We begin in media res with the party engaged with the modrons at the Mechanus Chain (69). I think we will place the party across the space with the three players on the eastern balcony and the NPCs on the western side. At their backs is the archway that leads to the hall of decay and there is a real danger that someone will step through there in the heat of battle. This might not be a huge issue as we get to the end of the scenario but the paladin for example has a non-magical suit of armour which could be disastrous.

I think that the easiest solution is to say that the effect is so strong that stepping into the hall a character immediately senses that something is wrong. They can make a DC 16 Dex save to dive back out before losing any significant items though the effect is such that it will have at least rusted weapons and armour even if not sufficient to render them useless.

Having overcome the modrons and the Hall of Decay the players will need to capture the final two skeleton keys. I anticipate a scene where they ambush the non-combatants as and force Ruby to reveal her doppelganger nature. This gives the players an interesting moral choice and she should manage to defeat the skeletons alone.

Trial of the Triangle

Whilst a mage hand cannot pull the lever I’m sure that a trickster rogue can use it to tie a cord to the lever and pull it.

Trial of the Square

It is unlikely that the dust mephit will last long enough to cast more than one spell, that should be Bloatbug, purely because it is most fun. The player will be at disadvantage making combat rolls if they are in non-magical armour as it is so tight.

Trial of the Pentagon

If the player emerges and is cursed then they can go back into the room and eat but they will have to partake of all of the food to lift the curse (not the drink).

Trial of the Hexagon

I think that this is the only really well done puzzle room, however it is a shame that the rogue will immediately discover the hidden candle. Better to not have a candle in the room and have the players either provide one or make one by stripping some wax from the other candles.

Trail of the Octagon

It is clear by now that the rogue is constantly searching and so the secret compartment will be instantly discovered along with the false seams in the floor. Having discovered the floor it will take very little time for the rogue to establish that this is not the trap. Investigating the lectern reveals that there is a trap on the door opening and an active magic trigger.

The Sewn Sisters

For the three night hags to be effective I think that they need to divide the party, in order to do this two of the night hags will be polymorphed on arrival, one into a Gorgon and the other into a roper on the ceiling twenty feet up in the air above the party. The third will have cast eyebite and find a position where the roper can pull away any attackers. If they have been knocked out of the polymorph then they will try and get back to these forms, the last hag will switch to a troll if the eyebite ends.

If the players take a short rest in this room then the hags will attack but only with lightning bolts at range, switching back to the ethereal plane once the rest is disturbed. A long rest gives them the opportunity to invade the dreams and undo the benefits as well as delivering damage.

Post Mortem

The battle with the Modron’s ended extremely quickly, bunched together in the cylinder most fell victim to a fireball and the low DC save for the paralysis gas did not really complicate the precarious position on the narrow platforms.

The passage of decay was also avoided after some experimentation – due to the position it was not possible to get the Doppelganger into the space in order to draw the others in. As discussed however, given the dearth of magic equipment this would have left most party members without armour.

Resolution of the five puzzle rooms was made more interesting by a rather more clever solution to the mirror puzzle in the challenge of the hexagon. The players eventually reasoned that as the candles are duplicated in the mirror it took three (plus reflections) rather than five. This is much more satisfying as it doesn’t rely on a badly hidden sixth candle.

The challenge of the of the octagon almost led to a party member death – he was reduced to zero hits in the blender but immediately pulled out in the following round and cured with only one death save remaining. The players read out and discussed the nursery rhyme, they even mused about the direction to read it – however in the end they settled for forwards and triggered the trap.

The final encounter of the session was improved immeasurably with the polymorph spells – the players were somewhat nonplussed by the arrival of a gorgon but went at it with Gusto. In the melee with no one taking time out to search, the only players to spot Peggy Deadbells using eyebite were those that succumbed to the spell.

By the end of the session the players have used most of their resources and few of them are on full hits – there is a short rest to gird their loins before pressing on to the endgame.