After the characters return from the woods (or at any appropriate time depending on which adventure hooks you’ve used), the party is sought out by two competing agents. Lynx Creatlach and Sir Ursas are both searching for any missing components from the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad, and their spies have returned with news of the characters' knowledge or possession of the components from the clock tower. The agents look to meet with the characters, acquire the components they’ve found, and engage them to help find more.
If you did not run chapter 1, or if the party bypassed the clock tower entirely, you can have the agents simply contact the characters based on their reputation. Recovering the missing components is not a task for the faint of heart, and Lynx and Sir Ursas are looking for capable adventurers to help them.
Background
Two archdevils—Zariel and Bel—have longed battled for control over Avernus, the first layer of the Nine Hells. To advance their cause, both archdevils plan to rebuild the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad, then incorporate that artifact into a powerful infernal war machine. To this end, both devils have placed competing agents into the world, tasking them with collecting as many of the missing components of the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad as possible.
These agents, Lynx Creatlach and Sir Ursas, know of one another and of their competing agendas. They each desire to meet the characters separately, hoping to engage them to collect more of the needed missing components.
Through their own research of legends, ancient texts, journals, and the like (as well as spying on one another), both agents have located additional missing components. However, recent expeditions to the locations described in these texts has proven fruitless, with the missing components revealed as lost, destroyed, or locked away beyond mortal reach. Each agent now desires to launch a new expedition to these locations—but to a different time in the past when the missing components might still be recoverable.
The Two Agents
The two agents reside in or close to the characters' current city or home base. If you are playing through Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, you can arrange for both agents to reside in Baldur’s Gate, where they seek the characters out after they arrive. Lynx and Sir Ursas both send couriers to deliver invitations to their respective manors.
Special Delivery
The two agents remain engaged in a constant war of espionage against one another. Even their couriers (both neutral human Spy) compete to deliver their respective invitations first. Roll on the Courier Conflict table to determine the outcome of the couriers' mission.
Courier Conflict
| d100 | Result |
|---|---|
| 01–12 | Lynx’s courier (dressed entirely in white) arrives well ahead of Sir Ursas’s courier. After delivering the invitation, the courier warns them against Ursas’s courier (who is dressed entirely in black), and asks for help setting traps against the courier’s arrival. |
| 13–24 | Lynx’s courier arrives just ahead of Sir Ursas’s courier. After delivering the invitation, the first courier waits nearby to ambush the second, in a location obvious to the characters. |
| 25–37 | Lynx’s courier arrives and Ursas’s never shows. Lynx’s courier has already murdered their rival and hastily stashed the body, which is easily and eventually found in the area by the characters (along with the second invitation). |
| 38–50 | As 01–12 above, only Ursas’s courier arrives well ahead of Lynx’s. |
| 51–62 | As 13–24 above, only Ursas’s courier arrives just ahead of Lynx’s. |
| 63–74 | As 25–37 above, only Ursas’s courier arrives and Lynx’s never shows. |
| 75–90 | Both couriers arrive at the same time, and begin fighting immediately. |
| 91–00 | Both couriers have killed each other, with the characters stumbling across their bodies and both invitations. |
Invitation
Each invitation extends a formal welcome to the characters and a request to meet in person. The contents are short on details beyond the agent’s name, but the invitation promises a lucrative reward for services rendered that will benefit all good and free folk, and includes a map to the respective agent’s manor.
Due haste is also advised. Each invitation makes it clear that another, less scrupulous agent is interested in the characters as well, and cautions them against the machinations of this rival.
(Though both agents serve their patron archdevils with fierce loyalty, they are oddly loath to reveal the truth of the other agent’s master and their rival’s fiendish nature, for fear of their own master and nature being revealed in turn.)
Assignment
When first met, each agent extends the same offer. If the characters have not already determined so on their own, the agent explains that the components they found originated in the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad. They then offer to pay for those components already in the characters' possession, and to pay a handsome bounty for the recovery of any additional components—2,000 gp for each component (negotiable up to 4,000 gp, especially if there’s a competing offer from the other agent in play).
If the characters accept, the agent they strike the deal with provides them with information on where to seek the next missing components, as well as a special construct guide programmed to transport them through space and time to reach the site.
Lynx Creatlach
Presenting herself as a tiefling rogue, Lynx Creatlach talks of how she retired as an adventurer to use her assembled fortune and collected antiquities in the service of nobler causes. Chief among those causes is the defeat of the servants of the archdevil Bel. An eccentric dilettante, Lynx has had her thick horns intricately carved and inlaid with sigils and figures in silver, including multiple images of her namesake lynx. She has also lost one eye from old adventuring misfortunes, replacing it with a glass eye of hazy crystal. Several of her teeth have also been replaced with precious stones and metals.
In truth, Lynx is an active agent of Zariel but is no longer among the living. Rather, she’s a lawful evil undead tiefling, with her skeleton specially crafted to retain her former skills and intellect, and bonded to an equally special flesh golem that she wears as a costumed skin. (If you are playing through Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, this setup was one of Mad Maggie’s creations while the hag was in Zariel’s employ.) Beneath this golem costume, Lynx’s bones are carved and silver-scribed in the same manner as her horns. She uses her skull, which is locked and accessed from inside the back of her mouth, as a container for her most private treasures.
Lynx’s Manor
Lynx resides in a narrow, multistory house in a fine part of the city. While she claims ownership of the place, she has merely taken over the manor from its current owner. That owner (whose identity is left to your determination) is kept alive and bound within an extradimensional prison, treated as a permanent
If the characters accept Lynx’s invitation, she meets them while strolling the long hallways of her manor, the walls of which are filled with fine paintings. Rather than noting their artists or subjects, however, Lynx describes each painting based on where she stole it from.
Servants
The house is also occupied by a dozen servants—all Cultist of Zariel disguised in stolen livery.
Lynx’s Goal
Lynx states that she seeks the missing components in order to complete her version of the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad. Her plan is to use the powerful artifact to counteract the forces of the archdevil Bel working within Baldur’s Gate. She admits a rivalry with Sir Ursas, who she says considers Lynx a criminal for her past adventuring ways and now constantly seeks to thwart her. Lynx further states that Sir Ursas wants the missing components for his own lost cause of leading a war in the Nine Hells, which would invariably result in the components falling into diabolical hands.
As she talks with the characters, Lynx relates that several of the missing components are mentioned in various legends surrounding the Tomb of Horrors, but recent expeditions sent to the tomb have all failed to return. Lynx believes that an expedition should instead be sent to an earlier time in the tomb’s construction, when the missing components are known to be there. She further theorizes that existing components of the Infernal Machine (either those the characters have brought to her, or those already in her possession) could allow time to be manipulated in some localized fashion within the tomb.
Lynx is aware that Sir Ursas has knowledge of other missing components that might relate to an ancient Temple of Moloch.
Mechanical Guide
Lynx has pulled a component from her version of the Infernal Machine and installed it in a magical construct resembling a silvery skeleton with decorative wings, nicknamed Eludecia. (If you connect this adventure to Lost Laboratory of Kwalish, the construct has been built from one of Kwalish’s old designs.) If the characters possess any missing components, she asks to buy those so that they can be added to the construct as well.
See the “area Mechanical Guides” section below for information on Eludecia’s statistics. The construct travels with the characters, and can magically teleport them to either the Tomb of Horrors or the Temple of Moloch, transporting the party to either location in the distant past.
Sir Ursas
The warrior Sir Ursas strikes an imposing figure—a massive, muscular warrior with one arm replaced with a grizzly bear’s paw grafted at the elbow. He grows his dark hair long and shaggy, his eyes are bloodshot, and his complexion is consistently ruddy as if from some combination of exercise, exertion, and bellowing at subordinates. Ursas proudly claims to be the very figure depicted in A Paladin in Hell—a painting that has become famous throughout Faerûn—and that he lost his arm on that expedition, fighting the forces of the archdevil Zariel.
However, Sir Ursas is hardly the honorable knight he presents himself as. He is secretly a warrior in the service of Bel, and has sworn vengeance against all those who would oppose Bel and the archdevil’s struggle to reclaim Avernus—especially followers of Zariel.
See appendix B for Sir Ursas’s stat block.
Sir Ursas’s Manor
Sir Ursas resides in a veritable stronghold located outside the city limits. Its grounds are surrounded by a vast and intricate hedge maze under a permanent
If the characters accept his invitation, Ursas meets them at the maze’s entrance and guides them to an ornate gazebo in a hidden courtyard to talk.
Servants
The stronghold is also occupied by a dozen mercenaries—all Cultist of Bel who appear as burly and brutish fighters.
Sir Ursas’s Goal
Ursas states that he seeks the missing components in order to complete his version of the Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad. When complete, the powerful artifact will allow him to finish the military campaign he started long ago, letting him return to Avernus and take on the forces of Zariel. Further, he is open about his rivalry with Lynx. He claims that the retired rogue is after the missing components only to add them to her collection of stolen rarities, and that she has no intention of putting them into the service of good.
As he talks with the characters, Sir Ursas relates that several of the missing components are mentioned in legends surrounding an ancient Temple of Moloch. Recent expeditions there have found the temple ruined and looted, and the missing components are long gone. Ursas believes that an expedition should instead be sent to an earlier time in the temple’s history, when the missing components are known to be there. He further theorizes that existing components of the Infernal Machine (either those the characters have brought to him, or those already in his possession) could allow time to be manipulated in some localized fashion within the temple.
Ursas is aware that Lynx has knowledge of other missing components that might relate to the Tomb of Horrors.
Mechanical Guide
Sir Ursas offers the characters the services of a magical construct built to resemble a smaller version of the Mighty Servant of Leuk-O, and which is nicknamed Luke. The construct is powered by one of the Infernal Machine components Ursas has collected. If the characters possess any missing components, he asks to buy those so that they can be added to the construct as well.
See the “area Mechanical Guides” section below for information on Luke’s statistics. The construct travels with the characters, and can magically teleport them to either the Temple of Moloch or the Tomb of Horrors, transporting the party to either location in the distant past.
Expedition Options
This adventure is designed to provide plenty of options for you as the DM, and to help give the players a strong sense of agency and choice.
Agents
The characters can ally themselves with either agent, whether choosing to deal with the first agent they meet, or meeting both before making a choice. They might even meet with both in order to play one against the other. They might distrust both agents and ally with neither, instead undertaking the adventure on their own to capture the missing components and prevent them falling into the wrong hands. In the latter case, you simply need to arrange for them to gain access to their own mechanical guide, whether through theft, purchase, or an alternative patron (such as Kwalish).
Locations
Depending on which agent they ally themselves with, the characters will initially travel to either the Tomb of Horrors or the Temple of Moloch. If you want to focus on only one location in the adventure, that’s fine. But plot hooks and NPC interactions at each location give you lots of opportunity to inspire or compel the characters to travel to the second location, either after or in conjunction with exploring the first location.
Mechanical Guides
Each mechanical guide is programmed to teleport through space and time to the adventure’s set locations, effectively dropping the characters at the start of chapter 3 or chapter 4. Each guide can return to its agent’s manor at any time.
Each guide is an unaligned Medium construct with AC 20, 50 hit points, and a speed of 20 feet. It has no attacks, and has a +0 modifier for all its ability scores.
Each guide has 6 charges, and regains
All damage dealt to a guide can be restored during a long rest with a successful DC 14 Dexterity check using thieves' tools or tinker’s tools. A damaged guide can also be restored to full hit points by the use of a
Each guide follows the party and obeys all the characters' commands. If two characters issue commands to the guide at the same time, you decide how the commands are resolved.
Working Both Sides
If the characters meet with both agents, they might agree to work for both without the other agent knowing. In that case, it’s possible that they acquire both mechanical guides. You can decide whether the programming of the two constructs causes them to bicker and one-up each other—or whether each guide attempts to sabotage and destroy its counterpart. Or you might decide that they develop a mutual respect for each other, perhaps even becoming friends as a result of their shared adventures. If on friendly terms, a guide can restore any damage dealt to its counterpart during a short rest, by willingly sacrificing parts for the other.
Manipulating Time
The ability to manipulate time at either the Tomb of Horrors or the Temple of Moloch is a fun part of the adventure, so make sure the players are clear on the parameters for doing so. The following information reflects what the characters learn from the mechanical guide they work with:
- The Infernal Machine components placed into the mechanical guides allow the characters to order a guide to spend 1 or more charges to alter time within individual areas of the Tomb of Horrors and the Temple of Moloch. If the localized time in an area at either site can be altered, that area’s description has a “Manipulating Time” section, detailing the effects that result when a mechanical guide spends charges to alter the flow of time in that area.
- A guide spends 1 or more charges using its action. Commanding a guide to spend a charge requires no action.
- Neither the characters nor the agents know in advance which rooms are subject to localized time effects, which areas can be affected by multiple charges, whether spending charges advances or rewinds time, or if the effects will be helpful, harmful, or simply wondrous in nature. Ultimately, some amount of experimentation might be necessary.
By spending 1 or more charges in an area, a mechanical guide alters the flow of time within that area in a limited way. As time flows forward or backward, the characters see the area and its occupants move like ghosts into the future or the past, then settle back into the normal time frame once more. As was seen at the clock tower in chapter 1, this time manipulation affects only the immediate area and that area’s original inhabitants. The characters, any creatures accompanying them, and any creatures that enter the area while time is shifting are not affected.
For example, having a mechanical guide spend 1 or more charges in a specific room might cause that room’s occupants to move to a different location, as local time speeds forward or back to a point when those occupants are going on or off duty, starting or ending a rest period, and so on. The characters and other outside observers see the affected occupants retreating or advancing in time, but cannot interact with them.
Once the affected creatures arrive at their new time and location, they start acting as they normally would from that point forward. This means that creatures going back in time have their memories revert, such that they forget any interactions with characters in the area they just left. Likewise, time-manipulated creatures will suddenly “discover” characters if they encounter them in the area where they return to normal time.
By manipulating time in either adventure locale, NPCs and monsters can be moved into new positions so that combat can be avoided (even if that combat is already underway). Likewise, characters who fail badly in negotiations with NPCs can try to wind back the clock to replay those negotiations as desired.