Libertad Reviews: The Key of Destiny Adventure Path (Chapter 2 Half-way Done!)

[Libertad]

Important Update: I'm continuing the review here, 2.0 Style!  Click here!

Key of Destiny, In-depth Review

Thumbs up to fellow Brilliant Gameologist member Cam Banks for helping write this adventure path!  If you're still lurking around the boards, thank you for providing my group with many fond hours of gaming sessions!

   This adventure, along with rest of the 3rd Edition Dragonlance products, has a special place in my heart.  I extensively played and replayed this adventure in my high school years as a DM.  It was a “proving ground” of sorts for new players, at a time when there were few permanent/long-time gamers in my area.  This review is structured differently than others, as it goes into more detail akin to a book club discussion.  I was inspired by this thread on Something Awful and their way of reviewing RPGs.  I figured that talking about something I'm passionate about is a good way to start a first review.  I'll be covering the adventure path's plot, characters, and encounters, analyzing it's high and low points.

   The Key of Destiny, in short, is part of an over-arching adventure path that takes the PCs on a continent-spanning quest to take the eponymous fabled Elven artifact to a hidden dragon cemetery.  During this journey, the PCs will fight all manner of villains who seek the Key for their own use, including a crazed necromancer warlord, an order of evil mystic knights, a genocidal dragon tyrant, and a grief-stricken elf who only desires to bring his beloved out of the hands of the God of Death.

The Key of Destiny was unique in that there were few Level 1-20 adventure paths of this sort in 2004.  Dungeon Magazine set the standard with its Shackled City Adventure Path, which was wrapping up around this time.  The Key of Destiny was followed up by Spectre of Sorrows and Price of Courage in year-long periods.  Unlike Dungeon’s Adventure Paths, which wrapped up around 12 months over the span of 12 products, the Dragonlance Adventure Path (hereafter referred to as the Key of Destiny AP) took 2 years to finish up over the span of 3 products.  This felt tortuously slow to my impatient, adolescent scale of time.  The fact that the first two adventures ended on suspenseful cliffhangers only prolonged my agony.  But I still enjoyed it enough to give it "just a little more time," for it was the second campaign I ever ran in the vein of a traditional heroic fantasy.

The Legend

A long time ago, the elves warred against the chromatic dragons in the First Dragon War.  Quinari, wife of the first elven king Silvanos, was revered by the forces of good on the battlefield.  Her songs were powered by the divine grace of Paladine (Bahamut) to bring healing and succor to the fallen metallic dragons.  Quinari was entrusted the secret location of the Dragon's Graveyard by Glorantha, the leader of the gold dragons.  Quinari’s role was akin to that of an elven Valkyrie, sweeping away the bodies of fallen dragons to take them to this sacred place.  She was the only non-dragon to know of its location.  After the war’s end, her memory of the site was removed to preserve its safety.  The song she used to travel there was still remembered, but she incorporated it into a lullaby for her newborn son.  Upon her death, Glorantha appeared alongside Bahamut himself at the funeral.  Glorantha told the shocked elves that Quinari’s deeds made her a hero to dragonkind, and her remains will be placed in a tomb built by the Gods of Light.  Before leaving, Bahamut told them a vague premonition:

“When there is great need, the Key of Quinari shall open the portal allowing one to return from the Sanctuary of Spirits.  The path, however, shall not be easy, for if evil were to open the portal and enter the Sanctuary, then great darkness shall befall the world.”

The Sylvan Key

   The actual beginnings of the saga of the Key begin not in the first book as shown above, but in the Dragonlance Campaign Setting sourcebook.  The introductory adventure of the Sylvan Key in said book is pretty much the launching point for the adventure path.  It’s meant for 4 PCs of 1st-2nd level.

         Basically, the small frontier town of Pashin gets overrun with refugees as a resurgent Minotaur Empire invades the Elven Kingdom of Silvanesti, which was previously occupied by the Dark Knights of Neraka.  Basically the Knights retreat and stage a military take-over of Pashin, and the elves are pretty much forced… somewhere.  Nobody saw them leave the city, but every so often somebody sees a brief hint of pointed ears on a disheveled cloaked figure at night.

   The PCs figure into all this while attended a bardic performance of the Herald, a legendary singer of ancient ballads.  The Herald realizes that the PCs are destined to play a vital role in some great event, and that he had an important object to give to them as revealed to him in a dream.  This object is the Key of Quinari, a treasured royal heirloom of Silvanesti.  Unfortunately, a rogue Dark Knight named Pegrin stole it from the elven royal palace.  Before the Herald reaches town, the PCs come across a Kender family being accosted by drunk louts.

         The first encounter, Afflicted and Persecuted, is a kind of "training wheels" scenario for new parties.  The drunks are threatening Mayleaf, a kender girl, and her father, Kelwick.  They're insisting that Mayleaf stole their money.  Mayleaf's innocent, but the drunks think they can get a few silver pieces out of them anyway.  They also all have daggers, meaning that things can end in bloodshed for the Kenders.  If any of the characters get involved, even so much as to try and talk, the thugs will react with violence.  If things go badly, two members of the city watch will jump in to help the PCs out.  If the PCs are victorious, Kelwick the father will be happy and promise to help them out in the future.

         I think this is a good way to ease a new group into D&D.  The players get to act like Big Damn Heroes and earn a friend in the process for their good deed.  A typical group outnumbers the thugs 4-3, 6-3 with the City Watch.  The chances of a TPK are very low due to these factors.

         The second encounter, Enter the Herald, is where the action really starts.  The legendary bard has stopped by in Pashin, and word of his arrival quickly spreads all over town.  If the PCs don't visit his performance at the Wounded Crow Inn, they'll stumble upon him later entertaining a crowd on the street.

Note: Normally I'd copy the boxed text, but the Dragonlance Campaign Setting (and the adventures) have no Open Game Content.  I'll do my best to convey the feeling of the scenes without it.

The Herald is a very old man who's said to have lived and died thousands of times in past lives.  He claims to have wielded the mighty Dragonlance of Huma and fought alongside Ariakas in the War of the Lance.  How else would he have such detailed knowledge of Krynn's greatest historical tales?

The crowd makes their own demands of what stories they want to hear, but the Herald silences them with a wave of his hand and tells the story of Mina, a young priest of Takhisis who started the War of Souls.

The Herald's tale is a brief history lesson of the last decade or two of monumental events of Krynn's history.  This is another great way to introduce players new to Dragonlance or D&D.  You can be as brief or as detailed as you like, depending on your group's taste.

Heavily abridged version: the gods stop granting prayers, once again because Takhisis stole the world.  A female warrior known as Mina brings news of the One God, a superior god who never left Krynn (Takhisis/Tiamat).  She sets off to conquer much of Ansalon by marshaling the support of the Dark Knights.  The world's in turmoil, souls can't leave the Material Plane, a new form of magic comes along, five Dragon Overlords take over much of the world and fight against Mina, Wizards and Clerics lose almost all of their power.  At the end, Mina vanishes and Takhisis is killed in battle by Paladine, the head God of Light.  Paladin becomes mortal as a result of this to maintain the Balance.

       Like any good Wandering Minstrel, the Herald's stories are often subject to bias and artistic changes.  Without knowing of the massive Dark Knight presence in Pashin, he portrays the Knights in a negative light.  A brawl breaks out, and rowdy patrons attack the PCs.  Once again, this fight is low-stakes and "beginner-friendly," where the patrons fight non-lethal with their fists.  Once again, the PCs have a chance to earn the gratitude of another by protecting the Herald during the ensuing fracas.  You can judge what kind of characters the PCs are by monitoring their reactions in this encounter and the first one: are they out for themselves and demand rewards, or do they relish the chance to protect and save others?

       After the fight, the Herald is shocked when he notices the PCs.  He tells them about the Key of Quinari, and how a dream revealed that it was meant for them.  It plays a large role in some unforeseen tale, but he knows that it cannot fall into the wrong hands.  He mentions that a rogue Dark Knight named Pegrin now has it, and that the Kark Knights will soon be looking for Pegrin as well.  The Herald emphasizes that it would be very bad if the Dark Knights get their hands on a powerful elven artifact.  If the PCs aren't convinced and go on their way, one of Pegrin's goons will steal an item from the PCs.  If you can't appeal to the PCs' sense of goodness, then you can always count on appealing to their sense of righteous anger!   PCs can find the camp/thief by gathering information in town or calling upon Kelwick the Kender for aid.

   The most notable thing about the mini-adventure is the drastic increase in difficulty.  It starts out as a sort of “beginner” module; Pegrin’s camp is another matter.  There are more enemies, 11 total, including Pegrin, a rogue who’s second-in-command, a sorcerer for magical support, and 6 thugs.  Pegrin’s goons are warriors and have a lot more HP (12 on average), while Pegrin himself is a 2nd-level Barbarian.  The camp is located outside of town, so there’s no help from NPCs to come to the rescue if things go south.  Things can go very badly indeed for a novice party or one that just charges into camp with no regard to stealth or guile.  Feel free to reduce the number of bandits for novice/unoptimized players.  The party could sneak into the camp at night when most people are sleeping, but not everyone in the party may be trained in Hide and Move Silently.  Additionally, keep in mind the amount of spellcasters present within the party.  A party with access to spells such as sleep and silent image will have an easier time of slipping past defenses and subduing enemies than a party comprised of noncasters.

   And now for the Key of Quinari itself!  It’s a beautiful handcrafted music box, activated by a silver wind-up key.  A miniature figurine of an elven female rises up and dances to a haunting melody.  The PCs can only glean the basics of this artifact from a Bardic Knowledge check.  A success reveals that it was an ancestral heirloom of the Silvanesti royal family, created by the nation’s founder.  It’s said in legend that the key will be used in a time of great need, and that it’s used to safeguard something of vital importance.

End of the Prologue.  Next stop, the adventure proper.

[Libertad]

Before I move on to the next part of the review, I think I'll cover the main bad guys of the Adventure Path:

The Villains:

The Knights of Neraka, Tiamat’s Minions: It’s heavily implied but not outright stated that Takhisis, the head evil deity of the Dragonlance setting, is Tiamat.  The Knights of Neraka, aka the Dark Knights, are the legacy of her Dragonarmy.  The Goddess might be dead, but the order carries on in its plans to put all of Ansalon under its heel once again.  They heavily factor into all three segments of the adventure path.
         They’re pretty much the “bad guy” equivalent to the Lawful Good, chivalric knight archetype.  They dress in black metal armor with intimidating skull motifs, sinister titles such as “the Lord of Night,” and their spellcasters are well-versed in necromancy and darkness spells.  Even so, the rank-and-file members are usually peasant conscripts barely old enough to shave and serve the Knights because they’re oftentimes the only legitimate authority in many parts of the world.

Gellidus, Dragon Overlord: Back during the War of Souls, Tiamat was achieving political and religious dominance as her favored cleric Mina was conquering most of Ansalon.  But in order to do this, Tiamat needed to move the world of Krynn out of the rest of the pantheon’s view so that she’d be the only God to grant spells.  This cosmological transition put the world of Krynn closer to an alien world full of truly massive dragons.  Five of these dragons moved into Krynn and set about conquering the continent.  They waged a genocidal war on all of dragonkind and each other, modeling the skulls of their kills into a grisly “totem” which granted potentially limitless magical power.  Malystrx, the greatest of the Overlords, theorized that she could achieve Godhood by doing this.
   Tiamat was pissed; no upstart dragons would get to rule Krynn except her!  Through the actions of heroes and Mina’s army, all but two of the Dragon Overlords perished in battle.  Gellidus, the White Dragon Overlord, is one of the survivors.  And with Tiamat’s recent death and the discovery of the Dragon Graveyard, he stands a chance at becoming the most powerful person in all of Krynn.

Caeldor the Traitor, Blood for the Blood God!  Caeldor used to be your dyed-in-the-wool good guy before he turned on his own church by compromising it to a vicious ogre horde.  Now he’s a powerful lich who serves Chemosh, the God of Death.  He really hates Lothian for trying to weasel his way out of Chemosh’s deal, and is preparing to raise a massive undead army to take over Krynn for the pleasure of his dark deity.  Do you really need to ask why he’d want to enter the Dragon’s Graveyard?

Lothian, Master of Prophecy Rail-roading: Lothian was an elven soldier entrusted with healing the blighted land of Silvanesti in the aftermath of the War of the Lance.  He fell in love with Kayleigh, a fellow soldier.  She did not return his affections, and he grew bitter; “she’s fallen for another!” he thought.  “Why else would she not desire me?!”  He placed blame on the other male soldiers, but kept his anger hidden from the others.
   A death knight came upon Lothian’s patrol, and felled everyone but him.  Lothian tried with all his might to heal Kayleigh, but his goddess would not help him.  The death knight offered to spare his life and that of Kayleigh’s, but only if Lothian swore allegiance to Chemosh, God of Death.  He accepted.
        Kayleigh’s spirit would be bound to Lothian, but both their souls belonged to Chemosh upon his death.  Lothian made a bad deal in the heat of the moment, and he grew to resent Chemosh’s hold on them.  He researched ways of getting around this agreement, and learned of the Shroud of Soul’s Calling.  This artifact is said to be located in Quinari’s Tomb, capable of bringing a spirit back from the afterlife and out of the clutches of a God.  Lothian also learned that the Tomb was located in the Dragon’s Graveyard, and he searched in vain for the Key of Quinari.  It was only until the music box was brought out of the protective ward of Silvanesti that Lothian’s plans were set into action.  He ordered Kayleigh to manipulate the Key’s holder on a set path to bring them to the Dragon’s Graveyard, contacting seers and using visions of a ghostly maiden in distress to direct the PCs to desired points.  All of those holy artifacts gained across the adventure path?  Simple, Lothian’s leading them along like puppet strings so that they’re well-equipped in the inevitable fight against Chemosh’s forces.
         Before you start feeling sorry for Lothian, keep in mind that he still wants Kayleigh for himself and can't accept the fact that she resents him for all that he's put her through.  Even then, I consider him less of a bad guy than Caeldor or Gellidus given that his end goal will result in breaking the hold Chemosh has over hims and Kayleigh.  To him, it's survival; Caeldor and Gellidus are all about power and conquest.

[Libertad]

The Adventure Proper

   The first book of the Key of Destiny is split into six chapters.  Ideally, the module should take PCs from 1st level to 7th level at the adventure’s climax.  The module starts with the assumption that the PCs have the Key and are returning to Pashin.

Chapter One: Finding the Key

   A rather misleading title, I’d say.  Normally the boxed text would open up around here to set the scene, but I have to rely upon my own writing style since I don’t want to risk legal action from WotC.  While we’re at it, let’s turn on some music appropriate to the mood:

        It’s dusk as the PCs approach Pashin; the last rays of the sun give way as magnificent red and white twin moons of Lunitari and Solinari slowly ascend into the night sky.  The temperature sharply drops as a chill winter breeze wraps around the PCs in an icy embrace.  Everyone’s getting ready to close up shop for the night and return home.  Just then, the party gets a strange feeling that they’re being watched!

        If the PCs successfully Spot the shadowy figure, he’ll lead them on a wild-goose chase through town before losing track of him outside the Five Dragons Inn.  Even if they go inside, they won’t find the figure anywhere inside.    As long as they stay in town, they’ll catch glimpses of this same figure out of the corner of their eye, on a distant roof, eerily monitoring them.

         This is where the adventure gets weird: the majority of Chapter One is spent gathering information from certain NPCs at locales throughout town and possibly random encounters.  The plot encounter which drives the story forward, Prophecy by Immolation, can be played at any time even though it means that the PCs will be unable to wrap up any unfinished business in Pashin.  The idea is that the PCs will wander about town trying to learn more about the Key of Quinari and eventually find out that they need to seek out the leader of the elves.  The two main methods are going to the important locations directly, or random encounters.

          Problem is that some means of gathering information is done by random encounters; if you go strictly by the book, the PCs could probably miss out on some pertinent bits if you don’t roll the right number on the d% chart.  That’s why I’m personally in favor of just “dropping” the encounters on the PCs myself.  I like what they’re trying to do: the city of Pashin is a living city, full of rough-and-tumble rogues, dissidents, Dark Knights, and all sorts of unsavory individuals with their own agendas.  The encounters reflect this in that many NPCs are a part of some greater plot for the power players, but this kind of exposition shouldn’t be at the fate of random die rolls.  I could list the encounters and locations separately, but that would make this review rather disjointed as they’re meant to “blend” together into a big “Cluefinder” scenario.  Instead I’ll cover the rest of this chapter by groups which can help the PCs.

Investigating the Key

   The Herald doesn’t make reappear in this adventure.  Even then, he knows nothing more about the key than what he already told the PCs.

   Bazaar: Pashin’s marketplace is an open-air display of tents and outdoor tables.  Given the pseudo-Arabic theme of the region, haggling’s the expected way of doing things.  All goods are overpriced, but an opposed Diplomacy roll can knock things down to more reasonable prices.  Same thing if the PCs want to sell stuff, except that the merchants will try to pay for less than normal price.
   If the PCs try to sell the Key of Quinari or get if appraised, they’ll be pointed to the tent of a gnome seer named Halthorne the Wise, located in the bazaar.  Halthorne’s a mystic seer who knows more than he lets on, and any questions asked of him are phrased to sound as cryptic as possible.  “You seek answers, but those answers will only bring you more questions.”  Except to see this character archetype a lot.  It won’t be until Spectre of Sorrows that the PCs will find a prophet who cuts through the smarmy pseudo-intellectualism and gives a satisfying answer.  Halthorne does tell the PCs that they need to seek out the leader of the elves, for she knows more about the Key of Quinari than anybody else in town.

Finding the Elves

   There’s no denying that hordes of elves are pouring out of Silvanesti into Khur and other neighboring countries.  What’s peculiar is that people recall elves settling in Pashin before they just up and disappeared.  Pashin has an extensive sewer system, a remnant of the distant Age of Might before the Cataclysm shook the world.  Those in the know theorize that the elves went “underground” to avoid detection.

The Dark Knights: The PCs can run into a Dark Knight patrol as a random encounter in the south and west parts of town.  They’re not looking for a fight, but instead are searching for the other rebel leaders in Pashin: the elves, and the Legion of Steel.  They don’t know much about their possible whereabouts, and they’re unlikely to share any information with the PCs.  Their compound is heavily guarded and blocked off to visitors.  If the PCs manage to sneak into the general’s headquarters, they’ll find a lot of elf-crafted weapons, but no elven prisoners or notes on their whereabouts.

Blackbird and the Wounded Crow: Blackbird’s a half-ogre information broker and pimp.  His tavern, the Wounded Crow, is infamous for drawing all manner of mercenaries, cutthroats, and other such individuals across the country.  His girls cruise the town at night to gather money and information about all the goings-on around town, where he then sells the info to the highest bidder.
   The PCs can encounter Dove, one of Blackbird’s prostitutes, in a random encounter at night.  Three of Blackbird’s thugs show up out of nowhere to demand their cut just as she propositions the PC.  Since she doesn’t have the money, they’re prepared to lay a beating on her.
   I can attest that Blackbird’s pimps are the most persistent bastards out there.  If the PCs use violence or Intimidation, they’ll hound the PCs for as long as they stay in Pashin, meaning that every further random in town encounter involves more of them.  There’s something about abusive pimps that makes peoples’ blood boil, and most groups I’ve run have no compunction about drawing swords on these thugs.  This also cuts off Blackbird as a potential source of information, as he’ll attack the PCs on sight if they show up at the Wounded Crow.  And he’s 9th level, meaning that he and the bar patrons can easily wipe the floor with most 1st-2nd level parties.  This encounter alone can screw up the PCs’ investigation if run by the book: I personally change things around so that random encounters occur as normal.

What if the PCs visit the Wounded Crow?  Well, Blackbird’s unwilling to waste time with random strangers unless they’ve got the cash.  The negotiator must roll a Diplomacy check to get him to open up about the goings-on in Pashin.  Fortunately, Blackbird’s a cheap bastard, and every steel piece (D&D gold piece equivalent) grants a +1 bonus on Diplomacy.  PCs who are scholarly or “law and order types” have a heavy penalty, while “tough guys” such as Barbarians and Rogues get bonuses.  Even if the party Diplomancer’s an uncouth Elven Wizard, it should take no more than 60 steel pieces to bump him up to Helpful and tell them everything.  In addition to learning of the Dark Knights intercepting the mayor’s messages for outside assistance, the PCs can learn about the hidden presence of the Legion of Steel in town and that the elves are believed to be hiding in the sewers somewhere.  If all it took was a bag of coins to learn this information, then why haven’t the Dark Knights started patrolling the sewers?  They are Blackbird’s favored clients?  Oh well…

Encouraging Heroics: The Key of Destiny Adventure Path expects that the PCs will be acting in a heroic manner.  It doesn’t consider the possibility of them joining the Dark Knights and handing over the Key, or otherwise just giving up in their quest.  It rewards PCs who try to do the right or unselfish thing by giving them additional experience points.  The encounters reflect this: if the PCs intimidate blackbird’s goons, they get half experience, but they get full experience points if they use Diplomacy or fight them.  In another example, when fighting a drunken ogre, the PCs get experience of the Encounter Level +1 if they subdue him without killing him.  Ogres and their kin are still nasty and brutish in Dragonlance, but in many lands they’re considered people instead of just monsters to slay.  It’s best to tell your players this ahead of time at the start of the adventure path instead of just letting things happen: in-game incentives to do good are best utilized if the group knows that the option is available and expected.

The Legion of Steel: The Legion of Steel is the third major knightly order of Dragonlance.  Considered to be the “Neutral” one in comparison to the Solamnic and Dark Knights, the Legion is a more progressive group that has no qualms about inducting spellcasters and races of all stripes into their order if they prove themselves capable of living up to the group’s ideals.  They also adopt tactics more suitable to insurgent rebel groups: guerilla tactics and independent, non-hierarchal cells where Legionnaires can be promoted or demoted based on reputation and goodwill more-so than rank.
   The local Legion cell’s very unhappy that the Dark came in and took over their town, so they’re striking back hard!  The PCs can learn of the Legion from Blackbird or Dove and meet the cell’s contact in the potion shop of Old Omar’s Oddities.  The proprietor’s a massive half-ogre mystic who’s waiting for a response, but won’t get it anytime soon.  Any PC interested in joining the Legion can prove their worth by earning her trust; but to do that, they’ll need to trigger the right random encounter!  Isn’t that just swell?
   The encounter, Legionnaire Rebel, starts off with a bang.  Literally.  A Legionnaire jumps out of a nearby building shortly before it explodes.  The terrorist freedom fighter introduces himself as Jacob and begs the PCs to help him hide from the Dark Knights.  Quite naïve of him to spill his guts like that to the first person he meets after that debacle.  I have to wonder at the competence of the Legion if guys like this are recruited into their ranks.  In case you’re wondering if the Legions are any better than the Dark Knights, the building was empty of any civilians; it was rigged to blow as part of a trap for Jacob.
   Jacob won’t tell the PCs anything else, instead insisting that they take him back to the Five Dragons Inn for safety.  The group’s followed by Jacob’s sons, who knew that their father would screw up on a mission soon enough (“he’s got a bigger hear than his brain”).  At this point Jacob will give a medallion to the PCs to give to Klaudia Lorn to turn in for a reward.  In return they’ll get some sweet masterwork equipment and the chance to join the Legion; all they have left to do is visit a cell in the city of Ak-Khurman and they’re full-fledged members!  And all it took was a simple escort mission!  Sadly, the Legion has no useful information on the Key or the elves.

Lepers: If all else fails, the PCs can earn the trust of the elves by stopping a murder.  This random encounter begins as the party stumbles upon a cloaked elf standing over the corpse of another elf.  He’ll try to escape by drinking a potion of jump and taking to the rooftops and throw a tanglefoot bag at anyone who can keep up.  A group of elves will show up in the alleyway, armed, at the resolution of this fight.  Let’s hope the PCs caught the assailant, otherwise they’ll attack if they can’t be persuaded!  Not the best first impression for the people you’re hoping to meet!
   The elves are all visibly sick and clad in disheveled rags.  They won’t lead the PCs to their hidden colony, but they’ll thank the PCs for helping them out.  Once again, the PCs get full experience for the encounter if they catch the killer and come to a peaceful resolution with the elves.  They get even more experience if they offer to help distract the incoming Dark Knight patrol without being asked to do so.

The Best of the Rest: The remaining random encounters and locations in town don’t have much to do with the story:  One involves a typical fight with muggers in an alleyway, and another involves a rat swarm coming out of a sewer entrance.  There’s also Garthak the drunken ogre encounter I mentioned above, who’ll temporarily join the PCs if the circumstances are right.
        The last encounter involves a kender named Rowan, and it may be enough to cause players at the table to reinforce their beliefs that the little rascals are a Chaotic Stupid blight upon the face of Krynn.  Basically Rowan will bump into the PCs in a crowd and “borrow” an item off of one or more of the PCs.  If the PCs catch him in the act, he won’t return the items and deny having them unless his attitude can be shifted to Friendly or better.  If Diplomacy is successful, he’ll give the items back while making all sorts of excuses for his actions (“I meant to return it to you after you dropped it!” “I was keeping it safe from thieves!” etc.).  Kelwick and Mayleaf were Kender, but they were Afflicted, meaning that their typical Kenderish worldview was erased due to trauma.  The first real Kender the PCs meet is a damn thief who won’t part with his purloined goods unless the PCs talk nice to him!  This is why so many players can't stand Kender.
      Once again, like Garthak, Rowan will join the PCs if they didn't kill him at a later date.  They get more experience if they reason with him.  This adventure just encourages Diplomancy.

Next up: Finishing things up in Pashin and moving the plot forward

[Libertad]

Prophecy and Immolation

   This encounter is meant to be triggered when the DM wants to get on with the story, or when they’re totally stumped on what to do.  While wandering the streets, a hunchbacked, blind crone screams at the PCs and rushes towards them.  While snatching one of their legs, she hisses a vague warning to the PCs: she mentions that the stars are aligned and that strange figures desire their key, and tells them to protect it from 'obsession's FIRE' (emphasis is intentional) before bursting into flames.
   This occurs within the confines of boxed text, meaning that it’s assumed that the PCs won’t try to put distance between themselves and the crazy woman or push her away.  A character learned in the magical arts can roll a Knowledge or Spellcraft check to find out several possibilities but no solutions: she most likely got possessed by a foreign entity before the creature overwhelmed the poor woman’s body and “burned out.”  Any PC who can see invisible figures witnesses an ethereal figure disappearing running away.

(click to show/hide)

(the adventure doesn’t mention this, but it’s Lothian).

   Naturally, the nearby crowd of witnesses assumes that the PCs killed the lady with a vile spell.  People start screaming for the city watch.  And what do you know, there’s a Dark Knight Patrol nearby within hearing distance!  Time for a chase scene!
   If the party decides to fight the Dark Knights, more will join the combat in one minute, then another in five rounds.  And all patrols have loud horns which can be used to transmit messages in code.  Waves of Knights will keep coming after them until the PCs find somewhere to hide or they all get incapacitated.  The Knights won’t give chase to anyone who goes into the sewer: that place is large enough for random encounters.

Libertad’s Notes: I personally have mixed feelings about this process of events: on the one hand, it can be good to use if the PCs get stuck and they don’t make the key-elf-sewer connection and mess up bad on the investigation.  On the other hand, it just adds more complications if the PCs were on their way to finding the elves in the first place.  Additionally, this is the second time the PCs meet a cryptic seer in one chapter alone, and you definitely don’t want to overuse this.  I’d personally alter things by having Blackbird tip off the Dark Knights about the PCs’ activities, and then give chase from there.

Captured: Any PCs who surrender or incapacitated are taken to the prison in the Dark Knight fortress at the southern end of town.  If they met Garthak and Rowan, they will be in prison as well.  I hope you like DMPCs, folks!  Just kidding, they part ways when everybody escapes the compound.
   It’s mentioned earlier in the adventure that the Legion of Steel will spring an escape attempt, but this doesn’t happen.  Instead, that mysterious cloaked figure at the beginning of the Chapter shows up to reveal himself!  He’s an armored, black-cowled, elf with severe features.  As he casts an open/close spell on the manacles (but they’re locked!, so it can’t work by RAW), he tells them that Shaylin, leader of the elven refugees, has requested an audience with the PCs.  “Let’s not keep her waiting!”
   This elf is Naelathan Shadowdark, and he meets the PCs even if they eluded capture (in this case, he enters their hiding place).  Sneaking out of the complex is a non-issue if the characters waste no time to get their equipment and leave, as the elves raised a distraction to draw away some of the guards.  They don’t have enough time to dick around and unlock doors and search for traps.
   Naelathan tells the PCs that they can find the secret passage to the elven underground by sketching a symbol which will be on the walls at the southern area of the sewers.  He waits for the PCs to descend into the dark before telling them that he needs to go help his brethren and closing the manhole.  He actually doesn’t trust the PCs, and they have to earn his trust by finding the hideout on their own.  In the dark.  Even though he had orders to escort them to Shaylin.  It’s at this point that Garthak and Rowan go their separate ways.    One group I had was dismayed at this, thinking that it would be cool to have an ogre fighting alongside them in battle.  It was a good decision in the long run, and Garthak can easily outshine low-level melee PCs now that he’s armed and sober (and he’s a Barbarian, too!).

   Down the Drain:There aren’t many interesting encounters of note in the sewers: most areas and encounters have an assortment of dire rats, giant spiders, goblins, and ghouls.  The PCs have a chance of meeting patrolling elves, who will be suspicious unless they say that Naelathan (thanks for abandoning us, jerk!) sent them.  The text specifically says that the PCs only get experience if they successfully negotiate with the elves; they’re sickly like the ones in the Lepers encounter and can’t fight worth a damn (they’re Commoners).
         Aside from the hidden colony, the other interesting areas are a ghoul lair with some magical bracers and a shield and a spider colony.  If the PCs burn or otherwise destroy the webs, they’ll figure out the hard way that they’re below an unstable ceiling.  And what do you know; the main market plaza is directly above the room!  Let’s hope that there’s no Dark Knight patrols nearby!   

   The Elven Colony is hidden behind a secret door.  The PCs can’t find it unless they’re specifically looking for the symbol which Naelathan showed them, meaning that they can’t visit this area prematurely.  The narrow stone steps lead down deep into the earth before exiting at one end of a huge shrine.  This place is large enough to hold a tent city of over 100 people.  The elves are in deplorable conditions: almost all of them are afflicted with the strange disease of the scouts, with little in the way of room or sanitation.  A pale, regal maiden with white hair comes up to the party and introduces herself as Shaylin Moonborn.  She takes them to a private tent where they can rest and ask questions.
   The elven refugees were living in abandoned buildings in Pashin before Naelathan discovered this underground chamber.  Fearing violence from the Dark Knights, Shaylin convinced the community to retreat underground.  The elves are suffering terribly, but they remain out of a sense of pride: they’ve lost their homeland once before, and they want to be close so that they can easily reclaim it in time. 
Problem is that this ancient complex was a secret temple built by evil dwarves dedicated to Morgion, god of decay and entropy.  He was in a bad mood for being cut off from Krynn recently during the War of Souls, so he inflicted a terrible wasting disease on the intruders out of spite.  None of the elves realize the true source of their illness.
        When the PCs are ready to speak, Shaylin tells them that she’s been having disturbing dreams that involve them in something monumental.  Suddenly, she enters into a trance and instructs the holder of the Key to go across the sands and seek answers in the “shattered ruins.”  This takes a lot out of her; Shaylin will rest, giving the PCs time to interact with the other elven NPCs.  They won’t learn much other than the Clerics and Mystics can’t cure the sickness.
        I take back what I said about the seers of this adventure all being smug; Shaylin’s a lot more forthcoming than Halthorne, and she can answer questions about her trance: she knows that the “key” is meant to unlock something of great import when the time is right, and that the “shattered ruins” are an ancient temple in the desert that fell to internal betrayal and an ogre onslaught.
When the PCs are ready to leave, Shaylin will give them a map to the temple and some words of encouragement and the “blessing of the Gods.”  Naelathan will escort them out through a second hidden passageway that leads out of Pashin and into the surrounding badlands.  The rising sun quickly dissipates the clouds, revealing a bright blue sky amidst a barren land.
   That’s the end of Chapter One, folks.  Looks like we’ve got a long and fun road ahead of us.  Next time we’ll be viewing Chapter Two: The Mystery Unfolds.

        Wait a second.  Shaylin doesn’t really know much about the Key of Quinari; if the PCs succeeded on a Bardic Lore check when they first found it, her answers didn’t reveal anything new.  Turned out Halthorne’s prediction about answers leading to more questions was right!  Except that the answers didn't reveal anything substantial about the Key itself!

Curse your Gnomish double-speak, Halthorne, curse yooouuu!!!

Libertad's Notes: the elven plague: The plague is called Sunblight, for it infects the victim with leprosy and makes them unable to function under bright daylight.  It can’t be detected or cured magically by a spellcaster of less than 18th level.
         Although this sickness can only infect elves, I’d be cautious about inflicting it on PCs.  It deals permanent Constitution drain every 3d4 weeks, spreads by contact, and the party will be traveling through towns with a significant elven minority.  The PCs can find a way to cure the plague with the legendary Tears of Mishakal in the Spectre of Sorrows, but it won’t be of much use if the sunblight disease isn’t contained and spreads all over the elf communities of eastern Ansalon (which is where the majority of elves are currently living in).  The PCs should be around 3rd level by now, and they won’t get a hold of the full power of the Tears until 13-14th level near the end of Spectre; that Con drain can be downright devastating to carry for most of the campaign.  I’m not saying that this “race against time” can’t be handled well, just make sure you know your players and consider the potential consequences before springing sunblight on them.

[Libertad]

Chapter Two: The Mystery Unfolds

Thematic travel music.

   The chapter begins with the PCs out in the badlands of Southern Khur.  It will take 3-5 days to reach the desert temple (hereafter known as the Shattered Temple).  Most of the land is arid and inhospitable, with temperature extremes, sandstorms, bandits, and wandering monsters makes travel in the area not for the faint of heart.
   In addition to Diplomancers and heroic types, this adventure’s also very kind to nature experts.  Much of the Key of Destiny is spent traveling through inhospitable wilderness between points of civilization.  Not only does the chapter remind you of the perils of dehydration and heat exhaustion, there’s desert quicksand and sandstorms that can spring up in random encounters!  And the badlands are downright mild compared to the future territories of the Burning Lands and the Desolation.  PCs without Survival or appropriate magic will go through hell if they dally too long or travel during the day.
   Fictional flora is a regular feature of the adventure.  In keeping with the wondrous nature of the Dragonlance setting, they often have magical applications for spellcasters of an herbalist bent.  Since their insertion can be a distraction from the main event, I’ll introduce them in a post separate from the chapter.

Random Encounters

   Just like in Pashin, the encounters of Chapter 2 strive to be more than just a random assortment of monsters to kill; several “unique” events have NPCs with stories of their own which can only be encountered once.  I recommend dropping these events onto the PCs as you please instead of leaving things up to random die rolls.  An encounter with a centaur band, followed by giant eagles searching for their eggs are much more exciting than running into monstrous scorpions, then giant ants, and a desert menagerie of flesh-eating bugs.
   Minotaur Expedition: In this encounter, the PCs meet a band of three minotaurs on a scouting mission from the occupied nation of Silvanesti.  Since their presence is meant to be covert, they’ll attack the PCs with ranged weapons if spotted.  They’ll try to take down any ranged fighters or spellcasters first.  Since the fight begins with both parties 120 feet away from each other, it’s possible that the minotaurs can outmaneuver the PCs if the group has subpar ranged weapons.  The minotaurs carry desert robes, which can help give the edge in staving off heat exhaustion.  Despite being in a hot environment the minotaurs are the only NPCs in this chapter who have such clothing.  What’s up with that?
Libertad’s Note: Dragonlance Minotaurs are different.  They’re a Medium-size, LA 0 PC race.  The Minotaurs are a highly militaristic, Lawful society of seafaring warriors.  They used to work with the Dark Knights, but their xenophobic attitudes and intolerance for “the weaker races” means that they off break off such alliances when they feel that it’s advantageous to do so.  Far from typical dungeon-crawling monsters, the Minotaur nation is a major powerhouse on the islands off the eastern coast of Ansalon.

   Centaur Band: The PCs get to meet the other major “tauric” race of Dragonlance.  Young adult centaurs often play a sport known as “counting coup,” where they try to knock each down by using natural force and momentum.  The centaurs will try to engage the party in this game by running up to them in a non-lethal overrun attack.  PCs who fail a DC 10 Sense Motive believe the Centaurs to be dangerous opponents.  If any of the centaurs die from combat, the party will have earned the ire of a very large and powerful tribe.  The adventure does not expand on this further, only encouraging the DM to create future encounters and complications for the rest of the time the PCs spend in the nation of Khur.
   PCs who kill the centaurs get half experience for the encounter if they’re not evil-aligned.  That’s what you get for being axe-crazy!  If you really don’t want characters to be violent Chaotic Stupid maniacs, just say so in the Introduction!
   Libertad’s Note: Centaurs of Dragonlance are just as likely to live in large, flat plains as they are in the forest.  They’re not very populous in Khur, and they’ve shed their more isolation stances in recent years to build up interactions with nomadic humans.  Centaurs work hard and play hard, preferring to go with their feelings and act now instead of giving extensive deliberation to decisions.  They also have an antiquated form of speech akin to Old English, using “thou” and “thy” instead of “you” and “your.”

   Black Riders: The Black Riders are a group of Khurish human brigands dressed in black robes, black scarves, and black cloaks (wonder how they got the name?).  The encounter is comprised of four bandit warriors led by a leader, all on horseback.  When the encounter starts, they’re 1 mile away by line of sight.  Once again, PCs without adequate ranged attacks will do very badly unless they have a way to keep up with the horses’ speed.
   The PCs, if they’re victorious, will have not one, but five horses (one warhorse).  This can be a boon to parties with slow-moving and heavily armored characters.  I’d recommend using this encounter if your group contains such folk.

        Giant Eagles: The PCs will be approached by flying giant eagles in search of their lost eggs.  The eagles will tell them that two draconian stolen their eggs by luring them the mother away from the nest.  If the party offers assistance, the eagles will give the PCs a feather whistle, a new magic item, to blow on when they’ve found the eggs.
   The draconian are located in a separate encounter.  They only ambush and hunt at night, and they do not carry the eggs on their person.  If the PCs wish to complete the sidequest, they must either capture the draconians alive or have the Track feat and Survival to find the cave.  The eggs will be there along with a bunch of art items and goods.  The eggs are very valuable and can be sold for 2,500 steel pieces each in a trade town, or they can be returned to the giant eagle parents for 2 more feather whistles and sweet, sweet, experience points.  Since Giant Eagles are free-willed, sapient creatures, selling the eggs is akin to slavery and a very dick move.  If they do the right thing and get the feather whistles, they get two separate uses of summoning giant eagles whenever they’re in a tough spot.  Not too shabby!
   Libertad’s Notes: The setting of Dragonlance uses steel coins instead of gold pieces as the economic standard.  The reason is that gold and art objects decreased in value after the Cataclysm, meaning that hard, practical metals such as iron and steel rose in demand as a form of currency.  This doesn’t make much economic sense, but I have yet to see a plausible economic system in an RPG which did not bog the game down in complexity, so this is small grapes compared to the other problems of D&D.
   Draconians are the Uruk-hai of the Dragonlance setting.  Back in the original adventures, they were the main grunt troops of the Dragon Empire created from the unholy ritual of dark magic and the eggs of good dragons.  The females were sheltered away to prevent the draconians from growing too powerful.  After a successful rebellion and retrieval of the eggs, the Draconians are now a free people with their own nation.  A lot of draconians are still brigands and serve with the Dark Knights, but they’re just as likely to be neutral as they are evil.

Meeting the Mikku

   This mandatory encounter places the PCs near a large encampment of Khurish nomads.  Everybody’s partying and having a good time, and they don’t seem to mind the PCs much as long as they’re not overtly hostile.  Alakar the Silent, a loud and boisterous leader of the tribe, will happily ask for the PCs to join in the festivities.
   There’s no hidden motive on the part of the nomads.  In a land as inhospitable as Khur, the indigenous people fill their lives with joy through sports, festivals, and dance.  In fact, there’s a big festival planned annually in the capital city, and this particular tribe, the Mikku, is getting ready to participate in the grand performance.
   While the PCs, rest, they can interact with Alakar, Asmara the obligatory mystic seer, and Malat the “Minotaur,” so named for being the biggest and strongest member of the tribe.  Alakar can tell the PCs much about the history of Khur, the various tribes, their religious beliefs, and the Valley of Hurim and the Shattered Temple.

Abridged Version: The nation of Khur was fertile grassland before the Cataclysm.  When the Cataclysm arrived and the meteor descended upon Istar, a charismatic leader known as Keja united the warring tribes together into a nation.  The Khurish people never lost faith in the Gods, even as they left the world a second time during the War of Souls, having faith that their perseverance would be rewarded.  Now that the Gods came back, they welcomed them with open arms.
The Shattered Temple of Hurim was a pilgrimage rest stop and house of worship before the Cataclysm for Khur and Istarians alike.  But a traitorous priest sold the safety of the Temple to an invading Ogre warlord.  The priests in their final moments invoked a curse upon the traitor and the valley.  Nobody who ventured into Hurim ever lived more than a few days, and the valley’s location was lost during the Cataclysm.  In recent months, a landslide re-opened the valley, and Khurish holy men and women detect a great evil in the region.

Asmara, a.k.a. Seer #3, can predict the PC’s future in the form of personal riddles.  The sample riddles detail future encounters that the party’s intended to figure out on their own, but they can also serve as a baseline for the DM to develop some of his own.  As usual, the sample riddles are so vague that the PCs may not get the hint until they’re right at the encounter, making them more akin to an “oh, I get it!” moment than an intuitive puzzle which builds up and adds more clues over the course of the campaign.  To me, an ideal riddle is something that can be solved before the event and gives the successful heroes an edge or preemptive advantage.  But this is very hard to pull off in most gaming sessions.

Example: “A figure of fire and damnation, forged from dragon’s blood, but seeming Abyss born, stands guard over a weapon of light long thought lost…” This hints at the final battle in the Key of Destiny book. The “figure of fire and damnation” is Sindra the Dragonspawn, the lady with the whip on the cover title.  The players won’t encounter her personally before the battle and won’t make the connection unless they know that Dragonspawn are created by the Dragon Overlords, and that she looks demonic but isn’t.
   Malat doesn’t really have much in the way of information or interaction other than to challenge warrior-type characters in a friendly duel or flirt with female PCs.  Not much else to do except set up camp for the night…

Strange Visitors in the Night

   While the characters are sleeping, a ghostly presence will approach an elf or spellcasting PC in early morning before dawn.  The shadowy form is that of a little girl.  If nobody spots the figure enter the tent, they’ll awaken to the sound of her voice.
   “You must hurry… the winds carry the voices of many spirits, and they are crying for help.  You must keep the key safe otherwise all will be lost.  In the temple of the betrayed, you must find the shard of light.  It shall lead you on the path you have been chosen to walk.”
   She suddenly leaves the tent just as a strong whirlwind blows through the area.  Two summoned Air Elementals will attack the party!  This encounter isn’t meant to kill the PCs so much as shock and confuse them; the Summon spell’s duration is only 3 rounds, and the elementals toss them around with their Whirlwind ability instead of trying to kill anybody.  Even though they’re summoned, the PCs get experience if they vanquish them in time.
   The Mikku will rush to the scene of combat at the end of the encounter and ask the PCs what happened.  I can’t really describe the mood of the scene by just saying what happened, and no Open Gaming Content means I can’t just quote from boxed text.  Once again, I’ll try my best to replicate the scene with Libertad’s Mood-Setting Descriptive Text!

Asmara softly cries as she buried her head in her hands.  “I cannot explain it,” she says, “but I know that she was Uleena, my daughter.
“Uleena was a beautiful child,” Alakar says.  “She was gifted with the same talents of her mother.  She always looked at the world with wonder and joy, even at the worst of times.  She died in a landslide, the same one that revealed the hidden Valley of Hurim.  I know in my heart that the gods sent her here to help you with some great task.”

   Asmara and Alakar know nothing about the shard of light or what Uleena said, but they know that the elementals were a warning.  The tribe will be on high alert for the rest of the night.  The nomads will escort the PCs to Hurim on the morrow.

        Libertad's Notes: Like Prophecy & Immolation, this is yet another one of those weird encounters:  it’s a vague prophecy from a female followed up by a sudden, inexplicable magic attack which isn’t really explained in the adventure background.  It’s not said who summoned the air elementals or why the PCs needed to be distracted.  Additionally, the timing of the air elementals makes it seem like Uleena had direct involvement in their presence.  If you used Prophecy & Immolation as is, I’d recommend changing the circumstances of this encounter around so that the PCs don’t start thinking that the seers are the enemy or that somebody's screwing with them and leading them along.  A good idea is to have the air elementals be summoned monsters pursuing Uleena so that the players don't perceive her as the enemy.

Next Stop: Finishing up Chapter 2 and the Ruins of Hurim