Torrii Between Tides · The Tidevault

01 · The dark beacon

· planned

Opening: begin in Reedcross before the party accepts the recovery contract. Mira offers the harbor fee; Sera asks for help finding Brin. Torrii can explain the exposed causeway and Ilan can translate the first seal. Objective: investigate the dark beacon and decide whether to recover its lens. Choices: ask about the last repair, obtain a witnessed permit, copy the tide chart and agree how to approach the salvage crew. No choice or agreement has been recorded. Next, if the group accepts: enter the Tidevault at low tide. The planned dungeon session can continue on the same game night. Save only events that actually occur.

02 · The six-room Tidevault

· planned

Prerequisite: the party has accepted the recovery mission or chosen its own reason to enter. Objective: retrieve the lens and find Brin. Opening: the causeway is exposed at low tide. NPCs: Brin can be found in room 5; Rook and Kest's crew in room 6. Choices: feed the crabs, negotiate with salvagers, read the guardian command or choose another sound approach. None is mandatory. Record after play: rooms visited, allies made, Brin's safety, lens custody and rewards actually distributed. Close: choose the return route and write the first actual recap. No dungeon event has started.

03 · The harbor lights

· planned

Conditional follow-up after the party returns. Do not assume the lens or Brin was recovered. If the lens returns, repair its mount and test the beacon before paying the harbor fee. If Brin returns, let the party decide what testimony to share. Investigate Ilan's ledger and negotiate any surviving salvage claim. If recovery failed, prepare another attempt or a different harbor solution. Downtime is optional preparation: repair, research or ferry arrangements. Record costs, findings and results only after play. No outcome is prewritten.

Restore the harbor beacon

The lens mount must be repaired before payment.

Find Brin Vale

Brin waits in room 5 and knows the sentinel command.

Read the tide ledger

Prepared investigation. The tide schedule and missing invoice have not been discovered by the party. Reveal them only after the relevant examination or conversation.

Settle the salvage claim

Offer a written scrap claim. Ogres and skeletons guard the lens chamber if negotiations fail.

Torrii

Torrii concealed a hairline fracture in the lens. The vault’s replacement is intact. Reveal this if the party asks about the last repair.

Mira Venn

The recovery fee is 150 gp for the whole party. Record payment only after the lens is installed.

Ilan Reed

Ilan’s brother works for Kest. His interest in the salvage crew is personal.

Kest Bale

Kest owes ferry dues. He will exchange the lens for a written scrap claim; he does not require combat.

Sera Moss

Brin carried a copied maintenance command. Sera knows the command begins with ‘still water’.

Brin Vale

Brin is uninjured. Brin can silence the stone sentinel after the party identifies the correct inscription.

Rook Flint

Rook wants safe work and will help reinstall the lens if treated fairly.

Run this example

Begin with planned session 01, The dark beacon, before the party accepts the contract. Journals are empty, all quests are Open and all objective progress is zero. Set actual session dates when preparing your game. Session 02 is the dungeon plan; it can follow the harbor briefing on the same game night. Open the linked Tidevault table and its map. Imported tables start closed and joining is disabled. Reopen the table when ready. The five party tokens are manual stand-ins; the full example sheets are private copies in Characters. Reconnect actual players explicitly. Use each saved encounter’s rehearsal to practice without changing this table. Rooms 1–6 have paired doors, terrain, private notes and saved creatures. Party starts in room 1. Reveal rooms as they enter. Use the existing initiative controls; update HP, conditions and terrain manually. Player Knowledge and graph editions are drafts. Select current players and review fields before publishing.

Encounter budgets

Party: five level-5 characters. SRD 5.2.1 Low budget: 500 XP per character × 5 = 2,500 XP per encounter. Raw XP; no 2014 creature-count multiplier. 1. Salt gate: 2 Giant Crabs, 50 XP. 2. Pump gallery: 2 Bandits and 1 Scout, 150 XP. 3. Silt cistern: 2 Gray Oozes, 200 XP. 4. Brass workshop: 2 Tidevault Sentinels, 400 XP. 5. Echo shrine: 1 Gargoyle, 450 XP. 6. Lens chamber: 2 Ogres and 2 Skeletons, 1,000 XP. All six preparations are below the Low budget. Total authored creature XP: 2,250. Difficulty budgets apply to an encounter, not an adventuring-day allowance. Resources, immunities, terrain and consecutive fights affect play. Offer the noncombat routes and a rest in the safe workshop. Source: https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/srd/5.2/SRD_CC_v5.2.1.pdf#page=202

DM information and disclosures

DM only: Torrii hid the lens fracture; Ilan’s brother works for Kest; the unpaid invoice is private. Player draft: tide times, Sera’s request, the maintenance command after discovery and the route home. NPC relationship notes, campaign notes, calendar entries and hidden terrain remain private. A party-known discovery is a record label; it does not publish itself.

Dungeon route and correction notes

Main route: 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6. Branch: 2 ↔ 4, a maintenance passage. The doors link saved map areas rather than one large drawing. Both sides of each connection are saved. If a token enters the wrong room, select the intended area and move it manually. If initiative or HP was entered incorrectly, use the correction controls and record what changed. Room 4 is dry, ventilated and safe after its guardians stand down. No timed damage or reinforcements are scheduled.

Session notes template

Session / date: Objective: Opening scene: NPCs and motivations: Locations and encounters: Decisions and consequences: Rules corrections: Rewards actually distributed: Unresolved questions: Player-facing recap: Next-session opening: Private DM follow-up:

Reward and loot preparation

Planned contents: sealed lens case, maintenance chart, 40 gp salvage coffer, two Potions of Healing and the 150 gp harbor fee. Encounter treasure and quest rewards are preparation records. They do not change wallets or bags. Use Party Loot after the live table has current players; review each recipient and transfer once. The lens is a quest object with no combat bonus. Write down who carries it and remove that ownership record after delivery.

Edit and re-import the CSV

Packages → Export campaign → Private transfer → Campaign CSV. Original journals are empty. On later private exports, include your own journals only when you intend to carry their played notes. Each row has a table, id and parent_id. Common text uses name, title, status, notes or body; other fields remain typed in data_json. Keep IDs stable when editing relationships. Copy a matching row and assign a new ID to add a record. Empty text columns are only valid when the matching table uses that column. Maps use map, map_room, map_token and map_shape rows. Floor, door and terrain arrays are stored in each room’s data_json. Save UTF-8 CSV with quoted multiline fields. Import package accepts this schema; validate, review, then create a new private copy. Existing content remains saved.

Next-session preparation

Choose the next opening based on actual play. Check only outcomes that occurred: lens custody, Brin's safety, agreements and earned rewards. Draft a recap after the first played session. Keep unused hooks private; do not assume the lens is installed or any quest is complete.