# Mission to the Monastery of Two Winds



## Morrus (May 30, 2007)

The fifth adventure in EN Publishing's *War of the Burning Sky Campaign Saga * has just been released in softcover and PDF format!

*Mission to the Monastery of Two Winds* is available in softcover for $12.98 or PDF for $5.99.  As always, you can subscribe to the entire campaign saga, getting all twelve adventures for just *$34.99 * (that's under $3 per adventure!)
[imagel]http://enworld.rpgnow.com/products/product_22028.JPG[/imagel][bq]As the war spreads to new nations, the heroes set out for The Monastery of Two Winds, whose leaders - two enigmatic brothers - can guide the way to retrieving the lost Torch of the Burning Sky, which will tip the balance of power.

But two enemies threaten the order.  From without, remnants of the army of Emperor Coaltongue besiege the mountain monastery.  From within, one of the order's own is kidnapping innocents for cruel biomantic experiments.

Great danger and precious revelations await the heroes in their mission to The Monastery of Two Winds.

Welcome to the fifth adventure in the War of the Burning Sky Campaign Saga. Throughout the course of the campaign saga, a party of heroes will become involved in an escalating war between mighty magical nations, and after many adventures, military battles, and mysterious intrigue, it will be up to them to decide who will emerge victorious and rule in the aftermath. 

An adventure for character levels 9-10.[/bq]
If you're not yet familiar with the War of the Burning Sky Campaign Saga, be sure to download the FREE Player's Guide and GM's Campaign Guide!  And when you've done that, check out the first four installments in the saga:

The Scouring of Gate Pass (levels 1-2)
The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar (levels 3-4)
Shelter from the Storm (levels 5-6) (over 100 pages long!)
The Mad King's Banquet (levels 7-8) (over 100 pages long!)
And if you're still not convinced remember that:


*Every purchase helps EN World!*
You can check out a page of art previews and maps
You can read narrative entries to the novel author search, covering the first part of The Scouring of gate pass
We provide massive, 1-inch scale battlemaps for free with each adventure (downloaded separately from the official site for size reasons)
You can view and download beautiful regional maps in a variety of styles!


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## maggot (May 31, 2007)

Yeah!  If only my group could get together enough to get out of the first adventure.  Still, I like reading them and dreaming of a day when we can game more than once a month.


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## talarei07 (Jul 12, 2007)

does this book have any information on the monks of the monastery? i have a player who wants to play a monk from this monastery.


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## Primitive Screwhead (Jul 12, 2007)

Welcome to the boards!

  The book does have some information about the Monestary and the Monks who live there. There is a short history as well as some new mechanics for building monks. There are also 'representative' monks listed in the NPC section

In short, each style has a Feat that can be taken as an alternate class feature. There is also a second alternate class feature, the 'Two Winds Weapon Training'

A little something more that probably doesn't need to be listed openly 
[sblock]
The Monks of the Two Winds tend to be multi-classed, east wind are Monk/Sorcerer while west wind are monk/Cleric {air domain/elemental mastery}

[/sblock]

Overall I like the history and the interesting variance of the Monks. They are definately not your typical DnD Monks!


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## talarei07 (Jul 12, 2007)

thanx screwhead. i am definitely getting soon then i was gonna wait until i was closer to the adventure.


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## Selganor (May 13, 2008)

I'm two sessions into this adventure.

Session one was after a long break (one player wasn't available) and a new player joined (he got "Three Weeping Ravens" to play) and consisted of the "briefing" and their arrival after the teleport, a short discussion with royalty and off they were to the monastery.

Last week's session was just the combat before the monastery. Some players were surprised how effective they were.

Session three (this friday) will start with the required roll once they enter the city 
I'm curious how things progress then.


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## Rugult (May 13, 2008)

I'm reminded of my group in Adventure 5.  The final fight was still one of the most epic battles of the campaign to date.

Good luck with the town, and remember...  they should not under any circumstance get Balance's boon...


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## Propagandroid (May 14, 2008)

Links in the original post don't seem to work, they go to Item Not Found pages.


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## Morrus (May 14, 2008)

Propagandroid said:
			
		

> Links in the original post don't seem to work, they go to Item Not Found pages.




It's a very old thread!  RPGNow's been restructured a couple of times since then.

All links here are correct and current:

http://www.enworld.org/index.php?page=burningsky


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## Selganor (May 24, 2008)

The heroes have been victorious, but... (Spoiler below)

[sblock]
They managed to keep Balance alive, mobilised the vilagers and even defeated the army, but after that, Torrent got kidnepped during her regular meditations at the River Shrine.

I thought that might propt the group to explore the valley immediately, but the party now intends to go directly to the monastery to confront them why Torrent has been taken, as they put the hints of the other Seaquen group together and now suspect the Monastery behind the disappearance.

My thoughts on the situation:

The players (and myself) don't want to spend more than one more session with this "finished" mission (but Torrent is still missing and they wouldn't stop till they get her back and the full run of the valley would probably take 2-3 session at our pace)

The two masters will gladly greet them and thank them for repelling the Ragesians.
Both will claim that they got nothing to do with the disappearances of Torrent and the rest of the other group from Seaquen. 

If I want to provoke a TPK their story may simply end there, when Pilus "helps" them to get to the valley only to "find out" later (when he destroyed them and any clues to be found in the valley) that whatever was in the valley was too great a danger and they really should be more careful to shut this thing off from the rest of the world.
But this would be pretty unclimatic as the party really enjoys the campaign and wants to play on (especially these characters), but they certainly won't start yet another group to continue the campaign.

My take on this:
- Pilus helps them to get to the valley and orders the monks guarding the valley to let them through.
- Once in the valley they meet and fight the mantidrake (it's just too cool not to bring up)
- The other "mutants" are commanded by Pilus/Caela to out of the party's sight
- The party reaches the Lab and finds the Mishaps
- The party enters the lab, finds Torrent and Caela confronts them without implying Pilus directly (and I know my party missed Balance's clue regarding him)
- Once the fight starts, Aurus appears, and "accidentaly" damages some of the lab equipment. At the same time Pilus triggers the storm of the lab, so the party may still assume that Pilus is uninvolved in that.
- The party should be able to escape the storm relatively unharmed (with Indomitability's boon and Tidereaver's tears) and return to the Monastery

I know that my party wouldn't trust anything that comes from the Monastery (especially the item that's supposed to be their only protection against the firestorm around the castle) if they suspect that Pilus is in any way involved in this, so the campaign would also almost stop there.
[/sblock]

Any other hints?


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## RangerWickett (May 24, 2008)

Spoilers!

[sblock]I see that you're trying to preserve the climax of the adventure. While I really like the climax, and put a lot of effort into tweaking Caela to make her a tough but fun encounter, I think your best bet might be to, well, let the party 'win' easily.

The party goes to the Monastery. The monks haven't gotten the okay from their masters for them to let the party in, but Pilus has been watching what's going on, and he realizes he's going to have to change his plans. The heroes haven't fallen into the trap he set for them by abducting Torrent, and any action he takes now is going to be scrutinized by his brother, who he doesn't want to risk alienating. 

He sees now that it's better to use the heroes as pawns than to waste resources trying to kill them. He also realizes he's going to have to offer a queen sacrifice in order to checkmate this little situation, because the party suspects the monastery, so he has to give them someone to blame. But Pilus is a slick liar, so he concocts a plan quickly.

So anyway, the party goes to the monastery, and the monks at the gate refuse initially, but then a message on the wind quietly informs them to let the heroes in. They are escorted to a meeting with the two brothers, where Pilus and Longinus listen to their story. They are both grateful (Longinus sincerely, Pilus convincingly fake) for the PCs solving the problem with the Ragesians and lifting the 'curse,' and they want to help. Longinus offers to divine where Torrent has been taken (if the PCs haven't already guessed), and Pilus says that he will send some of their monks to assist the heroes in retrieving their friend, including his most skilled warrior, Caela.

And then when the brothers call for Caela, the other monks are like, Um, we can't find her. And Longinus casts divination and gets back a haiku saying that Torrent is being held by a traitor in the forbidden valley. Pilus says that he and his brother cannot leave the monastery on such short notice, but that he can follow their progress. He gives them a black mask to carry with them (like from adventure 8), and says that they can speak to him through this.

Ultimately, the PCs (perhaps with monk allies if they want the help) set out to the valley. The brothers warn them there might be guardians, which lets you use the mantidrake, but I'd ditch the mishaps and ettins, and just let them get to the laboratory. Inside, play up how quiet and ominous it is, and how they hear quiet creaking of the roof as wind flutters in and out.

Then, when they're halfway through the biomancy vats, Caela addresses them via magic, saying something like, "Damned meddling foreigners. You weren't content escaping my storm over your city; you had to come stick your unclean noses into matters far beyond you. No one can stand against the eldritch might of Leska, and I was smart enough to ally with her. You may have defeated our plans here, but you will not escape."

At the end of her speech (or as soon as any of the PCs make for the door the office), the wind begins to pick up very suddenly, and Aurus attacks. The heroes can hear the sound of the tornado approaching, that wonderful low moan mixed with the roar of an oncoming train, and they don't have long before it strikes. Aurus keeps the heroes busy, while the wind slowly builds as the tornado approaches.

It's strong winds in round one, severe wind in round two, windstorm in round three (the doors to the office blow open and the skylight shatters), hurricane in round four (the roof of the laboratory tears off), and finally tornado in round five (debris begins to lift into the air and whirl around). Now sure, the PCs with the boon won't have to worry about the winds, but they will have to worry about being smashed by bits of laboratory components. I'd put it at Reflex DC 22 each round to avoid 3d6 damage. If they look up, they can see they're just outside the edge of the funnel cloud.

At some point during this, the Pilus mask animates and he tells the heroes that he and his brother sense the storm, and will try to keep it at bay. This gives you an off the cuff way to keep from killing the PCs while they defeat Aurus and rescue Torrent. Then, as soon as they're out of the laboratory, the tornado drifts just a bit more and totally annihilates the place.

Now, what happened behind the scenes is that Pilus sending'ed Caela and told her to wait for the heroes to show up, then to sic Aurus on them to make the situation convincing. Caela is  gone (courtesy of dimension door) long before the heroes ever make it to the office, and the tornado is there to cover Pilus's tracks so people can't connect it to him. Caela 'gets away,' which means she'll be staying full-time on Pilus's airship, ready to level up and fight the PCs for real should they make it to adventure 11. 

For right now, the heroes should think that Caela was working with the Ragesians, but they thwarted her plan and drove her off. The brothers will be thankful, and Pilus chagrined that he did not realize he had a traitor in his midst, and they will offer to help the heroes reach the castle in the firestorm for adventure 6. Only much later will they realize that Pilus was actually behind the whole thing. [/sblock]

How does that sound?


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## Selganor (May 31, 2008)

I don't know why I saw this posting just now...

Just yesterday the adventure finished:
[sblock]
As planned, the party got to the monastery and met with the brothers. They told the monastery about their problem with the firestorm and got the confirmation that they would recieve the help they need.
Then they asked what the monastery knew about the forbidden village and recieved the standard answer (it's too dangerous to go there)
Pilus offered them help. Each one recieved some sort of pin which should let them through to any monastery guards they meet and as half of the group are dwarves, he even threw in the help of 3 air elementals that carried them to the valley. One of the dwarves used tongues to understand the elementals and asked them to land near, but not at the landmark seen through the storm (the tower).
Just as they were landing, the mantidrake unleashed it's first roar. The elementals quickly landed and then flew away and the group had some problems attacking a flying opponent that just wouldn't land. The managed to almost kill it (just 8 hp left) then the mandtidrake decided that it would be better to leave for now.
The trap at the "tower" (and the fact that all 4 Mishaps managed to hit him with their cold blasts) almost killed the monk who just wanted to check the lower entrance door.
It took a few rounds to get into position, but once they did, they managed to dispatch them quite easy.
But by then it was way past the "planned" end of the game time already (we spent too much time beforehand with talking and eating) and two of the players were already nodding off... 
I didn't want to postpone the end of the adventure yet another week, so with the permission of the group I "winged" the final conflict with Caela.
I may expand the decription with some of your suggested dialogue.
[/sblock]

The reception of this adventure was mixed in the group.
Some of the meelee fighters didn't like the relatively high number of flying enemies, which sometimes meant that they couldn't do anything during whole fights.
Another player didn't like the fact that you couldn't really act but always had to react (and to WAY more powerfull seeming opponents) and didn't really have any choice what to do. For this player this adventure was the worst adventure in the series so far.

Now a small hiatus is starting as everybody wants to try out Keep on the Shadowfell, after that (if the group still/again wants to play D&D3.5) we'll continue with the campaign.


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## Rugult (May 31, 2008)

Selganor said:
			
		

> The reception of this adventure was mixed in the group.
> Some of the meelee fighters didn't like the relatively high number of flying enemies, which sometimes meant that they couldn't do anything during whole fights.
> Another player didn't like the fact that you couldn't really act but always had to react (and to WAY more powerfull seeming opponents) and didn't really have any choice what to do. For this player this adventure was the worst adventure in the series so far.
> 
> Now a small hiatus is starting as everybody wants to try out Keep on the Shadowfell, after that (if the group still/again wants to play D&D3.5) we'll continue with the campaign.




Having run through this adventure myself, I figure I'd post a few of my thoughts here...

To preface this post, I have to say that while Adventure 5 is not my favorite of the series, it is still one of the strongest.  My party still makes throwbacks to the adventure during out of game conversation, as it had one of our most epic battles of the campaign happen.

From what I've read it seems like the players are calling a lot of shots in your game.  While this is important in games, I don't think being forced to end the adventure in one session when there is clearly still quite a bit of combat/roleplaying left, can give the players a proper view of the adventure.

Some things I noticed in your post (SPOILERS)

[sblock]
1.  The problems with flying monsters are a bit unfair...  If the wind theme of the adventure hadn't sunk in yet and the players didn't get the hint that ranged might be important they deserved to get a bit trounced.  I hope they can figure out they might be fighting some shadow creatures when you run KotS  

2.  Another note on the flying bit...  The fight with the monks, which your group skipped for time sake, would have helped quite a bit, as many of those monks carried potions of Flying.

3.  I'm not sure what 'winging' over the encounter with Caela means, but from what I guess it means you didn't actually run the fight, which REALLY takes away from the adventure.  When my group ran through this fight it took the entirety of a session (about 4 hours of combat) and was one of the most memorable fights in the campaign thus far.

4.  Finally the adventure wasn't really 'finished' as from what I remember the whole reason the players were there was to find the original adventuring party that Seaquen had sent.  So I suppose they could have called it finished at the entrance to the tower...  but what good DnD group wouldn't want to check the dark foreboding tower in the middle of an evil valley?    
[/sblock]

Anyways, I hope your players do want to come back to the Burning Sky as it's such a lovely setting (we're on Adventure 8 right now).


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