SoT Book 6 Chapter 1 - Unshadowed Academy

SoT Masterpost

Hey folks!

Unshadowed Koride

Probably a short one today, but I wanted to flesh out the Mystery in Book 6 Chapter 1 a bit more. You can just run it as written, though I'm already kind of revamping the Influence in Chapter 1 - but what if your players disagree?

In my game, one of my players basically noped out of the social challenge early to go check in on Koride, after being very suspicious that neither she nor most of her classmates were present. The rest of the party stayed to chat, but she basically gave polite greetings (hero-pointing a failed check to do it without giving offense) and went off on her own!

I kept the focus on everyone else in the moment and finished up that encounter, but now I've got to figure out what her investigation might look like!

Foreshadowing

As I talked about last time, the PCs had like 2 weeks of downtime as they settled back in and invited people. They were pretty busy! But still, there's a chance they can catch onto some of this separately. Jatembe et. al. are not quite as aggressive about making sure Koride won't cause any trouble, and will try to shift the focus onto the upcoming ceremony, with cries of "there will be time for that later!" That being said, they won't stop the PCs, and shouldn't be too aggressive about it or the players will get suspicious.

Here's the sequence of events. 

• 2 weeks out (when the PCs arrive), Koride starts planning (still under the effects of the egg)
• 1 week out, she reaches out to the old classmates (Ignaci/Noxolo/etc.) for vague help on an upcoming project, framing it as a potential surprise for the PCs on their big day!
• She doesn't reach out to Esi, because she'll see right through it, or Tzeniwe, because she brings her kids everywhere and "those brats ruin everything." 
• Koride's misdeeds aren't public at this point unless the PCs tell everyone, so the old classmates won't suspect anything
• The egg is still being actively watched by a rotating cast of teachers
• The day of, Koride asked her former students to do final prep with her, assuring them they'd have time to make the ceremony. That obviously did not happen.
• She sent them to do their various tasks, stole the egg by teleporting in and out behind the guard in the next room's back, and hid the Protean Pavillian from the world to do her experiments.

Lastly, make sure to hit the line from Jatembe to "be humble even as you wield great power" as hard as you can, and bring it up in your session summaries (e.g. "Several of your former teachers gave stirring speeches, as did Old Mage Jatembe himself - ending with an admonishment to be humble even as you wield great power.")

Finding Koride

So, assuming that the PCs do what my Oracle did and start looking early, how can they find her?

Revalation: Koride took the students to the BARB

• Gather Information - DC 36 Diplomacy, takes 1 course of Dinner - students saw the students there (or on a Crit, Koride as well).
• Search Koride's Room - DC 36 Perception, takes 1/2 a course of Dinner - find notes that detail experiments at the BARB (or on a Crit, that the egg will be at the Pavillian, hidden by 3 flower petals)
• Search the Student's Rooms - DC 30 Perception, takes 1/2 a course of Dinner each - find notes saying they'll be meeting at the BARB to help Koride prepare a surprise for the party
• Look for the Egg - It's missing, and the Guard didn't notice! DC 38 Arcana/Occultism (with a Detect Magic/Read Aura) to notice the residue of Koride teleporting in, followed by a another DC 38 Arcana/Occultism that takes 1/2 a course of Dinner to follow it to the BARB (on a Crit on either: her Shadow is wrong - Crit on the first also gives a +2 on the second)

What do the PCs get for succeeding? Largely Time! And therefore skipping problems. After each Course of Dinner, things happen:

• 1st Course - The Pavillian is removed from the area
• 2nd Course - Chizire gets trapped (A5) (he's too anxious to call for help, yet)
• 3rd Course - Ignaci and Noxolo become imperiled (A2 and A4) (before this, they're still preparing for the final experiments)

So if the PCs get there early, they have less that they need to do! (Still give them XP Anyway)

And of course, if they do happen to start investigating before the ceremony even begins, or are extremely efficient in investigating right afterwards, they might be able to find the Pavilion before Coride pulls it away - in which case instead of a dungeon crawl, it becomes a massive romp through the city! Fewer fights, but Skill Checks to minimize casualties. (That being said, maybe not all of the Sumbreiva have been summoned! Or not all the Students are Unshadowed. And certainly they can ignore the weird plants.)

If the party tries to bring in allies to storm the Pavilion with them, something similar happens, with fewer fights for the PCs but more collateral damage as fights spill over.

Actual Play Note: In a hilarious twist of events, the player found Ignaci before he hurt himself, took too long in making sure it was safe for her to go in, and waited for the rest of the party to arrive, so I ended up running things exactly as is! Ahh well, at least she tried. Also, a panicked student that she'd sent interrupting the fancy luncheon and Jatembe basically saving the social situation while trusting the PCs to save the more dangerous one... worked out really well! That feeling of "This awesome person has our back and trusts us" was rad, and having him focus on the guests made a lot of sense to them.

Solving Problems

As always, reward clever solutions! If the PCs scout ahead and suspect the guardians, let them avoid them and give them XP anyway. If the PCs only bring in an NPC or two, let them, though probably use the Lv. 11 Tempest-Sun Mage stat block, the Lv. 12 Elite version, or the Lv. 13 Iobane Mage stat block. I think letting NPCs heal them between fights should be pretty easy, though finding someone powerful will be harder.

Note: I would not have Jatembe still be present, I'd have him be off looking - Oyamba uses Iobane Mage stats, making him level 13 just like the Mwangi Expanse book says! He doesn't think it's necessary to join the PCs, but will if they want.

If they want to bring someone more powerful, that will require time! Things will get worse or harder if they do. Less opportunity to rest, or consequences for their Unshadowed friends. This could be the Lv. 17 Mafika, or even Old Mage Jatembe, who doesn't have a stat block but will solo an encounter or two while the PCs run inside to deal with Koride.

That being said, definitely feel free to have Jatembe come help the party out if they're in dire straits - probably yelling at them to secure the egg while he deals with the rest of their foes.

I think that's it? Who knows, maybe I'll edit this post with more changes as I run, but this seems good enough for 30 minutes from now!