Dead Man Walking: Behind the Screen

This one was slightly easier to prepare than the prior session. It still feels like leading the players, rather than signposting them. But the point is to get them to Acheron.

Dewcollectors: The building’s frame is covered in rolled-up sheets. Roof, eaves, everywhere. At night these are unrolled to collect dew. Most of the building is a simple warehouse of wooden barrels full of water, but there is also a workshop. The workshop is where barrels are made and dew cloths are woven/treated, but there is also a small distiller for purifying water. Sawdust on the floor

NPCs names/races are on page 30. Traits are randomly rolled from the DMG:

·        Rahn Jateliff has silver eyes with green flecks, like portals to Yggdrasil. He’s friendly and enunciates words very clearly. Rahn made the dewcollecting device found in Renik’s room.

·        Mellifli wears a lots of bracelets. She’s curious and loud.

·        Sterkad the Saved is a Tiefling. His clothes are shoddy, practically rags, and he’s ponderous and prone to predictions of doom.

The beetle hatchery is less than two hours away from Crux. Cruxers use the place as their main source of young beetles, which are trained as beasts of burden. The hatchery is a dangerous place to be in early spring, because of mating season. It’s unpleasant to be in in early summer, because the beetles hatch. The rest of the year, it’s quiet. Around the hatchery, all of Yggdrasil’s bark rises up into small mounds between 2 and 4 foot tall. There are hundreds of these mounds, though no beetles to be seen.

Whenever the players arrive at the hatchery, Kair-aama is loitering around the mounds. He’d been expecting to meet “Renik” there. At this point, a PC will spot Renik on a distant branch, and a chase should ensue. Renik – actually a visage – will use its lucidity control powers to make itself invisible, while his illusory duplicate appears to flee into a portal to Acheron. Characters are unlikely to question the illusion at this stage, so there’s no save.

The portal to Acheron is flame-red. The bark here is blackened and looks as if the branch has been unnaturally bent. There is a large, vertical branch that is completely hollow. Inside it is completely empty.

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