The Last Audience of Svarku the Magnificent
The Last Audience of Svarku the Magnificent
Read aloud
The volcano splits with a sound like a giant drawing breath, and a burning doorway opens in the night sky above Hot Springs Island. Neris points toward the palace as the nereids launch their diversion: “Your path is the back of the mountain. Reach Svarku, stop the gauntlet, and do not let the whole world catch fire.”
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Reach Svarku's palace through the back of the volcano.
- 2Stop the breach engine from feeding new tears in reality.
- 3Kill Svarku and secure his reality-rending gauntlet.
- 4Deny the Ash Barons a profitable claim on the catastrophe.Optional
The clock
Each major delay, failed engine attempt, or loud alarm lets another surge destabilize the portals. Use a visible four-step clock: 1, distant portals flare; 2, a new breach opens near the palace; 3, Molotek's influence reaches the island and hazards worsen; 4, the Material Plane begins suffering a catastrophic planar rupture. Advance it when the party takes an extended rest in the palace, triggers major alarms, or abandons the engine for too long. Do not advance it merely for ordinary table discussion.
Scenes
- 0:00The Diversion Begins
- 0:45The Back of the Mountain
- 1:45The Cinder Gallery
- 3:00The Wound in the World
- 5:00A Magnificent Welcome
Cast
- Neris, Pearl-in-the-CycloneAlly and marid commander
- Svarku the MagnificentAntagonist and former acquaintance
- Veyra CinderledgerAntagonist and Ash Baron factor
- K-17, Continuity AuditorWitness and corporate liaison
The hook
Set the scene
The characters assemble with Neris's resistance at the foot of the volcano. Fifty nereids and their marid leader prepare to strike the palace's seaward defenses while freed ogres and island allies hold the line behind them. K-17 projects an unstable map of the palace's heat signatures and warns that each new portal makes the readings less reliable. At the signal, the diversion erupts across the far slope. The party's route is a narrow, half-collapsed service passage through the volcanic back side, leading toward the palace's lower halls.
How Neris, Pearl-in-the-Cyclone asks
Neris presents the mission at a volcanic staging area as the resistance prepares its pincer assault.
She is direct about the objective, gives the party a rough route to the palace, and asks them to stop the portals as well as kill Svarku. K-17 offers a heat-reading device with unreliable readings, while warning that the corporation expects the device returned if possible.
Rumours
Scenes
about 7 hours0:00
45 min
SocialThe table is here
1. The Diversion Begins
A black-rock staging shelf below the volcano, with the palace visible through smoke and intermittent portal-flashes.
The resistance launches its seaward pincer attack. Neris commits the nereids and ogres to hold the palace forces away from the back route, and the characters choose whether to trust the distraction or spend time coordinating a contingency. The scene establishes the allies' stakes and the mission's limited window.
NextWhen the diversion draws the palace's attention, the party enters a service passage on the volcano's rear slope.
0:45
60 min
Exploration
2. The Back of the Mountain
A volcanic back passage of basalt shelves, sulfur vents, and sudden heat shimmer.
The party navigates a crumbling lava tube and reaches the palace's lower entrance. They must choose between a narrow hot crawl, an exposed ledge, or a sealed service gate. A portal pulse can alter the route, and the characters can earn an advantage by noticing warning signs before committing.
NextThe passage opens into the palace's lower gallery, where salamanders have begun searching for intruders.
1:45
75 min
Combat
3. The Cinder Gallery
The palace's basalt gallery, decorated with gaudy brass, volcanic glass, and blazing wall-braziers.
The party fights or bypasses the salamander patrol in the Cinder Gallery. Falling screens and lava channels provide tactical choices, while the palace's defenders may become suspicious if the characters make a prolonged stand.
The Cinder GalleryNextA damaged service lift and the sound of machinery lead deeper toward the breach engine.
3:00
120 min
Combat and skill challenge
4. The Wound in the World
A machinery chamber inside the caldera, its catwalks encircling a portal pylon above a volcanic fissure.
The party reaches the breach engine and must overcome its guardians while figuring out how to stop the pylon. Evidence here reveals that the portals are worsening rather than stabilizing. The characters can disable the mechanism, attempt a risky stabilization, or leave it running to pursue Svarku immediately.
The Breach EngineNextOnce the engine's immediate danger is addressed, the party can reach the audience hall through an armored door or a narrow catwalk.
5:00
120 min
Social
5. A Magnificent Welcome
Svarku's gaudy audience hall, with a lava moat below the throne and distant flashes from the resistance assault.
Veyra arrives to claim the palace for the Ash Barons, offering help while concealing the extraction crew's plan. The party can bargain, expose the Barons, fight her agents, or force her to withdraw. Soon after, Svarku arrives expecting a friendly reunion and insists that the party can help him correct what he calls a temporary inconvenience. The final confrontation can begin as conversation, but Svarku refuses to give up the gauntlet while he believes he can salvage his reputation.
The Barons' ClaimNextThe scene ends with Svarku dead or in immediate pursuit of the party, the gauntlet's fate decided, and the survivors confronting the consequences of the portals.
Behind it
What people believe
Svarku the Magnificent's gauntlet has opened dangerous portals to the Elemental Plane of Fire across Hot Springs Island.
The island's resistance is making a diversionary attack on his palace, giving the party a chance to enter through the volcanic back way, reach Svarku, and stop the portals before the danger spreads. The Ash Barons, Svarku's former employers, may also be moving to claim the palace's valuable secrets.
Background
Hot Springs Island's volcanic heart is being perforated by unstable portals to the Elemental Plane of Fire.
Each rupture scorches new paths through the island and sends fire-creatures into places that were once safe. Svarku the Magnificent, an efreeti whose reality-rending gauntlet can open such breaches, has caused the crisis without understanding its scale. His employers, the Ash Barons, once profited from his work moving illicit fire- and dream-derived drugs; now they plan to abandon him and salvage whatever remains valuable. The resistance has gathered former ogre slaves, fifty nereids led by a marid, the party's island allies, and a cosmic corporation with its own interest in containing the catastrophe. While the nereids launch a diversionary pincer assault, the characters take a small strike force through the volcanic back way to Svarku's palace.
The stakes
If the party fails, the breaches continue to multiply, Hot Springs Island may be consumed by fire, and Molotek gains a path toward the Material Plane.
Even a successful assault only buys time unless the gauntlet is secured and the existing portals are eventually sealed. The resistance could be devastated, while the Ash Barons might turn the catastrophe into a new source of profit.
Encounters
3The Cinder Gallery
Combat
A long basalt gallery with brass screens, lava-lit floor channels, hanging tapestries, and narrow side doors. Screens provide cover but can topple into the channels.
Foes
Fire Salamander Hall-Captain
Fire Salamander Palace Guards
ComplicationA surge from a nearby portal floods the gallery with fire and smoke. On an initiative count selected by the GM, mark a lane as hazardous; creatures in it must move, take cover, or face an appropriate fire hazard. The hazard is custom and should be adjusted to the party.
ScalingFor a smaller or depleted party, reduce the number of guards and let the hall-captain withdraw when bloodied. For a strong or well-rested party, add guards arriving from adjoining halls or make the hazard recur. Use appropriate 5E salamander statistics if desired; the hall-captain's special tactics are custom.
The Breach Engine
Combat and skill challenge
A volcanic machinery chamber surrounds a portal pylon suspended above a crack in the caldera. Catwalks circle the pylon, while a control dais is exposed to intermittent heat and shifting gravity.
Foes
Ash-Bound Custodian
Fire Salamander Sappers
ComplicationThe pylon's control sequence is interrupted by a portal pulse. Each failed attempt, loud attack, or minute spent debating allows the instability to worsen; the GM can use the d6 complications table or advance the palace's response.
ScalingFor a smaller or depleted party, have the sappers focus on escaping rather than fighting and make the engine's controls easier to reach. For a strong or well-rested party, add an additional custodian or give the engine a second hazard cycle. The Ash-Bound Custodian and its portal effects are custom, not official 5E creatures or rules.
The Barons' Claim
Social or combat
The palace's gilded audience hall has obsidian pillars, a sunken lava moat, and a balcony overlooking the diversion. The exits are visible but guarded.
Foes
Veyra Cinderledger
Ash Baron Contract Guards
ComplicationVeyra offers to betray Svarku in exchange for the gauntlet and safe passage. She may use the negotiation to signal the Barons' extraction crew, and she will not keep a promise that leaves her without leverage.
ScalingThis scene can resolve through negotiation, exposure of the Barons' plan, or combat. For a smaller party, remove the contract guards or have them abandon Veyra when the deal turns. For a stronger party, give Veyra reinforcements arriving on a delay. Any unique abilities assigned to Veyra or her guards are custom.
Cast
4Neris, Pearl-in-the-Cyclone
QuestgiverAlly and marid commander
WantsLead the resistance, free the island from efreeti control, and prevent the portals from consuming the sea.
“I have brought fifty nereids, a tide of ogres, and the finest friends money cannot buy. Please do not make me regret bringing the money.”
Svarku the Magnificent
Antagonist and former acquaintance
WantsKeep his palace, status, and relationship with the party intact. He wants to please them and does not grasp that his gauntlet is endangering all reality.
“You came all this way! I knew you missed me. We can catch up after I finish this little matter of cosmic plumbing.”
Veyra Cinderledger
Antagonist and Ash Baron factor
WantsSecure the gauntlet and any profitable portal technology for the Ash Barons, while ensuring the Barons cannot be blamed for the disaster.
“The Barons do not require your loyalty, Svarku. They require an accounting of the assets you have left.”
K-17, Continuity Auditor
Witness and corporate liaison
WantsContain the planar catastrophe and recover data for the cosmic corporation, ideally without sacrificing its personnel or equipment.
“The readings say the breaches are not merely doors. They are a wound, and something on the other side has begun to notice us.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
Svarku's reality-rending gauntlet, a powerful custom artifact or campaign device that should not be treated as a standard 5E magic item. It is dangerous to use and can reopen breaches unless restrained or repaired.
A heat-reading instrument issued by K-17. This custom device can indicate nearby planar instability, but its readings become unreliable near active portals.
A lacquered palace key that opens several lower-vault doors and can serve as evidence of the Barons' business with Svarku.
On a win
Svarku is dead, his gauntlet is in the party's custody, and the palace breach engine has been disabled or stabilized.
No new portals open during the immediate aftermath, though the existing tears remain dangerous until dealt with. The resistance's diversion holds long enough for survivors to regroup, and the Ash Barons are denied an easy claim if the party also completes the optional objective. Svarku's death is not a clean victory: he dies believing the party came to see him, and the characters must decide what to do with the gauntlet.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The party cannot defeat the Cinder Gallery guards or reach the palace interior.
- The party must flee or is captured, and the Barons gain time to seize palace records and attempt to take the gauntlet. The resistance remains active but loses its surprise advantage.
- The party cannot stabilize or bypass the Breach Engine.
- One or more breaches become permanent. Fire Primal Molotek can exert influence through them, and later adventures must include containment or evacuation alongside the assault.
- Veyra escapes the palace with her intended prize.
- The Barons escape with valuable records or a gauntlet component, giving them leverage and making them a continuing enemy. If they obtain the gauntlet itself, they cannot safely operate it, but they can still endanger the region through reckless attempts.
- The party abandons the assault or fails to stop Svarku.
- The island's resistance survives, but the nereid diversion suffers heavy losses and the remaining portals continue destabilizing the Material Plane. The party may pursue Svarku later, but the end-of-world clock advances.
Complications (d6)
- 1A portal blooms across the strike force's route. The party must find another way through the volcanic passage or spend time sheltering while the blast wave passes.
- 2A fleeing ogre recognizes a former overseer among the palace guards and breaks formation to pursue them, risking exposure of the strike force.
- 3An Ash Baron signal flare reveals that their extraction crew has arrived early. If not intercepted, it begins removing palace valuables and data before the party reaches the gauntlet.
- 4A cracked containment pylon vents a sheet of superheated steam across the passage. Characters must take cover, find a bypass, or accept burns and lost time.
- 5Svarku's magically amplified voice addresses the party as honored guests and orders the salamanders to escort them safely to the throne room, creating a chance to bluff or a risk of being recognized.
- 6The nereid diversion falters when a fire portal opens behind their line. Neris requests a choice: send help, trust the resistance to hold, or use the distraction to press toward the palace.
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