In an excellent piece of activism, the Thieves' Guild in Kaaliqar not only robbed the city treasury they then melted the gold down and minted their own gold piece to put into circulation. The city fathers are less than impressed, of course, and want the party to shut the Guild down, once and for all.

The DM's Introduction explains a bit more about the city - the default setting is in Fantasy Flight Games' Mennara campaign world, but you can either relocate Kaaliqar to a suitable place in your own campaign world or use an appropriate large city that's already there instead. The place has a reputation for fair laws firmly enforced by a force of honourable knights, but the current governor has a zero tolerance policy when it comes to crime, and the underworld is beginning to push back with a mocking campaign that has included the theft of the front doors of the city council members and the shaving of rude words into the coats of the knights' horses, as well as the latest prank of re-minting the city gold. There are further details as to where the thieves are and what they are doing.

The adventure begins with the governor briefing the party. He says that the knights are thirsting for revenge but are reluctant to take action as they are supposed to be a force for justice not revenge, and fear being made to look even more foolish. He can tell them little about the robbery, and his single lead is an inn that Thieves' Guild members are believed to frequent.

Now here's the thing. The thieves are actually hoping that the knights will investigate as they have some more nasty surprises lined up to humiliate them further, so will make it easy for the party to find out where the minting operation is located, assuming that they are investigating on behalf of the knights. They'll soon find themselves directed towards the sewers under the city... and then the fun begins.

Atmospheric descriptions of the sewers are provided, and yes, it is pretty foul down there. Assorted encounters are provided (as well as what the thieves have set out to cause problems for inquisitive knights) and there is a clear map. In a neat move, the final encounter offers options for negotiation as well as combat. The notes on concluding the adventure assume the party remains true to the original mission, if they prefer to take another route you'll have to figure out the results for yourself. No follow-up adventures are suggested, but once you have determined who the party have impressed and who they have offended, some may occur to you.

This makes for an entertaining adventure (provided you don't mind the smell) which ought to run in a single session.

Return to The Thief's Gold page.

Reviewed: 1 March 2018