Introduction

This pdf contains everything you'll need to DM a home-brewed adventure for a party of 3-6 players.

The adventure can be run as a one-shot or integrated into your own campaign, as a self-contained side quest. Feel free to treat it as a toolbox, add and remove elements as you see fit.

Depending on your party's size and play style, the adventure can be completed within 6-12 hours or spread across 2 to 3 shorter sessions.

Why?

I am sharing this adventure because I deeply enjoy tabletop role-playing games and want to make it easier for others to enjoy them too.

I originally created this as a one-shot for a D&D 5e group that I was a player in, all of whom are credited at the end of this document. What you're reading is a lessons-learned, adjusted version of that experience.

My hope is that people who are new to D&D will be able to use it as an introduction to the game and that dungeon masters will find some inspiration in it for their own adventures and campaigns.

Contact

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to write to me at velabooks@protonmail.com.

What?

This adventure's theme is loss, its core story revolves around having lost something that was deeply meaningful to us and also being lost in the quest to regain it.

In terms of mood the story contains both humor and scarier elements, but it doesn't delve into anything overly dark. It contains one city-like location with a number of NPCs as well as a dungeon-delve (or rather, a tower-climb) with a narrative element told through various clues that the players will discover along the way. It is designed to end with a confrontation with the story's Big Bad Evil Guy equivalent, although there are a number of alternative endings outlined later on.

Cover art by Kai Fine Art's Jason Silva. Art on this page by 000fesbra000.

The Firesoul. Cover artwork by Kai Fine Art's John Silva. Art on this page by 000fesbra000

Within this document, you will find:

• 2 battle maps (which can be downloaded here and here or in other formats on request)
• a number of story-hooks designed to help you keep your players' characters engaged and motivated
• a step-by-step guide on how to run the adventure as a DM
• stat-blocks for most possible encounters
• a list of additional clues that can be gained from NPCs or through successful ability checks (e.g. history or arcana)
• inspirational artwork from credited artists
• finally, the next page contains a Table of Contents which should make it easier to navigate the pdf.

Inspiration

The adventure draws inspiration from my own favorite works of fiction. If your players like these, there's a good chance they'll also enjoy this one-shot:

• MtG's Ravnica setting
• Planescape: Torment & Torment: Numenera
• Stephen King's The Dark Tower
• Terry Pratchett's Discworld

If you're curious how these 5 creations are interwoven in one adventure, read on :) !

Bird's Eye View

First, let's introduce you to what this story is all about. If you're a player intending to experience this adventure, you should probably stop reading - spoilers ahead. This section is for the DMs, and its goal is to give you an overview of the entire narrative. A much more detailed step by step walkthrough will follow.

The story begins with a quest being bestowed upon the adventuring party - you are tasked with delivering an imprisoned oath-breaker paladin to the leader of his former group of fellow heroes, known as the Fist of Five. This is the objective presented to your players at the start of the game, but it is not the real objective of the adventure.

The real core of the adventure comes from the journey through the eponymous Keystone Tower, which is the seat of power for Aethera, a half-orc female druid of the circle of spores. She is the leader of the Fist of Five, the person to whom your party's captive is meant to be delivered.

As soon as your players make their way to the first floor of Keystone Tower, they will discover that things are not as they seemed. As they make their way up, they will encounter the other members of the Fist of Five, heroes of the nearby lands, in increasingly dire circumstances. One will be found locked in a resurrection machine, trapped in a cycle of death and rebirth. Another will attack the party in a frenzied panic of a newly-turned vampire. The adventure is all about figuring out the mystery of what happened to the Fist of Five and finally facing Aethera on the topmost level of the tower.

The Mission

There's many possible reasons to take the mission of delivering the oath-breaker prisoner to his former leader - financial gratification, the desire to become more famous as heroes than even the Fist of Five, simple righteous anger at a paladin who fell from grace... but for this adventure we do want this assignment to be a bit more binding than simple psychological motivations. Drawing inspiration from the Ravnica setting, the recommended way to give your party an incentive to carry out this task is having them be bound by an arcane law-magic contract with 3 specific conditions:

1. Deliver the Oath-Breaker to Aethera, alive.
2. Do not free him from his bounds.
3. Do not remove his gag.

If they break the tertiary or secondary conditions, increasingly dire price will be paid by each and every member of the party. Breaking the primary one, well ... let's just hope it doesn't come down to that for now.

Start with an Earthquake and Build up from There

It's good to start the actual session with a bang. The assignment of the mission can be introduced in a pre-game cutscene, but this moment is when the heroes are meant to become genuinely curious about what is happening.

We start already a couple of days of travel later, in the wilderness, on the road leading to the port town of Val, where Aethera is said to reside.

Our heroes take an evening's rest, leaving perhaps one or two members on guard duty. Certain magical defenses may be set up. None of this prepares the party for what's about to come. Those party members who are awake begin to feel familiar sensations of warmth - e.g. the pleasant southern wind for a swashbuckler rogue, the radiant glow of their holy symbol for a paladin, the familiar aftertaste of an explosion for an evocation wizard. Their movements become sluggish, as if they were encased in molasses. The surrounding trees, vibrantly green mere moments ago, all of a sudden look like gnarled, wizened husks of their former selves. The air becomes filled with the smell of ashes ...

An apparition of a humanoid figure wreathed in otherworldly flames appears, just a couple steps from your precious cargo.

It seems to reach out its hand to the Oath-Breaker, still in his bounds and with a sheet of metal over his mouth, effectively gagging him. The earth beneath the phantom is scorched, his hand reaches towards the face of the imprisoned paladin and the metal around his face begins to glow from the heat. What will your party do?

Driftwood Town

After the initial encounter with the Firesoul Phantom, your party will continue making its way to the Driftwood Town of Val, a medium size port, with cat-shark hybrids playing in the streets and a slew of other unusual inhabitants. The moment the party crosses its border, the distant shape of the Keystone Tower becomes visible. As it does, its name enters the mind of each party member through strange, arcane means as if it was a living being introducing itself in this alien fashion.

However, in order to get to the tower, our heroes must go through Val. Many of its townspeople had been cut down by your Oath-Breaker prisoner, before he fled, only to be apprehended much later on. Some of the people you meet will bear a grudge. Others, strangely, will seem grateful to the fallen paladin for his past deeds.

Keystone Tower

Climbing level after level of this arcano-mechanical wonder, entities from other spheres of existence and familiar creatures with unusual twists will enter the adventure.

Other members of the Fist of Five will be found within, often in unexpectedly dire circumstances. Your party may find themselves befriending mimics and having strange discussions with well-meaning modrons from the plane of Mechanus, making pacts with the Arch Fey, fighting abominations and solving puzzles for their very lives.

Aethera and epilogue

At the top of the tower awaits Aethera, with the answers the players are yearning for. But not everything is what it seems, and the most heroic choices may not be the ones that lead to the greater good.

Main Adventure Guide

This part of the document contains a detailed walk-through for the entire adventure. The stat blocks for the NPCs / monsters can be found in a separate, alphabetized section later on. Certain interesting characters get their own vignettes within this chapter. The two battle-maps depicting two levels of the Keystone Tower can also be found within.

Story hooks

Let's start with different ways to get your players' characters into this adventure. We've already described the idea of a magically-binding contract, inspired by Ravnica's law magic of the Azorius Senate and the Orzhov Syndicate:

Art by Wayne Reynolds for the Return to Ravnica MtG deck

Law-magic. Artwork by Wayne Reynolds

In the original playthrough of this adventure with my group, they receive the assignment from a new adventuring Guildmistress, formerly of the Orzhov. Here's an excerpt from how that scene played out:

Law-magical Contract

You find yourselves in the lavish offices of the new Guildmaster. There’s a job to be done and she’s selected you for it. The room is filled with your companions. People you have learned to depend on, people who have saved your skin. Friends.

You look upon the faces of your team-mates to see excitement and trepidation, mixed in equal measures. You wonder if your face betrays the same emotions.

The Guildmaster’s white, black & gold robes and the mastery of law-magic betray her origins to be that of Ravnica’s Orzhov Syndicate, a guild obsessed with order, rules and profit above all things. Become indebted to the Orzhov and you may find yourself paying the debt after your soul’s left your body, or so the rumour goes.

You’ve heard from other adventuring parties that she does things a little differently than the previous holder of the position. From the cold welcome you sense that she doesn’t hold you in the highest regard. Finally, she speaks:

- Your mission is simple, and thus I hope you’ll prove up to the challenge, if it can even be called that. A member of the famous Fist of Five has gone mad and tore a bloody path through the port town of Val.

Why a hero, let alone a paladin, would turn against his own party I neither know nor care. The Fist’s leader - Aethera - has put a bounty on him and she wants him returned to her as soon as possible. She wants him alive , which I personally think proves she’s an even worse leader than his betrayal would suggest.

Regardless, she was once a member of our Adventuring Guild herself, before the Fist became famous and decided to branch out. I really need to make some changes to the sign-up contracts for new joiners. But I digress. She’s reliable when it comes to payment and she will pay direly to bring this embarrassment to an end, I’m sure.

You’ll be relieved to hear that the fugitive has already been apprehended by your betters. To his credit, he did take out almost the entire party I’ve sent after him, before they managed to bring him down. Well, lucky you. Since they no longer have the numbers, you get to be babysitters. Your job is to take this fallen oathbreaker back to Val, where Aethera resides, and deliver him to her.

Think the meagre scale of the challenge matches the mediocrity of your skill?

You exchange confused looks. You were hoping for something a little more engaging than a simple drop-off. Val isn’t that far from your city, albeit the roads are not as safe as they once were, with strange and alien creatures appearing seemingly out of nowhere every day. And you’ve heard of the great deeds of the Fist of Five, their adventures are an inspiration, the stuff of songs. The disdain in the Guldmaster’s voice is palpable and it leaves a bad taste in your mouths. You will prove her wrong.

- Very well, at least you don’t run your mouths too much. Silence will always be treated as acceptance here. Hold out your left arms....

Water Candle. Art by DonJebus

Needless to say, if the party chooses to purchase them, these items may prove useful later.

Blacksmith from Aethera's Tribe

The second point of interest in Val is the smithing district, located closer to the sea. Depending on how much information about the Fist of Five the party currently posses, they may make the connection that one of the blacksmith's, with her own little stall, resembles some of the descriptions they've heard of Aethera so far.

Specifically this blacksmith, whilst clearly a half-orc female, seems to have more than just human and orcish blood flowing through her veins. Her skin seems more gray than green and her eyes are piercing blue. Her hair is jet-black, undercut on one side and braided on the other. Her ears are more pointed and elongated than one would expect.

On z successful nature or history checks the party may recognize this to be signs of a 1/4 orc and 1/4 elven lineage. This blacksmith, much like most members of Aethera's original tribe, is the progeny of a half-orc and a half-elf. There may even be some eladrin blood in there.

The purpose of this character is to reveal more backstory about the Fist of Five, particularly Aethera, and possibly allow the party to purchase any items they might need before heading towards the dungeon that is Keystone Tower. Her name is Enoch, and her temparament leaves something to be desired... here are two snippets from the possible conversation your party may have with her:

the Drunken Mermaid

The only other possible encounter near the Harbor is a beached mermaid, whose seemingly lifeless body can be found with a good perception check on a nearby shore.

Art by Joel Harlow

Drunken Mermaid. Artwork by the amazing Joel Harlow

This particular mermaid is less of your usual Disney princess and more of a "I'll drink any sailor under the table and then eat the table" type of gal. She should appear dead at first, only violently waking to life, desperately gasping for water upon someone doing a medicine check on her. She will try to make her way back to the sea, if the party assists her or interrogates her, she may be persuaded to reveal that:

• she's seen strange shapes moving in the waters surrounding the place where the Keystone Tower pierces the promontory and where a section of it is submerged.

Entrance

The mysterious tower is the heart of this adventure. But how are the players meant to make their way inside?

In order not to railroad our players too much, there are 2 possibilites:

1. Main entrance, known to all citizens of Val, located at the end of the rocky steps carved into the promontory, from which the main part of the Keystone Tower protrudes. It does not seem to be open and there's a small mob of people outside.
2. Secondary, secret entrance through the water, custom-made for the aquatic simic hybrid member of the Fist of Five, by the name of Finn. It is the stealthier but more dangerous option, requiring both a way to breathe under water and potentially an encounter with marine monsters.

Finn's Backdoor

If the party persuaded the mermaid to reveal its existence and either possess their own means of underwater travel or have purchased the druid-crafted items from Friendly, they will have an option of avoiding the mob outside of the main entrance.

Make the party perform stealth checks as they swim and don't be afraid to throw a shark at them. Perhaps mention an even bigger shape slowly moving in the further distance. The sea can be a scary place, especially next to a strange tower with a tendency to open doorways to other worlds.

Depending on how much information the party gained from the mermaid and how good they were at following her directions, the actual entrance can be found near where the tower pierces the promontory and goes deeper into the coastal waters. However, Aethera is not fool and it is currently guarded by strange, plant-like monsters.

These flowers have been given a humanoid form and a thirst for slowly decomposing flesh. An effect of strange druidic experiments with water lilies, they make perfectly patient guards, never straying far from the secret entrance.

In combat, their main strategy is to grapple the heroes and remove their underwater-breathing apparatus, hoping for the victim to drown and leave them to their slow feasts.

Art by Botond Harko

Deadly Flowers. Artwork by the amazing Botond Harko

Once the heroes defeat them (or perhaps expertly stealth their way around the monsters), an underwater tunnel can be found, twisting and turning in the darkness for a good while, seemingly leading deeper into the recesses of Keystone Tower.

However, the deeper the party dives, the stranger the surrounding life forms. Eerie, deep-water angler fish may be found, slithering their way around the party. Rare, pale fish without eyes may be noticed. Finally, a strange force seems to pull the party members as if something had a grip on their center of gravity and the heroes get thrust violently through an underwater portal into the first level of Keystone Tower.

the Mob at the Main Entrance

The more obvious way to the tower leads through the rocky stairs carved in the cliffs of the promontory. Atop the rocks, where the spire's upper section emerges from the rocks at a slight angle, the main doorway can be found. Now that the party's made its way closer towards the structure, we can give them a more detailed description of its exterior.

the Tower Up Close

The climb up the crooked steps leaves you breathless. The ache in your limbs sets in, only made worse by the cold wind and the biting smell of salt in the air. The waves crush mercilessly into the cliffs below. But then you see it. The miraculous tower...

Keystone Tower. Artwork by Linus Daniel Lindbalk

• alternatively the may end up inciting the crowd to violence, in which case the mob may direct their aggression towards the party or on the tower (without effect). If they disperse, the party is free to interact with the main door, else they have to potentially find another entrance or wait. Remember that the party is still transporting the Oath-Breaker, so its easy to imagine the people channeling their anger at him - which the party can't allow in order to fulfill the conditions of the conflict.

• in order to add urgency, you may also have the entire crowd let the party pass to the door. If they seem to be taking too long to open the door (another portal) more and more members of the crowd will flash those familiar crimson eyes, eventually entirely dropping the facade of the angry mob, instead opting to reveal some of their true nature and fight the heroes. The members of the crowd are in fact young oblexes, a type of psychic gelatinous cube capable of taking on the form of other people (as well as their memories), with a strong desire to make their way back into Keystone, from which they were forcibly removed by the tower itself.

1. Hall of Audience

The first and largest room on the first floor is reminiscent of a cathedral. There are pews and additional chairs set up for those rare occasions when the townsfolk of Val required a public forum and requested Aethera's wisdom, if not judgment. Should the party choose to inspect their surroundings they will find that although the floor resembles stone - it is actually made of some strange adaptive metal. E.g. it clangs when being knocked on. This is meant to highlight that the Keystone Tower is capable of mimicking various environments. The intention was probably to put the townsfolk more at ease when visiting.

At the other end of the hall a beautiful and vibrant display of greenery can be seen, framing a raised chair, the only sitting place facing the audience. You can deduce that this is where Aethera would sit when she presided over the gatherings. The beautiful display of plant-life features gigantic mushrooms. This foreshadows Aethera's aesthetic as a druid of the circle of spores.

The most important aspect of this room is another interface with the Keystone Tower, hidden behind the chair, partially obscured by the horticulture. On the map, it is marked with a red pentagram, to highlight its magical nature. It takes the form of a single outstretched metallic hand, with a corresponding disc above it.

If the party interacts with it (another set of needles taking blood painlessly from the user) both doors to the rooms on each side of the main hall will open. Alternatively the party's rogue can also open them through traditional means.

2. Sunday School

The party can either choose to explore the room to the left or right. If they start with the one to the right, they will find themselves in a small library, filled with little desks, illuminated by the soft, blue glow of more water candles (giving the party another opportunity to grab some).

There is also a chest, in which more books can be found, as well as a potion of levitation hidden among them. The books are mostly basic introductions to various subjects, although a wizard may also find an interesting scroll or two.

Another important feature of this room are the windows. Through them, the heroes may look into landscapes that should not be visible from within the tower, given its presumed physical location.

They may show a beautiful aurora borealis, shining over a night vista in the Feywild. Some ancient ruins of a city swallowed by a jungle forest. Maybe even a place where mysterious monasteries float through the air. The point of this is to show that the Keystone Tower is an inter-planar wonder of arcane technology.

There is also another keystone interface, which should require a slightly different form of sacrificing the self to activate. If a hero approaches it and tries to interact with it, his mind should be suddenly filled with the image of some sort of personal possession. If the hero places it on the outstretched metal palm, the interface will become activated, the palm will close into a fist and the object will disappear, only to reappear as an image visible through the linked metallic disc, instantly turning into what modern readers will recognize as a screen. The object will be lost, barring a deeper connection to the Keystone Tower later on and a great persuasion check.

If activated, the interface will reveal the presence of a trap, located at the 4th marker. If triggered before this, the trap takes the form of a set of sharp tendrils shooting from the walls, revealing once more that although the walls look like stone, they are not what they seem.

Finally, one of the large bookshelves that can be found within the room is actually a mimic, but a rather tame one. If a hero inspects the bookshelf, familiar fangs and a tongue do appear, perhaps even wrapping itself around the unsuspecting adventurer, but no harmful action will proceed. If the other heroes do harm to the bookshelf mimic, it will revert to its previous bookshelf form and try to look smaller, as well as rather hurt. Emotionally. On a successful animal-handling check, the party may be able to tempt the mimic to interact with them again, pet it or feed it and gain an unlikely follower, in a similar vein to Terry Pratchett's famous Luggage.

Finn the Vampire

The pale, tentacled foe that snatched up their friend is in actuality Finn, the simic hybrid rogue, a member of the Fist of Five. Once the party make their way into the room, they may notice this newly-made vampire high up near the ceiling, defying gravity in part due to his vampiric powers and in part due to his aerial simic adaptations (manta glide).

The unlucky hero being grappled and/or restrained by Finn will be able to look into the eyes of the blood-sucker, but in them (with a good insight check) they should only see the rabid hunger and fight-or-flight instinct of a cornered animal.

One of the vampire's abilities is charming a person, which Finn will attempt to do to the person in his tentacles. Failing that, he will attempt a necrotic bite to sate his hunger. There is no peaceful resolution to this conflict, the party has to find a way to slay him.

Once they take care of Finn, preferably with the knowledge that his intentions weren't entirely his own, the party can scan the rest of the room. The ancient tomes may contain scrolls of great value to your arcane casters. However, the real knowledge comes from the writing burnt into the cured skins of humanoid beings, preserved in the glass, as well as a dead, staked vampire, which can be found in a small hidden alcove behind one of the bookshelves.

The other, staked vampire is ex-sanguinated to a point where only draining one or two humans would revive her, therefore it shouldn't be a real option to have a conversation with her. However, the stake that's pinning her to the wall is made from the same material that was earlier revealed to be the more natural form of the Keystone Tower's floors and walls, suggesting that whoever did this had mastery over the tower.

Art by Florence Jia Hao

The Simic Hybrid Vampire. Artwork by Florence Jia Hao

The writings on the skin, depending on how much light the party brought into the room, should reveal an ancient vampiric culture's investigation into the intersection of life's blood and the immortal soul, the rituals needed to sire a new vampire, as well as a mention of a disease of the soul called pyromortis. The party may at this point make the connection to the original encounter with the Firesoul Phantom, but no further details should be revealed.

By this point, our heroes know that they have personally met 3 members of the Fist of Five. Depending on whether the Oath-Breaker is freed or no longer gagged, he should show further repulsion and sadness at the fate of his other former companion, however he ought to reveal no knowledge of what happened to Finn.

The entrance to the next floor should take the form of a hidden chute, which can be found in the little alcove with the staked vampire. Party members can enter it and slide down into the next chamber. However, as they slide, the gravity should change direction multiple times, leaving the party rather confused. This is another manifestation of the tower's reality-bending aspects.

The Tree of Truth

If the party chooses to investigate the strange, bone-white tree in the middle of the raised pool of water, they should make a charisma saving throw (CHA-10). If any of the party members makes, it that hero should be able to resist the illusion magic hiding the tree's true form and be able to point it out to the other adventurers. Alternatively, the tree can choose to reveal its true form at will.

If the party manages to see through the fae magic, they will see a very different entity. Although vaguely tree-shaped, it will actually consists of a bunch of dessicated corpses, intertwined and molded together. Strange, milky veins of pulsing tissue are wrapped all over the frame of this nightmarish form. In the middle of this "tree", where a hollow might normally be found, there's a single, red eye, tracing the movements of the party. If they move closer, it will begin a conversation, its broken voice coming through the cracked, dry lips of the dead humanoid body forming one of its top branches.

Art by Riccardo Federici

The Archfey Tree of Truth. Artwork by Riccardo Federici

The point of this being is to have a chance to reveal truths about your player's characters, give them answers they may seek (both about themselves and about the current adventure). Each party member will get one question, after the Tree reveals that it can only answer truthfully, if the price is paid.

And the price is low, at least on the surface...

The Puzzle of What is Earned

“Most are given one. Others more. Those of true value are earned, and those often say the most. Give me what you earned and I will give you a way through. But do not leave yourself with me for long as you may still need yourself further down the road. Do not lose yourself either. What would you be without yourself?”

1. Entrance

Once more, the heroes are forcibly thrust out of the portal into an unfamiliar setting. The walls and floors show the true tissue of the tower, with organic-looking veins of brownish metal wrapping around themselves in twists and coils. For the players, this may look like the Space Jockey ship from the movie Alien. It is clearly technological (or arcane) but also somehow strangely biological.

On both sides of the first corridor (unmarked) there are the previously encountered windows into other planes, although this time they do not resemble normal, architectural forms - instead being simple, rounded openings in the walls, covered not with glass but a translucent, bending film of some sort. If pressed, it will have some give, but it will also distort the image on the other side and go entirely black if punctured.

The windows should only show 3 planes:

• A scorched landscape of fire, with sporadically appearing maelstroms of flame, immolating everything in their path. This is the elemental plane of fire.
• A plane consisting of slowly moving, concentrical metal rings, reminiscent of an orrery. It is hard to tell how far away those rings are, given a lack of anything to compare the distance to. It appears to be mechanical in nature, with paradoxical architecture reminding us of an Escher painting. On a good perception roll, small beings can be seen crawling over the rings. These are various types of modrons. This is the plane of Mechanus.
• A barren land where ashes rain from the skies, but there is very little light coming through the black, rolling clouds covering the skies. The ground is marshy, with strange mechanical contraptions digging their claws into the earth, slowly excavating and swallowing corpses buried within. This is Phyrexia.

2. The Chamber of the Mind

If the party chooses to investigate the room on the left first, they will find a large cavernous chamber with 2 of the familiar keystone interfaces, two sets of iron racks (one still with a being in it, the other empty), multiple dead bodies and a set of strange spheres (crimson red or translucent) suspended in mid-air.

The two interfaces are clearly connected to a set of the iron racks each, through the organic-looking tubes of metal lining the ground. If a party member interacts with either of the interfaces, a current of electricity will run through the tubes activating the racks, effectively shocking the beings held within them.

The only occupied set of racks has a dead mind-flayer in them, its head partially dissected, the tentacles pulled back by small hooked chains.

Once shocked by the electric current, the body still releases a psychic burst of energy, stunning and doing damage to anyone in a cone covering the other set of racks as well as the large set of double doors leading to the other, larger section of this map. This is a potential trap that the party may set for whoever should come through that door. The psychic burst doesn't make a sound, but the effect is visible by the naked eye.

On a successful religion check, the party may also sense that there's an undead element to the mind-flayer's corpse, as if it had been, at some point, reanimated through necromantic magic. This is in fact the place where the Oath-Breaker had been held by Aethera (in the second set of racks), in an effort to extract the memories of his half-brother's memories from the paladin's mind.

If the party has freed the Oath-Breaker (and suffered the consequences of breaking the first 2 conditions of the law-magical contract) he will at this point reveal the entire story to them. The entire, chronological telling of the plot behind this adventure is told in a separate section of this document, see the table of contents for the exact page.

3. The Red Star

Above recently deceased bodies of some of the townsfolk of Val, a large number of spheres seem suspended under the darkened ceiling, giving them the appearance of stars against the night's sky. There's one that's much larger than the others (10ft diameter) and it seems to glow with a rich, crimson tint. Others are much smaller, maybe a dozen of them do not possess the red coloration and instead seem translucent.

These are in truth glass containers, holding within them a number of young oblexes and a single elder one. The party may learn this by experiencing the mild effects of a memory intrusion by the psychic gellatinous entity (only the elder is strong enough to overcome the protective spells cast on the glass containers).

Aethera's third and final form - the Fungal Dragon. Artwork by MiRA Arts

Aftermath

There are 3 main possible aftermaths to the final confrontation with Aethera:

1. Aethera is defeated by the party. In this scenario, we see Aethera's physical form crumble. The Firesoul Phantom appears, kneeling beside her, an expression of anguish on his face. However, within moments, a spectral image of her half-orc form appears next to him, they embrace, the wreathing flames enveloping both of their souls. Her very name begins to slowly fade from your memories, which may be a blessing to her legacy. The party now have the chance to lay claim to the Keystone Tower, which opens the possibility of interplanar adventures.
2. Aethera is victorious. If the party sustains heavy casualties or decides to retreat, she will finish the ritual and strike the pact with the Gearminds of Mechanus. Everyone who was harmed by her hand will be healed, anyone who died will be remade in the form of the Warforged race, with adjusted memories. This includes fallen members of the party. Aethera should then be shown wondering if she should wipe the memories of the surviving heroes, but decides not to. Instead, with her fallen lover again at her side and the Keystone Heart under her control, she will portal the heroes out of Val, somewhere far, far away. She will also make the Keystone Tower itself teleport to another plane, out of our heroes reach. For now.
3. Aethera convinces the party to join her cause. Effectively similar to option #2, however resulting in a powerful ally to the heroes in the future.

Regardless, the moment the Oath-Breaker comes within Aethera's reach (either bound or freed) the law-magical contract binding the heroes is broken, the ribbon of arcane energy unwrapping itself from the heroes' arms. The original contract has been fulfilled...

a full, chronological retelling

This section is meant to give you all the information about the events preceding the adventure itself. It reveals the backstories of key characters, major plot points that the party may discover during the climb up Keystone Tower and the true motivations behind everyone's actions.

1. Aethera's druidic powers to control fungal matter awaken in her during a raid of her village, whilst she was still a child. They take the form of parasitic mushroom spores erupting from her body, enveloping both the attackers and her fallen loved ones. Both the living and the dead rise again as effectively docile zombies. This introduces Aethera to the concept of death being a gradual thing, of lost loved ones being returned, albeit in a new form. This story can be revealed to the party by one of her tribeswomen in the town of Val, by Aethera's memoirs or even by her in person.

2. Keystone Tower appears overnight, piercing the rocky promontory north of Val. The moment any of the townsfolk lay their eyes on the tower, its name enters their mind, as if it had always been there. This psychic handshake is something the party will also experience. The Tower, in truth a living, arcano-mechanical wonder of unknown origin, is capable of opening doorways to other worlds. However, it had been infected and monsters will soon begin to make their way from Keystone to the up-till-now quiet port of Val.

3. Fist of Five defeat the monsters of Keystone Tower and lay their claim to it. The heroic call is answered by a relatively unknown group of heroes, consisting of:

• Aethera, the half-orc, quarter-elf druid of the circle of the spores.
• her human lover, a sorcerer whose name cannot be recalled by anyone, due to a soul-curse placed on him by a defeated foe, that's burning even the memory of him out of existence, starting with his name.
• his half-brother, a half-eladrin paladin of the oath of the ancients, by the name of Leaf. He is the Oath-Breaker that the party is tasked with escorting back to Aethera later on. He is in love with Aethera, it is an unrequited affection.
• a simic-hybrid rogue by the name of Finn.
• a loxodon, mammoth-like barbarian called Tusk.

These heroes call themselves the Fist of Five, and from now on they begin exploring the many worlds opened to them by the Keystone Tower. Control over the doorways is gained by interfacing with the tower, which always requires a form of self-sacrifice or identification through e.g. giving the Tower something that symbolizes a given person (e.g. an ornament in the shape of a leaf for the paladin).

4. Fist of Five fight a great enemy and lose one of their members, namely Aethera's human lover. The enemy, perhaps a devil or a powerful fey being, burns its own soul in order to curse the sorcerer who caused its downfall. This results in a condition later referred to as pyromortis. The victim's body is turned immediately to ashes, but it's his soul that will truly suffer, as the Fist will learn soon enough.

5. Whilst grieving for their lost comrade, a fiery specter appears in Keystone Tower, this is the eponymous Firesoul Phantom, the very burning soul of the human sorcerer. The Fist, driven by Aethera's refusal to accept the finality of death, partially pushed to the edge by the side-effect of the soul curse, resulting in them beginning to forget details about their companion, start looking for ways to resurrect their fallen brother.

6. Progressively dark attempts at returning the Firesoul Phantom to the realm of the living are made. It begins with simple divine resurrections spells. Your players will find evidence of these efforts on the first floor of Keystone Tower, in a chamber where holy symbols of all sorts were amassed. When this doesn't work, Aethera begins to betray her companions and use them as guinea pigs in her experiments. She hopes that if she manages to save her lover, together they will be able to reverse any atrocity committed in order to bring him back.

7. Each member of the Fist of Five falls prey to Aethera's experiments. Without any member knowing about the fate of the others', Aethera manages to:

• Lock the loxodon barbarian in a mechanism of cyclical death and resurrection, in an attempt to better understand divine magic, to no avail.
• Turn the simic-hybrid rogue named Finn into a vampire, against his will, hoping that the answer to the Firesoul Phantom's resurrection may lay in undeath. During her research, she finds ancient writings, preserved on human skin, from a vampire civilization long turned to dust, which provide her with more information about the condition of pyromortis.
• Attempt a pact with an evil Archfey, in the form of a death-themed Tree of Truth. The Tree, though it answers questions honestly, always picks the worst truth a person could possibly hear. This leads Aethera to a clue about a possibility of extracting the memories of her lost lover from his friends and loved ones, via the kinds of abilities possessed by the mind-flayers, and then preserving those memories in a new body.
• Torture the half-eladrin paladin by activating a disected mind-flayer's psychic abilities and unleashing them upon him, in an effort to learn more about the mind and ways to preserve it. She also steals the gelatinous cubes that the mind-flayer had been experimenting on, granting them psychic powers of their own and effectively creating the race of oblexes. All of this will be found by the heroes on the final floor of Keystone Tower.

revealed through ability checks (e.g. history or arcana)

This section consists of snippets of backstory and other information about the world of the adventure, which your party may learn by talking to NPCs, investigating their environment or trying to simply remember what they themselves may know as characters.

Fist of Five

• The 5 established heroes of these lands. First is the elven druid Aethera. Second was a great human sorcerer whose name no one can recall (even his name is being burned out of existence). Third was the paladin (half-eladrin). Fourth the simic-hybrid assassin called Finn. Fifth the barbarian loxodon - Tusk.

• They entered Keystone Tower and made it their home, investigating it was one of their first missions. The Val was just a small town back then and it grew under the patronage of the Fist, with the heroes often protecting it from harm from land and sea in these tumultuous times. Aethera has been known to preside as judge over local disputes and she has a knack for both the natural and the technical, having made the tower her home.

• There was a love triangle between Aethera and the half-brothers (the Paladin and the Sorcerer), but some say she chose one, some the other.

• On one of the latest adventures something happened and the Fist didn’t seem the same any more, one of them (the Sorcerer) has not been seen since then.

• Whilst everyone can remember the names of the 4/5 Fist members, the last one’s name cannot be recalled by anyone. We just know that he was a Sorcerer.

• Aethera has brought holy symbols into the tower, strange creatures in the night, there were noises and screams coming from it.

The World Setting (optional)

• The barriers between the planes have grown thin in recent centuries, with gates having opened to Ravnica, the city-world, the Nine Hells and the celestial wilderness. Also Mechanus and the Feywild. Many portals have opened over the water, as it is a natural conduit of arcane and elemental travel. This led to ships being more useful and thus Val grew to prominence in recent years, albeit the world also became more dangerous, with strange, unknown beings harassing the people too.

• Along with the thinning of boundaries between realms new types of magic have been discovered, among them the law-magic of the Azorius Senate carried over from Ravnica, the plane of the Guild-pact. Elemental magic has expanded and changed its nature. There are also rumours of arcanists experimenting with magic related to fates and even the immortal soul itself.

• (for Druids and Rangers) Many of the world’s forests have not dealt well with the thinning of the barriers between worlds. Intelligent systems deal better with sudden changes. It is said that for example wood is greatly valued in Ravnica, where there are very little forests. The loss of the great woodlands of old is a potential motivator for nature-based characters and something that they could be tempted with in the final confrontation with Aethera.

• As the barriers between worlds have thinned some beings of greater power, somehow unable to reach into this world personally have been known to enlist lesser mortals to do their bidding through pacts. Some of these beings are celestial in nature, others less so. It is believed that the most powerful of these beings cannot lie, as their lies are so big they couldn’t squeeze through the keyholes!

Keystone Tower

• The strange structure, for which the Val is now famous, appeared overnight in its entirety, cutting through the rocky cliffs, at an angle, partially re-emerging from the stone near the sea level. No one knows how deep it goes. But when it appeared all the townsfolk dreamed of strange things and they all awoke knowing exactly what the name of this structure is - the Keystone Tower.

• After it originally arrived people were afraid of it. Some tried to enter it but could not find an entrance and told tales of strange creatures climbing its walls. Later, the Fist found their way in and it is said that they battled the creatures. After that the Keystone became their fortress and somwething of a ourist attraction.

Pyromortis - Firesoul Phantom's Curse

• Among diseases of the soul there are many, some stemming from simple sin, others from dealings with infernal and abyssal agents. Some, finally, deal with fate and the nature of the eternal souls themselves. The great light that warms our truest cores can be stoked and channeled as a source of great power, illuminating its controller with true knowledge and immolating their enemies with a fire burning more fiercely than any other arcane flame ever could.

The Oath-Breaker

• The half-eladrin paladin was once devoted to the Gods of Nature. He was known to have reunited with his brother, an arcane practitioner, and to have grown up with Aethera amongst the great wild expanses of the Feywild.

• He broke his oath, killed and rose the undead to assault the city of Val. Further knowledge tells us it was an effort to stem the oblex infestation. However he then ran, knowing that Aethera needed him to perform her work, as he both loves her and is terrified of her. He is resentful of her for choosing his brother and does not believe his brother should be revived through these unnatural means.

for the encounters

Some creature's stats have been tweaked a little from core rules. The list of monsters for which stats have been provided includes, in alphabetical order:

1. Aethera, druid form
2. Aethera, mushroom hulk form
3. Aethera, fungal dragon form
4. Finn, the simic hybrid vampire
5. Leaf, the oath-breaker paladin
6. Modron Minion
7. Myconid
8. Oblex, young
9. Oblex, elder

Modron Minions

Medium construct, lawful neutral

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• Armor Class 16
• Hit Points 50
• Speed 30ft

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STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
14 (+2)	13 (+1)	16 (+3)	14 (+2)	10 (+0)	8 (-1)

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• Skills advantage on tinkering checks
• Damage Vulnerabilities lighting damage (fries circuitry)
• Damage Resistances slashing damage
• Challenge 4

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Actions

Attack. 1 attack per turn, +5 to hit, 1d10

Myconids

Medium creature, neutral

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• Armor Class AC 14
• Hit Points 40
• Speed 20ft on land, 40ft in water

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STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
15 (+2)	16 (+3)	18 (+4)	10 (+0)	6 (-2)	5 (-3d)

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• Skills 40ft swimming speed
• Damage Vulnerabilities Fire
• Damage Resistances Poison, Disease
• Challenge 4

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Actions

Attack. 1 attack, +5 to hit, 1d8 bludgeoning + 1d6 poison.

Oblex, young

Medium monstrosity, neutral evil

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• Armor Class 14
• Hit Points 75
• Speed 25ft

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STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
8 (-1)	19 (+4)	16 (+3)	19 (+4)	12 (+1)	15 (+2)

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• Skills psychic intrusions
• Damage Vulnerabilities fire, electricity, spells agains shape-shifters (e.g. moonbeam)
• Damage Resistances bludgeoning
• Damage Immunities Blindness, deafness, prone

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Actions

Multiattack. 2 attacks per turn, +7 to hit, 1d6 + 4 bludgeoning (pseudopods) + 1d8 psychic.

Eat Memories. WIS-15 as a bonus action, or the victim loses a random memory and is confused until end of turn.

Shapeshifter Can take the form of anyone whose memories it has eaten, without the official rule of being connected to that form via a tendril of red tissue, whilst maintaining its usual form. In this adventure, only elder oblexes are limited this way.

Spellcaster Charm person, color spray, detect thoughts, hold person.

Artist Credits

In this section, I combine all artist references in one place.

• The Firesoul. Cover artwork by Kai Fine Art's John Silva.
• The Phantom again, by 000fesbra000
• Law-magic. Artwork by Wayne Reynolds
• The Oath-Breaker. Artwork by the amazing Veronica Kozlova
• Drunken Mermaid. Artwork by the amazing Joel Harlow
• Deadly Flowers. Artwork by the amazing Botond Harko
• Keystone Tower. Artwork by Linus Daniel Lindbalk
• Elder Oblex. Artwork from the Mordenkeinen's Tome of Foes, I was unable to find the artist, but here's the story behind it
• Modrons. Artwork by Julie Dillon
• The Simic Hybrid Vampire. Artwork by Florence Jia Hao
• The Archfey Tree of Truth. Artwork by Riccardo Federici
• Aethera's Descent. Artwork by Anna Steinbauer. Originally Vraska, hence the medusa snakes.
• Aethera's third and final form - the Fungal Dragon. Artwork by MiRA Arts
• Aethera's tribesman - orcish and elvish blood. Artwork by Greg Opalinski

Finally, thank you, the reader, for taking the time to delve into this adventure! I hope elements of it are useful or at least will inspire your own ideas to enrich your campaign. If you have any feedback or just want to get in touch, send me an email to velabooks@protonmail.com.

Remember to love each other ;)