12.1 - VR: EQ 40k, Najena

NAJENA

During the current Dynasty of Naythox Thex, Najena has worked diligently to heighten her knowledge and increase her powers in order to satisfy her curiosity about the elements. Before the dynasty of Thex, there were four mage houses. They were the House of Summoning, the House of Sorcery, the House of Enchanting, and the House of the Dead. The king found it necessary to combine the four circles under one house to better serve the empire as well as enhance his oversight. All rulers of the houses at first refused, until being persuaded by the emperor's Dreadguards. With the individual houses abolished, all the mages of the empire came to be known collectively as the Spurned - all, that is, except that of the Queen of Neriak, the Duchess Cristanos Thex.
Cristanos was the Duchess of the Dead, the ruler of a secluded caste of mages known as the House of the Dead that was given exclusive rights to learn secrets of the dark arts. No other house was allowed to dabble in the dark arts - even knowledge of the dark arts that related to the other houses were never allowed to leave the House of the Dead. When the consolidation of the mage houses took place, a compromise was hatched between the duchess and king, and the understudy of the duchess, the precocious Najena, was appointed to the Spurned to work for the empire. What's more, the Duchy of Dead was allowed to exist as a separate caste under the rule of Cristanos, who restricted access to the great Library of Souls to Najena only.
Najena's occupation of the ruined complex in Lavastorm Mountains serves as a private facility for her own personal agendas and experiments. The ogre guards were "gifts" to the young, brilliant magician at the time of her appointment by Cristanos Thex.
It is rumored that Najena is Cristanos Thex's niece.

Najena is a VR experience found on the holodeck level of Silver Mount. Once plugged in, the PCs will pick from a list of pre-generated dark elves, trolls and ogres to form their party and raid Najena (you can use this link to quickly generate characters). Any experience earned in the dungeon is also earned by the PCs. If the PC dies they lose the experience up to that point, respawn at Neriak, and can rejoin the group. EQ PCs use standard XP tables for leveling and follow the standard 5e rules. The game will save their progress. Other adventures may be unlocked if the PCs successfully raid the dungeon. When running, make sure to keep in mind this is a game. PCs will not have blood, and their bodies will disappear after a few minutes and respawn if the game is reloaded.

Quest: A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

The other mage houses and clerics of Innoruk are unhappy that Najena, a female dark elf, is a mage (seen as a male occupation, and profane for a female dark elf) and somewhat envious of her success. Your band of raiders have been brought together to enter the dungeon home of Najena and kill her, her sisters and anyone else who gets in the way. As she is the Queen's niece it is imperative that no evidence leads back to YOU (and Third Gate) can be left behind. Capture is not an option. Reward: 1,000 xp and gp each.

Quest: The Visiting Priestess

See the link for details.

Monetisation

The game will prompt the PCs to spend money by offering higher level characters anytime they are knocked out or similar events occur.  The game accepts any kind of currency or valuables as payment.  As a rule of thumb, it will charge 100gp per level of a character the PC wants, but the character is selected randomly.  If the PC pays double, then the PC may pick the character.

Dungeon Random Encounter

If the PCs are too tardy a "random encounter" will trigger with a giant black widow Giant Spider or spiders. You can use this as needed or check every 10 minutes with the chance of an encounter occurring being a 1 in 6.

Key Guide for DMs

This is the order of keys required to open the various doors (though lockpicking works as well). This info is also listed on the room descriptions:

1. Go to (Ogre Captain's Room) on the map to get Shiny Metal Key.
2. Go to (Bonecracker’s Room) on the map to get Dull Bone Key.
3. Go to (Rathyl’s Cell Foyer) on the map to get the Bloodstained Key (need: Shiny Metal Key).
4. Go to (Rathyl’s Room) on the map to get (need: Dull Bone Key).
5. Go to (Drelzna’s) on the map to get Golden Crescent Key (need: Bloodstained Key).
6. Go to (Najena) on the map and kill Najena (need: Golden Crescent Key).

Game Over

If the whole party dies, the game is over and must be restarted. The PCs (not the VR PCs) lose any experience gained to that point. THeir avatars get to keep anything they earned up to that point. The game can be restarted at this point.

Winning

On successfully completing the VR quest the (real) PCs get a random reward:

1. Nanite Cannister - currency for certain technological boons.
2. Midget Clown - this robotic toy is very creepy. There is a cumulative 1% chance each night the midget clown will try and kill its owner.
3. Light Gun - looks and sounds like a real lazgun but does no damage.
4. A daggit, a robotic dog - treat as a normal dog but with the Construct (robot) type.

Once the abovie list is exhausted use the "Trinkets from the Barrier Peaks" table rolling once per PC that didn't die. Anytime there is a duplicate, the PC instead gets a nanite canister. Each oddity on this list is worth 100gp to anyone with the means to spend that amount on trinkets.

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Najena

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Najena, a dungeon located in the southeast part of the Lavastorm Mountains, is named after one of the more notable magicians of Antonica.