Chapter 6: Curst - Invisible Bonds

Valder's Involvement

Valder was instrumental to the characters executing their scheme successfully. Part of the plan to corrupt areas of the Outlands involved freeing fiends and other powerful entities from Carceri. Those tough cutters made a deal with the Tenth Lord to spread his influence and cause disruption in exchange for their freedom.

Valder, being an expert in incarceration and finding people, used his skills to do the opposite. He smuggled the fiends out of Curst via the secret route detailed in the chapter. Once free they would board the Concordant Express with forged credentials and travel to their destinations.

The smuggler character set all of this up. Valder's payment for these services was a little bit of coin and the promise that the characters would help get Fellik to Excelsior and through the gate to Mount Celestia. Except the characters died and lost their memories before they could uphold their end of the deal.

Meeting Valder

The basic setup for encountering Valder still works. He can also appear at Traitor's Gate or shortly after the characters inquire about him if they pick up on their lead from the Frostfell Cache. The main thing that would change is his introduction:

"Is that you?" He stares deeply at [the smuggler]. "You're...different somehow... But never mind that! I thought you'd abandoned me! Thank you, thank you for coming back, friend!"

If the characters are confused (they should be!) he quickly explains that Fellik is at his house. He looks around warily and says let's go there where they can speak privately.

Connecting the Dots

Once the characters meet Fellik, Valder will patiently listen to anything the characters want to say about their situation. If they don't explain the memory loss and they quiz him about the deliveries, he'll grow wary and ask if this is some kind of test. Valder is desperate, so he'll give up most of what he knows either way:

• Valder was hired to extract high value "assets" out of Curst and get them to the Concordant Express.
• The characters were pulling them out of Carceri of all places, but he knew not to ask questions or look closely.
• Quite a few deliveries were made, but here were standouts: a gnoll named Mick going to Faunel, an unassuming mute halfling going to Rigus (this was the shapechanged slaad under control of the characters), and a very large, warm to the touch container was sent to Sylvania.
• He was also tasked with getting some heavy crates into Carceri. No one guards the portal, so that was easy enough. He thinks they were weapons, but he didn't crack any open.

The last item is less of a clue and more to reinforce the idea that the characters were arming all kinds of fiends across the Outlands. Valder doesn't know anything else about R04M the arms shipments out of Automata.

Valder will press the characters to get Fellik out of Curst. He's concerned his son will not survive the journey on his own, and he is in a vulnerable spot and not willing to risk sharing his plight with anyone else.

Closing the Anomaly

Once Valder spills what he knows, the mosaic mimir animates:

The mimir chimes again, and it's flickering eye sockets brighten to a steady glow. "Recalibrating multiversal space-time scenarios... Reality identified. Curst anomaly corrected. You may proceed."

Deeper Cuts

There's a ton in the Curst scenario that works out of the box, even with the remix. I want to highlight that this is a place to deepen the ties to Valder and Fellik. You may want to do this if you run a campaign that really digs in and stretches beyond the scope of the book. Or perhaps your table loves to pursue longer threads and won't appreciate the "gate town of the week" format as much.

Here's a few ways to do this:

• Create a direct tie to one of the characters. Fellik died working for one of the characters. At the time the character took advantage of the situation and ensnared Valder into the scheme.
• Weave a character backstory into the mission. Fellik worships the same deity as one of the characters, and escorting Fellik to their deity's plane would be a major act of faith.
• Stage an epic rescue. Fellik isn't in Curst when the characters meet Valder. He was thrown into Carceri, and the characters must pursue him across the marshes of Orthrys to rescue him. Valder provides them with a special gate scroll that only works on Carceri, which they originally passed to him to help with the extractions.

Onward

Once Fellik's plight is resolved and the characters have escaped Curst, they have stronger leads to Excelsior, Faunel, Rigus, and Sylvania. The idea of fiends run amok should provide a bit of purpose and direction, but they shouldn't feel that they don't have the time to go back to Sigil or help Fellik with his quest.