Varrin Axbreaker - Dwarf M - Prisoner 13 Quest

Varrin Axebreaker (lawful good, dwarf noble) contacts the characters to enlist their aid in retrieving the key. Varrin’s braided hair and beard are black with streaks of gray. He wears a loose, comfortable robe over a steel breastplate. Whether Varrin approaches the characters or invites them to a meeting, read the following text:

“Thank you for hearing me out. My name is Varrin Axebreaker, and I have a proposition for you. My clan has located wealth stolen from us many years ago, but it’s sealed in a vault that’s magically locked. If you can recover the key—whatever it is—you’ll gain the undying gratitude of Clan Axebreaker. And I’ll cut you in for a percentage of the recovered treasure, of course. “The catch here is the person who knows how to open the vault is rotting away in the prison of Revel’s End. She’s proved uncooperative with my people in the past, but I recently discovered the vault where she hid what she stole from us. I need you to question her and learn how to open the vault. How you do that is up to you; if you need to spring her from the prison in exchange for this information, please do so. I can provide you with a way in, as well as the layout of Revel’s End and a few useful tricks.”

Give the players a copy of map 4.1 (see “The Breaker’s Map” below), and read the following text:

Varrin retrieves a faceted sapphire the size of a small orange and places it on the table. He waves his hand over the gem, and a glowing blue image of a building floor plan appears in the air above it. He taps the gem, and the image vanishes. The sapphire splits into sections, and he passes one fragment to each of you. The fragment grows warm in your hand, melts, then vanishes, leaving a warm, tingling sensation behind. “Think about the map of Revel’s End, and you’ll be able to see it.”

The gem’s magic lasts until five days after the characters reach Revel’s End.