d20 E.N. Publishing War of the Burning Sky - The Festival of Dreams.pdf - E.N. War of the Burning Sky - R5700

War of the Burning Sky

The Festival of Dreams

An Adventure for 16th Level Characters

By Ryan Nock

Edited by Ryan Nock

Cover Art by Brandon Leach

Interior Art by Claudio Pozas

Cartography by Sean MacDonald

Layout by Eric Life-Putnam

Playtested by Theodore A. Brzinski III

Neil D’Cruze

Orinthol Jixiao

Laura Kertz

Tom Jones

Hamid Raoof

Campaign Director Ryan Nock

Special Thanks to the many people on the EN

boards who helped iron out a few of the encounters

and spells. You have them to thank if your PC gets

trapped underneath a house while ﬁ ghting a dragon.

Also to Liz, Kennon, and Liz, who provided

inspiration for some of the trillith, Kevin “Piratecat”

Kulp for making me dig on creepy psionics, and Ayn

Rand for showing up in my dreams last night. The

mouth on that woman!

Note on Rules Content: is adventure

Everything in this book, other than the covers,

the title and contents page, the illustrations and

maps, “EN Publishing,” the EN Publishing logo,

character and place names, story elements,

and EN Publishing product titles,

is designated Open Game Content.

uses Open Game Content as well as

material that is in the System Reference

Document but is not in the core rulebooks.

All the information you need to use this

EN PUBLISHING

1646 Ridge Road

Vankleek Hill, ON

Canada K0B 1R0

EN Publishing is an imprint of EN World.

Please visit http://www.enworld.org

material is presented in this adventure, but

if you are interested in learning more, search

for the System Reference Document online,

available through various sources.

e Festival of Dreams – Illustration by Brandon Leach

Table of Contents

Introduction ................................................

Background .....................................................................

Adapting the Adventure ....................................

Adventure Overview ......................................................

Power Groups.................................................................

e Rebellion ...................................................................

Shahalesti .........................................................................

Ragesian Army.................................................................

The Burning Sky .....................................................

Doom and Peril..............................................................

Act One: Call to Arms ................................

Battle Plans.....................................................................

Communication ...............................................................

Foresight ...........................................................................

e Mission ....................................................................

Scale of the Battle ...............................................

Time to Slay the Dragon................................................

Best Laid Plans ................................................................

Rantle as Guide ......................................................

Rantle as Ally.........................................................

Rantle as Rival .......................................................

e Tower of the Dragon (EL ) ...............................

Rebel Headquarters.......................................................

Arrival ..............................................................................

A Small Gift ...................................................................

e Situation..................................................................

e Plan ..........................................................................

Act Two: The Battle of Gate Pass..........

Timeline of the Battle...................................................

e Gate March...........................................................

Massive Combat ....................................................

Skulking Wraiths (EL +) ...........................................

Leadership ......................................................................

Ragesian Column (EL +) .........................................

Archery Volleys....................................................

Reinforcements (EL !)................................................

Metamorphosis ..............................................................

Styx Squadron (EL ).................................................

Battle’s End .....................................................................

Metamorphosis – Changing the Battle......

Shaaladel’s Proposal ......................................................

Shahalesti Emissary (EL ) ........................................!

Kathor, Bound to Justice..................................!

e Shining Lord...........................................................

Negotiating with the Elves (EL ).............................

School of War ...............................................................

Without the Shahalesti...................................

School Grounds.............................................................

Main Tower – Level One (CR !) ..............................

Level Two (EL ) .........................................................

Level ree (EL ) ......................................................

Level Four.......................................................................

e Ragesian General ...................................................

Terms of Surrender (EL ).........................................

The Ragesian Camp ..............................................

Nightmare Trillith ............................................!

Act Three: The Time of Dreams ..............

Traditional Festival .......................................................

e Surrender................................................................

Different Outcomes ...........................................

e Trillith Masquerade .............................................

Reading of Dreams........................................................

Herald of Dreams (EL +) ........................................

Clash of Titans (EL ) ................................................

Using Metamorphosis.........................................!

Defeating the Colossus .................................................

Conclusion ..................................................

Choosing an Ending......................................................

Appendix One: Enemies and Allies.........

e Rebellion .................................................................

e Ragesians ...............................................................

e Shahalesti................................................................

e Trillith ....................................................................

Appendix Two: New Feats .........................

Appendix Three: New Magic ....................

New Spells ....................................................................

New Items.....................................................................

e Song of Forms.........................................................

Appendix Four: Contingency...................

Shadowdrinker (EL )...............................................

Who Is Aurana? .....................................................

Open Game License Version .a ............

e Festival of Dreams

I NTRODUCTION

Welcome to e Festival of Dreams , the ninth

adventure of EN Publishing’s War of the Burning

Sky campaign saga.

is war was provoked when the Ragesian

emperor Drakus Coaltongue was assassinated.

e new empress, Leska, sent her armies against

three enemy nations, claiming she would ﬁ nd the

emperor’s assassins and avenge his death. But then

she devoted an entire army to one city, Gate Pass. At

the war’s start, the heroes ﬂ ed before the approach

of the Ragesian army, taking with them refugees and

a plea for aid. Behind them, Gate Pass was besieged,

assaulted, and magically bombarded, but even today

it remains a battleground as the local rebellion

continues the ﬁ ght against the conquerors.

Now, with allies gained from many adventures,

the heroes ﬁ nally have the strength to liberate Gate

Pass. ey must rally the local populace, defeat key

elements of the Ragesian military, and make sure

that the opportunistic Shahalesti elves do not betray

them when they are weak, all while protecting

a dream-born entity that holds the key to the

metaphorical gate for which the city is named.

Nightmares lurk below Gate Pass, and they

will celebrate their victory in the coming Festival

of Dreams.

A DAPTING THE A DVENTURE

If you plan to run The Festival of Dreams

as a standalone adventure, Gate Pass can

be any embattled city caught between two

opposing forces. You can simplify things

with the trillith, making them into nightmare

monsters summoned by the Ragesians, with

no ulterior motive.

If you run the adventure in your own

campaign, we encourage you to replace NPCs

in the resistance with ones your players will

be familiar with.

the last Trilla saw of the surface, in her nightmares

the city became a barrier that could not be passed. For

the trillith, metaphors and symbolism are as powerful

as reality, so they too were trapped, unable to escape

into the land they call the Great Above.

At ﬁ rst, some of these trillith were able to cross

the barrier during the Festival of Dreams, when the

power of the holiday’s metaphor made it easy for

the dreams to bond with human hosts. Eventually,

though, Leska discovered the trillith and traced them

back to the city. She made an alliance with some

of the trillith, pulling them through to the surface

and using them as agents in her war, and then she

bound their leaders with powerful compulsions and

unbreakable oaths. Foolishly, Leska assumed she

had controlled them.

e leaders of the trillith have one secret goal:

to turn the corporeal world into dream-stuﬀ . ey

believe that when their mother Trilla dies – as

eventually she must – they will cease to exist unless

the whole world is incorporeal, like them. While they

have pledged their lesser kin to serve Leska, once they

are free the elders will seek a way to sunder the world.

is will be one element of the ﬁ nal adventure of

the campaign saga, e Beating of the Aquiline Heart ,

but for now what matters most is that the trillith are

reinforcements for the Ragesians.

However, one of the trillith, Vigilance, defends

Gate Pass. Loyal to Trilla, his power is strong

Background

Dreams have always been a part of the history

of Gate Pass, with the annual Festival of Dreams

celebrating the spirit of a city that managed to live

together despite its divided nature. Diﬀ erent races,

nations, and religions came together in the festival

to celebrate the new year and give good wishes

toward each other, and this cosmopolitan spirit

helped Gate Pass prosper.

en a hundred years ago, during Coaltongue’s

rise to power, ﬂ eeing elves took the young gold dragon

Trilla deep underground through tunnels beneath

Gate Pass. Trilla, cursed with a power that caused

her dreams to come to life, would eventually give rise

to the trillith, strange creatures that have vexed the

heroes throughout the campaign. Since Gate Pass was

e Festival of Dreams Introduction

Adventure Overview

Warnings reach the heroes regarding a Ragesian

plot in Gate Pass, which comes at the same time

that the local rebellion is preparing a daring mission.

With the aid of the rebels the heroes are able to

enter Gate Pass, avoiding the Ragesian defenses

warding the city. ey head to a bell tower in the

central district, where after defeating its draconic

guardian Vorax-Hûl they sound the bells to call the

waiting freedom ﬁ ghters across the city to action. By

dawn the next day, nearly the entire city is coming

out to ﬁ ght the Ragesians, the citizens dressing

in costumes originally intended for the Festival of

Dreams, which was interrupted by the invasion’s

start many months ago. Before the day’s end the

Seaquen-based Resistance forces will join the battle,

and the Shahalesti will be on the way, trapping the

Ragesians in a pincer.

While the battle rages, the heroes have to

lend their might to winning control of the city for

the rebellion. ey are called upon to break the

initial advance of the Ragesian army, holding back

hundreds of soldiers, mercenaries, and wyvern-

mounted knights, and then after that grueling battle

they have a chance to negotiate with the ruler of

the Shahalesti elves, securing an alliance for the

liberation of the city.

Meanwhile, the trillith Metamorphosis contacts

the heroes, asking their help in ﬁ nding and freeing

her master, Vigilance, who will soon be executed

by the Ragesians. e search for Vigilance leads to

the ruined School of War, once run by the famed

warmage Gabal. Here the heroes run into a trap set

by the Ragesians, but if they survive they can rescue

many allies for the rebellion, and can defend Vigilance

from the imminent arrival of hostile trillith.

By the end of a day of battle, the leader of the

Ragesian forces seeks out the heroes in order to

surrender, but Leska’s representative, Legate Kolvus,

tries to stop him and assassinate Vigilance. With his

defeat, the Ragesians are free to obey their general,

and will stand down.

e next day, a massive crowd gathers in the

grand square of Summer’s Bluﬀ , at the foot of a

towering statue of the late Emperor Coaltongue, to

enough that any foray could only occur during the

Festival, and would last only as long as the holiday.

e Ragesians have managed to capture Vigilance,

and hold him captive until the trillith can come to

slay him, which will open the gates for them to enter

the surface world. Leska believes that with their

power at her command, she will be able to quell any

opposition to her.

Vigilance will be familiar with the heroes, for he

was once Indomitability, the trillith who kept the ﬁ re

forest of Innenotdar from dying (see adventure two,

e Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar ). He, and all

other trillith the heroes encounter in this adventure,

are corporeal, given solid ﬂ esh by the ambient power

of the coming festival.

Meanwhile, a more traditional war is still going

on. e Second Ragesian Army, under the command

of General Ashok Danava, succeeded in o$ cially

defeating the defenders of Gate Pass around the

time the heroes completed the third adventure,

Shelter from the Storm (which should be about four

to seven months ago), but since then the townsfolk

have not given in. Members of a local rebellion

have assassinated Ragesian commanders, destroyed

the invaders’ supplies, and continued to keep the

Ragesians from sleeping peacefully, all while evading

capture themselves. General Danava is an honorable

warrior, and so he has refused to punish civilians for

the actions of the resistance. Angered at what she

perceives as his weakness, Leska has sent a toadying

noble, Legate Kolvus, to ensure Danava does what is

necessary to get things under control.

Meanwhile, the elves of Shahalesti have

occasionally lent their aid to the resistance, since they

fear that the Ragesians seek to march on through

to Shahalesti lands. e elves’ leader, Shaaladel, is

coming himself to reinforce his warriors in the city.

Shaaladel wants to come out of this war on top, and

is ready to ally with or betray the heroes, as needed.

Shaaladel suspects Leska has some plan for the city,

but does not know what.

Finally there is the Gate Pass rebellion, who

despite the bravery of its members, is close to defeat.

e people of Gate Pass are about ready to give up,

and they need a sign that their ﬁ ght is not in vain.

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