#drevail

Order of the Lynx - Right hand men to any nobles or royalty, will find them drugs, women, or illegal goods. Will also bury any bodies without question or hide bastard children. They work primarily as an underground network of coded messages and silent nods.

The Sirens - Most brothels have at least one member of the Sirens within their ranks. A Siren’s duty is to obtain secrets to blackmail corrupt leaders and protect others in good standing. A few are assassins who work primarily with poisons or mind tricks that will cause insanity. They all report to Madame Eloise Song, a Yuan-Ti pureblood who is highly respected and feared in the community.  She runs a brothel called The Songbird, which is the main location of The Sirens. They are a force of good, wanting to keep balance and peace in the world.

The Hillroses - Traveling family of gnomes seeking to make peace between all races and countries. There are many groups of them, but most have gotten separated and are usually always looking for each other. They’re fairly peaceful but will resort to bribes and lies where necessary to gain passage or buy shiny goods off weary, gullible travelers.

League of Lopt - An underground goods network dealing primarily in illegal trading. They trade in poisons and secrets. Their negotiations start with offering you a drink and end when they decide to give you the antidote. They are led by Dai Li Ba, an ancient Tortle who is looking to pass on his mantle and has yet to find an appropriate apprentice. They keep members in bars around town, seeking those wanting to make a trade or a deal.

The Court of Owls - Assassins for hire. They tend to run underground fighting rings for money in towns where violence is not prohibited. Their methods are infiltration over time and dealing a killing blow. However, they can also strike fast, but the team that does that costs more and is referred to as Screech Strike. For blackmail materials and intricate spying without a kill, one would want to hire a Scops Servant. (Every group within the Court of Owls has some owl-associated name because why not?)

Artifacts of the Crossroads Venture

“These weapons were created by research done on the border of Dinalay, in the Sjena Monastery. This research was meant to examine the cross between divine, natural, and arcane magics as well as how they could be applied to finely crafted weapons. The one in charge of these weapons’ creation was a royal of Incentouth, Czar Elklen, who was killed once his intentions for these weapons became known: taking total control of Brinica.

“The creation of these weapons involved people from all the western half of Brinica: the arcane experimenters of Prakti’cai, the divine magicians of the Republic of Astra, the natural gifts of those from Briabar, the money of Incentouth royals, and the resources of Drevail.”

The Monastery: There’s a monastery to the north, just on the border of Dinalay that no one has heard from in a few weeks. They focus in shadow arts, which is something Drevail has been studying for some time now. Last that was heard from them, there were some sick trainees and then all communication faltered. 

Watch the Store: An NPC’s mother is sick and he needs to leave his shop in the hands of the PCs. I’ve populated it with about three days of activity to keep it interesting, but this one’s kinda world dependent. One of the features of this mini-quest is that in the basement, there’s a conspiracy theory board that leads to some other plots within the world.

Lost Dog: The party finds a lost pet flyer on a job board. A ranger from a local tribe is looking for his owlbear companion and has runaway from home to do so. This opened up a way for me as a DM to introduce the ranger tribe lifestyle to my players and open up the wilderness to them for more questing.

To see where the players end up, if they all go quickly, essentially on the same initiative count, they all end up in the same spot. If they hesitate, they end up in a different room. This is determined by rolling 1d6.

Room 1: An open cavern with mirrors lining the wall. The cavern top and bottom are a black obsidian. In this room, if the Oracle is in the cavern, it triggers a Crystalline Sliver to appear and attack according to the Oracle’s bidding.

Room 2: There are no mirrors in this room (therefore, on a roll of 2 on the d6, the player instead is transported to Room 7) but there are two Beasts of Ill Omen that protect the door. I ran these as more Lawful Neutral beasts than their given alignment as they’re meant to be guard dogs for this dungeon.

Room 3: Two mirrors face each other and act as a trap. If there is a creature unknown by the mirrors or the Oracle reflected in the mirrors, 1d4 Mirror Mephits appear out of either mirror and will keep populating until the mirrors are broken or until the players move out of the way of the mirrors. When the mirror is broken, it can no longer be transported through.

Room 4: I wrote this as the Oracle’s bedroom to give a little depth to the use of this cavern. The mirror here is a reflected pool on the ground. The use of the vertical and horizonal surfaces are meant to give the players a sense of severe vertigo if they go too quickly through these.

Room 5: This room was another library nook to offer more information to the players who wanted to investigate their legitimacy. Some of the items in there were books about divination as well as books about getting rid of curses. A couple of unique items could be uncovered, primarily books that told truths and lies as well as books that were blank and could be used for divination.

Room 6: The two pockets to the left on the map each had one long mirror in the back. They reflected what was seen in the opposite mirror. Nothing particularly unique here, but it’s meant to be incredibly unsettling.

Room 7: This is the Oracle’s base. The entire cove is filled with mirrors, and if the Oracle is in the cavern when the party finds them, they will summon the Crystalline Sliver and more Mirror Mephits to their aid. The Oracle can have powers or none at all depending on how you want to run your campaign.

Between Room 1 and Room 3: This hall is lined with mirrors on either side, giving it that infinity effect that can be really cool or really creepy. However, in one side of the mirrors, the players will see something that calms them or something they’re looking forward to achieving. In the other, they will see the darkest form of their future - their greatest fears. Choose your right and left sides accordingly. These mirrors are not meant to be transported through.

So that’s one of the first really intensive encounters I’ve built! My players thought it was fun, exhausting, and stressful to be jumping so much, but the stakes were also pretty high - their wizard went in alone and the rest of the party caught up a few hours later when they followed the Oracle.

The Mirror Mephits were also a bigger problem than I anticipated, but the players handled it alright, so that may need to be adjusted.