Keys From The Golden Vault is the latest adventure book for Dungeons & Dragons, featuring 13 incredible heists for players to sink their teeth into. From liberating a specific item to saving a town from certain destruction, there is a wonderful amount of variety to the heists. Keys From The Golden Vault gives players a chance to really stretch their creative muscles and come up with plans for the variety of scenarios they will face.
The heists found in DnD’s Keys From The Golden Vault range from level one right through to 11 and are designed to fit nicely into any campaign already running. The heist adventures work brilliantly as one-shots but can also be tied together to create their own caper-themed campaign. With 13 adventures to choose from, players are spoilt for choice, but five heists really stand out from the rest and should definitely be at the top of any DMs list.
Return A Stolen Book In D&D’s Reach For The Stars
A great place to start is the level three adventure titled Reach for the Stars, which has one of the more interesting concepts in Keys From The Golden Vault. For this heist, players are tasked with retrieving The Celestial Codex, a powerful magical book that has been taken by a wealthy academic named Markos Delphi. While this sounds simple enough, Markos has lost his way and is attempting to summon a terrible creature from Dungeons & Dragons’ mysterious Far Realm.
In this Keys From The Golden Vault heist, players will have to infiltrate the Delphi estate and find The Celestial Codex before Markos can unleash this terrible evil into the world. Along the way, the team will have to deal with horrors Markos has summoned so far. Reach for the Stars is a horror twist on the classic heist but has many instances of body horror throughout the adventure. DMs should make sure to check in with their players before and during this creepy DnD heist.
Vidorant’s Vault Is A Classic D&D Heist
The level seven adventure Vidorant's Vault is a good old-fashioned DnD heist with a nice twist at the end. Players will have to formulate a plan to break into the vault of notorious thief Nixylanna Vidorant on behalf of her former partner in crime. However, like any famous thief, Vidorant had packed her vault full of hidden traps to catch unsuspecting DnD players and other clever security features the players will have to bypass if they want to get out with their prize and their lives.
Vidorant's Vault is a deceptively simple DnD heist in Keys From The Golden Vault which is what makes it so brilliant. Everything a player could want from classic heist movies is here, from gathering intel and casing the joint to navigating the vault and avoiding guards. However, the devil is in the details of the plan the players can formulate and how well their dice rolls go. There is also Vidorant herself, who will want to have a 'chat' with the players.
Breaking A Curse In D&D’s Reverse Heist Shard Of The Accursed
If Vidorant's Vault is the classic heist, then Shard of the Accursed is the reverse of that. In this level eight adventure, players have to return a strange shard to a tomb in an attempt to end a horrible curse that could end up afflicting unsuspecting DnD party members. Things never go smoothly with heists, though, and there are other forces in play that will attempt to stop the party for their own nefarious reasons.
Shard of the Accursed feels a lot like Indiana Jones, but again in reverse, with players delving into a crumbling tomb to return the cursed shard. As characters learn more about the source of the shard and the mysterious incidents that seem to follow it, an honestly touching story is revealed. Shard of the Accursed is one of the best adventures in Keys From The Golden Vault for slotting into a preexisting Dungeons & Dragons campaign, as it offers more after the heist has concluded for DMs to integrate.
D&D Murder Mystery Meets Heist With Affair On The Concordant Express
Affair on the Concordant Express is a fun twist on Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. This DnD heist in Keys From The Golden Vault is for level nine characters and, like many of the others, starts with a seemingly simple premise. Players are sent to interrogate a mysterious outlaw known only as the Stranger, as he currently has vital information about several powerful demons and devils.
This information is what makes Affair on the Concordant Express a really interesting plot hook, as the Stranger has somehow learned the true names of some very powerful beings. Dungeons & Dragons lore nerds can have a field day with this adventure, and DMs can easily work this short mission into numerous campaigns. However, like all good heists, nothing is straightforward or as it seems, and Affair on the Concordant Express offers some great twists and distractions for players.
As the nod to Christie's famous novel suggests, there will be a murder, which players can either try to bypass or help solve as a short tabletop RPG murder mystery. Some of the most fun elements of this DnD adventure, however, come from the setting as the Concordant Express is an interplanar train traveling through the multiverse. Planar effects are just some of the unusual things players will have to contend with as they navigate the many train carriages to reach their peculiar target.
Journey To D&D’s Feywild With Party At Paliset Hall
Finally, fans of DnD’s Feywild will love the level 10 Keys From The Golden Vault heist adventure Party at Paliset Hall. It has everything a fan of fun capers could want, with players being asked to infiltrate a gala in the Feywild to steal a magical diamond. But, of course, nothing is what it seems, and the team could soon find themselves on a very different kind of mission.
The gala is being hosted by Lady Zorhanna Adulare in her lavish home of Paliset Hall, with guests coming from across many realms, not just Dungeons & Dragons’ Feywild and the Material Plane, for the yearly party. Players must attend the gala and retrieve the diamond without harming any of the guests. However, with a coven of hags and a creature from the Far Realm involved, Party at Paliset Hall could easily turn into complete chaos, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Many heists or heist-themed adventures could easily become repetitive however, Keys From The Golden Vault manages to avoid this pitfall. Each of the heists has potential compilations which are well-thought-out and offer different outcomes giving players reasons to try different tactics when replayed. The five adventures here are great starting points for players and DMs looking to inject some classic heist tropes into their current Dungeons & Dragons campaigns or have a fun standalone mission as a one-shot.
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