SCAP Ch 10 - Thirteen Cages


 

Wherein a group of diverse and talented allies learns the folly of not working together against a common foe - taken from the table of contents of the Shackled City Hardcover.

 

Recommended Levels - 16/17

 

Adventure synopsis

 

With Cauldron's population on the march to safety, the adventurers descend into the mountain to find the cagewrights fiery sanctum and stop the portal to Carceri from opening. They enter the sanctum, encounter about half of the cagewrights and their pet dragon, who guards the only failsafe way to diffuse the ritual harmlessly. They find the tree of shackled souls, where thirteen poor bastards have died to start the ritual and - ideally - the volcanoes energy is harmlessly diffused. How the adventure concludes is up to the group's actions. If they fail, the campaign ends here, possibly replaced by a post-apokalyptic scenario. Succeeding means, the campaign continues, either with a completely destroyed city or with a scarred, but soon again inhabitable town.

 

Helpful Files

 

Dyr'ryd at the tree  - Statblock of Dyr'ryd and the Tree of Shackled Souls (artifact)

Shebeleth and Keeriv  - Statblock of the head cleric and his protege

SCAP Chapter 10 Descriptive Text - A page with all of the "boxed text" to be read to players.  This is used for ease of play during IRC or play-by-e-mail role-playing.

 

Local Newspapers

 

- Cauldron is evacuated, newspapers are scarce -

 

Gallery

 

Fiery sanctum 1  - East part of the dungeon

Fiery sanctum 2  - West part of the dungeon

Fiery sanctum 3  -Moltenwing's lair

Fiery sanctum 4  - The tree of shackled souls

SCAPCh10maps.rar - All the maps, including one of all of them connected together

SCAP Ch10 Art.zip - All images from Chapter 10

 

Additional Ideas

Any remaining cagewrights from this chapter could mount a coordinated attack on the group at some convenient intermediate occasion. This is to award the characters additional experience to be better prepared for the upcoming challenges. That attack may include any raised CW bodies left for dead in the complex, especially if the group didn't even pick them clean. A negative level (from Raise Dead) doesn't hurt much and this spell comes cheap for Embril, who takes over the lead after Dyr'ryd is killed (which is pretty much the only necessary precondition to reach this chapter). Dyr'ryd is the one which doesn't get resurrected as does nobody whose body has been destroyed. Shebeleth is the only cleric with access to 9th level spells, but, even if he survived, he wouldn't spend XP or afford the cost (even if he could) for true resurrection to raise some inferior cagewright.