A Costly Truth

A One-Round Adventure for 7th Level Characters Crimson Codex Faction Adventure 7 From the introduction: Candle, the new director of operations in Xen’drik, has decided to reward the PCs for their efforts so far, including rescuing Zekeriff “Zeke” Brithlestone, the one-time leader of Codex operations on Xen’drik. The PCs are to begin advanced training with a special unit of the Crimson Codex. Upon successful completion of this training, the PCs will be promoted to the rank of Viper. At an archaeological dig near where the Viper training is going to take place, unusual events are unfolding. The dig is an excavation of a ziggurat created long ago by drow elf servants at the demand of their giant masters. The ziggurat houses a portal that can be used to create and control manifest zones to other planes. The daelkyr Virulence has a vested interest in this portal, and he does not want it to fall into Codex hands. Over time, Virulence has managed to turn some Codex operatives to his employ. One of those is a human druid by the name of Argent. Argent also happens to be one of the individuals in charge of the Viper training. Another individual involved in this drama is an elven Crimson Codex operative known as Oakenshaft. Oakenshaft, however, is really just in deep cover. He is still loyal to the Codex, and his mission is to act as a traitor against the Codex to learn more about Virulence’s plans. Unfortunately, the elf’s proximity to Virulence and his aberration followers have splintered his mind. The elf changes between three personas with no way to understand his own motivations: X is the true Crimson Codex operative, Oakenshaft is the traitor against the Codex in league with Virulence, and Talontoo is a cover identity as an archaeological laborer working on Codex digs. To make matters more complicated, X was asked by Argent to assist in the Viper training for the PCs.