This week we take another look at Sunk Costs, the first adventure designed specifically for Realm of Runes. As this series of deep dives into this adventure continue (pun intended) it will become harder and harder to avoid providing information that could be considered somewhat of a spoiler. So, proceed with caution. Today we examine "the pitch." What are you and your party getting yourselves into by running Sunk Costs?
As it was being first developed, Sunk Costs was intended to be a sort of "heist" adventure. Though there may be a vault filled with valuables, the most important things to extract are yourselves. As your adventure begins, it quickly becomes apparent that you've all been kidnapped and brought to some strange sort of anomalous, highly technological facility. The facility seems to be mostly abandoned, but you're not alone. There's another individual trapped in this facility as well, one from the world you're most familiar with. This other person has been here longer than you and has been trapped in the facility control room. Thanks to his location and limited access, this individual is able to provide some remote assistance to your party with the ultimate goal of escape.
Escape will not be easy, however. The facility itself has been severely damaged, its structural integrity failing, and its surviving systems hanging on by a thread thanks to emergency power alone. Further complicating this scenario, the facility itself is located at the bottom of the sea, some five thousand kilometers deep. Even high-level characters would not be able to survive the incredible damage of the water pressure outside without some sort of protection, be it magical or technological.
All hope is not lost, however, as the mystery person in the control room has a plan. The facility still has some sort of submersible vehicle in its hangar, which can be used to leave slowly enough to avoid The Bends, but the hangar's enormous blast doors cannot be budged without restoring main power to the entire facility. Unfortunately, the power station section seems to have been the most heavily damaged and is flooded. So, you'll almost certainly have to figure out some way to safely go outside.
The facility itself has many treasures that can help you. Whoever built and abandoned this marvelous undersea structure left behind many technological miracles. Understanding what they are and how they work will not be easy but may be the key to getting out alive and with as much treasure as you can carry! But beware! Technology is not the only thing they left behind...
The next time we visit Sunk Costs in these blog entries, we'll explore some more technical details. Next week we'll circle back to take a closer look at the Atlas of the World, so stay tuned!
Comments