3.3 Pleasure Gardens
Overview
After entertaining Calus in the Gauntlet, the Emperor expresses his emotions regarding the group's relative success and invites them to continue the tour of the Leviathan. The group is led back into the Castellum, where they bear the Standards from the Gauntlet over to the Pleasure Gardens under Bahr'Toran's supervision. They unlock the door and walk to the gardens while speaking to Calus. As they arrive, they are offered the chance to wander and observe while Calus explains how he collected all the flora present. He drops hints of some flowers being reactive to sunlight, the party would see some gardener Legionnaires performing the mechanics of the encounter by beaming a flower and collecting the spores. Calus then begins talking about his pets, and how they like to stalk the garden from time to time but despise the particular plants the party needs to get spores from. Calus also says they are less than fond of guests, and can make a most awful racket if startled. He then looses the dogs into the arena and the encounter begins, this time under the premise that his dogs have gotten away from their handlers and need to be corralled by the party.Encounter
Arena
Players will enter the gardens from the north. Along the south wall sits an enormous gardening-shed-like structure with an enormous statue of Calus on top of it. The garden is a labyrinth of stone artistry, tangled plant growth, and loamy traps. Along both the east and west walls are 3 large purple plants; fibrous pouches slouching off the rock faces and stonework of the arena filled with porous fungal mass. Two more of these plants are also found in the center of the arena, one in a grove of trees towards the west and the other in a stone crevasse leaning east. Atop stone pillars erected in various places through the garden are beams of sunlight cutting through the overgrown ceiling foliage and casting bright columns of light onto the ground below.The garden toolshed to the south is preceded by a compost hopper chute, and presents two doors facing east and west. Within the doors are an assortment of gardening tools, as well as a set of 6 psionic pearls. The party would have observed gardener Legionnaires collecting pollen from plants with similar pearls. There is a skylight window on top of the structure, at the feet of the Calus statue atop it, that can be traversed with an ability jump. Atop the shed are two golden prismatic crystals, which the party would have observed the gardener Legionnaires using to redirect sunlight onto plants in the arena.
Mechanics
The pleasure gardens is meant to function as a stealth encounter; the goal is to scare off the six Royal Beasts by collecting purple plant spores into the psionic pearls without letting the dogs see you. Being caught will result in a non-lethal psychic attack from the dogs that resets the party's spore collection progress, and can be avoided by retreating to the shed. The encounter ends when all six Royal Beasts have been rounded up.Flowers
The eight distinct purple flowers throughout the arena, represented by tokens, are the main mechanical component of the encounter. The party will need to navigate between the flowers and collect their spores to progress. The flowers have an AC of 10. If hit by sunlight, the flowers will use its Spore Cloud ability, which can be collected by a psionic pearl. A flower cannot use Spore Cloud again until its ability has recharged, which takes 1 minute. Spore Cloud can also be restored by the Royal Beasts' Psionic Cry, which effectively resets the encounter as it stands.Sunlight Prisms
Within the garden, there are 6 distinct columns of sunlight that pierce through the canopy and land on top of stone structures, three to the east and three to the west. These spaces will be indicated by tokens. Included as part of the gardening equipment in the bunker are two amber prisms, which when exposed to sunlight redirect the radiance in a beam that can be aimed by a player in any direction they choose. This beam counts as an improvised ranged weapon attack (1d20+Dex) with a range of 200/400 feet. If this sunlight beam is used to attack one of the purple flowers, a successful hit will trigger the Spore Cloud ability.Not every sunbeam has a line of sight to every flower, and line of sight is indicated by matching colored dots on both the sunbeam and the flower tokens. For example, the sunbeam indicated as Red only has a line of sight to flowers that also bear the Red indicator. A player standing in a sunbeam is not able to see a flower that does not have a matching color indicator to the sunbeam they are currently standing under. Since not every position will be able to interact with the full array of flowers, it will be necessary for players to move between beams of sunlight to interact with all flowers.
Royal Beasts
Around the arena, there are 4 Royal Beasts. These are enhanced War Beast enemies with variant abilities. They are Blind, but possess blindsight of 10 ft. and have a passive Perception of 15 for sounds as far as 20 ft. They are hostile to the player, though they will not make any direct attacks against them. The Royal Beasts are passive until the players enter a 10 ft. radius of the Beast, at which point the player must be under the condition of a Stealth roll of 16 or higher or all Royal Beasts in the arena initiates its Psionic Cry.| Psionic Cry | As a reaction upon noticing a player, the Royal Beast begins its Psionic Cry. Throwing its head back, it screams into the sky at a frightening octave, alerting all other Royal Beasts in the arena. The cry lasts for 30 seconds, at which point all Risen creatures in the arena must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 4d10 Psychic damage, or half as much on a success. The saving throw DC is scaled to the number of Royal Beasts participating in the Psionic Cry.
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The Royal Beasts are averse to the presence of the purple plants' spores. If confronted with one psionic pearl imbued by 4 Spore Clouds or four pearls with 1 Spore Cloud each, the Royal Beast will turn and run, exiting the arena entirely and reducing the DC of the Psionic Cry.
Stealth & Movement
The focus of this encounter is stealth, avoiding contact with the Royal Beasts and collecting spores from the plants. Since contact with the Royal Beasts will fully reset the encounter, it is paramount that the party acts stealthily.Determining Stealth
When asked to do so by the Architect, party members will roll Stealth checks against the passive Perception score of the Royal Beasts to determine if they are spotted. For the ground crew collecting spores; moving within 20 ft. of a Royal Beast means they must succeed on a DC15 Stealth check. When within 10 ft., they must have rolled a 20 or higher. Failing within 10 ft. results in immediate activation of the Psionic Cry. The DC15 check can be failed up to three times, at which point the Royal Beasts become alert and begin the Psionic Cry. The crew using the prisms on top of the stone pillars are only ever subject to the DC15 check.Movement
During this encounter, the party is considered to be in free movement, though this can be altered depending on the circumstances. There are no movement restrictions, though choosing to move an exceptionally long distance (further than 60 ft., or however far a combat Dash would cover) will be considered to be a Fast pace, and automatically fail any stealth checks the path they traveled intersects with.The prism carriers are able to move between sunbeams by way of an ability jump. The prism carrier must complete a DC16 skill check-in either Athletics or Acrobatics to move from one sunbeam to the next. The sunbeams are considered a linear path, and moving from the northmost to the southmost on a given side of the arena means 2 successful skill challenges must be completed. Failing a skill challenge means the prism carrier must make a DC15 Stealth roll to determine if they are in danger of alerting the Royal Beasts.
Consequences of Combat
Calus loves these dogs more than most things in his possession, he speaks fondly of them and makes a point to dote on them to the party while talking about the purpose of the garden. While it is possible for the dogs to be attacked and damaged, even killed, Calus will become enraged by these actions and attack the party with his own Psionic powers. If any party member takes a hostile action towards one of the Royal Beasts, Emperor Calus will subject them to a DC30 Constitution saving throw. The player must succeed or take 8d10 psychic damage, with half as much on a success. Calus then berates them for the audacity and affront to his hospitality that is harming his treasured beasts. He hopes that Judge will remind them that while Calus holds no ill will towards them, the Emperor values the wellbeing of his property over that of Shadow pledges and strangers. Calus will then reset the encounter himself and ask again that the party helps send his Beasts back to their den.Ideal Flow
After some time observing the arena, chatting with Calus about his dogs and the plants inside the garden, the sound of the Royal Beasts will echo through the room. Calus regrets to inform the party that it seems as though his beloved dogs have broken free of their handlers and are headed to the garden. It is opportune that the party is here, and Calus asks that they use the tools in the bunker to corral his pets so they may continue with the tour. Four people pick up psionic pearls from the bunker, two climb on top to retrieve the prisms and navigate to sunbeams as the Royal Beasts position themselves around the arena.Ideally, the four psionic pearls navigate around the arena together and collect 1 Spore Cloud each from every plant with the help of the prism carriers. Alternatively, the ground crew could split up and collect 1 Spore Cloud each from four separate plants. When they feel a sufficient amount of Spores are collected, the ground crew can attempt to banish a Royal Beast. If they are successful, they can return for more pearls and repeat the process. If they fail or are spotted through stealth at any point, the encounter resets with the Psionic Cry mechanic.
At any time, Calus may chime in with commentary or advice based on his level of satisfaction with the process.
| Encounter Element | Calus' Comments |
|---|---|
| Using the Psionic Pearls to collect spores | "One of my garden's most remarkable features is the array of species. The only way I've found to successfully manage their waste has been the psionic pearls you see before you. Regardless of the type of vegetation, the pearls have proven to be most effective in collecting their pollen, spores, and other emissions. My gardeners are truly inventive, are they not?" |
| Using the Prisms to redirect sunlight | "Many of the plants in my garden exhibit some form of excitable behavior when exposed to direct sunlight. My gardeners have devised a method to control their exposure, limiting opportunities for unsupervised cross-pollination between sexually incompatible species. The amber prisms that sit at the foot of my likeness allow them to treat each plant precisely with their full attention. Clever, isn't it?" |
| Collecting a sufficient amount of spores | "My loving hounds are not the canines of your human tribes! They are hearty, Cabal beasts. They cannot be deterred by half-hearted effort. My handlers harvest copious amounts of these spores for their daily work with the creatures, it would surely benefit you to do the same." |
| Remaining unseen | (laughter)
"I have trained my beautiful companions too well. So loyal, so alert! Perhaps avoiding their senses would be beneficial, lest their cries continue to disrupt the psionic energies of your equipment." |
| Avoiding damage from the Psionic Cry | "My Royal Beasts are a carefully crafted breed, selected for their massive potential in the Psionic arts. Even my Loyalist handlers are not immune to their cries, though they have constructed their toolshed to dampen the effects of the excitable little beasts. I may prove useful to you as well in order to shelter from the piercing cries of my poor, upset hounds." |
| Attacking a Beast | (Psionic attack is made)
"The gall! The audacity! I invite you into my home, and you choose to affront my hospitality by striking out against my innocent pets? My dearest Champion, was I mistaken to assume your company would have been better mannered than to do such a thing?" (a moment passes for a response, which is then addressed before continuing) "I hope you will remind your peers, o' Champion of mine, that while I am pleasured by the company of so many members of your Lightbearing tribe my graciousness does have its limits. I have no ill will towards you, but I suppose it no longer goes without saying that I value the wellbeing of my property far more than I do that of uninitiated Shadow pledges and mere strangers. I hope I have made myself clear." |
Rewards
- 1 chalice of Royal Wine
- 4,800 glimmer
- 1 Scout Rifle (Field Scout)
- 1 Longsword (Solar Shot Capacity & Jagged Edge)
Parent Plot
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