Café de Nuit

My PCs are partially collecting Asian artifacts representing each of the Asian five elements (wood, water, fire, earth, metal) scattered throughout the Western Ravenloft Core domains. This is partially based on the dissemination of Chinese artifacts through the West, and the efforts of the current Chinese gov't and Chinese collectors to recover them.

What challenges could be guarding them?

Here's an example, from the current campaign:

For the Amulet of Water, the PCs investigated a cult in the Il Aluk sewers. The cult was trying to activate a water elemental in a well, without realizing that the Amulet of Water was holding the water elemental there. The PCs were able to recover the Amulet of Water, which gave them a temporary ally in the grateful elemental.

What thematic elemental challenges could guard the other Amulets? As a mild preference, I would prefer to use the Hyskosa Hexad adventures (or heavily adapt them) to serve as a thematic stage for the Amulets, but this is not mandatory.

Preliminary thoughts:

I think the Amulet of Fire could easily be hidden in the Har'Akir desert, and thus be based off of Touch of Death. I think it would be difficult to justify placing it actually within Anhktepot's tomb ("How did this Chinese Imperial amulet end up in an Egyptian Pharoahnic tomb?"), but I could write it in as a sidequest item in the settlement of Muhar or a coastal port city.

The PCs already know Dulcimae the female Vistani (as she's Hyskosa's sister in my campaign) and she'll lead them through the misty seas to the Amber Wastes cluster. She could die as written in the adventure, or the PCs could be shrewd and save her. But if they do lose her for whatever reason, a retired collector in the city could hire them to retrieve the Amulet for him, promising them aid if they do.

If they retrieve the Amulet successfully, a plot twist means they'll have the option of keeping it.

Bonus element: Void.

In Japanese culture, the element Void takes the place of the Chinese element Metal. So there is a possibility of a Void challenge instead.

I'm thinking of giving the PCs a powerful Chinese Dragon ally when they assemble all five elemental amulets together. The Chinese Dragon will have powers of Metal, Fire, Earth, Wood, and Water (just like the Chinese five elements).

At some point in the campaign, the Darkonian leadership will get leery of how powerful the PCs are becoming, and they will send Ebb against them. My current build of Ebb really plays up her status as a Voidwyrm, so the Void element will be manifest in her. (See her extended background in Gaz2 for a weirdly scifi noir treatment of a dragon in a dead world.)

The PCs have two ways of dealing with this. If the Chinese Dragon they created was done using the "Yin" cycle (water splits fire splits metal splits wood splits earth), then the Dragon is female and destructive and vengeful and she fights against Ebb. If the PCs create the Chinese Dragon using the "Yang" cycle (water feeds wood feeds fire feeds earth feeds metal) then the Dragon is kind and beneficent and male and he mates with Ebb.

If you are looking to keep things in the Hexad, then the Wood Element being in Souragne makes perfect sense to me. Tie it into Night of the Walking Dead, let them meet Chickenbone (who could easily have it, or send them to Anton himself to retrieve it?).

Interesting.... though I could have sworn one of the elements was.... Eather.... or ether? something like that.


hmmm......


Wood reminds me of a certain Barovian Construct named Ivan..... In one of the QtR's. Though it catches on fire so.... xD

For Wood, there's... oh, what's his name. Blackroot? The Evil Treant out in Tepest, whose name I never remember because I always call him Exdeath. That guy. It stated before his transformation he was a giant, resplendent tree. Maybe the wood pendant was in there and is still stuck inside him even after he became evil. You could port him out to Daglan for Feast of Goblyns.

Earth... we have a lot of Mountain Ranges, I guess? Pick your poison. The Cult of the Hated Mother is buried deep in the mountains of Darkon, you could probably have a real "down down to Goblin Town" adventure over there.

Deewun wrote:If you are looking to keep things in the Hexad, then the Wood Element being in Souragne makes perfect sense to me. Tie it into Night of the Walking Dead, let them meet Chickenbone (who could easily have it, or send them to Anton himself to retrieve it?).

Perhaps the Maiden of the Swamp would have a wood flavored artifact?

A wood guardian built in to the story naturally: Azenwrath (depending on your use/timeline of the item). Although not easy to take the golem and link it with an eastern culture, it is a suggestion.

Also, years back I ran a Greyhawk campaign (AD&D 2E) where the players were unwitting pawns for a dark force and had to find various items. The guardians were all meant to be non-evil (they were put in place to keep the evil away from prying hands) and I had to figure them out. I remember one was a slower stone golem (without any special powers as the group was lower level) that they group had to outsmart. Another fragment of the item they were seeking was placed in a place of magical power and created mudmen meant to defend the area. For the life of me, I cannot think of the third one. But, hopefully these could work for you.

In re: a Chinese amulet in Ankhtepot's tomb: it could have been a gift from a "Chinese" embassage? If you want the group to get that you can always have a wall painting in the tomb depicting the event.

Going straight from the hexad adventures:

Water - your sewer adventure was fine, but Ship of Horror would have fit perfectly. There's even an underwater section.
Fire - Radaga's Pyroskeletons from Feast of Goblyns
Earth - some kind of sand elemental side quest in Touch of Death
Wood - a swampy treant type thing in Night of the Walking Dead
Void - Ebb appears in From the Shadows, and you've made her into a Void Dragon
Metal - that just leaves Roots of Evil...... which I remember very little about. Surely there's some metal in there somewhere. A haunted armory or treasure room in Castle Ravenloft, perhaps? (maybe some guardian similar to Lucre?)

Metal could be tied to the Holy Symbol of Ravenkind somehow...

Zilfer wrote:Interesting.... though I could have sworn one of the elements was.... Eather.... or ether? something like that.

That's Western alchemy. Aether, or Spirit, is the fifth element that makes up the heavens beyond the gross (base) matter of the other four. There's no real analogue in D&D, though. Just the six base elemental planes, the four para-elemental planes, and eight quasi-elemental planes for a total of eighteen Inner Planes (which ties into the 2e Rule of Three since eighteen is a multiple of three).

High Priest Mikhal wrote:That's Western alchemy. Aether, or Spirit, is the fifth element that makes up the heavens beyond the gross (base) matter of the other four. There's no real analogue in D&D, though.

Well, it's not considered an elemental plane, but there's the Ethereal Plane.

Bear in mind that my responses will be somewhat general as I've not really read up on the "Hexadventures"

Fire - Maybe within one of the seats of Scaeva's opera house, since the place constantly reforms unburnt.
Earth - A trek into the mountains of Keening sounds in order.
Wood - How about a tree branch from the grove of a kizoku?
Void - The artifact is within a featureless room that isn't easy to access. However, said artifact is also the threat as it treats its bearer as if they were in a vacuum. You could create a localized zone out to 10 feet in diameter or make it a personal effect, regardless the rules for holding one's breath would come up.
Metal - Howabout the anvil that Drakov (or is it Azalin?) has to forge armor that reanimates the wearer upon death? The goblyn cauldron is another idea, but I think there's only one of those, memory's a little hazy.
Air - I know you're going with Eastern elementalism here, but you could throw it in as a red herring or booby prize, unless the PCs are aware of exactly what artifacts they're to hunt down.

[quote="Metal - Howabout the anvil that Drakov (or is it Azalin?) has to forge armor that reanimates the wearer upon death? [/quote]

Azalin's dwarf vampire friend from From the Shadows uses the anvil and that depends on what the dwarf did during Azalin's "sabbatical" (unless this is before the Grim Harvest).

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:

High Priest Mikhal wrote:That's Western alchemy. Aether, or Spirit, is the fifth element that makes up the heavens beyond the gross (base) matter of the other four. There's no real analogue in D&D, though.

Well, it's not considered an elemental plane, but there's the Ethereal Plane.

Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Has there ever been an ethermancer-like class or kit? To go along with the elementalist mages of 2e?