The Abandoned Mines And The Dark Carnival

The last chapter of the origin story of Vom Fass and the mask of many faces. The party must make their way through the abandoned mines and find their prize but the quest is high jacked by a magical imp who has a vendetta against Vom Fass.
Random loot table : https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/random/#type=trinket
A pendant of white stone carved in the form of a spider
A brass amulet bearing the holy symbol of a god of travel on one side, and of a god of strength on the other
A coin struck from a strange iridescent metal
A key carved from the black bone of a displacer beast A small leaden box which contains a shard of glowing crystal A piece of Fochulite A dagger A small wooden box with a tiny secret compartment An oil lamp of dark iron, set with constellations of tiny gemstones Zombie Scroll (Scroll): This scroll appears to have been stitched together from various skins and hides. You can use an action to read it and place the scroll upon a dying creature that has 0 hit points. The creature becomes stable, and is animated as an undead zombie. The zombie acts on its own initiative count and follows your mental commands. The effect lasts until the creature takes any damage (causing it to begin making death saving throws again) or regains any hit points and becomes conscious.

Plot points/Scenes

After we leave the cult compound we head west. After five hours of travel you finally leave the Velloshon Marshlands and the surrounding area becomes dryer and more firm. Good solid dirt and grass feels good on your wet feet and ahead you can see large trees and bushes. Wildflowers are blooming in the cool spring air in large swathes of blues and purples and some of the smaller trees have bursts of white flowers that cover their wet branches. You finish your walk out of the swamp close to twilight and you wonder what to do next. Rest or keep moving? At this point you are a full day’s march from the coastline and the Abandoned mines.
As you find a clearing and stop for a few minutes to determine your route and whether to set up camp or not, a light flickers on Cog’s chest. His A symbol from the wizard blazes with a blue light and fires out towards the ground R2-D2 style and creates a small figure in ornate robes. The small bluish figure made of light looks up at all of you and says “ Hello there! My name is Agrimor Zaedulus Omergaron and I’ve been monitoring some of you adventures. I’m quite impressed with your progress! When I met this young warforged I wasn’t sure if he would find his way in this world but all of you adventurers took him in and gave him his first community. I know you are busy at the moment but I would like to offer you all jobs in the future. I’ve created an adventuring company of sorts and I would like you all to be a franchise. I will waive all fees associated with creating a new franchise. [pass out brochures if you have them] Once you complete your current task we will talk. Keep up the good work!” Insight checks are welcome DC 15 Nighttime 10 pm You begin your trek once more into a cold spring night. As the sky clears a cold breeze fills the air, even though it’s spring cold fronts move through from time to time. The dew on the grass begins to get a little frosty as you move forward and a few lazy snowflakes drift down around you. DC 15 perception check a group of small deer look at you through the trees and then dash off. As you walk forward a heavily used trail can be seen in the distance. As you get closer you see wagon grooves in the hard dirt and some wispy bits of grass and weeds in between. This road looks pretty heavily used and it moves East and west. As you walk forward towards your goal either on the road or staying off of it, up ahead you see a merchant’s carriage with a team of four horses. The large team of horses and size of the carriage lead you to believe this carriage is probably moving quite a bit of goods. Oddly for this time of night it is moving incredibly fast. A lantern glowing with an orange light swings wildly back and forth and you see a dwarven man clinging to the side for dear life as the horses run out of control down the road! Up above a shadow passes over the group moving swiftly.
Inside the carriage is Venter from the RHC, a drow ambassador, a noble woman with a sigil of House Quail, and a sell sword. [Venter will be excited to see Vom Fass, The Drow is an ambassador from Stoneport visiting Penthos and secretly a member of the Dark council with his eye on the ranger. The woman is just a member of House Quail who was sent to Stoneport to bring back cloth and silk sample for her haberdashery. The Sell sword is a member of the Hare’s Catch on his way to Penthos, he will use Thieves Cant to communicate with Mew and may take her aside. ]. The carriage stops and the driver , who is a gruff dwarf with a large hammer on his back. [If the Druid tries to speak with the dwarf , the driver responds brusquely noticing that Karnak is not dressed appropriately and has probably shamed his family. ]. After the party interacts with this group a shadow is seen in the sky. A manticore begins to circle and moves to attack!
Drow Ambassador - Galen Balenloth - [Dark Council member 11] - Merchant human woman - Madeleine Quail - A low ranking member of House Quail of Penthos - Baroness Dwarven coach owner/Driver - Garlindown Wheelbearing - Grew up in Stoneport son of a strict Dwarven family that are coopers and coach builders. Wood and steel clan. RHC merchant - Venter Petrograd - Halfling merchant from Berkwood in the Forest lands. [Note Venter is a Halfling named Oppel Appletoe posing as a merchant. If anyone mentions anything about the Animaniacs he will react in fear and warn people]
Attack of the manticore - Things to notice and perceive about this particular manticore DC15 - nature check - This manticore isn’t talking, it’s attacking viciously but more robotically like a killing machine. You know that Manticores are evil creature that like taunting their prey and denigrating them verbally. Odd. DC - 16+ nature check - You notice that this manticore is alone usually they hunt in packs. DC18 - perception - You notice something on it’s neck. A piece of metal with a symbol on it.
Manticore Large monstrosity, lawful evil Armor Class 14 (Natural Armor) Hit Points 68 (8d10+24) Speed 30 ft., fly 50 ft. STR 17 (+3) DEX 16 (+3) CON 17 (+3) INT 7 (-2) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 8 (-1) Senses Darkvision 60 Ft., passive Perception 11 Challenge 3 (700 XP) Tail Spike Regrowth. The manticore has twenty-four tail spikes. Used spikes regrow when the manticore finishes a long rest. Actions Multiattack. The manticore makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws or three with its tail spikes. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d8 + 3) piercing damage. Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (1d6 + 3) slashing damage. Tail Spike. Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 100/200 ft., one target. Hit: (1d8 + 3) piercing damage.
After defeating the manticore you can loot the body. 1d2 Manticore Wings: Acts as a blanket. Can be crafted (leatherworker’s tools) into a cloak that imposes advantage on Wisdom (animal handling) checks made to tame griffons and wyverns. 1d20 Manticore Tail Spikes: Act as darts that deal 1d6 damage instead of 1d4. They break upon use. 1d8 Manticore Teeth: 20 teeth act as a bag of caltrops. Can be carefully crafted (jeweler’s tools) into dice. The Dwarf, Garlindown, is injured, he was struck with several spikes from the manticore and clawed out of his drivers seat. Luckily the reins twisted around his feet and he was able to stay with the carriage.
The device with the sigil - Arcana check - DC 19. Reveals that this device is a magical control for certain creatures. It doesn’t control the creature outright but plants suggestions to attack certain areas or to override their animal impulses. In the case of the manticore it supplants their ability to reason and think clearly and suggests to them to attack merchant caravans and other parts of civilization. [Note: This manticore is being pushed by the Fang of Vargraash a group of Gnolls terrorizing the Tellenor Mountains!] The sigil on this device is unrecognizable to you. It’s not a true magic sigil or rune of the arcana variety.

Structure

Exposition

As you leave the woods the air begins to warm again. It feels like a nice 50 degrees as the night air touches your face. You walk across a grassy field and you can see a large body of water ahead of you. The salty smell of the ocean washes over you and the breeze gains a fair bit of humidity. After another mile of walking you stand atop a cliff made up of large rocks with large white birds hovering above, occasionally dipping down into the water in search of fish. As you look down the large groups of rocks that make up the incline you can see a large opening surrounded by large timbers bolted together to make up the beginnings of a mine. About 50 feet down you see an outcropping with large wooden crates and what looks to be the start of a rail system leading into the opening. You come upon an opening in the cliff face with broken boxes and an old rail cart system leading down. 1- Giant rat 2- An old chest can be found here in an old office. The door is locked but easily lock picked. There is a secret panel on the far wall that reveals a magically protected safe. 3- The safe has a trap on the lock. 4- The main hallway leading towards the mine. Looks mostly to be in good shape. Wooden beams of dark oak are in place and whole. The floor is just solid rock with stones and dirt on top of it. 5- A salt water fountain. There seems to be crack in the line somewhere and the well water mixed with sea water. 6 - A water fountain with a water elemental or weird in it. On a perception check a player can see a face in the water looking at them which then disappears. It later resurfaces in the pond and attacks. 7- The original tracks for the mine carts. They didn’t get far, as they dug deeper into the next sections the caves became more and more dangerous. 8- Stairs lead down into a lower section. This area looks more cave like, they clearly did not finish construction here. There is an opening in the right wall that leads to a small body of water. 9- A small pond of water here sprung up after a miner started diggin here. It now has flooded most of the chamber and is 10 feet deep and about 20 feet across. A water weird will attack at this point. A few more giant rats attack from the other side of the chamber. The water weird will send out a filament of water attempt to drag a player into the pool and drown them. The rest of the creature rises up out of the water and begins to attack the rest of the party. 10- There are stairs here that lead down to the next section. 11- This room was clearly a store room years ago. It is left with only empty crates and barrels of rancid grain. 12- This hallway once the players investigate it mysteriously collapses in a dangerous shower of falling rocks. The Hallway fills in leaving only the door on the left side available or back to the beginning.
Map two - Two Ettercaps lay in wait in this area. The player enter into a large chamber on an upper level. There is a 30 foot section of hall here and a lower section about 25 feet down to the next doorway. An old staircase has collapsed here only leaving some sheared rock. The area below the drop down section seems to be bottomless. The Ettercaps lay in wait and use their webbing to try to capture the players and consume them. Ettercap Medium monstrosity, neutral evil Armor Class 13 (Natural Armor) Hit Points 44 (8d8+8) Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft. STR 14 (+2) DEX 15 (+2) CON 13 (+1) INT 7 (-2) WIS 12 (+1) CHA 8 (-1) Skills Perception +3, Stealth +4, Survival +3 Senses Darkvision 60 Ft., passive Perception 13 Challenge 2 (450 XP) Spider Climb. The ettercap can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check. Web Sense. While in contact with a web, the ettercap knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web. Web Walker. The ettercap ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing. Actions Multiattack. The ettercap makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: (1d8 + 2) piercing damage plus (1d8)poison damage. The target must succeed on a DC 11 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 minute. The creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: (2d4 + 2) slashing damage. Web (Recharge 5-6). Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 30/60 ft., one large or smaller creature. The creature is restrained by webbing. As an action, the restrained creature can make a DC 11 Strength check, escaping from the webbing on a success. The effect also ends if the webbing is destroyed. The webbing has AC 10, 5 hit points, vulnerability to fire damage, and immunity to bludgeoning, poison, and psychic damage. The door on the lower level is locked but easily forced open or picked. This leads to the next large chamber.
Map three - An enormous chamber that doesn’t match the other abandoned mine area. This chamber looks ornate and carved directly into the surrounding stone by ancient craftsmen. Dwarves possibly or deep Gnomes. Players can roll a history check if they want to determine the make of the chamber. At the far end of the chamber under a dull magical light, down either staircase, is a door with an arcane lock. Use the arcane lock puzzle created earlier. Players must roll arcana checks to decipher the magical runes and the place the word OPEN on to the top layer of the runes. Maybe add a monster here for flavor if the players aren’t too beat up. After the door is open we head to the Chamber of Rimordus article!
The Dark Carnival -
As you enter the next room an explosion of red and purple smoke erupts from the floor and a huge demonic figure emerges. His head is enormous and glows with red and purple energy, It glowers down at you and he begins to speak “ Vom Fass! At last i can exact my revenge on your pitiful soul! I see you have a new group to sacrifice to my game. Do you at least have my crystal skull?!” As he speaks the head and the smoke recede more and and the huge booming voice gets higher and higher. The looming figure walks forward and with every step gets smaller and smaller until he stands before the your party at his full 2 feet. He continues his monologue in a shrill voice “ Ha HA HA, I have a new game for you, you wretched little kobold. You’ll never survive this time, maybe I’ll find a way for your new friends to be the death of you!” He raises his arms dramatically and in a burst of colored smoke he disappears “ Have fun ya morons!”
You look around and you stand at the bottom of a staircase. The door behind you is gone and the only way out is forward...

Climax

]Need to spell out what happens after the players retrieve all the gems and place them in the statue. Mr. Nyx attacks Vom Fass and the players intervene. Should I wait for them to figure out the water secret weapon or allow them to drive off Nyx.] Once all of the gems are collected and placed into the head of the statue  A large blasts of purple and red smoke explodes forth front the floor and the head of Mr. Nyx (now 12 feet around, wizard of oz style) glares down at you. He screams “No! You were supposed to die! Or at least maim yourselves, this was supposed to be fun! Damn you all to Avernus, I can at least kill my nemesis Vom Fass!”  Nyx in his larger size looms over you.  He stands 20 feet tall and his orange eyes glare down at you. The large figure of Mr Nyx begins to cast. Roll Initiative.
Nyx - Tiny fiend (devil), lawful evil Armor Class 18 Hit Points 145 Speed 20 ft., fly 40 ft.
STR 6 (-2) DEX 17 (+3) CON 13 (+1) INT 16 (+0) WIS 16 (+1) CHA 14 (+2)
Skills Deception +4, Insight +3, Persuasion +4, Stealth +5 Damage Resistances Cold; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from Nonmagical Attacks that aren't Silvered Damage Immunities Fire, Poison Condition Immunities Poisoned Senses Darkvision 120 ft., Passive Perception 11 Languages Common, Infernal Challenge 1 (200 XP)
Shapechanger. The imp can use its action to polymorph into a beast form that resembles a Demon Dog(speed 20 ft.), a Wyvern (20 ft., fly 60 ft.), or a spider (20 ft., climb 20 ft.), or back into its true form. Its statistics are the same in each form, except for the speed changes noted. Any equipment it is wearing or carrying isn't transformed. It reverts to its true form if it dies.
Devil's Sight. Magical darkness doesn't impede the imp's darkvision.
Magic Resistance. The imp has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.
Actions Horror Nimbus (Recharge 5-6): Nyx magically emits scintillating, multicolored light. Each creature within 15 feet of the Nyx that can see the light must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or be Frightened for 1 minute. A creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. If a creature's saving throw is successful or the effect ends for it, the creature is immune to the Nyx’s Horror Nimbus for the next 24 hours. Teleport: Mr. Nyx magically teleports, along with any Equipment it is wearing or carrying, up to 120 feet to an unoccupied space it can see. Sting (Bite in Beast Form). Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. Powers of illusion - The imp can cast major image every 6 rounds. Invisibility. The imp magically turns invisible until it attacks or until its concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment the imp wears or carries is invisible with it. Polymorph others - Nyx will try to polymorph others into interesting shapes. Wisdom save DC20
-Maybe Nyx polymorphism them all into Nyx’s and then goes invisible? -Maybe Nyx summons a bunch of little demons? Mr. Nyx raises his arms and a you feel the pull of magic. Wisdom save DC 20 - On a fail a player turns into an exact replica of Mr. Nyx. Their equipment and weapons are gone part of their new form. You keep all of your stats and HP though unlike a typical polymorph spell As this spell takes effect he casts again and 5 more Mr. Nyx’s appear in the mix! [Remember , water is his weakness] After the battle goes poorly for Mr. Nyx he screams in rage and irritation. “Curse you all! I’m trying to have some fun and kill the kobold and you all have to spoil my plans! “. As he begins to fade out of the material plane he continues his diatribe “But you will all pay for this, mark my words, I’ll be back!” just like that he pops out of existence and the area around you dissipates and the original dungeon stands around you, dusty and dark. All of the colored lights and brightly painted signs are gone. The chamber you are left in looks a lot like your standard dungeon. Large cobwebs cover all the rocks and columns that construct the floor and the ceiling. Many layers of dust cover most of the surfaces, a big change from the bright and busy carnival setting. From cracks in the ceiling rays of sunlight pierce the rocks and shine down onto the floor with a hazy yellow glow. Dust particles float through the air with every one of your movements. On a pedestal which stands at the Southern side of the room there is a mask. The mask is a basic leather mask in the shape of a kobold head. It is small and leathery with basic leather straps. It has a magical aura if anyone checks and the dust is less heavy on the pedestal. An area of the ceiling looks weak and you remember that the tunnel you used to get down here after the water weird collapsed. Cog finds a small gemstone placed in a small metal frame. It will take some study to find out its origins and capabilities. Karnak finds a small Owlbear figurine carved from jade.
Ask you help your fellow party members out of the dungeon you stand on top of a rocky mound overlooking the wyvern sea. The salty warm air fills you nostrils yet again and the sun feels good on your skin. Except the drow of course who pulls her cloak closer to her. From behind you a fizzing sound begins and circle in the grass begins to glow. From the center of it steps the great wizard Agrimor! He hails you “How goes the dungeon crawl?” “I figured I could give you a lift back to Tellenor if you all agree? I think we should discuss the idea of a franchise for the six of you. I see a lot of potential in Adventure team Grimm!” As you step through the portal you walk back into the town square of Tellenor. Castle Kelleborne looms in front of you and you see the sign for the Green Arch Inn. You are back where you started, Corsunalia is over but the business in Tellenor is still going strong. You see all the shops and craftsmen of Tellenor, Carts of foods coming in from the farmlands and vineyards. Smoke unfurls from chimney’s at the blacksmith and the artificer. Agrimor motions to an attractive half orc woman holding a slate and a pen “Let me introduce you to Trusilla Fane, Regional director for Penthaheim! She will finish setting you up with your headquarters and the paperwork for your franchise. That is if you are interested?”

Plot type

Campaign 01 Quest 01

Parent Plot

Vom Fass and the Heist of the mask of many faces