Sample brief
Generated 2026-05-12 from a 1,400-word stack of homebrew 5e campaign notes. Same pipeline that runs for paying customers — 712 words, eight Lazy DM sections, every named NPC and dangling thread preserved.
# The Iron Vault — Session 15 Prep ## Strong Start The party flees down the side passage as three sets of heavy boots echo closer. You cut to them pressed against the damp stone wall thirty feet down the corridor — Vex's hand raised in a "stop" gesture — when the footsteps halt at the foundry entrance. A woman's voice, low and sharp: "They were just here. Fan out." The boots split up. ## Characters **Tessa Brightwood** (half-elf bard L5). AC 15, HP 38, PP 16. *Charming college dropout, wants to help Garrick's sick daughter.* **Brakk Stonefist** (dwarf cleric L5). AC 19, HP 44, PP 14. *Hammerfall blacksmith, grudge against Iron Vault, haunted by vision of Moradin's broken hammer.* **Vex Quickfingers** (tiefling rogue L5). AC 16, HP 33, PP 18. *Lowtown orphan, about to discover her parents' names in the soul-trade ledger.* **Garruk Oakroot** (firbolg druid L5). AC 14, HP 41, PP 17. *Quiet mountain druid, rejoining after hearing the construct fight from the back door.* ## Scenes - Party evades or ambushes Karna and two guards in the foundry corridors — Karna wants the foreman alive and will negotiate if pressed. - Escape the foundry sublevel; Garruk rejoins from the back entrance with a "I heard the noise" moment. - Safe-house scene: party reads the soul-trade ledger — Vex finds her parents' names, Tessa spots Mel the dock worker. - Tessa tracks down Sera Volt (Garrick's daughter) at a Lowtown tenement — the girl has the wasting sickness, pale and cold to the touch. - Brakk attempts to commune with his grandfather's memory at the family forge — you decide if Sending-style vision works or if he finds a clue instead. ## Secrets and Clues - Vex's parents — Kira and Tobin Quickfingers — are listed in the ledger, dated two months before their deaths. - Mel (the dock worker Tessa flirted with in session 3) is in the ledger, entry from five weeks ago. - The construct that attacked them bears Borin Stonefist's maker's mark — Brakk's grandfather forged it, willingly or not. - Sera Volt's wasting sickness began the same week Garrick started working the soul-forging project — her life is the leverage. - The Hollow Council and the Council of Threads (session 9 fortune-teller) are the same organization — they rebrand regionally. - The "deep one" is an aboleth named Uth'vrakar chained beneath the harbor, fed souls to keep it compliant. - The new moon delivery is in six days — the Council plans to transport forty soul-forged constructs to the harbor. ## Fantastic Locations **Foundry Side Passage**: dripping condensation on black stone, sulfur stench, distant hammer-rhythm echoes. **Lowtown Tenement (Sera's room)**: peeling wallpaper, single candle, frost on the windowsill despite summer heat. ## Important NPCs **Karna.** Half-orc enforcer for the Hollow Council, tasked with retrieving Garrick alive; speaks in clipped commands, left forearm branded with black anvil sigil, smells of coal smoke. **Garrick Volt.** Foundry foreman with prosthetic iron jaw, terrified for his daughter Sera, will beg for mercy if cornered — the Council promised to cure her if he complied. **Sera Volt.** Garrick's twelve-year-old daughter, bedridden with soul-wasting sickness (pale, cold skin, shallow breath), doesn't know her father's bargain. ## Monsters - **Iron Vault Guard** ×2. AC 11, HP 32, multiattack +4 mace (1d6+2). - **Karna** (custom half-orc). AC 16, HP 65, greataxe +6 (1d12+4) ×3 attacks, Brand of Binding 1/encounter (WIS DC 14 or restrained 1 round). ## Treasure - **On Karna's body**: 60 gp, Brand-of-Binding token (1-use magic item, WIS DC 14 or restrained), sealed letter from the Council ordering her to bring Garrick back alive. - **Iron key labeled "VAULT 3"** (already in party possession from session 14). ## Threads to Remember - **DECIDE BEFORE PLAY:** Where is Vault 3? The party has the key. - Brakk's vision of Moradin's broken hammer and three faces (one his grandfather Borin) — hint at the construct connection tonight but do NOT reveal Borin forged them yet. - The glyph on the foreman's office wall (Hollow Council symbol) — Brakk rolled a 1 to spot it last session; decide if someone else notices or leave it missed. - Award inspiration to Vex at session start for the "flee out the side passage" decision last session.