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 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 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, , Inc.; Authors , 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. and .

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 adopted the name Monks of Eden after having gone through Purgatory, and emerged from In her infancy, 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”. They incur a -1 penalty to Intelligence and not listed in the following descriptions. The specifics for the Dexterity and are resistant to necrotic damage. traits listed in the descriptions are up to the GM's discretion. Skeleton (Greed): The skeletons are completely stripped Elementals (Pride): The Elementals are humanoid beings of flesh and sinew, and made of clean, off-white bones, that with definitive physical features for their type. Such as skin are held together magically. They will do anything for money color, or eyes; red for fire, blue for water, green for earth, and riches, having the traits “Miser” and “Kleptomania”. Lack white for air. They feel they are never wrong, with the traits of muscle or facial features gives them -1 to Charisma and “Overconfident”, and “Inability to admit fault”. They Have a -1 Strength scores, and resistance to poison damage. to Strength, and Charisma, and resistance to one of the Zombie (Gluttony): The zombies are very slightly decrepit following elements, based on their type: fire, cold, thunder, corpses. Damage removes flesh and pops out eyes, and lightning. healing regrows it. They have the traits of being Ghost (Envy): A pale visage of their former life. They are “Overweight”, and “Always hungry”. They receive a -1 to slightly luminescent, but their bodies are very faded, resulting Wisdom and Dexterity and are resistant to psychic damage. in no change to sneak or hide. They have the trait “Crave Demon (Lust): Horns, a tail, and sharp features are added attention”, getting bitter if they are not the center of attention, to the being's appearance along with colored skin such as and they are somewhat jealous of other people's powers. green, red, or purple. They act impulsively and are annoyingly They have a -1 to Strength, and Intelligence, and have flirtatious with the “Impulsive” and “Wanton” personality resistance to acid damage. traits. They receive a -1 to Wisdom and Strength and are resistant to poison damage. Character selection, abilities and modifiers Sin type Creature type -1 to each stat Damage resistance Traits Pride Elemental CHA and STR 1 of 4 elements Overconfident, Faultless Envy Ghost INT and STR Acid Craves attention Wrath Golem CHA and DEX Cold Aggressive, Rash Sloth Mummy INT and DEX Necrotic Lazy, Un-participatory Greed Skeleton CHA and CON Poison Kleptomaniac, Miser Gluttony Zombie WIS and DEX Psychic Overweight, Always hungry Lust Demon WIS and STR Poison Impulsive, Wanton

Note: The elementals damage resistance corresponds to its elemental type; Fire, Cold, Thunder, or Lightning.

Sin Points The group starts with 7 sin points after entering purgatory. They are represented by seven short scars etched into each player's forehead. The points can be used by Alighieri, in battle, against the group as legendary actions. There are seven situations throughout purgatory where the characters can lose a sin point.

1. Freeing Peter the Deva. 2. Destroying the sentient weapons in Envy. 3. SaSampleving Gen. Polenta, or Filippo in Wrath. file 4. Saving Lucy or Hesiod in Sloth. 5. Rescuing the droid in Greed. 6. Curing the Omega Experiment in Gluttony. 7. Letting four of the employees in the mansion of Lust live.

4 The Pace Location Level Plot Point Virgil's story The Antechamber 5 Encounter with slave sisters Meeting Peter the Deva Pride Arduous mephit fight in Pride 6 Battle With Aergia Part 1 Envy Going through the halls of Envy 7 Battle with Invidia Part 2 Wrath Siege Battle in Wrath Battle with Gullveig Sloth Exploring the Farm 8 The Hedge Maze Part 3 Greed Solving the Puzzles in Greed Gluttony 9 Battle with Adaphagia Fighting the Omega Project and Lust 10 Captured by Rati and Part 4 Escape from the mansion of Lust Eden Final battle with Alighieri

Timeline 1. Story introduction, group meets slaves. (Start at level 5) 2. Alighieri is summoned, and the group is forced to flee into the Antechamber caverns. 3. At the end of the Antechamber, and the entrance to the seven layers of Purgatory, the group encounters Peter. 4. Alighieri senses when Peter is either killed or set free, giving away the group’s location. 5. Alighieri sends Aergia to capture the group and bring them back to the throne room. 6. The group goes through the trial of Pride defeating Aergia at the end. (Level up to 6) 7. Alighieri grows impatient, so after 4 hours he sends Invidia, Gullveig, and Adaphasia to kill the group and collect Aergia from her farm, where they all assume she went. 8. Alighieri gets called by Hecate for a task and must leave. 9. The three slaves, assuming Aergia went to her farm in Sloth, split up to defy Alighieri, and do their own thing. 10. Invidia goes to Envy to work on her mind control potion, finds the group, and decides to set a trap to kill them. Gullveig goes to Wrath to enact a siege battle knowing Lyssa is still chained up. And Adaphasia goes to Gluttony to work on her genetic experiments. 11. The group traverses the Halls of Envy and, at the end,they are ambushed by Invidia and forced to capture or kill her. (level up to 7) 12. The group leaves Envy, emerging into the courtyard of Wrath. They meet General Polenta and her troops, help in the siege battle, and are attacked by Gullveig. 13. The group crosses the valley of Sloth and discovers the farm. They uncover its secrets and move through the hedge maze, into the palace of Greed. (level up to 8) 14. As the group enters Greed, Alighieri returns to his throne room, discovering the slaves he sent are still gone. He is furious, but Rati convinces him that the group must have killed the other slaves, and to let her, and her sisters, get revenge by killing them; He agrees. 15. The remaining slaves, Hybris, Rati, and Lyssa, venture into Purgatory and find evidence of the remaining slaves' fates. They create a plan to capture the group to use them as a way to kill Alighieri and retake Purgatory. 16. The group explores Greed, encountering a dragon and a robot. As they enter the next layer, Gluttony, they find Adaphasia, and she tries to kill them. (level up to 9) 17. Lyssa goes, on her own, to collect the Omega Experiment and bring it to the mansion through the laboratory, but runs into the group, and is slain or captured. 18. HySamplebris and Rati go through Purgatory gathering supplies and preparing for their plan. They preparfilee the mephits from Pride assembling them for the fight in Eden. Then they collect Invidia’s hidden mind control potions from Envy. And finally collect knock-out gas from Greed, along with the dragon and droid, if they are there. Then warp into Lust to set their trap and capture the group. 19. Through the lab is the entrance to Lust where the group is captured by Hybris, and Rati, then magically brainwashed to not attack the slaves during the final battle. (level up to 10) 20. The group is allowed to escape Lust, and enter Eden where they fight the final battle with Aligheiri. 5

Virgil Aeneid's Story

Story one (Written on the entrance to Envy) I, Virgil Aeneid, was once a Monk of Eden. I joined the temple to work and study in the hopes of earning enough gold to travel to the far west. I stayed with the monks for weeks before having to demand my pay, which they continued to withhold. One night we had a heated argument, and the next day the head monks had me copy the inscribed poem on the temple's obelisk, whereupon I was transported to this hellish demiplane. In the volcanic tunnels, I found an old friend from the Temple of Eden. He had disappeared from the temple months before; the head monks having said he decided to return home. He was one of the emaciated bodies laying about the caverns, but I recognized his voice as he called out for assistance. I tried to help him, but his body was so frail that his spine broke in my hands as I sat him up, and in the end, he begged me to end his suffering. I'm sure that the head monks have been sending people here, explaining away their disappearances, and selling their worldly possessions. I will have revenge on the Monks of Eden, once I escape this hellish prison.

Story two (Written in the hallway leading to Wrath) I have survived because I foreknew Purgatory. So I have left these notes for anyone else who must endure this place. The paladins destroyed the machine which imprisoned I saw Hybris, the leader of the slave sisters, in her layer of Hecate, but Athena arrived just in time to stop her and free Purgatory; commanding groups of mephits. I could see an the paladins from her sinister enthrallment. With her last about her that bolstered the elementals, and her action, Hecate was able to imprison the seven paladins in her inspiring voice riled the group into a zealous mob. Rati was demiplane, Purgatory, before she was recaptured. there too, walking silently alongside Hybris. She never looked The seven paladins survived Purgatory by adapting, and directly at me, but I was able to see her eyes at one point, and allowing the hellish place to corrupt them. Over time they I fell in love, almost stepping out from my hiding place before came to rule over the abandoned realm, becoming the seven coming to my senses. sinful sisters. Eventually, Hecate was able to send a demilich And later, on the farm, I encountered Adaphagia as she to retake his prison and enslave the seven sisters. negotiated for a human test subject from Aergia. She seemed strong and lithe for such an obese monstrosity, moving like Story four (Written in the hallway leading to Lust) the other sisters, with unnatural speed and strength. Aergia Alighieri is an ancient skeletal lich. I've seen him command refused her offer, and Adaphagia threw a tantrum, grabbing the slave sisters against their will. He inadvertently saved me the human female, and squeezing her to death, before from Adaphasia’s experiments when he came to collect her. I stepping through a portal. was trapped in a glass vat of pink fluid, paralyzed, watching Adaphasia dissect a brain in her laboratory when Alighieri’s Story three (Written on the entrance to Greed) massive skeletal form stepped through a portal. I remember Athena worked alongside Hecate once, and for a time she the blazing rubies in his eyes and chest leaving tracers in my betrayed her morals, which drastically decreased her divine vision, which outlined all the forms of pain and fear I had influence. She tried to erase the events from history, but ever known, leaving a deep well of terror in my heart. He some proof remained, so she buried it. A century later seven pointed his huge black trident at her, freezing her in place, of her paladins found the proof and tried to reveal it. Athena while he issued his commands. After, she let him beat her intervened and commanded them to relinquish their without resistance, then followed him obediently into his documents, and swear a vow of secrecy. The next night the portal which closed with a thunderous clap shattering all the paladins were visited by Hecate in a dream. She enthralled glass in the room. them, disguised as Athena, and sent them on a quest to free I awoke in a pool of blood and glass, luckily alone, and have her from a prison of Athena’s making which existed in their been able to recover in this facility for a few hours. I’ve got world. some supplies but I need to get moving, so I'm going to knock Sampleon this red door I've found , whichfile I have been unable to unlock, or bypass.

6