The Renewal Convenes
The Renewal Convenes
Read aloud
The first tremor comes as the three delegations take their seats, a shiver through the floor that makes every dragon lord in the room fall silent. High Sovereign Aëthyr calls for a recess, then turns to you: “Something beneath this Spire is failing, and I need to know whether it is a threat we can contain before the next bell rings.”
Run the session
Cheat sheet
Objectives
- 1Keep the Renewal’s opening from dissolving into public panic.
- 2Trace the tremor and determine whether the gallery damage is deliberate.
- 3Confirm that the ward damage comes from the failing lattice below the Spire.
- 4Reinforce the Ward Galleries and improve the Lattice Integrity Clock by 1.Optional
The clock
The Lattice Integrity Clock begins at its campaign-established value. A cleanly stopped attack leaves it unchanged. If a delegate or delegation is harmed, reduce it by 1. Stabilizing the Ward Galleries increases it by 1. Use each major tremor or delay in the party’s investigation to signal that the Vault’s deterioration is advancing.
Scenes
- 0:00Three Nations, One Chamber
- 1:00A Recess, Not a Retreat
- 1:45The Ward Galleries
- 3:00First Blood
- 4:30The Renewal Holds
Cast
- High Sovereign Aëthyr the Sky-ScorchQuestgiver and Aethelgard’s ruler
- General Khurzzt VelqAlly and military witness
- ShavaAntagonist and Ember Votary organizer
- Knight-Commander Ilyra Ouss-SphaerWitness and Draknaar delegation leader
The hook
Set the scene
The Grand Assembly gleams with pale, scale-patterned stone. Draknaar’s dragonborn delegates enter first in temple-blue, led by Knight-Commander Ilyra Ouss-Sphaer or her successor. Arcanterra follows, carrying imperial authority through a young heir, a Regent, or both according to the campaign’s established history. Last comes Aethelgard’s Sovereign Council, with Aëthyr at its center and General Khurzzt Velq one respectful pace behind. Aëthyr watches the delegations settle with the grave patience of someone expecting the next blow. Then the floor shivers beneath the assembly, and dust sifts from the carved ceiling.
How High Sovereign Aëthyr the Sky-Scorch asks
Aëthyr calls a discreet recess after the tremor and requests the party’s help in private.
If they lack prior standing, she first tests their judgment with a Charisma check; Khurzzt can vouch for them if they have earned his respect. Aëthyr shares the Council’s concern only after they agree to keep unconfirmed fears out of the assembly.
Rumours
Scenes
about 5.5 hours0:00
60 min
socialThe table is here
1. Three Nations, One Chamber
The Grand Assembly, its pale dragon-scale stone catching the light of braziers and ward-lamps. Low voices gather beneath the high ceiling as the three delegations take their places.
The delegations enter in sequence. The party’s history colors the reception: Draknaar welcomes them warmly if they defended it, while a party that joined the invasion receives formal courtesy and a conspicuous absence of House Cleth-Aurix’s attention. Aëthyr presides with measured calm; Khurzzt watches the exits. A wrong tremor interrupts the ceremony, prompting Aëthyr to declare a recess.
NextAs the delegates begin to rise, the tremor passes through the floor again. Aëthyr turns from the dais and leads the party toward a private antechamber.
1:00
45 min
social
2. A Recess, Not a Retreat
A private antechamber adjoining the Assembly, where the scent of hot stone and ink lies beneath the incense from the delegation halls.
Aëthyr privately confirms that the Council has been tracking the tremors and that they are coming from beneath the Spire. If the party lacks prior standing, ask for a Charisma check to earn enough trust for her to share the concern. Khurzzt argues for controlled access and a military escort; Aëthyr favors speed and discretion. The party chooses which delegation, if any, to bring into the inquiry.
NextWith an escort or a route through the restricted access door, the party descends toward the Ward Galleries as the ceremony resumes above them.
1:45
75 min
exploration
3. The Ward Galleries
Below the Assembly, the ward galleries breathe cold air that tastes of metal. Hairline fractures spread across carved sigils; a faint, irregular pulse makes the nearest wardstones flicker.
The galleries are dimly lit by flickering ward-glow. Support pillars and wardstone columns offer cover, but the lattice bleed weakens spell effects when casters fail a Constitution check. A destabilizing column can discharge once, forcing a Dexterity saving throw against force damage in a ten-foot radius. A Intelligence (Arcana) check identifies the corrosion’s direction as straight down, toward the Vault. The party can spend an hour making a Arcana, thieves’ tools, or relevant artisan’s tools check to stabilize the gallery and improve the Lattice Integrity Clock by 1.
NextThe party’s work draws a distant scrape from beyond the pillars. Before they can follow the sound, hurried footsteps and a shout carry up from the colonnade.
3:00
90 min
combat
4. First Blood
The outer colonnade is bright with reflected firelight, then abruptly broken by smoke, shouting, and running figures. Stone pillars provide half cover, while frightened delegates and attendants surge through the central lane.
The Votaries attack in the outer colonnade. Use the First Blood encounter. On initiative count 20, losing ties, a surge of panicked guests crosses the central lane; each creature in the lane makes a Strength or Dexterity check or falls prone and is pushed 10 feet. The champion targets a symbolically important delegate on its first turn, Veterans hold the exits on their second turn, and the Votaries begin a fighting withdrawal once the champion is clearly losing.
First BloodNextWhen the last attacker turns or falls, the crowd’s cries thin into scattered orders. Aëthyr moves through the unsettled assembly toward the party, already asking what they found below.
4:30
45 min
social
5. The Renewal Holds
The Grand Assembly after the assault, where shaken delegates gather beneath dust-streaked arches and the smell of smoke clings to ceremonial robes.
The party reports that the corrosion matches the Vault’s lattice and originates beneath the Spire. Aëthyr confirms the Council’s fear and names Varkas’s sealed tower as the next lead, where records may reveal what he understood about the binding. The delegations decide whether to proceed with the Renewal based on the attack’s outcome and the party’s treatment of them.
NextAs the first formal session begins, Aëthyr presses the tower’s access writ into the party’s hands, and they turn toward the road to Varkas’s sealed doors.
Behind it
What people believe
The three delegations have gathered at the Obsidian Spire’s new Grand Assembly for the Dawn Compact Renewal.
As the ceremony begins, a tremor from below interrupts the proceedings. The party is asked to investigate the Ward Galleries beneath the chamber, where unstable defenses threaten both the gathering and the fragile peace. Their inquiry is complicated by an Ember Votary attack intended to turn fear into open conflict.
Background
The Grand Assembly was raised after the fall of the old Spire, using dragon-scale stone salvaged from the Throne Hall.
Its three delegations are meant to meet as equals, though the peace between them remains young and distrustful. Beneath the chamber, the Vault of the First Ember’s failing binding lattice is beginning to show the same corrosion that once appeared in the Ward Undercroft. The Renewal’s opening is therefore both a diplomatic milestone and a race to understand a danger its hosts have concealed.
The stakes
If the Votaries succeed, the opening of the Renewal becomes a public humiliation and may revive the war’s old grievances.
If the party mistakes the lattice failure for sabotage, political blame will distract the delegations while the damage spreads upward from the Vault. The immediate question is whether the three nations can continue negotiating while the Spire itself begins to fail.
Encounters
1First Blood
combat
The Grand Assembly’s outer colonnade, with bright stone flooring, dragon-scale pillars providing half cover, wide exits, and a central lane vulnerable to crowd surges. Lighting is disrupted when the attack begins.
Foes
6 Veterans
2 Knights
1 Ember Votary champion: use the Archmage stat block, or use Seshath or Thrazh Vuld if that conspirator survived and returned to the Votaries
ComplicationA corrupted wardstone discharges once during the encounter, targeting a random 10-foot-radius area. Creatures there make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d6 force damage on a failure or half as much on a success. Lattice Bleed also affects spellcasting in the galleries: a caster makes a DC 15 Constitution check when casting a spell there; on a failure, the spell’s effect is weakened at the GM’s discretion, without changing its level or expending an additional resource.
ScalingFor a party of three or fewer, remove two Veterans. For a party of five or more, add two Veterans. If the party is depleted or has already faced a major encounter, the champion withdraws when reduced to half its hit points. The supplied enemy group is intended as a serious opening fight for four level-15 characters; adjust as needed for party resources and allied intervention.
Cast
4High Sovereign Aëthyr the Sky-Scorch
QuestgiverQuestgiver and Aethelgard’s ruler
WantsTo preserve the peace without sacrificing civilians or allowing the Renewal to become a public panic. She wants the party to investigate quietly, then tell her what they find.
“We have spent years asking the living to carry the cost of the dead. I will not let this room make that mistake again.”
General Khurzzt Velq
Ally and military witness
WantsTo protect Aethelgard and its people through readiness as well as diplomacy. He supports Aëthyr, but believes the Council has concealed the Vault’s condition for too long.
“Peace requires more than a fine speech. It requires knowing what stands between us and the next disaster.”
Shava
Antagonist and Ember Votary organizer
WantsTo shatter the Renewal before it can bind Aethelgard to its neighbors. Shava wants the attack to demonstrate that Aethelgard cannot secure the assembly, not to die as a martyr.
“A gathering of old enemies is a stage. One well-timed wound can make every delegation remember the war more clearly than the peace.”
Knight-Commander Ilyra Ouss-Sphaer
Witness and Draknaar delegation leader, or the delegation’s successor if she is no longer active
WantsTo keep the Draknaari delegation safe and ensure its concerns are heard. Her warmth toward the party depends on their past conduct in the war.
“You can call it tradition, duty, or necessity. The stone below us does not care what name you give the crack.”
How it ends
Rewards
Items
A sealed access writ for Varkas’s tower, valid only with the assent of Aëthyr and one delegation representative.
Three potions of superior healing, presented as emergency supplies by General Khurzzt Velq.
On a win
The party identifies the corrosion as a symptom of the Vault’s failing lattice rather than an act of sabotage, and stops the Votaries from turning the opening ceremony into a diplomatic catastrophe.
The Renewal formally convenes despite the attack. If the party stabilizes the Ward Galleries, the Lattice Integrity Clock improves by 1; if a delegation was harmed, its Standing falls by 2 and the Clock falls by 1. The characters reach level 16 by milestone once the Renewal formally convenes.
What it leaves open
If it fails
- The group fails the Arcana or investigative checks in the Ward Galleries.
- The party fails to trace the corrosion to the Vault. The delegations remain suspicious, and the next tremor is treated as possible sabotage rather than evidence of a common underlying threat.
- The party cannot stabilize the gallery within one hour or abandons the attempt.
- The gallery remains unstable and the Lattice Integrity Clock does not improve. Aëthyr can still convene the Renewal, but the party loses time and access to the strongest immediate evidence.
- The Votaries successfully injure a delegate or cause lasting harm to a delegation.
- If a delegate or delegation is harmed in the attack, reduce that delegation’s Standing by 2 and reduce the Lattice Integrity Clock by 1. The Renewal can proceed, but confidence in Aethelgard’s security is shaken.
- The party lets the Votary champion withdraw without identifying or capturing any attacker.
- The Votaries escape with evidence of the party’s methods and may use it to frame the attack as a provocation by one of the delegations.
Complications (d6)
- 1A wardstone column flashes white and discharges in a ten-foot radius. Creatures in the area make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw, taking 4d6 force damage on a failure or half as much on a success.
- 2A delegation escort recognizes one character from an earlier conflict and demands they surrender weapons before entering a restricted gallery. Resolving the dispute costs 20 minutes unless a delegate intervenes.
- 3A tremor shakes loose stone dust and obscures the gallery for a round. Until it settles, creatures more than 20 feet away are lightly obscured.
- 4A Votary runner slips through the crowd carrying a false order to evacuate one delegation. A successful DC 17 Wisdom (Insight) or Intelligence (Investigation) check catches the deception before the delegation moves.
- 5A panicked surge crosses the colonnade’s central lane. Each creature in the lane makes a DC 17 Strength or Dexterity check, falling prone and being pushed 10 feet on a failure.
- 6The party finds a gallery door sealed by an emergency ward. It can be opened with a DC 18 Intelligence (Arcana) check, thieves’ tools, or relevant artisan’s tools. Forcing it open takes 10 minutes and makes enough noise to alert nearby enemies.
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