L1-21. The Ruby Balance Vault 'Treasure Room'
Getting In: The Secret Door
Clue through-line. The arch and fresco repeat Lendor’s justice motif—“measure” and balance—tying back to the corridor’s six-count.
How to open
- Password: Stand before the flame-tip panel and speak “balance”. The slab clicks and swings inward on silent pivots.
- Magic: Dispel magic (vs. 15th-level effect) suppresses the seal for 1 minute; knock opens it for 1 minute.
- Force: Blunt damage to a total of 100 hp smashes the seam (loud).
- Search: DC 14 Investigation to spot hairline joints and a tiny ash draft.
Noise rule. If the complex still has active orcs and you batter the door: the racket summons any remaining orcs to Room 20 in 7 rounds from the first blow; they attack immediately. (If the party already fought through the complex, no one remains to answer.)
Stealth timer (optional). If the party has avoided all fighting up to now, they’ve hit meeting time: within 1d4+2 rounds of opening the vault, orcs begin to pour into the shrine from the corridors and attack on sight (use your response clock from Room 19).
Why the Dust is Still Here
The vault is known to a few (Urzhag, Vhakra, one runner) and used as a hidey-hole, not a storeroom. Superstition about “Suel curses” keeps most orcs out; they stashed one thing and left—hence the single track.
Treasure (as written, organized)
On the cart / shelves
- Five finely woven tapestries—flattering portraits of Aluna Asbury (300 gp each).
- Walnut cabinet, inlaid with bronzewood and roanwood (500 gp).
- High-back roanwood chair, carved from a single block (300 gp).
- Matched bronze statues of Myhriss and Lirr (200 gp each).
- Loose coin: 2,000 gp in sacks and trays.
Chalices (pair)
- Present: Silver chalice inscribed “to Lord Asbury and Lady Aluna from Mayor Haxx of Verbobonc” (100 gp).
- Missing: its twin, removed by Artus Kellan (plot proof).
Small annotated chest
Keyhole engraved with a counter-clockwise arrow.
- Open: Thieves’ Tools DC 12 (counter-clockwise). Turning clockwise first makes it DC 16 (stiff tumblers).
- Contents: mixed opals, rubies, emeralds (1,200 gp total, appraised).
Weapons of Asbury
- Sword of Asbury. +1 longsword; blade etched with a shimmering meadow encircled by low hills and runes of alternation. From the pommel hangs the Star of Asbury—a large ruby on a platinum chain.
- Lore: The ruby detects transmutation (“alteration”) magic; the blade was a wedding-guard.
- Star of Asbury (ruby). In your classic rules, acts as a wand of cure light wounds.
- 5e suggestion: Wand of Cure Wounds (7 charges; regains 1d6+1 daily; expends 1–3 charges to cast cure wounds at the slot level spent; crumbles to inert gem at 0 charges on a 1). While worn on the sword, the ruby faintly glows when transmutation magic is within 30 ft.
- Blue-Steel Greatsword. Masterwork two-hander of blue steel, etched along the fuller; wyvern-hide blue wrap; single topaz in pommel (exotic craftsmanship; 350 gp, or more to a collector).
The Chest of Rao (stowed by the orcs)
- Appearance: Iron-bound oak reliquary chest (3 ft × 2 ft), brass sunburst boss, white wax seal (sunburst) on the hasp. A silver chalice rests on its lid.
- Opening:
- Proper: Whisper a Raoan prayer (any sincere invocation of peace/wisdom) and lift—no check.
- Forced: Thieves’ Tools DC 15 or Str DC 16 to break. If opened without a prayer, a soft white flare bursts: creatures with Chaotic Evil alignment within 10 ft must make a Wis DC 12 save or be Frightened until end of next turn (this is why the orcs didn’t pry).
- Inside (minor reliquary, not the world-shaking artifact):
- A velvet-wrapped pair of devotional plates (Rao, 150 gp total).
- Three scrolls: sanctuary, calm emotions, protection from evil and good.
- Raoan incense (6 sticks; 10 gp; grants advantage on the next Religion check to consecrate Room 20).
- Ledger slip naming Artus Kellan as caretaker of a paired chalice set gifted to House Asbury.
- Chalice clue: The silver chalice you see is one of a matched pair—its twin is the piece Artus Kellan carried out when he escaped to Asbury. The dust-shadow ring on the chest lid proves it sat here for years beside its twin.
Why the orcs never found it
The fresco seam is tight and the password not Orcish. Even the shaman stuck to the shrine. The dust skin tells the tale: centuries undisturbed—until one careful intruder.
Hooks & handoffs
- Sword & Star of Asbury. Returning them earns major favor with Baroness Elinor Asbury.
- Artus’s testimony. The missing chalice corroborates Artus Kellan’s story at Asbury.
- Cart logistics. The vault’s two-wheeled cart can carry 600–800 lb; a perfect prop for a fast haul if the party wants to clear the room before the orcs crash in.
- Counter-clockwise key clue. Engraved arrow is a polite nudge to careful thieves; reward noticing it with advantage on the lock check.
Where it is
Behind the altar on the north wall of Room 20. A secret door is hidden inside the great bas-relief (at Pyremius’s sword-flame).
The Vault (layout & feel)
- Size: roughly 20 × 30 ft, 10-ft ceiling, stone shelves along the walls.
- Furnishings: bundled tapestries, crated art objects, a two-wheeled cart loaded for quick removal; one carved, high-back chair faces the door like a seat for a triumphant inventory.
- Tracks: One recent shuffling set (small boot) from door → chest with chalice → door again.
- Who came: Artus Kellan, priest of Rao, grabbed its match and fled to Asbury Manor.
Examination (the chest & chalice). The chest’s lid bears a clean ring where a second chalice once sat for years—dust-shadow proves the pair. The visible chalice is the gifted piece; the missing twin is the one Artus carried out.
If the orcs crash the party
(meeting time)
If the party has been silent until now, as soon as they open or enter the vault, start the clock:
- Round 1: 6 orcs hit Room 20 from the red corridor; if Vhakra lives, he arrives with them.
- Round 2–3: Bodyguards from 17/18 surge in.
- Round 6: The closest barracks empties.
Hold the vault door: it does not lock from inside, but you can wedge it (Athletics DC 12) for 3 rounds of frantic looting before the shrine fills with foes.
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