Once back in Fallcrest Parle Cranewing and his wife Delv were very happy to be reunited, although he was quite dismayed to hear that his wife had put up the entire 300 GP for his rescue. He begrudgingly gave up the bounty as had been promised, and each party member earned 50 XP for completion of the minor quest.
Douven Stahl was especially happy to see the copy of the map of the Keep. On the one hand he is elated to have a copy of the map, but on the other he is rather distraught to learn that such a historic location existed essentially right under his note for all these years. He has little concern about paying the 300 GP as promised for the map, and each party member earned 50 XP for completion of the minor quest.
Upon the news of your return reaching him Menos hurriedly pulled together a meeting that included all of the attendees from the first meeting, although there are some additional attendees this time. One was a gaunt figure with sunken eyes and a crooked nose that kept himself on one corner of the room behind Menos, never taking his eyes off the people in the room. He wore a long leather cape with rather rustic looking clothes underneath, but anyone looking would detect a very strong magical presence.
Also in attendance was a mean looking ranger-type, heavily muscled but wearing light armor and with his longbow propped up beside him. The burly character sat perfectly still, his arms crossed on his large chest as if daring someone to bother him.
Lastly there was a young elf lad sitting next to Menos in the seat that Maive had occupied the first time the party was together. Although casually dressed, he maintained that element of Elf fashion sense that can always make a plain set of clothes look better than they are. Just as Maive had been when you first met, he held a quill pen with several sheets of parchment in front of him. He gave a wry smile when Maive entered the room, and for a brief second Maive seemed slightly taken aback.
Menos started off quickly – he wanted to know everything, starting with the kobolds, including details about the raiding parties and their tactics, the weapons and magic, and the finally a description of the cave by the river where the kobolds had been encamped.
Next Menos wanted to know about the Keep. What was the condition of the Keep above ground, how was access underground provided, the goblins, the rooms, the traps, the undead, the secrets, Sir Keegan, the existence of the long fabled Aecris, Ninaren the spy and the battle in the graveyard, the hobgoblins, the trap room, the cathedral and finally the Rift. He was also curious about the “Chief Krand of the Bloodreavers” letter looking for slaves. He also listened as the party relayed Lord Padraig’s request for assistance with the Keep.
Once the story was fully told Menos paused, leaned back in his chair and sat quietly for maybe 30 seconds. He then looked to gaunt figure on his right and said “Stanton Thunderspire Mountain
He then turned back to the party and and after another pause explained “It is likely that an operation such as Kalarel was running was in preparation for maybe up to a 100 years. The depth of planning, the logistics, the magic required to pull this off was not an overnight operation. It is likely that Kalarel was one in a long line of those who knifed their predecessor in the back in an attempt to steal the glory for themselves.”
“Regardless, this is a great day. Your efforts are duly noted and are worth reward. I can provide a bit of gold for each of you as a reward, but perhaps I can use my contacts in other ways to benefit you.” He proposed, for those that were interested, that he would take a mundane item you possess and let his Elven craftsmen improve it to your specification (In other words you improve a single mundane piece of equipment to a 3rd
Menos continued, “I will likely have need of your services again in a few weeks. I suggest that you each rest comfortably and prepare yourself for what may be a tougher opponent.”
And thus end the adventure at the Keep on the Shadowfell. The characters now have a few weeks to rest and relax in Fallcrest. It is a medium size town with several inns to choose from. Most of the characters have spent some time here and will have time to catch up with old acquaintances, whether they want to or not. As heroes your fame now precedes you, so beware. The characters can take this opportunity to level up to 4th level and to decide on what magic items to spend their money on.
Each player was originally given a page of character background information. You will each be provided with an additional page of information, things that will happen to your character while in town that may affect your decisions going forward.
Scorecard: The party decided to cash in the 350 GP in gems and the miscellaneous jewelry, which works out to an additional 70 GP per character. The party also decided to chip in 25 GP each for Jenneth to purchase an "Enchant Item" ritual, bringing everyones GP amount equal to their previous amount at third level plus 509 GP. With the quest XP now awarded everyone’s XP level is now (3995 + 350) 4345 XP.
The group spent about thirty minutes perusing the PH and the DMG to determine how exactly one was supposed to acquire magic items now that the final gold count has been tabulated. And in a related vein, how do we play it now that Jenneth has acquired her “Enchant Item” ritual.
After much discussion, it is actually a lot simpler then I think anyone originally envisioned. Basically, there really isn’t such a thing such as a “Magic Shoppe” except for maybe low-level magic items. If a player wants to acquire a magic item they just need to have enough GP to pay for the appropriate level of enchantment. There is a table on page 224 of the PH for the GP equivalent for each item level. This system actually works at several levels:
1) Instead of giving the players a 560 GP reward Menos is just fronting that amount of money for us to get a player’s mundane item of choice bumped up to a level 3 item.
2) While the players are resting in town the DM decided there was a 7th level wizard in town that could enchant an item up to 7th level (Jenneth, at 4th level, would be limited to enchanting to 4th level items). Given the players each have between 800-900 GP a 7th level item at 2600 GP is currently out of an individual players reach, but does give the group the option of possibly pooling funds.
3) To improve a previously enchanted item to a higher level the original item is “sold” for 20% of its current level and the earnings applied to the cost of the new item. Taking a 3rd level item would require selling it for (560 * 20%) 112 GP then adding 728 GP to reach the 840 GP threshold for a 4th level item
4) There really is no chance given for failure of the enchantment or some percentage of limited availability, you just have to be able to pay for it. The choice of magic items is of course limited to what is available in the CB tool.
5) As stated previously the players decided to kick in 25 GP apiece to allow Jenneth to purchase a 175 GP “Enchant Item” ritual. Besides being limited to enchanting an item to her current level, Jenneth also does not have the option of enchanting for profit, nor does she have the option of giving party members an “in-house discount,” although I suppose we could potentially house-rule this. The books really don't address the use of enchantments in the context of any type of commerce. It also leaves an open question of how does a player lug around three million plus GP for a 30th level item. I am assuming if/when we play an adventure at a significantly higher level that will be addressed.
In conclusion, you can get whatever magic item you can afford. You may wish to save your money for further down the line as well. Just make sure you document your choices – including Menos’s reward item - so the correct magic item(s) get added to your character sheet and the GP level is adjusted accordingly.
If Minos is just funding a 3rd level item, might we kick in our own gold as differenct to 4th or 5th level item? dave
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