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A Mission to Thay : Nethwatch Keep

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The land of Thay is a forbidding place.  Thayan slavers scour Faerun for the unfortunate and dispossessed, returning them to Thay to auction to the highest bidder to keep in motion an economy that rides on their backs.  Factions of Red Wizards, all of them outwardly bearing fealty to the Lich lord, Szass Tam, scheme and plot, constantly seeking to undermine each other and grab as much power as they can for themselves.  Armies of undead and transmuted living creatures are generated off assembly lines under Szass Tam's rule, as he plans to defeat the Lords' Alliance, conquer the Sword Coast, and install himself emperor of Faerun.  His longtime vampire assistant, Esrelda Yeth - Tharcion of the Larpendrar province in Thay - seeks to execute his plans and gain favor in his eyes.

Here is the Episode 8 that Rise of Tiamat should have contained!   Thay in all it's horrid and far-reaching power and might.  A society dark, alien, at odds with itself, and at the boiling point of explosion.

This adventure is meant for characters between 11th and 15th level, and there is material here sufficient for 5 or 6 sessions of about 3 hours each of play.  The material has been playtested once : when I DM'd it for my home campaign with my friends as a replacement for Episode 8 of Rise of Tiamt.  You could also run this as a mini-campaign after Rise of Tiamat as a kind of epilogue - instructions are provided on changes to do that or to run it as stand-alone.

Also provided are over a dozen combat maps, as well as a hex map of the Nethwatch Keep area of Thay.  You can run this as a sandbox, or as a linear adventure - provisions are given for both options.  There are 3 "dungeon delves", a well-developed village, and several wilderness encounters.  Two rumors tables assist with advancing the adventure if it's ran as a sandbox.  NPC's are provided with goals and how to evoke their personalities.  There's also a section with a new monster (Draco Skeletons) and a couple of new NPC types (including Thayan Bladesingers) stat'ed out, as well as a new magic item.  A new presentation for NPC spellcasters is also provided, to allow more easily running them in play.

There are 127 pages of pdf content here, split into 5 pdf files for easier downloading.  The first 34 pages of the first pdf file are available in the full-size preview.

In addition to the core rule books, you will need Volo's Guide to Monsters in order to run this adventure.  Please check it out!   I think you'll like what you find.

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Reviews (3)
Discussions (13)
Customer avatar
Cesar M April 30, 2023 2:32 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi! I really appreciate all the work you've put into this. I find it incredibly helpful.

I was wondering about something and maybe you can help. The Tax station and the Temple of Shar have their own maps, is it at all possible to have those files added separately as well similar to the other maps?
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Jon G May 24, 2023 11:21 am UTC
CREATOR
Hi Cesar! Thank you for purchasing A Mission to Thay. You're right, I missed adding that tax station map! I just added it to the title. Check it out and see if you're able to get it now. Hope you enjoy the module
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Noel D August 25, 2022 11:50 am UTC
PURCHASER
This would be so much better as a single, searchable, indexed PDF instead of 5 separate PDFs. I've purchased all 5. Is there any way you could send me a unified PDF please?
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Jon G September 05, 2022 11:40 am UTC
CREATOR
Hi Noel - thank you for purchasing A Mission to Thay. Take a look at the files available for download to see if you find one titled "A Mission to Thay - No Page Background". That should be the whole module as one pdf on white pages for easier printing. Hope that helps you out and that you enjoy the adventure!
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Andrew O August 17, 2021 6:23 am UTC
PURCHASER
This is awesome. I would love it if I could find some VTT maps for this though.
Customer avatar
Andrew P July 09, 2021 1:18 am UTC
PURCHASER
So my players just rescued Nyh, and cut a deal with balator (GREAT idea by the way, for some reason they decided that they were not going to roll a single check or be suspiscious during the conversation with a literal devil...) But i have a STRONG feelign that they plan on immediately returning to the sword coast. I can't see how the bloodrun tower will even happen (or the brigades) at this point. Did you intend for there to be a stronger reason to go to the tower?
I do plan on just rolling with their decisions, but getting a commitment from Thay without doing more seems a bit too easy.
My players managed to circumvent the village by staying in the wilderness and rolling REALLY well (plus destroying all the wizards in the slave compound...)
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Jon G July 16, 2021 5:01 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Andrew - thank you for your comment and your review! I'm sorry that I'm seeing this likely a bit late for you, but the motivation for Bloodrun tower is primarily the disruption of the operation for creating Blooded Ones and Spawns of Kyuss that Szass Tam intends to use against the Sword Coast for his plans to descend in the aftermath of the war with the Cult of the Dragon and wrest control there from the Lords' Alliance. The Brigades similarly house the operations for creating the delivery method that Szass Tam is planning to use for those forces to get them to the Sword Coast (via the dracoliches) in timely fashion to strike just when the Lords Alliance forces are weakened after the battle with the Cult. If Nyh has been rescued, she could motivate the party to tackle these other challenges that she could have knowledge of, provided the party recognizes that the threat to the Sword Coast isn't just the Cult of the Dragon, but SzasS Tam's plans to take advantage of the situation.

If the party...See more
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Nigel B April 02, 2021 8:09 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Good call, the Mission 8 as written in TRoT is just awful. I came looking for an adventure written in Thay to gapfill and I find the exact thing I need to fill in the disappointment. Nice one.
Customer avatar
Emmanuele V July 26, 2020 8:14 am UTC
PURCHASER
I've just downloaded it and I'm already very impressed by the size of this work!
I'm going to read it and 99.9% integrate it in my rise of tiamat campaign, I just want to say beforehand that I'd like to print this module but I found no easy way to remove the page background.. If you can do a printer-friendly version I'll be very happy :) And I'm going to star-review it when I finish the reading of course!
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Customer avatar
Jon G July 28, 2020 6:43 pm UTC
CREATOR
Hi Emmanuele - thank you so much for purchasing A Mission to Thay : Nethwath Keep! I really hope you enjoy it and are able to incorporate it as you're planning into your campaign. I'm working on getting a set of PDF's exported from Word without the page background for you. I'll let you know when that's ready.
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Jon G July 28, 2020 6:51 pm UTC
CREATOR
Ok, hopefully that worked. I added a file called "A_Mission_to_Thay_-_No_Page_Background-min.pdf" ... the whole module in 1 pdf file with no background image.
Customer avatar
JE B April 23, 2020 8:25 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I just picked this up and am hoping to incorporate it into my Rise of Tiamat campaign (I actually have them on hold before chapter 8).

I am enjoying reading your adventure, particularly the research and how I can weave it into my version of Faerun...
I am curious if I am missing something... part of Eseldra's scheme is keeping the party overnight so that the teleportation circle has changed so they are dependant on her to get home. If they have Transport Via Plants or access to a Teleportation Circle, is there anything stopping them from using those
magics to leave? (Inherent to Nethwatch/Thay)
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Customer avatar
Jon G April 26, 2020 11:32 am UTC
CREATOR
Hey, thank you for purchasing A Mission to Thay : Nethwatch Keep! I am pleased you're enjoying reading it, and I hope your party has a lot of fun playing through it. One way to take your question would be: what if the party decides to just abduct Nyh Ilmichh immediately and return to the Sword Coast? Teleport only takes willing creatures, and Nyh would be unwilling to go - she wants to leave Thay, but not before thwarting The Opposition's plans for summoning the Pit Fiend Bel and taking The Mask of the Devils from them (See pg. 18 under the bullet item "Try to Guard Nyh", second paragraph). I don't think Transport via Plants is going to do the job for them to escape with Nyh from Nethwatch Keep - there aren't any living plants within 10 ft of the sealed upper chambers where Eseldra holds court (see pg. 10, those chambers are 100 ft above ground, and the walls are 8ft thick, and note that the spell requires a size Large plant). If they escaped Nethwatch Keep with Nyh by other means, she would...See more
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Customer avatar
Jon G April 26, 2020 11:52 am UTC
CREATOR
Re: the teleportation circle in Nethwatch Keep, it's just its default destination that's locked to the floors of the Keep below, and the arcana check to figure out the sigil pattern allows figuring out both sigils (for the circle in the upper floors of Nethwatch Keep and the one on the ground floor). After succeeding on that arcana check, you can use either circle to pop back and forth from Eseldra's chambers on the upper floors to the ground floor without the use of a Teleport spell. If you're able to cast Teleport, you can use the circle's sigil like any other destination (perhaps needing to repeat an additional arcana check to make sure you've figured out the full pattern of the changing sequence, if you'd like).
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JE B April 27, 2020 2:31 am UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you for your advice. They haven't started it yet... I needed more time to prepare and considering that they might want to jump home early was one of the things that crossed my mind. We are an older group (avg 40ish) and they are new to it, so they really like getting lore dumps, etc. I talked to them prior to buying because Chapter 8 was actually next... I told them I felt it was lackluster and that I had found and alternate set of missions, but would need some extra time to prep it. They didn't hesitate.

So thanks again for your efforts!
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Customer avatar
Jon G April 28, 2020 10:40 am UTC
CREATOR
You're welcome! Please remember to add your rating of the adventure and a review if you have the time.
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Customer avatar
JE B May 15, 2020 2:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER
We have been playing it and my players really enjoy it so far. As of now, they were scared to bring Gimble into an unknown situation, so they left him in the castle, but they agreed to pay Haddar 1000gp to smuggle his brother out of Thay! That's investment!

I hope it's ok: they bought some items from Haddar and I have created them in D&D Beyond's Homebrew section. I only have marked Taliesin's map for public use so far (I also made a slight tweak to it by giving it a once/day charge and 8 hour cooldown on the Teleport function). I put your name in the notes for credit and referenced the Mission to Thay module on DMs Guild.

https://www.dndbeyond.com/magic-items/1677343-taliesins-magic-eye-map
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Customer avatar
Jon G May 16, 2020 12:34 pm UTC
CREATOR
It brings me joy that your players are enjoying the adventure! No worries about posting to D&D Beyond's Homebrew. And, thank you for your review of the adventure!!
Customer avatar
Franziskus B February 04, 2020 3:17 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Jon, any plans to make this available as fantasy grounds module?
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Customer avatar
Jon G February 05, 2020 11:03 am UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for your comment, Franziskus. I've never played or DM'd using Fantasy Grounds - I hear good things about it though. So I don't have any plans, but who knows what might I might get interested in.
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Customer avatar
Jon G February 05, 2020 12:46 pm UTC
CREATOR
Also, if you like A Mission To Thay, could I ask you to give it a short review or a rating? Your feedback would be much appreciated!
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Noel D February 02, 2019 1:12 am UTC
PURCHASER
For some reason the reviews tab isn't working for me so I'm not able to give it the 5 star rating it deserves, sadly.
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Customer avatar
Jon G February 08, 2019 11:48 am UTC
CREATOR
Hmm... I'm not sure what's up with that. I would love to have your rating and review! If you have chance, let me know if it still doesn't work for you?
Customer avatar
Noel D February 02, 2019 1:10 am UTC
PURCHASER
This is excellent work! I haven't played through any of this but I really like the intrigue and power structures detailed. Very detailed and well thought out.
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Customer avatar
Jon G February 08, 2019 11:47 am UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for taking a chance on A Mission to Thay : Nethwatch Keep! I had a lot of fun running it with my group and writing it up as this adventure. Please let me know if you have any questions or need any help running the content.
Customer avatar
Richard D September 19, 2018 6:31 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Still running through it, but so far it has a lot of decent content. Even if you don't run it as-is, the background and information are worth checking out. Well illustrated. Will update in a few weeks once we finish running through it.
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Customer avatar
Jon G September 21, 2018 9:39 am UTC
CREATOR
Thank you, Richard, for checking out A Mission to Thay! Please let me know if you have any questions or encounter any issues, and if you're able to leave a review after running it, that would be awesome.
Customer avatar
Don B September 01, 2018 6:44 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It shows page 20 as the slave compound map but that page does not exist in the PDF and I do not see an image for the slave compound map. Do you have one for that? I'm getting ready to start RoT and looking to add this to the Thay episode. Thanks!
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Customer avatar
Jon G September 01, 2018 7:05 pm UTC
CREATOR
Thank you for letting me know, Don - I'm not sure how I missed it. I've uploaded the file Nethwatch_Slave_Compound.png - let me know if you still don't see it. Also, have fun with RoT and A Mission to Thay! Leave a Review of your experience with the episode if you get a chance.
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Customer avatar
Don B September 02, 2018 3:05 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thank you, I see it. I'll let you know once the players go through it. It will still be a while as they are finishing up HotDQ
Customer avatar
Jon G March 03, 2018 8:16 pm UTC
CREATOR
Check out the review of my adventure on tenfootpole.org : http://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=4083
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File Last Updated:
May 24, 2023
This title was added to our catalog on February 17, 2018.