Trials of Purgatory

Trials of Purgatory Sample file 1 Adventure overview Table Of Contents A seasoned group of adventurers takes on a simple job that 3 The Demiplane, Purgatory traps them in a hellish demiplane prison. They meet seven slave sisters who summon their master to capture the group 4 Character creation but then immediately aid the group in retreating, to further 7 Chapter 1, The Antechamber their own newly formed escape plans. As the group traverses the layers of Purgatory they encounter several of these slaves, 12 Chapter 2, The Trial of Pride killing or capturing them, until eventually, the remaining slaves get a chance to enact their escape plans and lure the 14 Chapter 3, The Halls of Envy group into a fight with their master, the demilich Alighieri. 17 Chapter 4, The Battle of Wrath The adventure is inspired by the ancient Greek poems of Danté Alighieri and takes place within the seven layers of 21 Chapter 5, The valley of sloth Purgatory described in the second part of his divine comedy, entitled Purgatorio. In the adventure, each layer of purgatory 29 Chapter 6, The Palace of Greed was crafted long ago by one of the seven slaves, and they are 37 Chapter 7, The Institute of Gluttony radically different manifestations of the seven terraces described in Danté's poems. 42 Chapter 8, The Mansion of Lust 51 Chapter 9, Eden Open Game License 54 Enemy Stat Blocks, and NPCs Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000, Wizards of the 68 Maps Coast, LLC. System Reference Document 5.1 Copyright 2016, Wizards of the Coast, Inc.; Authors Mike Mearls, 80 Player handouts Jeremy Crawford, Chris Perkins, Rodney Thompson, Peter Lee, James Wyatt, Robert J. Schwalb, Bruce R. Cordell, Chris Sims, and Steve Townshend, based on original material by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. Running the Adventure Purgatory is a linear dungeon-crawl adventure that can take place in any 5e world or setting. It is written for a group of credits four or five adults starting at level 5, but can easily be Written, illustrated, and edited by Leonard Wertz. adjusted to suit a larger party or a younger audience. The adventure has several in-depth puzzles and is All images are origionals, or assigned to the public punctuated with intricate combats, so a diverse set of skills domain through a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) and proficiencies within the group and is key to surviving in license or similar release. this multifaceted hell-scape. This module is for the game master alone and assumes Formated with Scott Tolksdorf's Homebrewery you are familiar with all the 5e rules. It's best to read the website using watercolor splatters from Denny entire adventure before running a game, but skimming the Tang and Daniel Kamarudin. NPC backgrounds, story beats, and location notes should be enough to get started. Escaping Purgatory should take the players several sessions totaling at least 20 to 30 hours of gameplay depending on how much roleplaying is incorporated. Text appearing between these margins is considered Box-Text and should be read to the players when their characters first encounter new scenarios and areas. The text is meant to be parapSamplehrased and assumes the characters have all their senses. file 2 The Demiplane, Purgatory Background The devout followers of Hecate adopted the name Monks of Eden after having gone through Purgatory, and emerged from In her infancy, Athena the goddess of wisdom and civilization the demiplane, back in their homeworld, behind their temple. made the mistake of working alongside Hecate, the goddess They started running a scam where they would trick people of knowledge and trickery. By the deeds of their cooperation, into joining the church and get them to read, and record the many of Athena’s followers were killed, and even more texts, sending them to Purgatory. The monks would then take renounced their faith, greatly decreasing her divine influence. their leftover belongings and explain away their Filled with shame, Athena tried to erase the events from disappearances, hoping they would perish in the hellish history by burning the proof and rewriting the stories. demiplane. One follower, named Virgil Aeneid, was sent to However, an old paladin of Athena's gathered, and saved, Purgatory and was strong enough to make it through. He many artifacts and manuscripts chronicling Athena's actions, returned from Purgatory with new powers, and while the and buried them in a forgotten tomb before his death. monks slept he murdered them and set their temple ablaze. A century later, seven followers of Athena unearthed the The temple was then forgotten and left to be taken by the forgotten tomb, discovering the proof of Athena’s shameful forest. actions. Before they could inform their superiors, or reveal their find, Athena’s avatar visited them and commanded them to relinquish the artifacts, and swear an oath of secrecy, thus reburying the truth. That night Hecate appeared and spoke to Opening Scene the followers in a collective, hallucinatory dream. Hecate You each come together as a group to take on a job where you assumed the visage of Athena and bewitched the followers must go to the supposedly haunted Temple of Eden and into believing that Hecate had visited them earlier, in the record any hieroglyphics or writings you find there. (Each guise of Athena, to take and spread the evidence of Athena's player starts with a forgery kit). You spend three, wet days folly. He also convinced them that Hecate had built a machine together searching for the temple in the rainy forest. On the that prevents Athena from inhabiting an avatar on the material plane; Where in fact, Athena had built the machine, last day, you come across it late in the evening and spend the and Hecate is the one prevented from inhabiting an avatar. night under the cover of the temple. In the morning the clouds Hecate, as Athena, then bestowed powerful magical boons have cleared and the sun is shining, so after drying your on the followers and sent them to destroy the machine. The equipment, you turn your attention to exploring. followers nearly accomplished the task, allowing Hecate to The temple stands in ruins, several walls have collapsed manifest an avatar before Athena arrived to stop them and outwards and it is apparent that many birds and rodents call rebanish Hecate. Unfortunately, as Hecate was being cast out this place home. White-stone is visible behind the green and he punished the followers for their failure, sending them to his personal demiplane prison named purgatory. purple vines that seem to hold the hollow building together, In Purgatory, the followers survived years of the hellish and only a few small shards of stained glass remain in their prison by adapting and allowing the place to corrupt and splintered frames. An uneventful exploration reveals a mostly irreparably change them. Over time they became the seven intact nave where there is a large granite obelisk. It stands sisters ruling over the demiplane; transforming it, and eight feet tall and is covered in an old dialect of common that molding it to their needs. Eventually, Hecate sent a powerful seems to be a versed passage from a poem. lich, Alighieri, to corral the sisters and enslave them so as to I've shown him all the people who are guilty; reclaim his realm. For centuries now Alighieri has been the And now I mean those spirits to reveal, warden of Purgatory, and the slaves have been plotting and working towards destroying him, in the hopes of reclaiming who ‘neath thy jurisdiction cleanse themselves. the place for themselves. Long would it take to tell thee how I led him; Sometime later, back on the material plane, Devout Virtue descendeth from on high, which helps me followers of Hecate built a temple in his honor, then lead him to see thee and to hear thee speak. communed with him to find the location of the demiplane His coming, therefore, please to welcome; Freedom. named Purgatory. They carved stories and wove Magic into The sun, which from the middle of the sky the stones of the temple. Specifically old stories of Hecate’s had hunted Capricorn with arrows bright, trickery, and passages from forgotten poems. This magic transformed the whole temple into a planar gate that now was shooting forth the day on every side, leads to Purgatory. Reading or recording the text, written on when those new people raised their brows towards us, a stone obelisk inside the temple, is the activation key. and said: “If ye know-how, point out to us Anyone within range is plane-shifted to Purgatory and the road that one should take to reach the mount.” transfSampleormed into a monster based on their worldly sins. file (After reading the inscribed passage every player is transported to the demiplane purgatory). 3 Character creation Golem (Wrath): Constructs made of wood and metal, held together with magic, somewhat similar to clockwork beings. Each player chooses one of the seven sins or has one The Golems Have the traits “Rash” and “Aggressive”. They assigned based on character details like flaws or traits. This have -1 to Charisma, and Dexterity, and have resistance to decides the monster they will become when they are cold damage. transported to purgatory. They take their regular character Mummy (Sloth): Dried up and preserved, zombie-like, and add on one of the following seven conditions, Skeleton, Undead. They have rags and bandages wrapped about their Zombie, Mummy, Demon, Golem, Elemental, or Ghost. The bodies. They avoid physical work and always take the easy physical transformation is mostly superficial in that it doesn’t way out because they have the traits “Lazy” and “Un- affect weight, AC, concealment, or any other game statistics participatory”.

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