A Journey through the Chakras The Crown Chakra

As mentioned, I’ll also do a full review of Keys from the Golden Vault soon, but you can check those of Candlekeep Mysteries and Journeys through the Radiant Citadel for now, with running notes. (And I did an extended piece, similar to this article, on the Price of Beauty). Quentin wears a ring, Avarice has one too, there’s a spare in his office, and he’s also given one to his new girlfriend Anais Bellefleur, who he met during earlier rounds of the Minauros Invitational tournament. I put a small shrine to Mammon in the Employee Lounge, although if I was running the Stygian Gambit again I might put a larger hidden shrine next to the restaurant, where (evil) patrons can make an offering to improve their luck. To protect his assets, Mammon sends Quentin four bearded devils, two of which guard the River Styx cavemouth, with the other two guarding the opening by the waterfall (which in my campaign looks out on the Sea of Swords and would be a possible way in for thieves or aerial threats). I should note that the majority of my players are 4th level, so adjust any stat blocks as you deem fit.

Mr Rubio, who ran for the top job in 2016, comes from a different part of the party. He was seen as a more establishment type of Republican, with hawkish tendencies on foreign policy, but has impressed insiders with the way he has slotted into the administration. “Just finished this delightful modular addition to Keys from the Golden Vault – The Incredible Balloon Bamboozle!

As written, this trap paralyses everyone within 15 ft., who fails a DC 17 Wisdom saving throw, for one minute – with no repeat save! This is the kind of trap that can ruin a session for a player, by taking them out the game completely. The obvious solution is to just throw in a repeat saving throw, although I actually swapped out the effect for the slow spell, which does a great job of restricting players without taking them out of the game.

Passive Skills Checks… A Solution to Swingy Dice?

The magic detector works more or less like detect magic, but with a range of just 5 feet, giving the players a decent chance to smuggle magic items in using a bit of creativity. A new casino, hidden in the cliffs of Mount Waterdeep, has refused the Zhentarim’s generous security terms, and Davil thinks its appropriate that the owner rues his mistake. He wants the party to steal the Erinyes statue to cause maximum embarrassment to Monsieur Togglepocket (and he wants it done on the night of the tournament, so there’s no chance for the gnome to find or craft a replacement). Davil offers them 250 gp each for the statue, and makes no claim to anything else held in the casino’s vault, making this a fantastic potential score for the party (the payment in the adventure as written is rather stingy!). I also gave them a chance, after they’d completed the Stakeout, and started the Planning phase to request any useful items from Davil or Drake that could help them with the heist.

The Whisper of Stars

I also stressed that this was a stealth mission, and both Davil and Drake emphasised that they should avoid killing anyone. The point was to make a mockery of the casino’s security measures, not massacre innocent employees (who admittedly turn out to be devil worshipping cultists, so there’s some moral leeway for bloodshed) or gamblers. By breaking down the heist into four stages, I think it really encouraged them to think about how they should tackle the quest and it gave the whole session that bank job vibe that Keys from the Golden Vault was designed to evoke.

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Having visited the casino already, they knew already they’d be searched for any magic items on 666 games online the way in, but they asked for rings of feather fall and potions of invisibility and managed to smuggled them in. Also, given that I’ve now got ordinary security guards going to and from the vault (not just Quentin), to deposit guests’ magic items, I needed a different method for keeping Virgil under control. I decided that Virgil could be persuaded to remain dormant when the password “CALM YOUR BONES” is uttered in infernal. Any magic items found are taken by two security guards to the vault, to be returned whenever the customer chooses to take the ferry back home.

You have a 1/36 chance of winning, and your returns average just over 25 x your stake. Those odds obviously favour the house, as they would in a real casino. I liked the idea of playing the actual card game, but I couldn’t find it online or in any gaming stores in Spain at short notice. I also liked the d12 simulation presented in the Keys from the Golden Vault. However, given I was running Stygian Gambit as a one-shot, and I had six players at my table, I needed something quicker and dirtier… so I cribbed a skills test from DRAGONBOWL, which also features a casino as part of the fighting tournament. There are 9 rats in total, and each wears a number that corresponds to a name on a blackboard.

If you’re looking for a thrilling adventure set on a blimp, with shenanigans galore and a Beholder ready to ruin your day, check it out! I ran the adventure as a one shot, which ended up taking 6 hours, and if I were to run it again, I might be tempted to do it over two sessions, which I think would make it easier to remember to deploy some of the cool stuff which I forgot in the heat of the moment, and maybe expand the intrigue pillar further. Finally, I also placed an exotic pet merchant, called Marvyn the Marvellous, into the casino for some added tension, as this NPC is an ongoing antagonistic of my players in our Waterdeep campaign. It is Marvyn who supplies Quentin with the circus’s menagerie of wild animals. Similarly, I placed Mixer, a disgruntled barman in the Avernus section of the casino, as someone who could be pumped for reliable info on what lies behind the employee-only doors.