ONE-SHOT
The Tomb of the Sunseeker
The Scarab Necklace
A 4-Hour Adventure for 8 Level 3 Characters
Set in Tal'Dorei & Marquet - Pre-Calamity Lore
Table of Contents
Overview & Setup
Adventure Summary
This one-shot follows a crew of eight thieves as they pull off a heist at a prestigious auction gala in Emon, only to discover their stolen prize - a simple yarn ball - connects them to the legendary Sunseeker, a powerful sorcerer from the Age of Arcanum. Their mysterious handler, a talking cat named Mr. Jasper Whiskerpaw, sends them to retrieve the Scarab Necklace from a hidden tomb. They will succeed in claiming the treasure - and then they will all die.
This is a prequel tragedy. The players know from the start this is a doomed expedition. The fun is in the journey, the camaraderie, and the dramatic deaths at the end.
Before the session, tell your players: "This is a tragedy. Your characters are the adventurers who came before - the ones who found the treasure but never made it out. Lean into your characters, make connections, have fun with the heist and the puzzles. The ending is predetermined, but how you get there - and how spectacularly you die - is entirely up to you."
The Eight Heist Roles
Each player takes one of the following roles during the gala heist. Assign these based on your players' characters and preferences.
Role 1 & 2: The Servers (Pair)
Disguised as waitstaff, these two have access to the service corridors and the private display rooms. Their job is to locate the yarn ball in the artifact collection and signal its position to the team.
Role 3: The Noble
Disguised as minor nobility (or actual minor nobility), this character mingles with the guests and keeps the host, Lord Valorian, occupied during the critical extraction window.
Role 4: The Distraction
This character creates a scene - a fainting spell, a dramatic argument, a "lost child" routine - whatever draws attention away from the display room at the crucial moment.
Role 5: The Lifter
The actual thief. Quick hands, nerves of steel. They swap the yarn ball with a replica and pocket the original while everyone's distracted.
Role 6: The Lookout
Positioned near the main entrance, this character monitors guard rotations and signals warnings to the team using predetermined gestures or sounds.
Role 7 & 8: The Escape Artists (Pair)
These two manage the getaway - whether that's a carriage waiting at the servant's entrance, a window left conveniently unlatched, or a tunnel through the wine cellar. They ensure everyone gets out clean.
With 8 players, the heist should be narrative-focused rather than tactical. Go around the table, giving each player 2-3 minutes to describe their character's actions during their phase of the heist. Call for 2-3 key skill checks per character. Success means smooth execution; failure means complications that other team members must adapt to.
The heist WILL succeed - this is about character introduction and team dynamics, not whether they get the yarn ball.
Time Breakdown
- Part I - The Gilded Gala: ~60 minutes (character introductions, heist execution)
- Part II - Mr. Whiskerpaw's Revelation: ~30 minutes (lore dump, travel montage)
- Part III - The Tomb: ~2 hours (puzzles, combat, treasure)
- Part IV - The Glorious Deaths: ~30-45 minutes (dramatic deaths, epilogue)
Part I: The Gilded Gala
The Valorian Estate, Emon, Tal'Dorei - Evening
Scene 1: Opening the Session
This is your opening. Read the following narration slowly, let it breathe. Set the tone - mysterious, intriguing, with just a hint of something darker beneath the surface. Don't explain. Don't spoil. Let them wonder.
Every story has an ending.
Some endings are happy - the hero returns home, the lovers reunite, the kingdom is saved. Some endings are bittersweet - victory, but at a cost. And some endings...
Some endings are simply endings.
Tonight, we tell a story. A story of adventure, of treasure, of friendship forged in the heat of danger. A story of eight souls who dared to reach for something extraordinary.
This is their story.
Remember them.
Pause. Let that land. Then shift your tone - lighter, more energetic. The fun begins.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Stories don't start at the ending. They start at the beginning.
And this story begins - as so many do - with a party.
Scene 2: The Valorian Estate
The city of Emon. Jewel of Tal'Dorei. Home to the Council of Tal'Dorei, the Alabaster Lyceum, and more wealth than most people see in a lifetime. Tonight, that wealth is on full display at the Valorian Estate - a three-story monument to one man's ego, built on old money and older secrets.
Lord Aldric Valorian is hosting his annual Autumn Antiquities Gala - officially, a preview of the rare artifacts going to auction tomorrow morning. Unofficially, an opportunity for the lord to parade his collection before Emon's elite and remind everyone exactly how much richer he is than them.
The manor itself is impressive, if you're impressed by such things. Three floors of marble and mahogany, each more ostentatious than the last.
The ground floor houses the kitchens, servant quarters, and a grand foyer where guests shed their cloaks before ascending. Two sweeping staircases - one on each side of the foyer - curve upward to the second floor, where tonight's festivities are in full swing.
The second floor is the heart of the gala. The Great Hall stretches nearly the length of the manor - high ceilings painted with scenes of conquest and commerce, crystal chandeliers casting everything in warm, flattering light. Champagne tables are scattered throughout, attended by servants in crisp uniforms. Guests in their finest silks and velvets mingle between displays of sculpture and painting, their laughter echoing off the marble floors.
To the right of the Great Hall, a set of ornate double doors leads to Lord Valorian's private collection room. Two guards in polished armor stand at attention before those doors - not the decorative house guards scattered throughout the party, but actual soldiers. Alert. Watchful. The doors remain closed except when Lord Valorian himself leads a tour group inside to show off his most prized acquisitions.
Inside that room - you've been told - are shelves upon shelves of rare artifacts. Relics from the Age of Arcanum. Weapons from forgotten wars. Curiosities from distant lands. And among them, displayed on a velvet pillow behind enchanted glass, sits an unassuming ball of golden yarn.
That yarn ball is why you're here.
The third floor is private - Lord Valorian's personal chambers, off-limits to guests. The two staircases continue upward, but a velvet rope and a polite servant ensure no one "accidentally" wanders up.
Currently, the string quartet positioned near the north windows is playing something light and forgettable - pleasant background music for pleasant background conversation. In approximately twenty minutes, they'll pause briefly, then begin their second set with a melancholy piece called "The Lover's Lament."
That's your signal. When that song begins, the heist starts in earnest.
But first - everyone has a job to do. A role to play. A piece to set in motion before the real game begins.
Let's meet the crew.
Scene 3: Meeting the Crew
Go through each role one at a time. For each:
1. Read the setup narration placing them in the scene
2. Ask the assigned player(s) to describe their character
3. Describe their prerequisite task
4. Call for the skill check(s)
5. Narrate the outcome, then move to the next role
This should feel like a montage - cutting between different parts of the party as each team member gets into position. Build momentum toward the heist.
The Servers
We begin in the Great Hall, where the champagne flows and the conversation sparkles.
Player 1 and Player 2 - you've been working the floor for the past hour, silver trays balanced perfectly, champagne flutes replaced before they're empty. The servant's uniform fits well enough, and you've memorized the layout from the servant's entrance to every corridor on this floor. Your job tonight has been keeping the pathways clear - making sure certain doors stay unlocked, certain routes stay open for your companions.
Right now, you're passing through the crowd near the east champagne table, trays in hand. Lord Valorian just finished his latest tour of the collection room - the guests are filtering back out, champagne in hand, chattering about the "magnificent acquisitions." The room is momentarily empty.
Player 1 - describe your character. What do you look like? How are you carrying yourself tonight?
Let Player 1 describe their character.
Player 2 - same question. Who are we looking at?
Let Player 2 describe their character.
Perfect. Now - before the heist proper begins, you two have a crucial task. The yarn ball sits in an enchanted display case - locked, warded, impossible to open without the key. But servants go in and out of that room all the time, refreshing candles, adjusting displays. You have a window right now to slip in, unlock that case, and slip back out before the next tour begins.
There's just one problem. A footman is stationed at the collection room entrance - not a guard, but observant. Too observant. Someone needs to distract him while you work.
The Distraction team is in position. On your signal, they'll draw the footman away. You'll have maybe sixty seconds inside.
Stealth DC 12Slip into the collection room while the footman is distracted.
Thieves' Tools DC 13 or Sleight of Hand DC 14Unlock the display case without triggering the ward.
On success: The case clicks open silently. They leave it closed but unlocked - to a casual glance, nothing has changed. The yarn ball sits on its velvet pillow, waiting. They confirm the location: third shelf from the left, near the window. They're ready.
On failure: The footman returns too quickly, or the lock proves stubborn. They get it done, but they're spotted leaving the room. "Just refreshing the candles, sir." Now someone's suspicious. The actual swap will need to be cleaner.
The Noble
Meanwhile, in the thick of the social scene...
Player 3 - you move through the crowd like you belong here. Maybe you do. Maybe you're minor nobility fallen on hard times. Maybe you're a con artist with forged papers and borrowed finery. Either way, tonight you're playing the part of someone who matters - someone Lord Valorian would want to impress.
You've positioned yourself near the collection room doors, nursing a glass of wine you haven't actually drunk. Lord Valorian is nearby, holding court with a cluster of admirers, gesturing grandly as he describes some ancient sword he acquired last spring.
In a few minutes, he'll start another tour of his collection. When that happens, you need to be on it. More importantly, you need to keep him talking - keep his attention on you, on your questions, on his own magnificent ego - so he doesn't notice anything amiss.
Player 3 - describe your character. What noble persona are you wearing tonight? How do you carry yourself among these people?
Let Player 3 describe their character.
Your first task: get Lord Valorian's attention. Make yourself memorable. Make yourself someone he wants to impress. The next tour group is forming - you need to be on his radar before then.
Persuasion DC 12 or Performance DC 13Catch Lord Valorian's attention and earn a place on the next tour.
Lord Valorian: "Ah! A fellow connoisseur, I see! You have excellent taste - that piece is from the Scattered War, you know. But if you think THAT'S impressive, wait until you see my private collection. I'm giving a small tour shortly - you simply must join us."
On success: Lord Valorian is charmed. They're in the next tour group - and they've established themselves as someone worth talking to. Perfect positioning.
On failure: Lord Valorian is polite but dismissive. They'll get on the tour, but they haven't made an impression. They'll need to work harder during the heist to keep his attention.
The Distraction
Near the champagne tables, someone is waiting for their moment to shine.
Player 4 - you're the wildcard. The chaos agent. When things need to go sideways, you make them go sideways. Tonight, your job is simple: when the signal comes, create a scene so spectacular that every eye in the room turns to you instead of the collection room doors.
But the best distractions need setup. You've been working the room, identifying the best location for your performance, the guests most likely to amplify the chaos, the servants most likely to panic. You've also been nursing a glass of champagne and keeping an eye on a particular noble - Lord Pemberton, a notoriously pompous man with a notoriously short temper and a notoriously unfaithful wife.
He could be useful. Very useful.
Player 4 - describe your character. How do you look tonight? Are you blending in, or already drawing glances?
Let Player 4 describe their character.
Your setup task: plant the seeds of chaos. Maybe you whisper something inflammatory to Lord Pemberton about his wife. Maybe you loosen the leg of a champagne table. Maybe you befriend the most dramatic guest in the room so they'll back your play later. What's your angle?
Deception DC 12 or Persuasion DC 13Set up your distraction - whatever form it takes.
On success: The trap is set. When they trigger their distraction later, it will be spectacular.
On failure: Something goes slightly wrong - maybe they're too obvious, maybe someone overheard. The distraction will still work, but it might draw suspicion afterward.
The Lifter
In the shadows between conversations, the most important member of the crew waits.
Player 5 - you're the one who actually takes the prize. Quick hands. Steady nerves. You've done this a hundred times - slipped wallets, lifted jewels, swapped genuine articles for clever fakes. But tonight's job is bigger. Tonight's target is in a guarded room, surrounded by nobility.
You're currently positioned near the collection room doors, pretending to admire a painting while actually studying the guards' posture, the door's hinges, the timing of Lord Valorian's tours. In your pocket, you carry the replica - a ball of mundane yarn wrapped in gold-painted thread. Close enough to fool a casual glance. Close enough to buy time.
Player 5 - describe your character. What kind of thief are we looking at? Flashy? Subtle? Dangerous?
Let Player 5 describe their character.
The Servers have done their part - the display case is unlocked, waiting for you. All you need to do is get into that room during the next tour, make the swap while everyone's distracted by Lord Valorian's endless bragging, and walk out with the prize.
But first, you need to confirm your entry. Lord Valorian is selective about who joins his tours - he wants an audience that will properly appreciate his magnificence. You need to be on that list, or you need another way in.
Deception DC 12 or Persuasion DC 13Talk your way onto the next tour, or find an alternative entry.
On success: They're in. Lord Valorian himself nods approvingly at their "refined taste." They'll be in perfect position when the signal comes.
On failure: They can't get on the tour directly. They'll need to slip in during the chaos of the Distraction - riskier, but still doable. The swap will happen, just with more pressure.
The Lookout
Near the main staircase, someone watches everything.
Player 6 - you're the eyes of this operation. From your position, you can see the guards by the collection room, the servants moving through the crowd, the stairways up and down. You've been tracking patrol patterns, noting shift changes, identifying the guards who are attentive and the ones who are bored.
You've also established a system of signals with the rest of the crew. A raised glass means "proceed." A cough means "hold." Adjusting your collar means "abort." Simple. Effective. Invisible to anyone not looking for it.
Player 6 - describe your character. What do you look like? How are you blending into this crowd while watching everything?
Let Player 6 describe their character.
Your setup task: map the guard rotations and identify the optimal window. When do the collection room guards change? Is there a gap? What about the servants - any patterns there?
Perception DC 12Track guard movements and identify the optimal extraction window.
Insight DC 11Identify which guards are alert and which are going through the motions.
On success: They've got it mapped. There's a 90-second window when the guards change shifts - that's when the team moves. They also note that the younger guard is more alert; the older one checks his pocket watch constantly. Good intel.
On failure: The patterns are harder to read than expected. They have a general sense of timing, but no guarantees. The team will need to adapt if something unexpected happens.
The Escape Artists
Finally, in the places no one looks - the servant's entrance, the garden shadows, the carriage house - two figures ensure the getaway is ready.
Player 7 and Player 8 - you're the exit strategy. When the job is done, you're the ones who make sure everyone gets out clean. You've been moving between the ground floor and the gardens, checking escape routes, bribing the right servants, making sure the carriage waiting two streets over stays exactly where it should be.
Right now, you're near the servant's entrance on the ground floor, confirming the final details. The door to the garden is supposed to be unlocked. The hedge maze provides cover from the windows. The wall at the garden's edge has a loose section you identified during your scouting.
Player 7 - describe your character. How do you move through spaces like this?
Let Player 7 describe their character.
Player 8 - same question. Who's your partner in escape?
Let Player 8 describe their character.
As you slip through the garden shadows, checking sightlines, you pass near the fountain where two obviously drunk nobles are swaying together, their voices carrying further than they realize.
Drunk Noble 1: "I'm telling you, Bartleby, I saw it with my own eyes. A talking cat. Had a whole conversation with Lord Westbrook's butler last month."
Drunk Noble 2: "You're absolutely foxed, Montague. Cats don't talk. It's physically impossible. The vocal cords alone-"
Drunk Noble 1: "I know what I saw! Orange tabby. Sat right on the desk, asked about shipping manifests. Very polite about it, too. Said 'please' and everything."
Drunk Noble 2: "And I suppose this cat also filed taxes and wrote poetry?"
Drunk Noble 1: "Don't be ridiculous, Bartleby. Cats can't write. No thumbs."
Strange conversation. You file it away and keep moving - you have a job to do.
Your setup task: confirm the escape route is clear and ready. The garden door, the hedge cover, the wall section. And there's one complication - a groundskeeper who's been doing rounds in the garden. You need him elsewhere when the team comes through.
Stealth DC 11Check the escape route without being spotted.
Deception DC 12 or Persuasion DC 12Convince the groundskeeper to be elsewhere - a fake emergency, a bribe, a distraction.
On success: The route is clear. The groundskeeper has been sent to check on "a noise near the front gate." The team will have a clean exit.
On failure: The groundskeeper is suspicious. He'll be in the garden during the escape, and they'll need to move fast and quiet to avoid him.
Scene 4: The Heist Begins
The pieces are in place. The doors are unlocked. The routes are clear. The target is confirmed. Every member of the crew is exactly where they need to be.
The string quartet finishes their piece. Polite applause ripples through the Great Hall. The musicians set down their instruments, reach for water glasses. The murmur of conversation swells to fill the silence.
A moment passes.
Then - the opening notes of "The Lover's Lament." A mournful violin. A gentle cello. The melody is beautiful. Melancholy. The kind of music that makes people think of lost loves and missed chances.
It's time.
Now the heist happens in earnest. Go through quickly - this should feel like a montage of competence. Each player already made their setup rolls; now describe how their preparation pays off.
Keep the energy up. Quick cuts between scenes. Building tension. The heist WILL succeed - but make it feel earned.
Key moments to narrate:
1. Lord Valorian leading the tour, the Noble keeping him engaged
2. The Distraction creating chaos at the perfect moment
3. The Lifter making the swap - describe the yarn ball feeling strangely warm
4. The Lookout signaling the all-clear
5. The Servers holding doors, clearing paths
6. The Escape Artists guiding everyone out
No additional rolls needed unless something went badly wrong in setup.
The Swap
Inside the collection room, Lord Valorian gestures expansively at a jeweled dagger. The tour group murmurs appreciatively. The Noble asks a pointed question about provenance, and Lord Valorian launches into an extended story about an auction in Vasselheim.
No one notices the Lifter drift toward the third shelf from the left.
The display case is already unlocked - the Servers did their job perfectly. It opens silently. Quick hands reach in. The yarn ball is lifted - and for just a moment, the Lifter feels it. A pulse. A warmth. Like holding something alive.
The replica goes in. The case closes. The Lifter drifts back toward the tour group as Lord Valorian describes the "fascinating history" of a chamber pot supposedly used by a king.
No one notices a thing.
The Exit
The Distraction triggers. Whatever chaos was planned - it works. Heads turn. Gasps echo. Servants rush to contain the situation. In the confusion, figures slip away - through service corridors, through unlocked doors, through the garden and over the wall.
The Escape Artists are waiting on the other side, crouched in the shadows of a narrow alley. A carriage sits at the far end, horses stamping impatiently, the driver keeping his eyes forward and his questions to himself.
One by one, you arrive. The Noble tears off a wig, stuffing it into a satchel. The Servers strip their borrowed uniforms, revealing traveling clothes beneath. The Lifter produces the yarn ball - that strange warmth still radiating through their fingers - and tucks it safely into a lined pocket.
Eight souls pile into a carriage meant for six. It's cramped. It's uncomfortable. And everyone is grinning like fools.
The driver flicks the reins. The wheels begin to turn. Behind you, the Valorian Estate continues its gala, completely unaware that anything is amiss.
Let the players have this moment. They just pulled off a heist! Let them joke about close calls, compliment each other's performances, tease whoever almost got caught. This is bonding time - these characters like each other, trust each other. Build that connection before the tomb.
The Carriage Ride
The carriage rattles through Emon's cobblestone streets, leaving the wealthy district behind. The grand estates give way to merchant quarters, then to the industrial sprawl near the river, and finally to the Cloudspire District - where the skyport dominates the horizon.
Through the carriage windows, you watch airships drift overhead - great wooden vessels suspended by arcane engines, their running lights twinkling like low-hanging stars. The air here smells of coal smoke, engine grease, and adventure.
The driver pulls to a stop on a quiet street. "Brass Compass," he grunts, not turning around. "End of the line."
You pile out into the cool night air. The carriage is already pulling away before the last of you has both feet on the ground - the driver wants no part of whatever comes next.
Scene 5: The Rendezvous
The Brass Compass sits in the shadow of the Emon skyport, its windows glowing with warm light. A painted sign depicts a compass rose with an airship at its center. Through the windows, you can see the common room is busy - airship crews, merchants, travelers of all kinds. The sort of place where questions aren't asked and answers aren't offered.
Inside, the smell of pipe smoke and spilled ale hangs thick in the air. A half-orc woman with a mechanical arm tends the bar. She looks up as you enter, takes in your group with a practiced eye, and nods toward the stairs.
Barkeep: "Private room. End of the hall. Your... associate... is waiting."
She pauses, polishing a glass.
Barkeep: "Interesting fellow, that one."
The upstairs hallway is quieter, the noise from below muffled by thick floorboards. The door at the end is slightly ajar. Warm candlelight spills through the gap. You can hear... purring?
You push open the door.
The private room is small but comfortable - a round table, several chairs, a window overlooking the skyport where airships bob at anchor like slumbering whales. On the table sits a half-empty saucer of cream, a map of Exandria, and several stacks of gold coins.
Sitting primly in the center of the table, tail wrapped around his paws, is an orange tabby cat.
The cat looks up at you with bright green eyes. He blinks slowly - once, twice.
Part II: Mr. Whiskerpaw's Revelation
The Brass Compass Tavern, Private Room - Late Night
Scene 1: Meeting the Handler
Mr. Jasper Whiskerpaw: "Ah, you're here. Wonderful. Please, sit. I trust the gala went smoothly? No complications? Good, good. I do hate complications. They're so... inconvenient."
The cat's voice is warm, cultured, and utterly matter-of-fact - as if talking cats are the most normal thing in the world and you're the strange ones for looking surprised.
Mr. Whiskerpaw: "The yarn ball, if you please. You may place it on the table. Gently - it's older than it looks."
Mr. Whiskerpaw is eccentric in a very specific way - he treats his ability to talk as completely mundane and unremarkable. If players express surprise, he responds as if they're being slightly rude. "Yes, I'm a cat. Yes, I can speak. Is that relevant to the matter at hand?" He's polite, businesslike, and occasionally lets slip something that hints at centuries of existence - then immediately moves on as if it was nothing.
When the yarn ball is placed on the table, Mr. Whiskerpaw's demeanor shifts - just for a moment. His eyes soften. One paw reaches out, almost reverently, to touch the golden thread.
Mr. Whiskerpaw: "Hello, old friend. It's been... a very long time."
The moment passes. Mr. Whiskerpaw's professional composure returns.
Mr. Whiskerpaw: "My apologies. Sentimentality. Now then - your payment, as promised."
He pushes the gold stacks toward the party with his paw.
Mr. Whiskerpaw: "Two hundred gold, split as you see fit. However..." He pauses, cleaning one paw with studied casualness. "I find myself in need of... additional services. More dangerous. Significantly more lucrative. If you're interested, I can explain. If not, we part ways here, no hard feelings. Cats aren't built for holding grudges. Takes too much energy better spent on naps."
Scene 2: The Sunseeker's Legend
When the party expresses interest (and they will), Mr. Whiskerpaw settles more comfortably on the table, his tail swishing slowly.
Mr. Whiskerpaw: "What do you know about the Age of Arcanum? The time before the Calamity, when mortals wielded magic that could reshape continents?"
He doesn't wait for an answer. His eyes grow distant, as if remembering something from long ago.
Mr. Whiskerpaw: "There was a sorcerer. They called him the Sunseeker - a title, not a name. He specialized in sand magic, earth magic, the magic of deserts and ancient places. He was also, not coincidentally, the greatest tomb raider of his age. Ironic, really - spending one's life plundering the dead, only to be buried oneself.
"His mastery of sand and stone magic made him legendary. It was said he could walk through walls of solid rock, call sandstorms from clear skies, and command the very earth to reveal its buried secrets.
"But his greatest creation was the Scarab Necklace - an artifact of immense power that granted dominion over sand and stone. The necklace alone held tremendous magic, but its full potential could only be unlocked by seven fragments - crystallized keys of power that he scattered across the world.
"A prophecy warned that reuniting the necklace with all seven fragments would bring great destruction. He took that seriously. Most prophecies are nonsense, but this one..."
His whiskers twitch.
"Well. Better safe than sorry, as they say. So he hid them. The necklace in one tomb. The seven fragments in seven others, scattered across Exandria and beyond. He spent his final years constructing elaborate trials to protect each piece, then sealed himself away with his secrets.
"Of the seven fragment tombs, only one has ever been found. A century ago, an explorer named Ashby Hillingham discovered a tomb in Wildemount. He emerged with a single fragment and became obscenely wealthy - the fragments alone hold considerable power, you see. That fragment supposedly sits in some noble's private collection now, gathering dust.
"But the necklace itself - the Scarab Necklace, the heart of the Sunseeker's power - has never been found. Until now.
"I know where it is. In the wastes beyond Bassuras. I know because..."
He hesitates - the first uncertainty he's shown.
"Because I remember it being built. In a manner of speaking."
If pressed on this, Mr. Whiskerpaw deflects.
Mr. Whiskerpaw: "Ancient history. Not relevant. What IS relevant is that inside that tomb is the Scarab Necklace itself - and I want you to retrieve it for me. One thousand gold pieces. Each. Plus whatever other treasures you find - the Sunseeker was a collector, after all. His tombs are famously laden with riches.
"I've arranged transport. An airship leaves at dawn - the captain owes me a favor. Several favors, actually. Cats have long memories for debts. You'll be in Marquet within a week."
The Sunseeker: Age of Arcanum sorcerer, master of sand/stone magic, legendary tomb raider.
The Scarab Necklace: Artifact granting dominion over sand and stone. Holds power on its own, but full potential requires seven fragments.
The Fragments: Seven crystallized keys hidden in seven separate tombs. Reuniting all seven with the necklace = prophesied destruction.
Known History: Only one fragment tomb has been found (by Ashby Hillingham, a century ago). The necklace itself has never been recovered - until now.
If players ask why Mr. Whiskerpaw wants the necklace: "Sentimental reasons. And practical ones. Best not to leave such things lying around."
If players ask about the yarn ball: "It was... someone's. Someone who mattered. That's all you need to know."
If players ask if Mr. Whiskerpaw is the Sunseeker's familiar: He stares at them for a long moment, then says, "What an interesting theory," and changes the subject.
If players ask about dangers: "It's a tomb designed by a paranoid archmage to protect his greatest treasure. There will be traps. There may be guardians. I trust you can handle it - you handled tonight well enough."
Scene 3: The Journey
Dawn breaks over Emon's skyport. The airship Windchaser creaks at her moorings - a sturdy vessel with patched sails and a crew who asks no questions. Captain Thessa, a weathered half-elf with silver hair and knowing eyes, greets you at the gangplank.
Captain Thessa: "Mr. Whiskerpaw's friends, eh? That cat's gotten me out of more scrapes than I can count. Welcome aboard. Stay out of the rigging, don't bother the navigator, and we'll get along fine."
The journey takes six days. The Windchaser crosses the Lucidian Ocean, leaving Tal'Dorei behind as the landscape below shifts and changes. The verdant coast of Marquet appears on the horizon, then gives way to golden desert, then to the harsh expanse of the Hellcatch Valley.
Use this time for character development. Ask each player:
"During the six-day voyage, what does your character do to pass the time? Who do they spend time with? What conversations happen?"
This is their last chance to deepen relationships before the tomb. Make it count.
Bassuras has no skyport - the weather in the Hellcatch Valley is too treacherous for regular airship traffic. Captain Thessa sets the Windchaser down on a rocky plateau a mile outside the city walls, wishes you luck, and lifts off again before the local crawler gangs take too much interest.
Bassuras sprawls before you - a city built on a massive plateau, surrounded by tall stone walls and the ramshackle sprawl of the Carmine Skids beyond. Metal cisterns tower above rooftops, collecting precious water. The Tahdiq Glow - a tall tower with a greenish spotlight - marks the city center.
You enter through the Carmine Wall and resupply quickly - waterskins, rations, rope. The merchants don't ask questions. In Bassuras, nobody asks questions.
Into the Wastes
Dawn comes early. You set out across the wastes as the sun climbs, following Mr. Whiskerpaw's map toward a stone formation called the Scarab's Claw - five fingers of rock reaching toward the sky.
Three hours of trudging through sand later, you find it. The Scarab's Claw rises from the dunes like a giant stone hand grasping at the heavens. Five weathered pillars of sandstone, each thirty feet tall, arranged in a rough semicircle. Centuries of wind have carved them smooth, but you can still make out faint hieroglyphs spiraling up their surfaces.
But there's no entrance. No door. Just sand stretching between the stone fingers, undisturbed for what looks like centuries.
According to the map, the tomb should be here. Right here. But there's nothing except rock and sand and the endless blue sky.
Investigation DC 13: Notice that three of the pillars have small indentations at eye level - scarab-shaped, about the size of a palm.
History or Arcana DC 12: Recall that the Sunseeker was known for hidden entrances that required specific activation.
The solution: Press all three scarab indentations simultaneously. This requires coordination - three characters must press at the same time.
Examining the pillars more closely, you notice something - three of the five columns have small indentations carved into their surfaces. Scarab-shaped, about the size of a palm, smooth from age but unmistakably intentional.
When players press all three simultaneously:
The moment all three indentations are pressed, the ground begins to shake. Sand cascades away from the center of the formation, pouring into some unseen void below. A grinding of ancient stone echoes across the wastes.
Before your eyes, stairs rise from beneath the sand - weathered stone steps ascending from the depths, pushing through the dunes like a creature emerging from hibernation. The stairs climb to a stone platform, and at its center, a doorway stands revealed. Flanked by carved scarabs with amber eyes, the entrance to the Sunseeker's tomb yawns open before you.
Above the door, in script that seems to shimmer, words appear in whatever language each of you speaks best:
"Those who seek the sun's treasure must prove themselves worthy of its fire. Turn back now, or face the trials within."
Cool air drifts from within, carrying the scent of dust and ancient stone. And something else - something faintly sweet, like honey left too long in the sun.
You feel something. Anticipation. Excitement. The promise of unimaginable treasure.
You have no way of knowing that you will never see Bassuras again.
Part III: The Tomb
The Sunseeker's Tomb, Hellcatch Valley - Midday
Scene 1: The Outer Sanctum
This is the point of no return. Let the players prepare, distribute supplies, discuss strategy. The tomb is dangerous but exciting - they're adventurers, after all. They live for this.
The entrance descends into darkness. Ancient stairs, worn smooth by time, spiral downward into the earth. The walls are smooth sandstone, covered in hieroglyphs depicting a robed figure commanding sand and stone, building great monuments, and finally lying in state surrounded by treasure.
But something is wrong. The dust on the stairs has been disturbed. Footprints - many of them, heading down. And as you descend, you begin to see signs of passage: a discarded torch, a frayed rope, scrape marks on the walls.
Someone has been here before you.
The Cleared Chambers
The outer sanctum is a series of three chambers, each clearly designed as a trial for intruders. But the trials have already been solved.
The first chamber - a hall of mirrors - lies shattered. Every reflective surface has been smashed, glass crunching beneath your boots. Dark stains mark some of the frames.
The second chamber held some kind of sand mechanism - you can see the channels in the floor, the pressure plates, the drainage holes. Whatever deadly trap once waited here has been triggered and spent.
The third chamber spans a vast chasm. A bridge of solidified light stretches across - still glowing faintly, activated by whoever came before. Inscriptions on the walls speak of the Sunseeker's birth name, but someone has deliberately scratched it out - gouged deep into the stone, as if to erase it from history.
Beyond the bridge, a final corridor leads deeper into the tomb. And there, slumped against the wall just past the threshold, you find them.
The Previous Expedition
Two skeletons. One lies face-down in the corridor, reaching back toward the bridge as if trying to flee. The other sits against the wall, a leather journal clutched in bony fingers. Both are riddled with holes - tiny punctures in the armor, in the bones themselves.
Looking up, you see the source: dozens of small holes in the walls, now empty. A dart trap, long since spent. Whatever poison coated those darts killed these explorers - but the mechanism has nothing left to fire.
The way forward is clear.
Day 3 of the Expedition: We've breached the outer sanctum. The Sunseeker was paranoid beyond reason - three chambers of trials before we even reached the inner tomb. The first was a hall of mirrors that showed your deepest fears. Meren couldn't stop screaming. We had to drag him through.
Day 5: Second chamber solved. A room of sand that rose to drown us unless we found the hidden pressure plates in the correct sequence. The inscriptions spoke of the Sunseeker's early life - how he discovered his gift for sand magic as a child, how the desert "spoke" to him. He believed he was chosen.
Day 7: Third chamber. A bridge of light that only appeared when we spoke the Sunseeker's true name - not his title, but his birth name. We found it carved in the walls of the second chamber, hidden in the decorative script. Strange - someone had tried to scratch it out, but Kelara could still read it. When she spoke it aloud, the bridge blazed into existence. We've reached the inner sanctum.
Day 8: The inner tomb is magnificent. A long corridor lined with statues - jackal-headed guardians that watch but do not move. Three doors marked with symbols. And at the far end, a massive golden door with three keyholes. This is where the necklace waits. I can feel it.
Day 9: The inscriptions here speak of the necklace differently than the outer chambers. The Sunseeker feared his own creation. "It whispers to those who wear it," he wrote. "It promises power. It delivers madness." He scattered the seven fragments not to protect them - but to keep them away from the necklace. Apart, they are merely powerful. Together...
Day 9, Later: Something is wrong. We triggered something in the corridor. Poison darts. Meren is dead. Kelara took one in the shoulder - she says she's fine but her veins are turning black. I'm going back to find an antidote in the outer chambers. There must be
The writing trails off. Dark stains mark the final page.
This journal explains why the outer tomb is already cleared:
1. A previous expedition solved the first three chambers (mirror hall, sand room, light bridge)
2. They reached the inner sanctum but triggered the dart trap in the corridor
3. The trap is now spent - our party can pass safely
4. New lore: The Sunseeker's birth name was deliberately scratched out - someone wanted it forgotten. He feared the necklace. The fragments were scattered to keep them AWAY from it.
5. Kelara may be found deeper in the tomb - she went on alone with poison in her veins. Her body could be in one of the puzzle chambers.
Scene 2: The Inner Sanctum
Beyond the spent trap, you enter the inner sanctum proper. The architecture shifts - grander, more elaborate. The hieroglyphs here are inlaid with gold. The air smells of dust and something faintly sweet, like honey left too long in the sun.
A long corridor stretches before you, perhaps a hundred feet to the far end. The floor tiles are decorated with the Sunseeker's symbol - a scarab beetle holding a golden sun disc. The pattern repeats endlessly down the hall.
At the far end, a massive stone door - sealed tight, covered in golden filigree that glimmers even in the dim light. Three keyholes are visible even from here, arranged in a triangular pattern.
Along the corridor's length, you count three doorways - two on the left, one on the right. Each is marked with different symbols: a feather, waves, and a scarab holding a puzzle piece.
The main corridor contains dormant sand construct statues - describe them as decorative guardians lining the walls, four in total. They will NOT activate until all three keys are placed in the main door.
The three puzzle chambers can be done in any order:
• Right door (feather symbol): The Acrobatic Gauntlet
• Left door 1 (wave symbol): The Flooded Pipes
• Left door 2 (puzzle symbol): The Scarab Puzzle
Each chamber contains a sarcophagus with rewards AND a key piece needed to open the main door.
Lining the corridor walls, standing at attention like an honor guard, are four statues carved from golden sandstone. Each depicts a humanoid figure with the head of a jackal, wielding a curved khopesh sword. They are beautiful. They are unsettling. And as your torchlight passes over them, you could swear their eyes follow your movement.
But they don't move. They're just statues. Just stone.
For now.
Scene 3: The Acrobatic Gauntlet
Right Door - Feather Symbol
The feather-marked door opens into chaos.
A vast chamber stretches before you - at least sixty feet long and forty feet wide. The floor has fallen away entirely, replaced by dark water that churns with movement. Things slither beneath the surface - you catch glimpses of scaled coils, fangs, shapes that could be snakes or something worse.
The only way across: a series of stone platforms suspended by ancient chains, swaying gently with some unfelt breeze. But that's not the challenge.
Between each platform, massive bronze halberds swing in pendulum arcs - their blades still razor-sharp after centuries, catching what little light reaches them. The timing is almost rhythmic, almost predictable. Almost.
And in the center of the room, mounted on a central pillar, a wooden fan-like mechanism rotates slowly. Its arms extend over multiple platforms - anyone attempting to cross will need to time their jumps not just around the halberds, but around the spinning obstruction that could knock them into the waters below.
On the far side, beyond the final platform, you can see it - a stone sarcophagus resting on a raised dais. Something glints on its lid.
The Challenge: Cross five platforms to reach the sarcophagus. Each platform transition requires checks.
Platform 1 to 2: DC 10 Acrobatics (timing the first halberd)
Platform 2 to 3: DC 12 Acrobatics (halberd + spinning fan)
Platform 3 to 4: DC 13 Acrobatics (double halberd swing)
Platform 4 to 5: DC 11 Acrobatics (single halberd, fan has passed)
On Failure: DC 12 Dexterity save to grab the platform edge. Failure means falling into the water - 1d6 poison damage from snake bites, DC 12 Athletics to climb out.
Alternative Approaches: Players can use creative solutions - ropes, magic, distractions. Reward creativity with advantage or reduced DCs.
This room should feel tense but manageable. Not everyone needs to cross - some characters might use ranged abilities or creative solutions. Let the athletic characters shine.
If someone falls into the water, describe it dramatically - the churning mass of serpents, the desperate swim for a platform edge - but don't kill anyone here. Save the deaths for the finale.
The First Sarcophagus
The sarcophagus is carved from white marble, its lid depicting a figure in flowing robes - perhaps a priest or scholar. In the figure's carved hands rests a real object: a bronze rod shaped like a cobra, its eyes set with tiny rubies.
When opened, the sarcophagus contains:
- The Cobra Key - One of three keys needed for the main door (bronze rod shaped like a coiled cobra)
- Potion of Healing (x2)
- 75 gold pieces in ancient Marquetian coins
- Gloves of Swimming and Climbing - Useful for later challenges
- A scroll describing the Sunseeker's fears: "The necklace calls to those who wear it. It whispers of power, of dominion. Even without the fragments, it hungers. I was wise to hide it deepest of all."
The Shortcut
As you claim the Cobra Key, you hear a grinding of stone behind the sarcophagus. A section of wall slides aside, revealing a narrow passage that leads back to the main corridor - a shortcut that bypasses the gauntlet entirely.
This door only opens from inside the chamber. It allows the party to exit without crossing the gauntlet again, and provides an alternative route during the escape sequence later.
Scene 4: The Flooded Pipes
Left Door 1 - Wave Symbol
The wave-marked door opens onto a chamber filled with the sound of rushing water. No - rushing something. The liquid that flows through the elaborate pipe system covering the walls glows a sickly green and steams slightly where it contacts the air.
The chamber is roughly square, forty feet to a side. The floor is submerged beneath two feet of the same green liquid - acid, by the smell of it. Raised walkways of stone, barely a foot wide, run along the walls. In the center of the room, surrounded by acid, sits a sarcophagus on a stone island.
The pipe system is complex - dozens of bronze tubes running along the walls, through the ceiling, disappearing into the acid below. Some pipes are clearly corroded, others seem functional. The acid level is maintained by a continuous flow from above.
On each of the two side walls, mounted at chest height, are two large bronze levers. Four levers total. Each is currently in the "up" position.
Above the entrance, etched into the stone, is a diagram - a schematic of the pipe system showing how the levers connect to various flow gates. Some of the diagram has been worn away by time, but enough remains to provide clues.
Goal: Drain the acid to reach the sarcophagus safely.
The Four Levers:
• Lever A (left wall, near door): Controls the main intake valve
• Lever B (left wall, far side): Controls the secondary drain
• Lever C (right wall, near door): Controls the reservoir release
• Lever D (right wall, far side): Controls the main drain
Solution: Pull A DOWN, leave B UP, pull C DOWN, pull D DOWN
Wrong combinations: Various effects - acid level rises, sprays from pipes, etc. Nothing fatal but punishing (1d4 acid damage from spray, DC 12 Dex save to avoid).
You mentioned having an AI HTML riddle for this - you can incorporate it here. The wall diagram can serve as the interface the players study to solve the puzzle.
Alternatively, let players experiment with the levers through trial and error. Each wrong combination should have consequences but not be deadly.
The Second Sarcophagus
With the acid drained, you can safely cross to the central island. The sarcophagus here is carved from obsidian, its surface covered in wave-like patterns. The lid depicts a figure holding a vessel that spills endless water.
When opened, the sarcophagus contains:
- The Vessel Key - One of three keys needed for the main door (bronze vessel that pours eternally from one side)
- Potion of Healing (x2)
- Ring of Water Walking - A silver band with wave patterns
- 100 gold pieces in various gems and jewelry
- A small jade scarab pendant (worth 50gp, or can be kept as a trinket)
- A carved stone tablet with text: "The Vessel holds what the Cobra guards, and the Scarab unlocks what both protect. Three as one opens the final door."
Scene 5: The Scarab Puzzle
Left Door 2 - Puzzle Symbol
The final chamber is deceptively simple. A square room, thirty feet to a side, with the floor divided into a grid of stone tiles - five tiles by five tiles. Each tile is roughly six feet square.
The tiles are carved with portions of an image, but they're scrambled - moved out of order. You can make out pieces of what should clearly be the Sunseeker's symbol: a scarab beetle holding a sun disc. But the pieces are wrong, shuffled, the image broken into chaos.
At the far end of the room, behind a shimmering barrier of golden light, sits the third sarcophagus. The barrier pulses gently, and you somehow know - solve the puzzle, and the barrier falls.
When you step on a tile, it glows softly. When you step off, it returns to normal. But when two adjacent tiles are both occupied - they swap positions, grinding against stone as they slide past each other.
Goal: Rearrange the tiles to form the complete Scarab Sun symbol.
Mechanics: Two players standing on adjacent tiles cause those tiles to swap. Players must coordinate movement to solve the puzzle.
This is a 5x5 sliding puzzle. The solution requires coordinated movement and spatial reasoning.
Investigation DC 15: A player studying the tiles can identify which pieces need to move where, giving the party guidance.
If stuck: Allow Intelligence checks to provide hints, or let players experiment freely.
You mentioned having an AI HTML riddle for this as well. This is the perfect place for it - a visual sliding puzzle showing the scrambled scarab that players must solve.
If running without digital tools, describe the scrambled image and let players direct their characters' movements to swap tiles. Track the grid on paper.
The Third Sarcophagus
The golden barrier dissolves like morning mist. The sarcophagus beyond is carved from amber - translucent, warm to the touch, with the Scarab Sun symbol prominently displayed on its lid.
When opened, the sarcophagus contains:
- The Scarab Key - The final key needed for the main door (golden scarab with folded wings)
- Scroll of Shield
- Boots of Elvenkind - Soft leather, sand-colored
- 150 gold pieces in amber jewelry and ancient coins
- A journal fragment in the Sunseeker's own hand: "I have hidden the fragments where no one would think to look - not even me, in my final years. Seven keys for seven locks, scattered across worlds. But the necklace itself... the necklace I keep close. It whispers to me still. It always will."
Scene 6: Opening the Door
You return to the main corridor, three keys in hand - the Cobra, the Vessel, and the Scarab. The massive golden door waits at the end, its three keyholes arranged in a triangle. The jackal-headed statues still stand motionless along the walls.
Still just statues. Still just stone.
One by one, you insert the keys. They turn smoothly, as if freshly oiled. With each turn, something in the door clicks, gears grinding somewhere deep within the stone.
The third key turns. The final click echoes through the corridor.
And then - silence. Complete. Heavy. The kind of silence that makes you aware of your own heartbeat.
The golden door begins to rise, sand cascading from its seams. Beyond, you catch glimpses of something glittering - gold, jewels, treasure beyond imagination.
The statues remain still. The corridor remains quiet. Whatever trap you expected... it hasn't sprung. Not yet.
Scene 7: The Final Chamber
You step through the golden door and into legend.
The treasure chamber takes your breath away.
Gold. Everywhere, gold. Coins in drifts like sand dunes. Jewelry piled in chests that overflow with emeralds and sapphires. Weapons of ancient design, their blades still gleaming. Statues. Urns. Scrolls in golden cases. Artifacts that pulse with dormant magic. Ornate rugs and tapestries, somehow preserved despite the ages.
The chamber is vast - perhaps sixty feet wide, its ceiling lost in shadow above. Pillars carved like palm trees support the weight of ages. Murals cover every wall, depicting the Sunseeker's greatest adventures, his triumphs, his treasures.
And in the center of the room, rising from a pool of crystalline water on a stone pedestal, sits a sarcophagus of pure gold. Not submerged - elevated just above the water's surface, as if offering itself to those worthy enough to reach it.
This is it. The heart of the tomb. The Sunseeker's greatest treasure.
Give the players time to explore the treasure chamber. Let them describe what they take, what catches their eye. Ask them:
"What do you imagine doing with your share of the wealth?"
"What do you grab first?"
"How rich do you feel right now?"
This is the calm before the storm. Make it count. Build up their dreams before crushing them.
The Golden Sarcophagus
Wading through the shallow pool to the central pedestal, you examine the sarcophagus more closely. It's large - sized for a human body - and ancient beyond measure. Hieroglyphs spiral across its lid, and the Scarab Sun symbol is inlaid in amber and gold. The lid depicts a robed figure with hands crossed over their chest, holding a sun disc.
When you lift the lid, you find exactly what you came for.
Inside, preserved by magic despite the centuries, lie the remains of the Sunseeker himself. Robes of gold and azure have faded but not rotted. The skull grins up at you from within a ceremonial headdress. And around the neck of the long-dead sorcerer, gleaming as if newly forged, hangs the Scarab Necklace.
It's magnificent. A golden scarab beetle forms the centerpiece, its wings spread wide, holding a sun disc of polished amber that seems to contain captured light. Seven empty settings surround the scarab - slots for the fragments that would unlock its full potential. Even without them, the necklace pulses with inner fire, warm and alive. Beautiful. Powerful.
Calling to you.
Ask the players: "Who takes the necklace? Who puts it on?"
This is crucial - whoever takes and wears it will be the last one alive, trapped by its wild magic. Let them decide naturally; don't force it. If multiple players want it, let them roleplay the discussion.
The necklace can be held without triggering anything - it's the act of REMOVING it from the Sunseeker's remains that triggers the collapse.
The Wild Magic Surge
The moment the necklace is lifted from its resting place, everything changes.
Power surges through whoever holds it - raw, ancient, overwhelming. Their hand glows with golden light. Sand rises from the floor, swirling around them in a protective cyclone. For one glorious moment, they feel invincible.
And then the wild magic hits.
Roll on the Sand Wild Magic Table below:
| d12 | Wild Magic Effect |
|---|
| 1 | Sand Burst: A 15-foot radius burst of sand explodes outward. Everyone in range must make DC 14 Dex save or be knocked prone. |
| 2 | Stone Skin: The wielder's skin turns to sandstone for 1 minute. AC becomes 17, but speed is halved. |
| 3 | Desert Mirage: 1d4 illusory duplicates of the wielder appear, mimicking their movements for 1 minute. |
| 4 | Sandstorm Aura: A 10-foot radius of swirling sand surrounds the wielder. Others in the area are lightly obscured and take 1d4 slashing damage per round. |
| 5 | Desert Heat: The temperature around the wielder increases dramatically. They and all creatures within 20 feet must make DC 12 Con save or gain one level of exhaustion. |
| 6 | Sand Hand: The wielder's dominant hand transforms into living sand. They can extend it up to 15 feet and manipulate objects at range. |
| 7 | Quicksand: The floor beneath a random party member becomes quicksand. DC 14 Str save or sink to waist (restrained). Second failure = sink to chest. Third = submerged. |
| 8 | Glass Transformation: All sand within 30 feet instantly fuses into glass. The floor becomes slippery (difficult terrain). |
| 9 | Voices of the Desert: The wielder hears whispers from ancient spirits - fragments of the Sunseeker's memories. They learn one secret about the tomb. |
| 10 | Golden Chains: Ribbons of solidified sand wrap around the wielder's legs. Speed reduced to 0 until they spend an action to break free (DC 13 Str). |
| 11 | Dune Walker: The wielder gains the ability to walk through sand and stone as if it were water for 1 minute. |
| 12 | Sunfire: The amber flares with brilliant light. All creatures within 30 feet must make DC 14 Con save or be blinded for 1 minute. |
The Collapse
As the wild magic surge subsides, you hear something that freezes the blood in your veins.
A grinding of stone. A rumble from deep within the earth. And then - the CRASH of walls collapsing.
Not just the entrance sealing. Not just a door closing. The entire tomb is transforming.
Beyond the treasure chamber's doorway, you watch in horror as the walls of the main corridor simply... fall. Stone crashes against stone. The side chambers collapse inward, their contents spilling into the central space. Rubble piles high where hallways used to be. The puzzle rooms, the platforms, the pipes - all of it crumbling into one massive, chaotic debris field.
Where there was once a tomb with distinct chambers and corridors, there is now just one giant cavern filled with fallen stone, rising dust, and ancient wreckage.
Only the treasure chamber remains intact - a safe island in a sea of destruction. The golden door frame still stands, but beyond it...
Chaos.
Reference your second map image here. The walls between all the puzzle chambers have collapsed. The main corridor is now filled with rubble. The tomb has become one giant open space with debris scattered throughout.
The treasure room remains intact - the party is safe as long as they stay inside. But to escape, they'll need to cross the rubble field.
And they're not alone.
The Awakening
As the dust begins to settle, you see them.
The jackal-headed statues - buried now in rubble, half-collapsed pillars, the ruins of what was once a corridor. But they're moving. Sand pours from their joints. Golden light blazes in their empty eye sockets. Khopesh blades gleam as they pull themselves free from the debris.
Four guardians. Awakened at last. Standing between you and the only exit - the distant stairs, barely visible through the dust and destruction.
Sand Guardian: "THE SUNSEEKER'S TREASURE... IS NOT FOR THE UNWORTHY..."
Run for 2 rounds only. The combat takes place in the rubble-filled cavern outside the treasure room. After 2 rounds, describe the guardians beginning to crumble as their ancient magic fails.
Terrain: Difficult terrain throughout (rubble). Partial cover available behind fallen stones.
AC: 14 (stone body)
HP: 25 each
Speed: 25 ft.
Attacks: Khopesh +5 to hit, 1d8+3 slashing damage
Special - Sand Form: When hit, sand sprays from the wound. Adjacent creatures must make DC 12 Con save or be blinded until end of their next turn.
Weakness: Water-based attacks deal an extra 1d6 damage and prevent Sand Form from triggering.
This is meant to be a fast, exciting fight, not a slog. After 2 rounds, regardless of how many guardians remain, describe them beginning to crumble.
"Cracks spread across the guardian's form. Ancient magic, sustained for centuries, finally fails. One by one, they collapse into piles of sand that scatter across the rubble."
The guardians crumbling doesn't mean safety - it means the escape sequence begins. The tomb is still collapsing around them.
Part IV: The Glorious Deaths
The Sunseeker's Tomb - The Final Moments
The Necklace Claims Its Wearer
The last guardian crumbles to dust. The treasure chamber falls silent save for the ragged breathing of survivors and the soft lap of water against the pool's edge.
You did it. Against all odds, you did it. The Sunseeker's treasure lies scattered around you - gold, jewels, artifacts beyond counting. And there, in the opened sarcophagus, the necklace waits.
One player should claim the necklace now. Ask: "Who takes it? Who puts it around their neck?"
This player becomes the necklace-bearer. What follows is their doom.
Once a player claims the necklace and puts it on, read the following directly to them:
The metal is warm against your skin. Warmer than it should be. The amber sun pulses once, twice - and then blazes with golden light.
Heat floods through you. Your blood sings. Your vision blurs at the edges. And then you hear it - a voice. Not in your ears. In your mind. In your bones. In your soul.
"Unworthy."
The word hits you like a physical blow. You stagger. The necklace flares brighter.
"You are not the Sunseeker. You are not his blood. You are not his heir."
The voice drips with ancient contempt.
"You are NOTHING. And you will die here. With me. FOREVER."
The tomb begins to shake.
The Collapse Begins
The floor heaves beneath your feet. Cracks race across the ceiling like black lightning. Dust cascades from above as the ancient stones grind against each other - and then begin to fall.
The Sunseeker's tomb - stable for a thousand years - is coming apart. And it wants to take you with it.
To the necklace-bearer:
You try to run. Your legs won't move.
You try to scream. Your voice dies in your throat.
And then your feet leave the ground.
You're rising. Three feet. Five feet. Ten feet into the air. The wild magic surges through you like fire, like lightning, like nothing you've ever felt. You kick at empty air. You claw at nothing. Your arms flail uselessly as golden light crackles around you like a cage.
You can't move. You can't escape. The necklace has claimed you, and it will not let go.
Below you, your friends are running for the door. All you can do is watch. All you can do is scream at them to go, to run, to save themselves.
All you can do is pray that someone makes it out alive.
The Mechanics:
The necklace-bearer is suspended in mid-air by wild magic - they are OUT of the escape. They will fall at the end, legs crushed, and die last.
The remaining 7 characters run the gauntlet together:
- Read the narrative setup for each hazard
- Everyone still alive rolls a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw
- Success: No damage, continue to next hazard
- Failure: Take 2d10 damage - describe the hit dramatically
- Damage accumulates. When total exceeds max HP, that character dies
- Read the transition narration with energy - make them FEEL the escape
- Cut back to the necklace-bearer periodically - watching helplessly from above
The Death Gauntlet
The golden door - your only way out - begins to buckle. Beyond it, the corridor groans and shifts. You can hear stone grinding against stone somewhere in the darkness ahead.
The exit is sealing.
RUN.
Hazard 1: The Doorway
You sprint for the golden doorway. But the frame is cracking - massive stones grinding against each other overhead. Dust pours down. The lintel shifts. You have seconds to get through before the whole thing comes down.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 bludgeoning damage.
"The stones catch you mid-stride. You're crushed in the doorway, your body holding the gap open just long enough for others to dive through. A hero's death. Not that it feels like one."
Transition - Into the Corridor
You throw yourself through the doorway, hit the ground rolling, and come up running. The corridor stretches ahead of you - the same corridor you walked through hours ago, now unrecognizable. The jackal-headed statues have toppled, blocking the path. Cracks split the floor. The puzzle chamber doors have burst from their hinges.
You vault over a fallen statue, boots scraping against ancient stone. Someone grabs your arm, hauls you over a gap in the floor. You can hear the others behind you - footsteps, gasping breath, shouted warnings.
Keep moving. Keep moving. Don't stop.
Hazard 2: Serpent Swarm
The snake pit from the Acrobatic Gauntlet has ruptured. Hundreds of serpents pour through cracks in the walls - panicked, fleeing the collapse, striking at anything warm. They flood across the floor in a writhing tide of scales and fangs.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 poison damage.
"The first bite hits your ankle. Then your calf. Then everywhere. You fall into the swarm. They cover you - a writhing carpet of scales and fangs. Your screams echo off the crumbling walls. And then stop."
Transition - Through the Serpents
You leap over the serpent tide, boots crunching on scales, kicking the creatures aside. One latches onto your boot - you shake it off without breaking stride. The corridor ahead slopes upward, choked with rubble.
You grab a broken pillar and haul yourself up. Your fingers find handholds in the ancient carvings. You climb, scramble, slide down the other side into a stretch of clearer corridor.
Behind you, someone screams. You don't look back. You can't look back.
Cut to the necklace-bearer:
From your prison in the sky, you watch your friends run. You watch them climb. You watch one of them fall to the serpents, disappearing beneath the writhing mass.
You want to help. You want to fight. But the magic holds you frozen, suspended, useless. The necklace pulses against your chest like a mocking heartbeat.
Hazard 3: Floor Collapse
The floor ahead tilts - a section built over a hidden cistern, now cracked by the quaking. Stone slabs slide apart like opening jaws, revealing black emptiness below. The gap is widening. You have to jump NOW.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 bludgeoning damage.
"The stone beneath your feet isn't there anymore. You drop into blackness, fingers scraping the edge, finding no purchase. The fall seems to last forever. When it ends, it ends suddenly."
Transition - Across the Chasm
You launch yourself across the gap. For one terrible moment, you're suspended over nothing - arms pinwheeling, legs kicking - and then you slam into the far edge. Your fingers catch stone. Your arms scream as you haul yourself up.
Someone lands beside you, rolls, keeps running. Another jumps short - you grab their wrist, yank them up, shove them forward. No time for thanks. No time for anything.
The corridor narrows ahead. You squeeze through sideways, scraping stone, leaving skin behind. Your lungs are burning. Your legs are screaming. But the stairs are ahead. They have to be.
Hazard 4: Ceiling Crush
A grinding sound from above. Shadow spreads across the floor - fast, too fast. You look up. A massive section of ceiling - tons of ancient stone - breaks free and falls.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 bludgeoning damage.
"You hear it before you see it. You look up. Time slows. The shadow grows. And then there is only weight, and darkness, and silence."
Transition - Through the Rubble
You dive forward as the ceiling comes down behind you. The impact throws you off your feet. Dust billows past in a choking wave. You hit the ground, roll, come up coughing.
The corridor ahead is a nightmare of fallen stone. You scramble over rubble on hands and knees, squeezing through gaps, climbing over debris that shifts beneath your weight. Sharp edges tear at your clothes, your skin. You're bleeding from a dozen cuts.
You don't care. You keep climbing. You keep crawling. You keep moving.
Hazard 5: Flying Blades
A whistling sound - metal cutting air at impossible speed. The earthquakes have shaken loose the mechanisms from the Acrobatic Gauntlet. Giant pendulum blades tear free from their moorings and hurtle through the corridor like thrown axes.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 slashing damage.
"You hear the whistle. You start to turn. The blade finds you first. Your body takes two more steps before it realizes it's been cut in half."
Transition - Dodging Death
You throw yourself flat as a blade screams overhead. It buries itself in the wall behind you with a clang that rings in your skull. Another blade spins past - you roll sideways, feel it pass inches from your face.
You're up and running before the echo fades. The corridor opens ahead into a wider chamber - you can see the light bridge in the distance, still glowing. Still holding.
You sprint for it, vaulting over debris, sliding under a fallen beam, your boots pounding against cracked stone.
Cut to the necklace-bearer:
You see the blade pass through one of your friends. You see their body separate. You see the look on their face - surprise, confusion, and then nothing.
You try to scream. The magic won't let you. You can only watch. Only witness. Only hang here like a condemned soul while everyone you love dies below.
Hazard 6: Acid Spray
The wall beside you explodes - not with stone, but with liquid. Green. Hissing. Burning. The pipe mechanism from the puzzle room has ruptured, spraying concentrated acid across the corridor in searing jets.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 acid damage.
"The acid finds you. Your face. Your hands. Everything. You scream once. Then you can't scream anymore."
Transition - Past the Acid
You throw yourself past the acid jets, feeling drops sizzle on your armor, your skin. The smell is horrible - metal and meat and burning. Your eyes water. Your throat closes.
You stumble into the outer sanctum, coughing, retching, but still moving. The light bridge stretches across the chasm ahead - your path to freedom. You can see the far side. You can see the mirror chamber beyond it.
Almost there. Almost there.
Hazard 7: Rubble Avalanche
A wall collapses ahead - not falling, but tumbling toward you. Stones cascade down like a wave, rolling and bouncing, filling the chamber with deadly debris. There's nowhere to hide.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 bludgeoning damage.
"First a stone pins your leg. Then another your arm. Then the cascade buries you completely. You can't move. Can barely breathe. The weight presses down. Darkness closes in."
Transition - Surfing the Collapse
You ride the rubble wave, leaping from stone to stone as they roll, somehow keeping your balance. A rock clips your shoulder - you spin, stumble, catch yourself on a fallen column. You use it to vault forward, crashing through to the other side.
The light bridge. Right there. You sprint across its impossible surface - solid light beneath your feet, the chasm yawning below. Don't look down. Don't look down.
You reach the far side and keep running.
Hazard 8: Forgotten Trap
Your foot comes down on something that clicks. A pressure plate - hidden beneath centuries of dust, missed by the previous expedition, still armed. Your eyes go wide.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 piercing damage.
"'Oh no-' Spears erupt from the walls, from the floor, from angles that shouldn't exist. They find you from every direction at once."
Transition - Through the Trap
You throw yourself sideways as spears punch through the air where you stood. One grazes your side - fire and blood - but you're still moving. You hit the ground, roll under another volley, and scramble forward on hands and knees.
The sand chamber is ahead - or what's left of it. The mechanisms have collapsed. Sand pours from broken channels like golden waterfalls. You slide down a dune of the stuff, boots kicking up clouds, and crash through into the mirror chamber.
Glass crunches beneath your feet. Shattered reflections show a hundred versions of you - all running, all terrified, all bleeding.
Hazard 9: Poison Gas Pocket
The air changes. Sweet. Honey-thick. A pocket of ancient poison gas - released by the collapse - drifts through the mirror chamber like a golden fog. It's between you and the exit.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 poison damage.
"You cough once. Twice. Your vision blurs. Your legs give out. The last thing you see is your friends disappearing into the golden haze, still running, not knowing you've stopped."
Transition - Through the Gas
You hold your breath and plunge into the gas. It stings your eyes, your skin, everything. You can't see. You can't breathe. You just run - blind, desperate, lungs burning.
You burst out the other side, gasping, retching, but alive. The stairs. You can see the stairs. A hundred feet away. Daylight - actual daylight - filtering down from above.
You've never seen anything so beautiful.
Cut to the necklace-bearer:
You're still suspended in the treasure chamber, watching through the distant doorway as your friends grow smaller. The wild magic crackles around you like a cage of golden lightning. You can feel the necklace feeding on your fear. Growing stronger. Holding you tighter.
Please, you think. Please let them make it. Please let someone survive this.
The magic flickers. For just a moment, you drop an inch. Hope surges -
The necklace flares. You're yanked upward again, higher than before. The voice returns, cold and amused.
"You go nowhere, little thief. You stay. You watch. You die here. With me."
Hazard 10: Guardian's Hand
You're picking your way through the ruins when a hand erupts from the debris. Golden. Massive. Impossibly strong. One of the sand guardians wasn't fully destroyed - and its arm reaches for you.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 bludgeoning damage.
"The hand closes around your ankle. You fall. It drags you toward its shattered body. The last thing you see is the jackal-head rising from the rubble, one ruby eye still glowing, still hungry."
Transition - Breaking Free
You wrench free of the grasping fingers, leaving skin behind, and scramble over the guardian's remains. Its other hand swipes at you - you duck, roll, come up running.
The stairs are fifty feet away. You sprint through the ruins, vaulting over debris, sliding under fallen beams. Your body is screaming. Your lungs are on fire. But you can see the sky.
You can see the sky.
Hazard 11: Spinning Fan Blade
One of the massive spinning fans from the gauntlet breaks loose entirely. It rolls through the chamber like a wheel of death, smashing through rubble, heading straight for you.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 slashing damage.
"The fan catches you across the midsection. For a moment, you're still standing. Then gravity reminds you that you're in two pieces now."
Transition - Past the Fan
You dive flat as the fan screams past, close enough to cut hair from your scalp. It crashes into the wall behind you with a sound like the world ending. You're up before the echo fades, scrambling toward the stairs.
Thirty feet. You can see the steps now - ancient stone climbing up toward freedom. You can feel wind on your face. Actual wind, from the surface.
You're going to make it. You're actually going to make it.
Hazard 12: Stalactite Rain
The ceiling shudders one final time - and dozens of stone stalactites break free. They rain down like spears from heaven, shattering on the floor around you in a storm of stone.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 piercing damage.
"You look up at exactly the wrong moment. The stalactite finds you before you can move. Pinned to the floor, you watch your friends run past - unable to help, unable to follow."
Transition - The Final Sprint
Stone shatters around you like deadly rain. You weave, duck, sprint through the chaos. A stalactite explodes at your feet - you leap the debris without breaking stride. Another clips your shoulder - you spin but keep moving.
The stairs. RIGHT THERE. You throw yourself at them, grabbing the first step, hauling yourself up. Your legs pump. Your arms reach. Step after step after step.
The daylight is getting brighter. The wind is getting stronger. You can smell the desert - sand and heat and freedom.
Hazard 13: Second Gas Wave
Another pocket of gas - bigger this time. It billows up from below, filling the stairway with golden mist. The sweet smell burns your nostrils. Your eyes stream. There's no way around it.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 poison damage.
"Your lungs burn. Your legs give out. You collapse onto the stairs, the golden mist closing over you. Everything goes soft and warm and quiet. It's almost peaceful. Almost."
Transition - Climbing Blind
You hold your breath and plunge upward. You can't see - the gas is too thick. You climb by feel, hands finding steps, pulling yourself up, up, up. Your lungs are screaming for air. Your vision is going dark at the edges.
You burst out of the gas cloud and suck in a desperate breath. Clean air - or close enough. You're near the top now. You can see the exit. A rectangle of blue sky, framed by crumbling stone.
Ten steps. Five steps.
Hazard 14: Collapsing Pillar
A massive pillar beside the stairs - twenty feet of solid stone - groans and tilts. It topples toward you in terrible slow motion, ancient carved faces staring down as they fall.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 bludgeoning damage.
"You try to jump clear. You almost make it. The pillar catches your legs, then rolls. The sound your bones make is something you'll never forget. For the three seconds you have left."
Transition - The Last Steps
The pillar crashes behind you, shaking the entire stairway. You stumble, catch yourself, keep climbing. The exit is RIGHT THERE. You can see the sky - blue and endless and impossibly beautiful.
You can feel the sun on your face.
Three steps. Two steps. One step.
Hazard 15: The Stairs Begin to Seal
The ceiling begins to fall in sequence. Massive blocks dropping one after another, sealing the exit forever. The gap is shrinking. Inches at a time. Seconds remain.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. Failed saves take 2d10 bludgeoning damage.
"So close. Your fingers brush the final step. Daylight touches your face. Then the stone falls, and the light goes away forever."
Transition - The Closing Gap
You throw yourself up the final steps as stones crash down around you. The gap is barely wide enough for a body - and shrinking. You can see the desert beyond. You can feel the wind.
MOVE. MOVE. MOVE.
Hazard 16: The Final Seal
The last block descends. Inches remain. Seconds remain. This is it. Freedom or death. Everything you've fought for, everything you've lost - it all comes down to this moment.
Everyone rolls DC 15 DEX save. This is the final hazard.
"You dive for the gap. The stone catches you - half in, half out. Trapped. The weight settles slowly, inexorably. And somewhere below, in the darkness you almost escaped, you hear the tomb sigh with satisfaction."
"You tumble out into blinding sunlight. The tomb seals behind you with a boom that echoes across the desert. You're alive. You made it."
Pause. Let it sink in.
"You're the only one who made it. Your friends are dead. Your family - the only family that mattered - is buried beneath tons of stone. The treasure, the necklace, all of it - gone forever. You have nothing. You are no one."
"You survived. Was it worth it?"
Probability of surviving all 16 DC 15 saves: approximately 0.03%. If someone makes it, honor their survival - but make it hollow. They escaped with nothing but memories and grief.
Most likely, everyone dies. Move to the necklace-bearer's final scene.
The Last One
The exit seals with a boom that echoes through eternity.
And then - silence. The kind of silence that only exists underground, in places that will never see the sun again.
Return to the necklace-bearer:
The wild magic releases you.
You fall. Twenty feet. You have just enough time to think - finally, finally I can move - and then you hit the ground.
Something in your legs breaks. Several somethings. You try to stand and find that you can't. When you look down, you understand why - a massive stone block, dislodged by your fall, rests across your thighs. You can see bone through the ruin of your legs. You try not to look at it.
You can't walk. Can barely drag yourself. But you try anyway - pulling your broken body across the floor, inch by agonizing inch, leaving a dark trail behind you.
There's nowhere to go. You know that. The exit is sealed. Your friends are dead. You watched them fall, one by one, from your prison in the sky.
But you keep crawling. Because that's what you do. That's what you've always done.
You find a wall - or what's left of one - and drag yourself against it. The effort takes everything you have left.
The gas is seeping in now. You can smell it. Sweet. Honey-sweet. Almost pleasant.
The necklace glows softly against your chest. The only light in the darkness. The only warmth in the cold.
Ask the player: "What are your character's final thoughts? What do they see in the darkness? What do they wish they could have said?"
Let them have this moment. This is their character's end. Make it matter.
The treasure is yours. The Sunseeker's necklace, worth kingdoms.
Worth nothing now.
Your breathing slows.
Your vision dims.
Somewhere, far above, the sun continues to shine.
Your eyes close.
You do not open them again.
⬥ ⬥ ⬥
Epilogue: Years Later
The tomb waits.
Days pass. Weeks. Months. Years. The dust settles. The torches die. The sand seeps in through cracks that widen with each passing season.
The tomb remembers. It always remembers.
And then, after so long in silence - footsteps.
⬥ ⬥ ⬥
A silhouette descends the ancient stairs. Small. Slight. Moving with the careful silence of someone who has learned to go unnoticed.
The figure emerges into the ruined sanctum. A stolen torch casts dancing shadows across fallen stones and scattered gold. Bones crunch beneath worn boots with each step forward.
The figure pauses. Looks down. A skull grins up from the rubble - and around its neck, something gleams. Something glows.
The figure kneels.
Green eyes. Dark, wild hair. A face too thin from too little food. A boy - perhaps fifteen, perhaps younger - staring at what he believes is the legendary Sunseeker himself, still wearing his greatest creation after all these centuries.
He reaches out with trembling fingers. The necklace is warm - impossibly warm. The amber sun pulses against his palm like a heartbeat. Like a hunger.
He places it around his own neck.
And something in the universe shifts.
Power floods through him - raw, ancient, wild. Sand rises unbidden, swirling in golden spirals. The amber sun blazes against his chest, awakening something that had always slumbered in his soul.
He is no longer just a tavern boy from Bassuras.
He is the Sunseeker now.
Or so he believes.
⬥ END OF ONE-SHOT ⬥
Appendix
Lore Summary - The Sunseeker
The Sunseeker: A powerful sorcerer from the Age of Arcanum who specialized in sand and stone magic. He was the greatest tomb raider of his era - ironic, given how he ended up.
The Scarab Necklace: His greatest creation. An artifact of immense power that grants dominion over sand and stone. Its full potential is unlocked by seven fragments - crystallized keys scattered across Exandria.
The Seven Fragments: Hidden in seven separate tombs across the world. Only one fragment tomb has ever been found - by an explorer named Ashby Hillingham, a century ago. The fragments alone hold considerable power.
The Necklace Tomb: This tomb contains the Scarab Necklace itself - not a fragment. Even without all seven keys, the necklace holds tremendous magic and dangerous wild magic potential.
Mr. Jasper Whiskerpaw's True Nature (For DM's Eyes Only)
Mr. Jasper Whiskerpaw was the Sunseeker's familiar - bound to the sorcerer during the Age of Arcanum and somehow surviving through the millennia. The yarn ball was the Sunseeker's favorite toy for his beloved cat.
Mr. Whiskerpaw seeks the necklace not for power, but to ensure it remains separated from the fragments. He's sent many expeditions over the centuries - most have failed. He feels guilt for each life lost, but believes the alternative (someone reuniting the necklace with all seven fragments) is worse.
He will never admit any of this directly.
Scaling Combat
If combat is too easy: Sand Guardians regenerate 5 HP at the start of each turn unless they took water damage.
If combat is too hard: Guardians crumble after taking any critical hit. Reduce HP to 18.
Remember: This combat exists for dramatic tension, not to challenge. End it after 2 rounds regardless.
Player Handout - The Sunseeker's Symbol
You can provide players with a visual of the Scarab Sun symbol - a scarab beetle holding a golden sun disc. This appears throughout the tomb and is central to the sliding puzzle.
DM Notes
Session Summary
Adventure: The Tomb of the Sunseeker - The Scarab Necklace
Type: One-Shot (Tragic Prequel)
Duration: 4 Hours
Party Level: 3
Party Size: 8 Players
Key NPCs
- Mr. Jasper Whiskerpaw: Talking orange tabby cat. The party's mysterious handler. Actually the Sunseeker's ancient familiar. Eccentric, businesslike, treats talking as mundane.
- Lord Aldric Valorian: Host of the Autumn Antiquities Gala. Pompous noble with a collection of rare artifacts.
- Captain Thessa: Half-elf airship captain. Owes Mr. Whiskerpaw favors. No questions asked.
- The Drunk Nobles: Montague and Bartleby. Provide foreshadowing about a talking cat.
Key Locations
- Valorian Estate, Emon: Site of the heist. Wealthy noble's mansion during an auction preview gala.
- The Brass Compass: Tavern near the Emon skyport. Meeting place with Mr. Whiskerpaw.
- Bassuras, Marquet: A sprawling city on a plateau in the Hellcatch Valley. A rough place where law is "fluid" and nobody asks questions. The party resupplies here before heading into the wastes.
- The Sunseeker's Tomb: Hidden in the wastes beyond Bassuras. Marked by the Scarab's Claw - five pillars of stone. Contains the Sunseeker's remains and his greatest treasure.
Themes to Emphasize
- Camaraderie: These characters are a team. Build their relationships before destroying them.
- Hubris: They're confident, capable, and completely unprepared for the tomb's final trap.
- Tragedy: They succeed in every way that matters - except survival.
- Legacy: Their deaths are not meaningless. Someone will find what they left behind.
Pacing Notes
- Part I (60 min): Don't rush character introductions. With 8 players, this foundation matters.
- Part II (30 min): Let Mr. Whiskerpaw be charming. This is the lore dump - make it entertaining.
- Part III (2 hours): Puzzles can take longer than expected. Be ready to provide hints or streamline if needed.
- Part IV (30-45 min): Deaths should feel earned and dramatic. Take your time with each one. Let players choose from the death menu.
Tone Reminders
- Fun and comedic during Parts I and II. The heist should feel like a caper movie.
- Exciting and adventurous during Part III. This is classic dungeon-crawling.
- Tragic and dramatic during Part IV. Shift tone deliberately - but don't forget, the deaths should also be FUN. This is the players' chance for a glorious, over-the-top exit.
- The epilogue should feel hopeful despite the tragedy - a new story is beginning.
⬥ END OF DOCUMENT ⬥
