Contents
The Hidden Page
Decades ago, a wizard named Sylvene came to the Sword Coast from another plane of existence called Ravnica. While exploring Waterdeep and nearby lands, she met and fell in love with the father of her child. She built a refuge for them in a small demiplane of her own creation, but eventually she went home to Ravnica with her infant son and never returned.
Now her grandson seeks to recover relics of her power by exploring Sylvene's history in the Realms—and he doesn't care who he hurts along the way. The consequences of his careless pillaging already ripple out to impact others.
This Dungeons & Dragons® adventure is written to suit four to six characters of 8th level. With this text and the core D&D manuals, you have everything you need to play.
Adventure Overview
This adventure begins when the characters discover a secret door and overcome the traps beyond it. The treasure within takes them to a strange island demiplane in Part 2. At the center of that island is the refuge of a vanished wizard, described in Part 3. The fate of the demiplane and its current inhabitants is ultimately in the adventurers' hands.
Finally, Part 4 of this text hints at the next adventure to help you foreshadow and prepare.
Part of a Series
This adventure is written as the second in a five-part series. Whether you're playing this as part of our adventure series or weaving this adventure into another campaign, read "Part 4: What's Next?" to get an idea of where some of these threads lead, and how you can change those threads to accommodate your campaign.
This adventure foreshadows a recurring villain named Tyreus. More about his plans and methods can be discovered in future adventures. If you prefer not to wait, or if you want to substitute another villain in for ours, you can adapt this adventure to refer to a villainous NPC of your own.
By combining the immediacy of the players' choices with the mysterious histories and ambitions of key NPCs, this scenario explores matters of perspective, comfort, and regret. Future adventures in this series expand on this to explore the past and the consequences of the players' choices along the way.
The end of this adventure makes a fine milestone for leveling up. The next adventure in the series is meant for 9th-level characters.
Background
A lone mage is at work enacting his villainous plan near the Sword Coast. He is a trespasser from another plane. He is here in pursuit of legends and lore, in the footsteps of his forebears who came here long ago. He is called Tyreus, though few here know him by name.
By ransacking and looting the past, Tyreus hopes to gather enough arcane power to create a powerful, important future for himself. In his view, that means having people bow to him. Tyreus seeks his own grandeur above all.
While plundering the demiplane refuge of his grandmother, Sylvene, Tyreus makes enemies of Sylvene's old allies, who call out for help the only way they know how—through Sylvene's leftover magic. Their cries for help may be what draws adventurers to Sylvene's hidden refuge, thereby determining the fate of that demiplane and revealing Tyreus's dangerous plan for the future.
Secrets of Tyreus
Although he does not appear in person in this adventure, Tyreus casts a long shadow. The characters may not discover all the following information during the adventure, but it can be useful when foreshadowing Tyreus.
The wizard who crafted the demiplane at the heart of this adventure—a female human mage called Sylvene—was an explorer from Ravnica who visited the Realms decades ago. She fell in love with a man who lost his life to misadventure in the High Moor. Sylvene was pregnant when he died, and she gave birth to their son, Tyberio, in Waterdeep. She eventually returned to Ravnica to raise him, and she passed away when Tyberio was twelve.
Tyberio rebelled by refusing to study magic. He sought a quiet life as a craftsman and merchant but carried a certain bitterness and resentment toward the world. He always wanted to visit the land where his parents met, but never managed to.
Tyberio started a family with his wife, Ayraea, and had one son. In his bitterness, Tyberio forbade his son from studying magic—but it didn't work. Tyberio's teenaged son secretly began learning the ways of mages the same summer that, coincidentally, Tyberio and Ayraea passed away from a minor plague in Ravnica. Their son, furious over his parents' fears of magic, over their death, and over his own powerlessness, devoted his life to wizardry thereafter. That angry wizard is Tyreus.
In Previous Adventures
The previous adventure in this series took place in an abandoned, secret sanctum on the High Moors of the Realms, buried in a place called the Wizard's Barrow. Tyreus ransacked that sanctum's library and left monsters behind to destroy what was left of it.
Sylvene was one of the wizards who taught and practiced magic in the Wizard's Barrow decades before. It was guarded by trapped steles not unlike the emitter stone in Part 1 of this adventure.
If the previous adventure isn't part of your campaign, this scenario can serve to involve your players' characters for the first time or provide a simple, standalone experience of magic and danger.
Adventure Hooks
Adventurers can become involved in this scenario in a number of ways—some of them seemingly coincidental. When the mysterious groundskeepers of Sylvene's refuge call out for help, those cries might manifest in the Realms in the subtlest ways.
A New Clue
Adventurers looking into the origins and history of the Wizard's Barrow from the prior adventure discover an abandoned townhouse in Waterdeep. The building was once home to a wizard from afar but has been boarded up, is empty, and has been ransacked several times. Until now, no one has discovered the secret door that begins this adventure, but the cries of the keepers make it easier to locate now.
A Mysterious Find
To draw the characters into this adventure (whether they've explored the Wizard's Barrow or not), place the secret door and hidden chambers that kick off this scenario into another adventure or short side trek, then follow the adventurers into the demiplanar refuge when they have the planar key.
The cries of the keepers can manifest in a telepathic emanation from the planar key itself, a wordless sense of desperate pleading for aid.
A Mission of Mystery
Perhaps the adventurers are hired to find and open the secret door by a sage attempting to learn the secret history of Sylvene and her former cadre of wizards, for posterity's sake. The sage sends the adventurers to Sylvene's abandoned townhouse, which has been well pilfered except for the previously undiscovered secret door in the cellar—made all the more obvious now by the cries of the keepers.
Lore to Learn
At various points throughout play, the adventurers can discover lore about Tyreus, his plans, and the history of Sylvene's extraplanar refuge from the demiplane's keepers or from Morwena Veilmist, whom Tyreus abandoned in the demiplane. Reveal lore in response to questions the adventurers ask of these NPCs or other suitable roleplaying cues. In general, though an NPC can reveal multiple pieces of lore at once, aim to reveal lore in the order listed.
What the Keepers Know
The keepers of the demiplane at the heart of this adventure know some things about Sylvene's history from conversing with her, decades ago, and they know all about her demiplane. They also know a bit about Tyreus after observing him on the island. The keepers share this lore with adventurers if they feel it is safe and wise to do so:
- Sylvene was a wise and thoughtful human mage who combined adventurous explorations with an almost anthropological study of the Realms. She came from a place called Ravnica.
- Sylvene fell in love with a human man from some village of the Sword Coast. They met in Secomber. She wouldn't say much about him except that he perished on an adventure.
- Sylvene brought her infant son, Tyberio, to the refuge several times before they inexplicably stopped coming back. That was decades ago, but the keepers don't keep careful track of time, so they can't be sure how long.
- Tyreus is a white, male human mage—an adventurer, not a scholar. He arrived with Morwena and a horrific shadow creature to ransack the refuge. Tyreus left with just an armful of books.
- Seero took the form of a middle-aged man to speak with Tyreus, but Tyreus flew into a rage, accusing Seero of "wearing my father's face." The keepers are sure Seero had taken on the form of an adult Tyberio, who must be Tyreus's father. "They both have Sylvene's eyes."
- Tyreus and Morwena argued about the fate of the refuge, and Tyreus stormed off, then teleported away without her.
What Morwena Knows
Morwena knows things about Tyreus from time she spent with him since the previous adventure. She may be persuaded to share some or all of this lore with adventurers if she believes it is advantageous to her:
- Tyreus believes power is the pinnacle quality of a mage and that power justifies itself. He doesn't care who he hurts if it empowers him.
- Tyreus blames his parents for denying him his "birthright" of magical power, which he should have inherited from his grandmother, Sylvene.
- Tyreus is an angry and sometimes petulant person. He thinks if he gathers enough power, he can make a place for himself in the world where he can be strong and, finally, find happiness.
- When he looks at the Realms, Tyreus only sees a place to be conquered or plundered out of spite. Morwena tried (and failed) to convince him the Realms could make him powerful—that he could carve out a part of the Sword Coast for them to rule together—and that's when she knew Tyreus would not share power.
- Morwena and Tyreus argued, but Tyreus's anger wouldn't let him trust her. He abandoned her in the demiplane because she threatened him—and because he thought he might need her later.
- Morwena won't help Tyreus again. "He's only out for himself," she says. "He's a powerful mage already, but he cannot see himself or others well enough to recognize how dangerous he is. What a waste."
Remember that Morwena is willfully evil. All of the above is true to her experience with, and opinions of, Tyreus. Her thoughts may be influenced by her own lowered opinion of him, and he may now be more influenced by the time they spent together than he wanted to admit. But Morwena is done with Tyreus. His pursuit of personal grandeur is in the way of her own.