The Endless Tower: Phantakheen Floor, O'Claire Orphanage

Adventure Goal:

Break the cult's hold on O'Claire Orphanage, lift the undead curse from the children, and free the Sisters before there's nothing left to save (or join the orphans in the halls forever). This floor is a rescue mission wrapped in a death match. The children are not your enemy, even when they're trying to eat you, you'll likely have to slay many of them, Teddy is ok with that he feels he can bring them back. It will just make the transition back to life a little more uncomfortable.

XP Reward:

Successful: 2,000 xp + Classic

Midway Success: 1,000xp + Classic

Gold Reward:

Base 300gp + loot

VTT:

Add your character to Dndbeyond here (I will be on 15 mins early to assist with this if needed) https://www.dndbeyond.com/campaigns/join/81010791384018265
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Call:

At session time, see Voice Channels on the Discord server.

Description:

Did you know Teddy, the new owner and purveyor of The Endless Tower, grew up an orphan? Yeah. Agathon wasn't even his real uncle. Just the brother of Teddy's old wizard mentor, a man who took in a scrawny kid with nowhere else to go. Funny how family works out sometimes.

None of that matters right now, though. Teddy just got word that his old home, O'Claire Orphanage, has fallen.

When the veil thinned for Phantakheen, the spirit realm came flooding through, and something followed it in. A cult. They took the orphanage in a single night, chained the Sisters in the chapel, and started feeding. Not on food. On souls. Small ones are easier to take, apparently. And where the rot set in, the monsters came crawling after, nesting in the dormitories and the empty classrooms like they'd always lived there.

Since Agathon's death (still unexplained, and Teddy would really prefer you stop asking), Teddy has come into a frankly alarming amount of power. Enough to rip the entire orphanage out of the world and bolt it into the Tower as a new floor.

Travel into the Gauntlet sprawl, to the smooth and filthy marble cube of the Endless Tower. Tonight the door's eye weeps black instead of red, and somewhere behind it, a child is humming.

The carvings light with a sickly orange glow. On the brass plate to the left of the door, words etch themselves in Celestial, hold for a minute, fade, and etch again:

Many of the children are already gone. Not dead. Worse. Turned. Small undead things wandering the halls in their nightclothes, singing the songs the Sisters taught them. Your host is a very capable necromancer (weird, huh?), and he believes the curse can still be broken and that any of those already claimed by undeath can be brought back... who knows necromancer stuff huh?

Difficulty:

AL 03: Deadly
AL 04: Deadly
AL 05: Hard - Deadly
AL 06: Hard

GM NOTES:

I will only be allowing a maximum of 1xAL03, and 1xAL04 for the benefit of the party. This adventure is intended for level 5 and 6 it is highly tactical and will require good teamwork. This is a Gauntlet, the cult will complete it's dark ritual in 3 hours and should you not be done in that time you will only reach a midway success + classic XP. Oh also, there is loot all over, run, fight, time pressure, shinnies. Good luck!