# THE QUIET CAMP ### A full onboarding adventure for Sordia Vignti **Designed for:** 5 characters, level 15 **Play length:** 1 long session (or 2 short) **Theme:** Vecna’s organisation as infrastructure **Function:** onboarding new players + real canon discovery --- Sordia Vignti is contracted to eliminate a bandit camp responsible for a string of strange raids. The surface threat is real — but the camp conceals a hidden Vecna outpost used to catalogue prisoners, strip knowledge, and forward assets into a much larger operation. The adventure is structured into **four acts** and **seven keyed locations**, with built-in investigation, social play, combat, discovery, and consequences. --- # BACKGROUND (DM ONLY) This site is an **Outpost of Acquisition**. It feeds a distributed Vecna network. It exists to identify useful individuals, extract memories, stabilise bodies and artefacts, and forward them elsewhere. Only the inner cell knows this. --- # ADVENTURE HOOK Choose or combine: • A trade faction hires Sordia Vignti to remove a bandit group disrupting routes. • A string of disappearances includes people with magical or scholarly skills. • Bodies are later found laid out, missing specific organs. • An ally uncovers a ledger tracking people instead of gold. The job is presented as **simple removal**. --- # ACT I – THE SURFACE CAMP The camp lies against a jagged rock face in dense forest or broken hills. A wooden palisade encloses a lived-in bandit settlement. Two watch platforms. A central fire pit. Six to eight tents. A prisoner cage. A reinforced command tent. A leaning supply hut built into stone. At any time, **10–12 bandits** are present. --- ## Arrival text _Through the trees, smoke curls above a crude palisade of split logs driven into dirt and stone. Canvas tents cluster around a central fire pit. Crates are stacked beside a supply hut leaning against the rock face. Two watch platforms rise above the wall, each bearing an armed figure slowly scanning the forest._ --- ## Surface camp play This area is deliberately open. Let the party: • observe patrols • sneak inside • ambush • impersonate traders • negotiate • assault • free prisoners • plant distractions • test spells and movement This is where new players learn their characters. --- ## Surface encounters Use waves rather than one blob. Suggested structure: • Outer patrol (scouts + thugs) • Interior defence (veterans + captain) • Command tent stand-off (captain + camp mage) They fight like criminals, not fanatics. They retreat. They bargain. They panic. --- ## The prisoner cage Contains 3–4 captives. Examples: • hedge mage • failed acolyte • literate caravan clerk • wounded scout They reveal: • prisoners are taken “below” • gold is irrelevant • the supply hut is forbidden • robed figures come and go • people sometimes scream under the camp --- ## The command tent Inside are maps, payment records, and a ledger. The ledger tracks: • names • skills • arcane aptitude • physical notes • dates taken • dates transferred Not loot. This is the first clear pivot. --- # ACT II – THE HIDDEN ACCESS The supply hut contains crates, a hoist, and a stone bench. A false floor conceals a heavy iron trapdoor cut into the bedrock. Cold air leaks from its seams. --- ## Finding the entrance • Passive Perception 18 notices airflow and temperature shift • Investigation DC 15 finds seams and scrape marks • Detect Magic reveals necromancy and abjuration • Dispel Magic suppresses the alarm wards for 1 minute --- ## The ward Opening the door without suppressing the ward triggers a psychic shriek. Effects: • all creatures in the outpost become alert • undead activate • the Outpost Master begins failsafe procedures This doesn’t end the dungeon. It changes it. Stone stairs descend into worked tunnels. The air becomes dry, cold, and preserved. --- # ACT III – THE VECNA OUTPOST