Skyfall (5e Quest)

Work In Progress

Synopsis

The Sky Palace of Eother is a sight to behold. Built in a floating island, the marble palace was once home for the benevolent sky wizard Eother the Gentle, a benevolent wizard fascinated by the sky. The creation of the palace was met with first apprehension and doubt by the villagers of Amerin, who were not that comfortable with the thought of a chunk of rock floating over the city. However, his soft spokenness and gentle nature quickly managed to calm the worries from the Amerinians. He would share his knowledge with the villagers, reward the well for aiding in the palace construction, and even from time to time offer tours to the courtyard and the gardens in the floating island. He also built an observatory and a school of air magic on the village, sharing with them his love for the sky.

There are more than a hundred years, however, that he mage have not been seen. First, he stopped giving the villagers access to the island, which they just assumed to be he becoming more recluse with age. Then, he disappeared completely, which at first made some of his closest acquaintances in the village worried. Some even attempted to enter his tower to make contact, the Cerulean Tower, to no avail. And with the years becoming decades, the presence of Eother became just a good memory for the villagers, a fairy tale for parents to tell to their kids about the benevolent mage that lives in the island in the sky...

...until the Island started to fall.

Background

The sky mage Eother was obsessed with levitation magic, being his main focus of study. He learned how to attach the power of levitation to small objects at first, by engraving them with runes, which he call celestial runes, which are symbols derived from the Primordial (Auran) alphabet. His goal was to create a personal sanctuary for himself amongst the clouds, living surrounded by the sky he loved so much. To accomplish this, he started his first really big project - The Cerulean Tower, a wizard's tower capable of floating a couple of meters of the ground, built without any foundations on the earth. This was a success, and he managed to create a stable structure over the Lake Saphir. From there, his ambition only grew, leading to the construction of two other arcane marvels: the Skyship and the Floating Island, were he built his Sky Palace.

The Runes of Levitation are the creation that made these inventions possible, but they only serve to channel the magic through the devices. He also needed fuel for each of these inventions, fuel in the form of air. Smaller objects can float without the aid of a fuel source, as long as they are placed in a location with air; the bigger and heavier the object, more the need for a fuel source grows. To match the requirements for fuel in the Cerulean Tower, Eother discovered that he could use the runes to harness the power of small portals connected to the plane of air. These portals, however, are dangerous, since they can attract elementals that may be displeased with dimensional holes being opened on their homes.

For the floating island, in special, it was required a particularly big portal, which could grant passage to powerful elementals. To prevent any danger from arriving through those portals, Eother created mechanisms that could shift the location of the portal to another point within the Primordial Plane. Alongside that, he created a magical trap that would prevent an elemental from fully entering the elemental plane. The problem with this trap is that it would temporarily deactivate the very portal that ensured the floatiness of the Island. This wouldn't be a problem as long as Eother reside within the island, since he could quickly dispatch any elemental catch by the trap and shift the location of the portal.

However, when Eother disappeared, the worst thing happened, and the portal trap was activated, causing the Island to begin to fall. Worst, there's no one who knows how the mechanism that keeps the island afloat works, and the knowledge of said mechanisms is stored within a hidden library, built inside the Sky Castle. Now, the island is falling, in the direction of the Village of Amerin down below, the place were Eother used to live before completing his tower.

Overview

Skyfall is an adventure for four characters of 1st level, that is meant to raise them to the 5th level. The players must save the village of Amerin from destruction, by discovering why the island is falling and preventing it from happening. The adventure is divided in sections, as shown below:

Arriving at Amerin

The players start the adventure in Amerin, even as recently arrived travelers or as locals to the village. Within Amerin, they can quickly see the looming threat of the Sky Palace descending in the direction of the village day by day, and will have the opportunity to meet the locals, make some questions and prepare themselves for the adventure ahead.

Exploring the Cerulean Tower

In this section, the adventurers must explore the Cerulean Tower, the home of Eother before the construction of the Sky Palace. Within the tower, they must find the access to the Sky Palace by activating the Celeste, a sky ship. Completing this section will raise the players to 2nd level.

Meeting the Sky Folk

The courtyard and gardens around the abandoned palace became home to the Sky Folk, a community of bird-like creatures who migrated from a dangerous place were they lived and found a sanctuary in the floating island. In this section, they must help the Sky Folk to protect themselves from their predators, in exchange for information about how to enter the palace. Completing this section will raise the players to 3rd level.

Entering the Sky Palace

Finally entering the sky palace, the players must disable the palace defenses, and reach its core, were they discover the problem: the fuel source that kept the palace was a tiny portal to the Primordial Plane of Air, and the portal have closed. Completing this section will raise the players to 4th level.

Finding the Hidden Library

Within the the library hidden within the Sky Palace, the players will find a way to restore the floatiness of the palace, and will require the aid of both the Sky Folk and the Amerinians. The players will also have to fight a very angry air elemental. Completing this section will raise the players to 5th level.

Conclusion

The objective of this short campaign is to give the players both a base of operation and a way to travel through other campaign points on later levels. Each section will reward the players with something to aid this objective:

Arriving at Amerin

Village of Amerin: Points of Interest

Northwind School

The school of northwind was founded by Eother, as a way to share his knowledge and passion for magic and the sky. The school front is adorned with the a symbol representing a windmill. The school is a two store building, with the first floor dedicated to basic education (such as reading and arithmetic) and the second floor dedicated to the study of the arcane arts. The building also counts with a central atrium for leisure, and a terrace for practical lessons in wind and air magic.

Northwind director is Master Heymus, a really old man who was once an apprentice of Eother, and now runs the school and still teach classes to this day.

Windmill Hills

There are some windmills adorning the hills that surround Amerin, that serve to various functions. The people of amerin learned how and where to built, position and conserve windmills to facilitate much of their manual labor, which makes the villagers specially free to pursue other interests with their increased free time.

Azure Inn

The Azure Inn was built by a gnome traveler named Gilly, who took interest in the village, and its potential for travelers thanks to the beauties and tourism points surrounding the area, and specially due to the northwind school, that from time to time attracts visitors from nearby towns that search for a more accessible source of arcane education. Gilly is specially concerned about the fate of the village (and for consequence his business) with the falling of the Sky Palace.

Exploring the Cerulean Tower

There's no stairways connecting the halls, since Eother would move through the tower using levitation and flight. The players will have to find a way to move from hall to hall, specially through the use of climbing, until they can find some magical items hidden through the tower that can aid in the traversal.

Each room have a hole in its center, and the holes are progressively smaller on the higher levels of the tower, forming a the illusion of a spiral when seen from the sky, in a top-down perspective. There's a floating platform that travels through all floors, meant for visitors, but the platform is currently stuck in the underwater room, that is currently sealed. The players can attempt to enter the underwater room by either swimming, or by activating the magical barrier that enables access to that room.

Traveling Through the Tower

The tower have five levels, counting with the entrance: The Flooded Level, Entrance, Power Level, Control Level and Shipyard. From the Entrance, in the middle room, it is possible to see circular opening that resembles a pool from afar. Upon closer inspection, it is possible to see a room below water, matching the circles that offer access to the superior levels.

Floor 1: Entrance

The cerulean tower is an arcane marvel. Built on marble on the middle of a lake, connected to the lake margins through a bridge of white stones, the site is a sight to behold. An attentive eye will notice that the tower is not built on any solid structure, but instead floats few centimeters of the water, being the first great success of Eother's experiments with floating objects. Four fountains adorn each corner of the tower, and are currently deactivated.

Lake Bridge

A bridge of marble, large enough for a carriage to pass through, is built, giving access to the tower.

Central Hall

The central hall is a circular and tall room, from where the rest of the tower is accessible. In the middle of the room there's what it looks to be a small pool or well. A closer inspection, however, will reveal another room below, submerged into water. Above, another circle of a similar size can be seen, giving access to the floor above. There are no ladders or access to the upper floor on sight.

Floor 0: Flooded Floor

The flooded floor makes the based of the tower, built on the lakes floor. This floors was first dedicated as both a storage room and dungeon for gone wrong experiments. Strong glass windows adorn the walls, turning the windowed rooms into aquariums. A system of copper pipes pump water through the whole tower, and out of the floor if needed.

The flooded floor and the tower aren't physically connected. Originally, the water was kept outside the flooded room through wind magic, that would force water out of the room and activate the four fountains that surround the tower. The tower and this room are about 1 meter apart, but they can be reconnected through the control room.

Rune Engraving Room

This room is dedicated to creating metallic rune engravings that could hold the levitation magic required for the floating and flying devices created by Eother. Here, unfinished rooms can be found, alongside with tools required to create the engravings.

Workshop

This workshop was used by Eother to craft the pieces required for the devices, specially the ship. Lots of machinery components created spread across the tower, the sky palace and the ship have been created here and then transported through the floating platform.

Wine Cellar

This room holds some rare wine brands from really old harvests.

Floor 2: Maintenance Floor

The second floor in the tower is dedicated to keep the tower properly working. It has a machine room, were the first Wind Core was built, the machinery that power the floating marvels developed by Eother. The other rooms include the servant quarters - for the mechanical servants, the expeller (meant to blow invaders off the tower), the repair room and the core.

Central Hall

The central hall of the maintenance floor also serves as a security guard outpost, being a secondary safety measure in case invaders bypass the guards in the floors below.

Machinery Room

Maintenance Servants (CR 1)

Within the machinery room, the two metallic humanoids will be active after the core is reactivated. They will return their functions as usual, repairing and mending anything they can find that demands fixing. They will attack any creature on sight that it is not holding the Octogonal Staff.

The Core

This circular metallic chamber filled with tubes on its concave walls has a 5 feet of radius, and on its center, there are two discs, suspended in the air, not attached to anything

This whole mechanism is the "Core", a device created by Eother to serve as an wind-powered engine, that when activated provides energy to the whole tower. The players can discover how to reactivate the core by reading the manual in the Library.

Floor 3: House Floor

The third floor in the tower is were Eother used to live on during his time on the tower. It counts with a living room, an office with a mini-library, couple of balconies so he could enjoy the vista, a control room, a dining room and a bathroom.

Control Room

This room was used to control the main mechanisms from the cerulean tower (with the exception of the Shipyard, that was created only later). In this room, players can deactivate most traps (if they can figure out what the sigils in the control mechanism mean) and reactivate both the air bubble that give access to the Flooded Room and the Floating Platform that give access to the tower levels accessible to visitors (up to the 3rd floor).

Library

This room is a mix between a library and a study room, counting with an armchair, a study table and chair and bookcases covering all the wall, floor to ceiling (presumably accessible through levitation or flying), with the exception of a blackboard in one of the walls.

Searching the Manual

There's a manual that can be found by searching the library, "Wind Engines" by Eother. Searching the library requires an Intelligence (Investigation) check, only possible by a creature that read auran. The result of the check determines how long does it take to find the book: 1 minute (a natural 20 or a 25 + result), 10 minutes (24-20 total result), 1 hour (19-15), 8 hours (14-10), 24 hours (9 or lower).

A search by a player that does not read auran takes twice the time, being that half that time is spent finding an auran to common dictionary, also available at this library.

Treasure

The "Wind Engines" manual and the "Introduction to Auran" manual.

Floor 4: Terrance

In the top floor, there are only two rooms: the observatory (that is also directly linked to Eother bedroom) and the Shipyard.

Observatory

This dome shaped room can be accessed through an attic on Eother Bedroom, or through a door on this floor. From outside, it is possible to see half of a big bronze telescope.

Looking through the observatory, the players can clearly see the floating island, and can see some humanoid figures flying there. Using the "Skywatching Diary", players can figure out that it is possible to cast Clairvoyance, once a day, by using the telescope.

Shipyard

In the tower's terrace, there's the a mosaic on the floor, with a missing piece in the middle, in the shape of an octagon. If the players recover the Octogonal Staff from the X room, they can stick the scepter on the center. The staff will start to vibrate and buzz for some minutes. Should the players wait for a couple of minutes, they will be able to see a ship slowly floating towards the tower.

Meeting the Sky Folk

• The characters arrive at the sky folk village amidst a raid from Darkwings - winged reptilian humanoids, natural enemies of the Sky Folk, and must aid the sky folk to defend themselves.
• At the village, the characters will have the opportunity to interact with the Sky Folk, trade with them, help with some side quests and gather information on how to enter the castle in the middle of the island.
• This section will be a non-linear exploration focused adventure, with characters moving as they see fit through the island. They must, however, be at all times under the constant tension of time, since the island will be slowly but surely, moving downwards in the direction of Amerin.

Entering the Sky Palace

The sky palace is a dangerous gauntlet of traps and defense systems, developed from concepts first explored on its prototype - The Cerulean Tower. Within the palace the broke core can be found, and also clues pointing out to were to find the information to fix the Core - the Hidden Library.

Finding the Hidden Library

The players must find the hidden library of Eother, were the Codex Caelestis, a grimoire of all things related to the wind, sky, air magic and the primordial plane of air. Within the codex, they may find the recipe to fix the core.

Also within the library, they will find clues within Eother notes from his current location, discovering that he moved indefinitely to the primordial plane of air.

Finally, many of Eother's treasures will be found here.

Unique Treasure

Pneumatic Armor

Creature Capacity. 1 Medium creature.

Cargo Capacity. 200 lb.

Armor Class 20.

Hit Points 45 (damage threshold 5)

Speed 15 ft.

STR 25, DEX 10, CON 14

Damage Immunities: psychic

Condition Immunities: blinded, charmed, deafened, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, stunned, unconscious

Skyship

The skyship is a small floating ship, with a Creature Capacity for 6 creatures and 1 ton of cargo capacity, AC 18 (or 16 when motionless), 100 hit points and a flying speed of 100 feet. It can be used as a regular boat. It is immune to poison and psychic damage, and to all conditions.

Lightning Catcher. The lightning catcher is a metallic chain that is where an anchor would usually be. If the ship passes through a lightning storm, it can recharge the Lightning Cannon.

Lightning Cannon (Requires 1 Crew and Grants Half Cover). A lightning bolt shoots out of the cannon's tip in a 120-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in the line must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 3d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Wind Cannon.

Wind Engines

This book was written by Eother, focused on the creation of wind engines and wind powered machines. The book starts with a section dedicated to the explanation of the cosmos, focusing on the primordial plane of air, followed by an explanation on portals and on air magic. The next section is dedicated to theory related to steam engines, and the findings testing with the creation of tiny portals that could replace steam with pure air from the primordial plane in the creation of machines.

Core Activation. Read this passage for any player who reads the book for at least 1 hour, concerning the core: "Portals form the basis of the core. Two intertwined disc create a tri-dimensional portal, that sends air to all directions inside the spherical chamber that made the core's shell. It is of utmost importance to place the portal-activation runes in the correct order, to avoid opening a portal to another primordial plane, with special attention to the rune correspondent to the plane of fire, or the results can be disastrous. Do not forget of creating the runic trap and the timer, both with the goal of preventing unwanted planar invaders inside your core."

Research Resource. Any creature in possession of this book can choose to spend time studying it, instead of making a check, to discover information on the primordial plane of air and on the workings of steam powered machines and of wind powered machines. A 10 minutes study will give the player a 10 (rather than rolling) on the die for that check, while 1 hour study will give it a 20 on that roll.

Study Material. After 1 year of studying this book for at least 1 hour a day, the character will gain a +2 on any Intelligence checks made to recall information about the primordial plane of air and steam/wind powered machines, and a +2 on any tool checks to build said machines.

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