- Go read “Realigning the Multiverse” in the conclusion chapter to understand the full details.
- This isn’t useful until the conclusion, but here are the details on the Great Modron March.
- Procession of modrons that traverse the multiverse every 289 years.
- Many die and get misdirected.
- The march enters the Outlands through Automata.
- It visits all gate towns, the spire, and many other planes via portals before returning home much diminished.
- The Last March happened early, and a lot of weird stuff went down for Tenebrous Reasons.
Tenebrous Reasons
The last Great Modron March was the focus for
2E’s Planescape adventure of the same name. In it, the March is kicked off
early because Primus (God of Law and Ruler of Mechanus and the modrons) was
slain by an entity known as Tenebrous using The Last Word. Turns out, Tenebrous
was a shadowy reincarnation of Orcus, who was recently slain by Kiaransalee,
drow goddess of Vengeance. She then hid the Wand of Orcus and killed the drow
who hid it after dumping them in the River Styx to make them forget the hiding
location. She knew the Demon Lord of Undeath would be a hard one to keep dead,
and <spoilers> she was right.
Tenebrous stole the Last Word and used it to kill Primus. This sent the Modrons off on an unplanned March, and Tenebrous used the collected information to gain a lead on where his Wand could be found at the end of the adventure. Essentially, characters spend most of the adventure trying to protect the Modrons, or protecting others from the March, while unbeknownst to them serving the will of Orcus.
The follow up adventure, Dead Gods, finds the characters trying to thwart Orcus’s return. If you would like to know how that went, go look at the cover of the 4E Monster Manual!
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