Session Notes
Not yet played — notes will appear here after the session.
As the adventure begins, the characters are established heroes currently in the city of Neverwinter on the Sword Coast. Several calamities have battered Neverwinter in the recent past. The greatest was the eruption of nearby Mount Hotenow, which nearly destroyed the city forty years ago, though most of the damage has since been repaired.
Neverwinter is ruled by its Lord Protector, Dagult Neverember. Rising to power through a tenuous claim of descendance from one of Neverwinter's past heroes, Lord Neverember has nevertheless provided stable leadership.
Unknown to the authorities, a cult of Vecna operates in the catacombs beneath Neverwinter's sprawling Neverdeath Graveyard. Cult members have been kidnapping city residents who carry significant secrets, draining their knowledge and their souls in a fell ritual and passing the collected secrets to Vecna as he gathers power for his Ritual of Remaking. (See the introduction for more information about Vecna's plot.) In the process, the kidnap victims become creatures robbed of their knowledge and volition.
Running This Chapter
In this chapter, the characters discover a cult of Vecna preparing four kidnap victims for a ritual in the catacombs beneath Hallix Mausoleum. Disrupting this ritual hurls the characters and an elf scholar named Eldon Keyward into Evernight, Neverwinter's sinister reflection in the Shadowfell. To return home, the characters must confront the lonely legacy of the Dolindar family and find a rift that leads back to Neverwinter.
Character Advancement
The characters should be 10th level when this chapter begins; see the "Lower-Level and Higher-Level Characters" sidebar for accommodating characters of other levels. If the characters are 10th level or below, they gain a level after returning to Neverwinter from Evernight.
Power of Secrets
The characters can learn three secrets in this chapter applicable to the Power of Secrets rules found in this book's introduction. These secrets are tied to three NPCs whom the characters encounter in the Neverdeath Catacombs:
- Indrina's Secret. A prisoner named Indrina knows that Lord Neverember doesn't have a legitimate claim to his title. The characters can learn this secret in area C20.
- Sarcelle's Secret. A prisoner named Sarcelle recently received a disturbing vision. The characters can learn about Sarcelle's recent vision in area C5.
- Umberto's Secret. The characters can learn about Umberto's secret role as a historian of Vecna in area C11.
The first time the characters learn one of these secrets, they feel a sense that the information they've discovered is important. Describe the Power of Secrets rules to the players at this time, but don't let them spend any secrets yet. When the characters receive Vecna's Link, they can spend secrets using the Power of Secrets rules, as described in the introduction.
Lower-Level and Higher-Level Characters
This chapter is a preamble to the adventure's primary plot. You can run this chapter for lower-level characters, adapting it as described below. If your characters are 7th, 8th, or 9th level, remove creatures as noted in the Creatures to Remove table.
Additionally, have the marid in area C10 surrender if reduced to fewer than 150 hit points (rather than 100 hit points).
Creatures to Remove
| Area | Remove |
|---|---|
| C2 | Two wights |
| C7 | Two water weirds |
| C14 | Two cult fanatics |
| C16 | One mage |
| C17 | Two cult fanatics |
| C25 | One nothic |
| C26 | Three nothics |
| Evernight Awakening | Three ghouls |
| B1 | One vampire spawn |
If the characters are 11th level at the start of this chapter, they don't gain a level for completing it.
Getting Started
This adventure begins when Lord Dagult Neverember summons the characters to his modest villa in Neverwinter. Several local guards are present, as are three priests of Oghma—a god of inspiration, invention, and knowledge—from Neverwinter's House of Knowledge.
When the characters enter his audience chamber, Lord Neverember is busy discussing politics with his advisers. He breaks off the discussion, gives the characters a smile of recognition, and says the following:
"Greetings, my heroic friends! I'm so glad you came. I daresay, terrible events are afoot. Specifically, four prominent citizens have been kidnapped in the past several days. May I count on your help in rescuing them?"
Lord Neverember describes the kidnap victims as follows:
Eldon Keyward is a highly knowledgeable scholar who specializes in the Outer Planes.
Indrina Lamsensettle is a human actor who moves in Neverwinter's highest social circles.
Sarcelle Malinosh is a human wild-magic sorcerer who plumbs the mysteries of the Outer Planes.
Umberto Noblin is a gnome historian who has written books on various deities.
Lord Neverember confirms that each victim was kidnapped at night. The victims don't know each other, and there appears to be no connection between them.
Lord Neverember funded divinations from the House of Knowledge, hoping to find the victims. The priests reported that the mystical trail of the victims ends at a specific place: Hallix Mausoleum in Neverdeath Graveyard. The priests worry that their inability to see inside this mausoleum means that an unknown opponent is blocking their divinations.
Lord Neverember asks the characters to investigate the disappearances at Hallix Mausoleum. He promises each character a fine house in Neverwinter if they can recover the four missing townspeople and bring the kidnappers to justice.
Neverdeath Graveyard
Lord Neverember and the priests provide an overview of Neverdeath Graveyard, which contains two sprawling, connected cemeteries: the Main Graveyard and the Pauper's Graveyard. A thick stone wall separates the crypts of the wealthy from the graves of the poor.
The Main Graveyard holds several mausoleums, some with expansive underground chambers. The Pauper's Graveyard features numerous simple headstones, but a few civic-minded citizens funded communal catacombs when the graveyard was first built.
In the Graveyard
The wandering zombies and skeletons of Neverdeath Graveyard don't pose a challenge to a higher-level party, so the characters can reach Hallix Mausoleum without trouble. The characters don't yet realize that the mausoleum leads to a network of catacombs that extends beneath both the Main Graveyard and the Pauper's Graveyard.
General Features
The following features are common throughout the catacombs and chambers.
Broken Stone
The old stones used to build the subterranean areas don't fit together well, leaving space for mold or tangled roots. Vecna's cultists have scribbled symbols on the walls, depicting staring eyes and left hands.
Ceilings
Ceilings are 10 feet high in passages and 15 feet high in rooms unless otherwise noted.
Doors
Doors throughout the area are made of heavy stone with metal hinges. The cult keeps the doors well-oiled, so they don't make noise when opened. All doors are unlocked unless otherwise noted.
Lighting
Areas C1–C12 are dark, and characters must have darkvision or a light source to see. Cult members frequent areas C13–C26, so lanterns hung on wall hooks create bright light there.
Vestiges of the Waterclock Guild
Part of the catacombs once belonged to an occult organization called the Waterclock Guild. The guild members are gone, though their bound elementals and clockwork mechanisms remain. A network of pipes runs through areas C7–C12 and C14–C15, indicated on map 1.1 by solid lines. The sound of dripping water echoes throughout these areas.
Neverdeath Catacomb Locations
The following locations are keyed to map 1.1.
C1: Hallix Mausoleum
The towering stone mausoleums in Neverdeath Graveyard cluster near the wall separating the Main Graveyard from the Pauper's Graveyard to the west. Hallix Mausoleum is a squat, unassuming granite block in the shadow of larger monuments to the west and south. Its metal double door bears a rusty broken chain and a padlock that hangs off the door.
The well-oiled door opens noiselessly. The crypt interior is dusty, with numerous tracks leading to a descending staircase at the rear of the room.
Against the walls rest six stone coffins, three on each side. A stone slab engraved with a name, birth year, and death year covers each coffin. These members of the Hallix family died forty years ago, after Mount Hotenow erupted. The coffins are empty except for scraps of cloth and bits of bone; the cult's ghouls ate the former occupants.
Noisy Investigations. If the characters make a lot of noise here, the wights in area C2 investigate.
C2: Lower Mausoleum
If the wights described below moved to investigate area C1, omit the last sentence when reading aloud:
Stone stairs descend from Hallix Mausoleum to a large subterranean chamber with stone coffins sitting on sturdy shelves. Part of the west wall has collapsed, creating an opening into another chamber. Marching around the chamber are five pale, desiccated warriors wearing wicked-looking armor.
The cult pressed five wights into service as guards. The wights know the cultists by appearance and don't attack them, but they attack anyone else.
The older Hallix corpses once buried here were fed to the cult's ghouls.
Secret Door. One of the empty coffins contains no evidence of a former occupant. The back of this coffin hides a panel with a latch that causes the wall behind it to swing aside. A character who searches the coffin or wall and succeeds on a DC 18 Intelligence (Investigation) or Wisdom (Perception) check finds this secret door. Neither the cultists nor the wights are aware of it. The passageway beyond ends at another secret door that is easily spotted and opened from inside the tunnel. It leads to area C9.
Treasure. One open coffin contains four wool cloaks worth 10 gp each and two wide hats worth 5 gp each, which the cultists use to travel inconspicuously aboveground. There is also a Potion of Invisibility the cultists were saving for an emergency.
C3: Uneven Chamber
Roots protrude through cracks in the ceiling here. A stone stairway in the southeast corner has collapsed, and the nearby walls have crumbled. Three doors in the north wall are shut, and the middle door bears a new padlock. To the west, stairs lead to a small balcony that overlooks the room from five feet above, with just enough room for a door painted with an eye.
This room is inaccessible from the surface since the stairway leading upward has collapsed. See area C5 for more about the padlocked door.
C4: Trapped Grate
A metal grate in the floor of this ten-foot-square room blocks access to a shallow stone pit holding a small gold harp, a handful of loose papers, and a piece of bloody cloth.
The iron grate covers a pit that's 5 feet square and 3 feet deep. The openings in the iron grate are 5 inches square. A character who can reach the harp can carefully tilt it and slide it through the grate with a successful DC 18 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. If this check fails by 5 or more, the harp falls back into the pit.
A cultist of Vecna tried to lever the harp from the pit but fell victim to the trap on the grate. The trap tore away half of the cultist's jacket—the bloody cloth now at the pit's bottom—and papers tumbled from the cultist's pocket and through the grate. After that mishap, the cultists decided not to press their luck and left the treasure alone.
Grate Trap. A character can detect the grate's trap by examining the grate and succeeding on a DC 14 Intelligence (Investigation) check. The trap activates when more than 10 pounds of pressure is placed on the grate. Poisoned blades extend from grooves in the grate, dealing 14 (4d6) slashing damage to whatever triggered the trap, and if the target of the trap is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 14 (4d6) poison damage. The trap resets after 1 minute.
Notes. The papers detail plans to kidnap a Neverwinter aristocrat named Indrina Lamsensettle. The notes include a map of her estate, schedules of her movements, and suggestions that she knows an important secret about Lord Neverember. A scrawl in the margin of a note claims that "her secrets will make a worthy sacrifice." (The characters can learn more by examining Jerot's papers in area C25.)
Treasure. The harp is worth 2,500 gp.
C5: Sarcelle's Cell
This room's only door is padlocked from the outside. As an action, a character with thieves' tools can use them to try to open the lock, doing so with a successful DC 18 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. The cult's four mages (in areas C14, C16, and C26) each carry a key to the lock. Because the stone is unevenly set around this door, a character could use an action to try to pull the door aside, doing so with a successful DC 17 Strength (Athletics) check.
This old crypt holds a single open coffin containing a few tattered blankets. A pouf of wild black hair sprouts from the end of one of the blankets.
The cultists repurposed this crypt into a cell for one of their intended ritual victims, Sarcelle Malinosh. Sarcelle is dozing inside the coffin, wrapped in the blankets so only her hair is visible.
Sarcelle is a human wild-magic sorcerer whose spellcasting power was stripped during a recent excursion to a distant plane. Until her magic naturally returns, Sarcelle has the game statistics of a neutral mage without Spellcasting. She responds to some questions with cryptic-sounding predictions, but she tries to keep this irritating habit in check.
Sarcelle wants help freeing herself; she explains that without her magic, she feels uneasy and would appreciate being escorted from Neverdeath Graveyard. She can make her way home from there.
Sarcelle's Secret. Sarcelle's psychic explorations showed her a glimpse of a dreadful future. She saw the desiccated figure of a man levitating off the ground, gathering evil energy around himself in glowing wisps. The desiccated man then screamed and the energy exploded, causing something terrible to happen. This vision terrified Sarcelle. A character who interacts with Sarcelle and succeeds on a DC 14 Wisdom (Insight) check realizes that something is bothering the sorcerer. If asked about what's upsetting her, Sarcelle shares her vision.
Learning of Sarcelle's vision counts as a secret for the purposes of the Power of Secrets rules found in this book's introduction.
C6: Supply Room
Stone shelves in this room contain boxes and bags. A few crates are stacked against the wall.
The cultists emptied this servants' crypt to store supplies such as lantern oil, chains, and manacles.
Treasure. Among the supplies are two Potions of Poison labeled "Healing Use Only."
C7: Fountain Room
If the characters minimized the water pressure in area C8, omit the first sentence when reading aloud:
Rusted pipes run along the walls and ceiling, and water flows from nozzles in the ceiling pipes. In the center of the room is a deep stone basin that's set into the floor and filled to the brim. The surface ripples, revealing several watery creatures inside. To the south, a closed door is padlocked.
See area C11 for more information about the padlocked door.
A water elemental and two water weirds live in the 25-foot-deep fountain. These creatures are indifferent toward intruders and attack only in self-defense. Once bound to serve the Waterclock Guild, they're now free but enjoy the perpetual "rain" here. The cult bullies these Elementals, so they remain sulking under the water's surface. Determined not to stand for further intrusion, the Elementals rise to attack anyone other than cultists. The water weirds consider the water elemental their leader. If reduced to fewer than 50 hit points, the water elemental retreats to the basin's bottom with any surviving water weirds.
The water elemental enjoys conversation but speaks Aquan only. Characters who are able to communicate with the water elemental can learn the following from it:
- Cult Activity. Cultists who worship a god whose symbol is a hand and an eye recently moved into nearby rooms.
- Neighbor. A fish-headed creature named Shanzezim lives in area C10.
- Prisoner. The cultists locked a small creature in an adjacent room (area C11).
Treasure. A silver bracelet set with seven small diamonds fell to the bottom of the basin. It's worth 150 gp.
C8: East Pressure Room
Pipes along the south wall of this room disappear into the walls near the ceiling. A complicated series of cogs and four hand-turned wheels connect to the pipes.
The wheels control the water pressure through the pipes, but they lack gauges to show how turning the wheels affects the pressure. A character can determine that the water flows west, as well as how to maximize or minimize the water pressure, with an hour of trial and error. A character who succeeds on a DC 16 Intelligence (Investigation) check discovers this information in only 10 minutes. Alternatively, the marid Shanzezim in area C10 can describe how to work the wheels.
Minimum Pressure. If the characters minimize the water pressure, the nozzles in area C7 stop flowing.
Maximum Pressure. If the characters maximize the water pressure here and in area C12, the basins in areas C14 and C15 start to overflow. After 10 minutes, those areas become difficult terrain due to flooding. Five minutes after that, the denizens of area C14 come to investigate areas C8 and C12, bringing along both ghouls from area C17. The cultists shout about "teaching those meddling elementals a lesson" as they arrive, allowing the characters time to set up an ambush or another ploy.
C9: Clockwork Alcove
Rusty standpipes and interlocking cogs cover the walls of this small alcove.
The cogs here are jammed together and don't move. Whatever mechanism they connect to is inoperable.
Secret Door. One cog on the north wall doesn't connect to anything else on the wall around it. A creature must succeed on a DC 14 Intelligence (Investigation) check to find this loose cog. When turned, the cog causes part of the wall to slide away as a secret door. The cultists aren't aware of this door. The small passageway beyond ends at another secret door that is easily spotted and opened from inside the tunnel. It leads to area C2.
C10: Improvised Workshop
Rubble chokes the southeast corner of the room, leaving only a small gap near the uneven ceiling. Some of the rubble has been reassembled into a low table, which bears small clockwork components. A hulking, fish-headed creature wearing exquisite silk finery carefully examines the tiny parts.
The creature is a marid named Shanzezim. The marid was bound by the Waterclock Guild and can't leave the crypts belonging to that organization, even though Shanzezim believes the Waterclock Guild has been defunct for years. Not quite ready to test the binding to make an escape, the marid spends time here trying to reassemble one of the Waterclock Guild's most intricate clocks.
If the water elemental in area C7 fled here, it informed Shanzezim about intruders in the area, so the marid attacks right away to drive off the characters. Otherwise, the marid asks the characters what they want. If a fight breaks out, the marid surrenders if reduced to fewer than 100 hit points or if the characters insist that they aren't with the cult.
Shanzezim's Lore. If the characters talk to the marid and reassure Shanzezim they're not part of the cult, Shanzezim offers the characters a gold-colored flywheel from the disassembled clock. The marid is chatty and can share the following pieces of information:
- Clock Assembly. Shanzezim decided to reassemble a mechanical clock the Waterclock Guild left behind. The marid believes the thousands of parts are all here and reassembly shouldn't take more than another few years. The length of time doesn't bother Shanzezim, since the marid enjoys the work.
- Cult Activity. Cruel cultists bully the Elementals in the next room and are keeping a prisoner nearby. The prisoner is a gnome whom Shanzezim hasn't yet met.
- Pipe System. The pipes running through this area lead to a part of the crypt where Shanzezim can't go, but to which the pipes' water flows. Shanzezim describes how to maximize and minimize the water pressure in areas C8 and C12, opining with delight that turning the flow to maximum pressure in both areas should flood out the recently arrived cultists in short order.
- Waterclock Guild. Shanzezim is bound to a portion of the catacombs once controlled by a vanished organization of artificers and geomancers called the Waterclock Guild. Additional guild catacombs lie past the collapsed portion of this room, but they hold nothing of interest.
Beyond the Rubble. It takes several days of labor to clear the rubble so creatures can pass through it, but Shanzezim is right about there being nothing relevant beyond it. If the characters are determined to explore the other Waterclock Guild chambers, you can invent water-themed or clockwork-based denizens and traps for them to encounter.
Treasure. The clock parts include a gold-colored flywheel that isn't a part of the clock Shanzezim is trying to assemble. The flywheel thus doesn't interest the marid, who gives it to the characters. The gold-colored flywheel is magical and has the properties of a Stone of Good Luck.
C11: Umberto's Cell
This room's only door is padlocked from the outside with a new, sturdy lock. As an action, a character with thieves' tools can try to use them to open the lock, doing so with a successful DC 18 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. The cult's four mages (in areas C14, C16, and C26) each carry a key that unlocks it. If the characters are friendly with the water elemental (see area C7) or Shanzezim (see area C10), either is happy to flow into the crack around the door and burst it open from the inside, much to the surprise of this room's occupant, Umberto Noblin.
Water leaks down the walls of this cell and pools on the floor near a rusty drain. A dejected gnome sits on a sodden mattress in one corner.
Umberto Noblin is a gnome historian who is eager to escape Neverdeath Graveyard. Umberto has the game statistics of a lawful neutral mage without Spellcasting.
Umberto's Secret. Umberto knows that cultists of Vecna are his kidnappers, as he's one of Neverwinter's preeminent experts on Vecna's history. He initially keeps his expertise from the characters lest they think he's in league with the cult.
To keep his mind off of the nightmare of his capture and imprisonment, Umberto focuses on complaining about the poor cuisine. If the characters free Umberto and share some tasty food with him, he reveals his expertise in Vecna's history. Umberto especially likes food created with or by magic, such as berries from the Goodberry spell.
If Umberto reveals his role as a historian of Vecna, it's all he can talk about. He discusses his latest clandestine research project: the ancient rivalry between Vecna and his treacherous lieutenant, the vampire Kas. The historian has kept this research to himself so other scholars don't beat him to publication; Umberto knows he's a slow writer. The gnome's chattering should be endearing rather than irritating, and you can use Umberto to impart basic history about Vecna and Kas as described in the introduction.
Learning about Umberto's secret research topic counts as a secret for the purposes of the Power of Secrets rules in this book's introduction.
C12: West Pressure Room
Pipes climb the north wall, disappearing near the ceiling. A complicated series of cogs and three hand-turned wheels connect to the pipes.
The wheels control the pipes' water pressure. As in area C8, a character can determine how to maximize or minimize the water pressure with an hour of trial and error, with 10 minutes of trial and error if a character succeeds on a DC 14 Intelligence (Investigation check), or with Shanzezim's instructions.
Minimum Pressure. Minimizing the pressure here doesn't affect the nozzles in area C7.
Maximum Pressure. If the characters maximize the water pressure both here and in area C12, the basins in areas C14 and C15 start to overflow (see area C8 for more information).
C13: Wall Crossing
This small room appears to be a crossroads between different parts of the graveyard. Steep stairs descend from the east and west sides of this room. Four bells of different sizes hang from leather cords affixed to the ceiling.
This room is set into the wall separating Neverdeath's Main Graveyard and Pauper's Graveyard. This room lets the cultists pass between the two graveyards without venturing aboveground.
Arriving cultists ring specific bells in a predetermined pattern, based on their rank, so cultists in the common room (area C14) can prepare an appropriate welcome. If the characters ring the bells without knowing their significance and patterns, the cultists in area C14 are alert to trouble.
C14: Common Room
Tables and chairs in this crypt are arranged to create a meeting room or mess hall. Water drips from a pipe into a basin in the southeast corner beneath a detailed image of a staring eye gripped in a withered hand. Five robed cultists are in this room, with one bullying the rest.
A neutral evil mage and four neutral evil cult fanatics occupy this room. The mage, a sneering, human bully named Oxtu, insists the cult fanatics call him by his formal title of "Teeth of Vecna." In turn, he refers to them as "Memories of Vecna," their rank. Oxtu likes to describe violent methods of coercing secrets from people, and the cult fanatics hang on his words. Oxtu carries keys that unlock all the prisoner cells (areas C5, C11, C18, and C20).
The cultists are quick to fight intruders. The fanatics try to stay out of the way of Oxtu's spells, but Oxtu makes no effort to exclude them. The cultists all fight to the death.
A Noisy Fight. Loud noise here rouses the two mages dozing in area C16.
Unholy Basin. The cultists desecrated the basin by placing iconography of Vecna above it. Creatures that aren't devotees of Vecna that drink from the basin must succeed on a DC 17 Constitution saving throw or have the poisoned condition for 1 hour. Cultists who suspect a lack of true devotion from their compatriots challenge each other to drink from the basin to prove their faith. If the characters come in disguise as devotees of Vecna, the cultists demand that they prove their faith by taking a drink.
C15: Kitchen
This small crypt has been converted into a kitchen. Dirty utensils soak in a large basin to the east. A stone coffin serves as a firepit; the coffin's lid has been repurposed as a table, which bears platters of dried fruit, nuts, and meat.
This kitchen remains empty except during mealtimes, and no one bothers to keep it clean. Removing the utensils from the basin reveals a wide drain.
C16: Subleader Quarters
Bones in nooks along this wall were pushed aside to make room for folded robes and other personal effects. Four narrow cots lie against the north wall. A robed human and a robed elf each rest on a cot.
Two neutral evil mages, an elf man named Hannel and a human woman named Algra, rest here. They are surly, taciturn zealots who venerated Vecna in secret for decades before joining the cult. They love exercising their authority over junior cultists. Each wears a necklace of human teeth in honor of their titles within the cult hierarchy as "Teeth of Vecna." They each carry a key to the prisoner cells (areas C5, C11, C18, and C20).
The mages are quick to fight if they spot intruders, since they don't want the cult exposed. They are determined to vanquish intruders and prove their worth to the cult, even if it means fighting to the death.
Secret Door. An urn in a nook on the south wall rotates, sliding aside a wall panel that leads to a short tunnel between this room and area C25. A character who searches the room and succeeds on a DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check finds the secret door and the means to open it. The mages know about the secret passage, but none of the cult fanatics do. At the far end of the secret passage is another secret door easily spotted and opened from inside the tunnel.
C17: Library
The long, low shelves of this room are canted at irregular angles due to the uneven stones in the floor. The shelves are crammed with books, scrolls, and folios. Four robed cultists stand near the south shelves instructing two ghouls to tidy up the books.
A stone coffin rests against the north wall, its top carved to look like pages of an open book. Engraved on the book's pages is a name: Ayren Griffynstone.
Four chaotic evil cult fanatics are supervising two ghouls trying to reorganize the jumble of books the cultists brought to this tomb. The library belongs to Ayren Griffynstone, a human Neverwinter historian. The room hasn't fared well in the graveyard's upheavals, and the uneven floor makes this room difficult terrain.
As Vecna is a god of knowledge as well as secrets, the cultists all contributed their personal libraries to this collection. Each of the cult fanatics has their own ideas about how this hodgepodge of eclectic works should be organized, so the ghouls labor under constant streams of conflicting directions.
Everyone here is on edge and grateful for the distraction of a fight. If the fight turns against the fanatics, one tries to escape through the secret door to fetch the demons in area C19.
Secret Door. One shelf swings back to reveal a secret passage to area C19. A character who searches the shelves and succeeds on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check finds the secret door and the means to open it. All the cultists know about this secret door. At the far end of the secret passage is another secret door easily spotted and opened from inside the tunnel.
Treasure. The collection of sinister books, many of which are duplicates, includes a few valuable tomes. A book describing the Eye of Vecna and Hand of Vecna is a masterpiece of writing and artistic illumination worth 450 gp. A book of nonsensical poetry titled Quite Good Verse has a gold-plated cover and is worth 200 gp. A book about Neverwinter's history contains a Spell Scroll of Greater Invisibility and a Spell Scroll of Major Image folded in its pages. The characters can find these treasures with 10 minutes of dedicated searching.
C18: Vacant Cell
This room has a padlock outside like the other prisoner cells, but the lock hangs open.
This squalid cell contains nothing but a bucket and a small heap of filthy blankets.
The planar scholar Eldon Keyward occupied this cell for many miserable days. He was taken to the ritual cage in area C26, so his cell isn't locked.
Eldon's Notebook. Anyone searching the blankets finds Eldon's prize possession: a small notebook filled with his cramped writing about extraplanar intersections, planar conjunctions, and similar esoterica.
C19: Demon Lair
Hundreds of names are etched into metal plates set into the walls of this room, many scratched over and unreadable. Two hulking, red-furred, apelike creatures stalk around the room.
The two barlguras here work as the cult's kidnappers. With little to do until the next kidnapping spree other than guard the imprisoned aristocrat in area C20, the demons spend their time scratching out the names on the memorial plates with their claws.
Secret Door. One of the nameplates pivots to reveal a secret passage to area C17. A character who searches the room and succeeds on a DC 17 Wisdom (Perception) check finds the secret door and the means to open it. The demons don't know about the secret door, but the cultists do. At the far end of the secret passage is another secret door easily spotted and opened from inside the tunnel.
C20: Indrina's Cell
This room's only obvious door is padlocked from the outside with a sturdy, new lock. As an action, a character with thieves' tools can use them to try to open the lock, doing so with a successful DC 18 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. Each of the cult's four mages (in areas C14, C16, and C26) carries a key to it. Once the characters open the door, read the following:
This crypt smells like a sewer. A woman sits on a mattress atop a low shelf, her once-fine clothing in tatters and a silk scarf wrapped around her face.
The prisoner is a human actor named Indrina Lamsensettle. Indrina's normally haughty demeanor has diminished in her imprisonment, though she's determined to make the cult pay once she escapes. Indrina dreams of returning to her estate, cleaning up, and dousing herself in perfumes. She doesn't know anything about Vecna or what the cult has in store for her; she believes that Lord Neverember is behind her imprisonment. Indrina has the game statistics of a lawful neutral noble but is unarmed and unarmored.
Secret Door. Part of the south wall swings aside when shoved. The short hall beyond leads to the latrine and smells even worse than Indrina's cell. A character who searches this room and succeeds on a DC 18 Wisdom (Perception) check finds the secret door. Indrina doesn't know the door is there.
Indrina's Secret. Indrina collected information from skilled genealogists and assembled proof that Lord Neverember isn't descended from Neverwinter's great hero, Lord Nasher Alagondar, as he claims. Indrina assumes Lord Neverember wants to silence her for what she's discovered.
If the characters admit to working for Lord Neverember, Indrina doesn't reveal what she knows. A character who asks why Indrina is here without revealing who hired the characters can attempt a DC 18 Charisma (Persuasion) check, with advantage if Indrina is given perfume or otherwise removed from the cell's offensive smell. On a success, Indrina reveals her secret knowledge.
Learning Indrina's discovery counts as a secret for the purposes of the Power of Secrets rules in this book's introduction. Lord Neverember casually dismisses Indrina's accusation if it's later brought to his attention, insisting that the woman can't prove anything.
C21: Haunted Room
The outside of this door bears a large "X" painted on it in red.
Several urns lie shattered across the floor of this room amid heaps of ash and bone dust.
The cultists disturbed two wraiths bound to the urns while ransacking the room. The cultists quickly retreated and haven't been back. The wraiths emerge from the dust and ash when anyone opens the door, shrieking, "Vecnans, die!" They vent their rage on nearby creatures, preferring to attack cultists. The wraiths fight until destroyed.
C22: Latrine
This filthy latrine is merely a deep pit with a few boards across it. The stink is overpowering.
Secret Door. The north wall of this disgusting room swings aside when a particular stone is pressed. A character who searches the room and succeeds on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check finds the secret door. All the cultists know about this secret door and open it from time to time to waft the smell into Indrina's cell (area C20).
C23: Corridor
A shuffling cultist bearing a vacant expression moves through the corridor. Several narrow doorways lead off this long hall.
The Vecnan cult leader, Jerot Galgin, used a dreadful ritual to drain the cultist of her knowledge and vitality. This cultist, as well as other people whose secrets the cult have sacrificed to Vecna, has the game statistics of a zombie. The cultist is a Humanoid rather than Undead and isn't immune to poison damage or the poisoned condition. She is dressed like the other cult members and doesn't attack anyone dressed like cultists.
Made an Example. Raina Kairls was caught planning to betray the cult to Neverwinter's guards. Jerot first tested the sacrificial ritual on Raina and thinks she serves as a useful reminder of the price of betrayal.
C24: Empty Crypts
This narrow doorway leads into a small, empty crypt.
These four rooms are empty.
C25: Leader's Room
This large room has been furnished to resemble a cozy bedroom and study. Stooped over a desk and scribbling furiously on a parchment is a gaunt, robed human man. Standing next to the desk is a one-eyed, bipedal horror with spikes growing out of its back. Tapestries depicting feasting undead creatures hang on the wall.
The cult's leader is a neutral evil, human necromancer wizard (see appendix A) named Jerot Galgin. A loyal nothic assistant named Maszundrin never leaves Jerot's side. A devotee of Vecna, Maszundrin learned Common while lurking in the catacombs for decades and considers the cultists vital servants of the lich-god.
Jerot is an aristocrat who has lived his entire life in Neverwinter. He has built his deep faith in Vecna and vast necromantic knowledge over many years, right under the noses of his peers. He's engaging in this current research while his friends and family believe him to be on an extended trip to Waterdeep. Jerot considers his secret life as a cult leader, or the "Thought of Vecna," to be yet another way to honor his evil patron.
Jerot is refining the ritual occurring in the Sacrifice Gallery (area C26) and is too focused on his work to be distracted by combat elsewhere in the catacombs. He trusts his minions to handle any trouble. If intruders reach Jerot's personal chamber, he commands the nothic to enter melee while he fights from a distance, summoning Undead defenders if the nothic falls. Jerot fears exposure more than anything else and thus fights to the death.
Jerot's Papers. Jerot's notes on the ritual describe draining and sacrificing a victim's secrets and knowledge to Vecna. His notes illustrate the first test of the ritual, which used a disloyal cultist as the victim. For his future attempts, Jerot has chosen townspeople from Neverwinter whom he believes have particularly meaningful secrets. Their secrets are the cultists' best offerings to Vecna.
A character who examines Jerot's notes and succeeds on a DC 14 Intelligence (Investigation) check finds mention of magical phenomena called "Crevices of Dusk" that sometimes appear in Neverwinter. The notes indicate that these magical gateways connect to a plane populated by Undead, but it's clear Jerot doesn't know much more than that. His notes indicate his resolve to learn more after he finishes his current experiments in stealing and offering secrets to Vecna.
Secret Door. A tapestry depicting a feasting ghoul conceals a secret, sliding door leading to a short tunnel between this room and area C16. A character who searches behind the tapestry and succeeds on a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check finds the secret door. Once inside the secret passage, a character can easily spot and open the secret door at the opposite end.
C26: Sacrifice Gallery
This enormous room features raised galleries at the east and west ends. Six chanting figures ring the east gallery, their hands raised toward a spherical cage hanging from the 30-foot-tall ceiling. The ritual's leader chants from the west balcony, surrounded by hunched, one-eyed creatures with knobby hides. A terrified elf struggles in the dangling cage.
This room's floor is 10 feet lower than the raised galleries.
The room is filled with cultists engaged in an extensive, hours-long ritual to sacrifice the elf Eldon Keyward's secrets to Vecna. The ritual leader is a tall, proud, neutral evil mage named Kendri Nex. The five nothics around her attack intruders on sight. Kendri uses her magic defensively, retreating to the room's floor if pressed. Kendri carries keys that unlock all the prisoner cells (areas C5, C11, C18, and C20), but if the characters haven't already rescued the other prisoners, they might not have the chance to do so, as the encounter likely ends with them being shunted through a planar rift.
The six neutral evil cult fanatics on the raised east gallery don't fight, since they fear interrupting the complicated ritual. They maintain their chanting and wild gesticulations.
The Cage. Eldon is a lawful good elf priest who follows Deneir, a god of writing and knowledge. He can't cast spells while he's in the cage. Eldon's cage hangs from a sturdy chain that ends 20 feet above the ground. The door on the cage's side is latched but not locked. Any character who can reach the cage can open its door as an action.
Fight's End
This fight ends immediately if the characters kill Kendri, silence any of the cult fanatics, or attempt to free Eldon. Energy from the interrupted ritual opens a latent planar rift that shunts Eldon and the characters into the Shadowfell:
A riot of silvery-purple energy fills the room. You feel a sense of space tearing open—then you're falling, and everything goes dark.
Escaping Evernight
The cult's disrupted ritual thrusts the characters (along with Eldon) through a Crevice of Dusk, a gap between the Material Plane and the Shadowfell city of Evernight, a gloomy reflection of Neverwinter. The Crevice of Dusk closes immediately after shunting the characters.
The characters experience the following vision:
Around the world and across the planes, you perceive innumerable cults of Vecna. They snatch away people and strip their secrets in rituals like the one you stopped. Behind them, the withered form of Vecna gathers the secrets like threads, adding them to a glowing sphere of hidden knowledge in some impossibly distant place. The vision fades into darkness, leaving only Vecna's glaring left eye.
Link to Vecna
The characters each gain a metaphysical link to Vecna, which follows the rules for blessings presented in the Dungeon Master's Guide. Vecna's Link is the result of feedback from the interrupted ritual. Vecna is unaware the characters—or anyone, for that matter—are linked with him, so the god has no reason to sever the tie. The link can manifest as subtly or as obviously as each player wishes, from the sensation of a specific smell when the character thinks of Vecna to a loud noise only they hear when the lich's name is uttered.
Vecna's Link. You gain a special intuition for secrets. You have advantage on Wisdom (Insight) checks. In addition, you can use an action to cast See Invisibility without expending a spell slot. Once you cast that spell in this way, you can't do so again until you finish a long rest.
When the characters acquire this link, remind them about the Power of Secrets rules. Allow them to spend any secrets they've gained so far as usual.
Evernight
Evernight is a forlorn metropolis in the Shadowfell. It has geography similar to Neverwinter's, but it presents as Neverwinter's dismal opposite. The sun never shines on Evernight, and ash-laden fog rises from lava flowing through the city in place of Neverwinter River, choking the city.
While Neverwinter is filled with living creatures trying to build a better future, Evernight is populated by Undead—primarily vampires and ghouls—who prey on each other and on travelers.
Evernight is a crossroads of trade in the Shadowfell and hosts numerous markets, including the lively Corpse Market. There, undead merchants trade in the bodies and blood of the dead—sometimes, the very recently dead.
Evernight Awakening
Since the characters were underground in Neverwinter's graveyard when shunted to Evernight, they're similarly underground in Evernight's graveyard.
Each character appears within an open coffin. The coffins are jumbled near each other in a large, 10-foot-deep grave pit.
Twelve ghouls prowl the area around the party's grave pit. Characters in the grave pit hear the hungry shouts and slavering of approaching ghouls, and you can further ramp up the tension by concealing the total number of ghouls until a character emerges from the pit to look around. The coffin-filled bottom of the grave pit is difficult terrain. The muddy, sloping sides require a successful DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check to ascend, but moving down them doesn't require a check.
Eldon's Latest Imprisonment. In addition to the open coffins for each character, the grave pit contains another coffin wedged into the dirt and nailed shut. Eldon Keyward is confined within it.
Eldon grunts for aid and pounds at the wood. Unless a character uses an action to open Eldon's coffin, he kicks a side panel free and squirms out after 1 minute of effort. If the fight with the ghouls is still going on, Eldon helps as best he can.
Once the fight is over, Eldon shares the following information, either all at once or in fragments:
"Very bad, but not surprising. I don't know if the cultists planned to send us here, but here we are. Neverwinter has cracks between our world and the Shadowfell—Crevices of Dusk, they're called. Planar travelers sometimes slip through.
"We're in a nasty city called Evernight. It's an evil echo of Neverwinter, populated by undead. We arrived in Evernight's graveyard because we left from Neverwinter's graveyard.
"There's no evidence of the crevice we came through. It doesn't surprise me that it's gone; stable crevices are rarer than spontaneous ones. But we need a stable one to get back to Neverwinter.
"We shouldn't spend a lot of time traipsing through an undead-infested metropolis, hoping to stumble across a gateway to Neverwinter. That feels unsafe. Maybe we should ask around inconspicuously. There's a market east of the Neverwinter Graveyard, which means it's likely there's a market east of Evernight's graveyard, too. But we should be careful."
The characters have little to go on other than Eldon's suggestion. Other explorations of Evernight are both dangerous and fruitless, so you should eventually steer the party back to the market even if they venture elsewhere.
The characters don't have other encounters as they make their way through Evernight's graveyard, though they hear howls and cries through the fog that let them know the graveyard isn't a safe place to linger.
Eldon's Notebook. If the characters found Eldon's notebook and return it to him, he's grateful and immediately starts adding notes about the Shadowfell and Evernight.
The Corpse Market
The wall around Evernight's graveyard is riddled with gaps, and the ground near it is covered in fallen rubble, so leaving the graveyard is easy. Directly east of the graveyard, a large market stretches for blocks in every direction. Tattered canvas and shrouds separate the numerous stalls. Feeble moonlight and flickering torches illuminate the city, regardless of the time of day.
Everything in the market exhibits pale, subdued colors, but the atmosphere is lively as ghouls, skeletons, and vampires meander from stall to stall.
The Market's Goods
Goods for sale in the Corpse Market include ghoulish remains intended for consumption, such as fingers pickled in brine, jars of blood, and wrapped organs. Shops sell bouquets of dead flowers, frayed burial finery, jewelry displayed on severed hands, elegant canopic jars, and the like.
Market Clientele
The Corpse Market occasionally sees living visitors, though the characters are the only ones present now. If the characters don't attempt to hide or disguise themselves, they receive sidelong stares from merchants and customers. Everyone assumes the characters wouldn't be here unless they were under the protection of an influential figure in the city or were powerful travelers in their own right.
Meeting Sangora
Shortly after the characters enter the Corpse Market, they draw the attention of a vampire merchant named Sangora. When she sees the characters, she spreads her cloak wide and shows sharp fangs in her smile. She says:
"I am Sangora, proprietor of Sangora Sanguinaries. You're not likely interested in a cup of warm blood, but perhaps you need something else? Something more ephemeral, like directions? Or knowledge? I've been in this city a long, long time."
Sangora is a centuries-old vampire with sunken eyes and a shock of long, white hair. She is inquisitive and happy to gossip.
If the characters don't seem inclined to speak with Sangora, Eldon blurts out a question about finding a Crevice of Dusk.
Sangora sells information at a higher profit than she sells blood, and she's full of useful tidbits about the city. She charges 20 gp for each question she answers, but she also accepts an answer to a probing question instead of payment (primarily about where the characters came from, how they got here, and what they're looking for in Evernight). Sangora isn't looking for a fight.
Sangora can share the following points:
- Evernight. Sangora provides background about the city of Evernight, as presented above.
- Neverwinter. Sangora hasn't been to Neverwinter in more than a decade and remembers the place as a lawless ruin. At that time, the populace viewed Lord Neverember as a manipulative tyrant. Sangora knows that gateways called Crevices of Dusk occasionally appear in Evernight and allow passage to and from Neverwinter.
- Crevices of Dusk. Sangora explains that residents of both Evernight and Neverwinter dislike these portals being used indiscriminately. Those who know the location of stable Crevices of Dusk either guard or hide them.
- Stable Crevice of Dusk. Sangora tilts her head with a thoughtful look before revealing that she knows of a stable Crevice of Dusk in a tomb of one of Evernight's former living families, the Dolindars. The Dolindar tomb is in Evernight's graveyard, and Sangora provides true directions to it.
- Dolindars. Sangora explains that the Dolindar family was exiled to the Shadowfell for reasons they never shared. The family studied wizardry and knew much about planar gates despite being unable to use them due to a family curse. They were miserable and lonely in life.
Dolindar Tomb
The party's best next stop is the Dolindar tomb, in a part of Evernight's graveyard the characters haven't yet seen. When the characters are ready to explore the Dolindar tomb, Sangora can point the way.
General Features
The following features are common throughout the Dolindar tomb.
Unending Isolation
The tomb isn't precisely haunted, but the isolation the Dolindars felt living in a city of the dead suffuses their tomb. Creatures in the tomb or the portico outside it can't muster the will to support others and thus can't take the Help action.
Stone Construction
The tomb is made of old, durable stone.
Lighting
The tomb is dark. Area descriptions assume the characters have a light source or some other means of seeing in the dark.
Doors
The heavy doors throughout the tomb are made of stone and grind noisily when open and shut. No doors are locked except the puzzle door in area B5.
Ceilings
Ceilings are 10 feet high throughout the tomb.
Dolindar Tomb Locations
The following locations are keyed to map 1.2.
B1: Portico
A roof supported by stone pillars extends from the Dolindar tomb into the weedy yard of uneven earth. The stone door to the tomb is engraved with the word "DOLINDAR" above it.
Four vampire spawn catch up to the party when the characters reach the door to the tomb. After the characters left her, Sangora detailed her conversation to her vampire spawn assistants. The spawn decided to make a meal of the characters, assuming that Sangora would never discover their perfidy.
The ground in the portico is swept and free of weeds, thanks to the efforts of the ghost Newmy (see area B2). The entrance to the tomb isn't locked. It opens onto a small room containing a steep spiral staircase leading 20 feet downward.
B2: Hall
Upright slabs are set into the walls of this large burial chamber. Each slab is carved with the faded likeness of a different robed human above indecipherable writing. One of these slabs is blank with a piece of paper stuck to it.
The lesser-known Dolindars are interred here, buried in the alcoves behind the slabs. The images of the dead and their names have worn away. If the characters open these slabs, they find only dust and bones inside.
The piece of paper is on a slab in front of an open nook that never held a dead Dolindar. Instead, a ghost custodian named Newmy lives inside. She's affixed a piece of paper with "Newmy's Room" written on it in Common. If anyone approaches the slab, Newmy pops out, sputtering apologies.
Newmy is a lawful neutral ghost who was once a moon elf. She can cast Prestidigitation at will. Newmy isn't quite five feet tall, and she has frizzy blue hair and pale skin shot through with blue veins. She's not interested in fighting, since fights make messes.
Talking with Newmy. Newmy would rather talk than fight. She shares the following points:
- Crypt Cleaner. The Dolindars hired Newmy and paid her several lifetimes of wages up-front to keep their tomb clean shortly after the tomb was built—more years ago than Newmy can remember. When Newmy died, she returned as a ghost to continue her duties for as long as she was contracted.
- Lonely Family. The Dolindars were all lonely, and there weren't many of them. They didn't like Evernight but couldn't leave it for some reason.
- Puzzle Buttons. Newmy doesn't know anything about a rift or a Crevice of Dusk, but she remembers some "puzzle buttons" deeper in the tomb that she doesn't know how to work. Maybe they lead somewhere special.
- Restless Dead. Newmy doesn't go through the doors at the end of the hall anymore. The Dolindars buried down there "aren't resting right," and Newmy is afraid of them. She hasn't been that way in years and doesn't remember what's there.
Newmy's Room. Newmy rests in a burial nook large enough to hold the corpse of a Medium creature. The nook contains old rags and a decrepit broom. Newmy considers it her personal space and grumbles if anyone seems intent on disturbing it.
B3: Lost Dolindars
Two stone coffins in this room have been broken open, littering the floor with rubble and dust. A creature with too many arms and spikes in place of hands taps at the room's walls.
The Dolindar siblings buried here were warped into two lost sorrowsworn (see appendix A). A visible sorrowsworn shrieks in rage and attacks anyone she can see. A second sorrowsworn is resting inside one of the broken coffins, initially out of sight but quick to join his sibling in a fight. The sorrowsworn fight until destroyed.
Treasure. The rubble includes the nameplates that once adorned the coffins. One reads, "Nolan Dolindar, Beloved Brother" and the other reads, "Evisha Dolindar, Beloved Sister." Each silver nameplate is worth 75 gp.
B4: Vault
This vault contains six pedestals, each bearing treasure.
Carvings encircling the base of each pedestal read, "What good are treasures when home is denied?"
Treasure. The following Dolindar family treasures sit atop the pedestals:
- 2,200 gp in neatly stacked piles
- A golden helmet worth 280 gp
- A Driftglobe with a map of the gate towns of the Outlands carved on it
- A Necklace of Adaptation bearing the inscription "My breath is yours, Kevetta—take it"
- A book titled Out of the Endless Prison, outlining methods of escaping the prison-plane of Carceri, worth 500 gp to a planar scholar (such as Eldon, who promises to buy the book once returned to Neverwinter)
- A snow globe containing a miniature replica of the city of Neverwinter, worth 350 gp
B5: Puzzle Door
The door in the east wall of this otherwise empty room bears the inscription "DOLINDAR" above "NO WORLD TO RETURN." Every letter of each word is set into the wall on a separate tile.
The door is sealed with a puzzle that requires pushing the right letter tiles in sequence. A pushed letter makes its whole word sink into the door with a click. The door unlocks when the correct combination is input. (Pushing a second letter in the same word doesn't do anything.) The correct combination, which causes the wall to slide aside, is to push the letters spelling ALONE in this order:
A in DOLINDAR
L in WORLD
O in TO
N in NO
E in RETURN
If the five words sink into the wall in the wrong order, or if the wrong letters are used to push them in, all five words reset with a wave of painful loneliness. Creatures in the room must make a DC 16 Charisma saving throw, taking 22 (4d10) psychic damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one. If the characters have a hard time figuring out this puzzle, Eldon gives them hints. Eldon stays at a safe distance from the trap and doesn't take damage if it's triggered.
The first time a character pushes the tiles incorrectly, they see a small mechanism below the phrase "NO WORLD TO RETURN." This mechanism is a lock. As an action, a character with thieves' tools can use them to try to pick the lock, doing so with a successful DC 16 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check. Picking the lock has the same effect as solving the puzzle, granting access to area B6.
B6: Matriarch's Chamber
On the far side of this room rests a stone coffin. Between the door and the coffin, the floor is studded with a sharp metal blades. A person-shaped figure with elongated arms lurks near the coffin.
Isolation warped the matriarch of the Dolindar family, Kevetta, into a lonely sorrowsworn (see appendix A). She remains near her coffin and uses her harpoon arms to attack anyone who enters the room. She fights until destroyed but doesn't pursue foes who flee.
Blades. The blades on the floor are difficult terrain. When a creature moves into or through the blades on its turn, it takes 5 (2d4) slashing damage for every 5 feet it travels. A character can use an action to pull a lever behind the stone coffin to cause the blades to retract into the floor or to raise them again.
In the Coffin. Kevetta's coffin still bears her name, but not her body. Instead, the coffin's bottom is a roiling swirl of silvery-purple energy. Eldon confirms what the characters might guess: this is a Crevice of Dusk leading to Neverwinter.
Creatures and objects placed into Kevetta's coffin appear in a dusty, nondescript tomb in Neverwinter's Pauper's Graveyard. The name on the tomb is illegible due to advanced age, but the carved phrase "Home Again, To Rest Forever" is barely legible above the tomb's doorway.
The Cult Scatters
Though any remaining cultists believe they've successfully stolen Eldon's and the characters' secrets, it doesn't take them long to realize the significance of the characters' presence, which implies that important figures in Neverwinter know about the cult.
The cultists flee Neverwinter shortly after the ritual's abrupt end. By the time the characters return to the catacombs, the cultists are gone, along with any loose treasure. Other monsters such as the demons and nothics might still lurk in the graveyard, but they don't know anything about what the cult is doing or why the cultists departed so suddenly.
Before scattering, the cultists murder any kidnapped townspeople the characters didn't free from their cells. After all, the cult needs to keep its secrets.
What's Next?
Apart from a few loose ends, the characters' adventure is over when they return to Neverwinter. Grateful that the characters have ended the kidnapping threat, Lord Neverember rewards each character with a large house in Neverwinter. These houses can be adjacent to each other or spread around the city, as the characters prefer—Neverwinter contains a considerable number of vacant residences. Lord Neverember also pays for a small army of construction workers and renovators to restore the houses.
The rescued nobles and their families are grateful for the characters' efforts and give them 9,000 gp in total as a reward.
Although this chapter is concluded, each character retains their Vecna's Link. Unknown to the characters, they are about to become embroiled in the rivalry between Vecna and Kas.
If the characters aren't yet 11th level, more adventure awaits; there's no end of work in a frontier city such as Neverwinter. Alternatively, you can award the characters a milestone level-up and move ahead with the action of the next chapter.