r/TheGoldenVault

So, after some light recon, my party made pretty quick work of the actual hurdles in the casino. They:

• Charmed the guard away from the trophy case and picked the lock, disguised as one of the guards, then dropped it into the Bag of Holding and called for Quentin to come see what happened
• Quentin demanded it back... but the Bag of Holding is locked down by Verity. The player dropped Disguise Self and told Quentin that Verity sent them to ruin his tournament.
• Quentin took the Bag and called the nearest guard, who just happened to be another player using Disguise Self to look like one of the guards. That player took the "thief" to the holding cells.
• The rest of the party snuck into the security room using the access tunnel from the circus.
• They all fought the guards in the security room, which was actually the tougher fight, and barricaded the door. (Thugs should be CR 1 and not CR 1/2... compare to the Brown Bear if you don't understand why)
• Smashed Virgil to pieces, because the dice rolled terribly (he didn't land a single hit and I didn't fudge the rolls)

The session ended in the vault after Virgil got beaten like a pinata. Since everything went so well for them, I want to give them one last hurdle to try to give them a challenge. I plan to have Quentin, waiting in the hall outside the security room, Bag of Holding at his side. He makes one last offer to the players to see if they'll turn on Verity. If they refuse, he calls the Spined Devils to ambush them. But if they accept... well that's where I need help. Presumably they go back to the Brine Widow to confront Verity, and she'll present her side of the story, giving the players a chance to double-cross Quentin. But if they choose not to, I need a stat block for Verity to fight all of them. I'm thinking of something flavored like Gambit from the X-Men, flinging playing cards. Are there any pre-set monsters like this? Or do I just need to generate one? Suggestions

Currently running Keys from the Golden Vault. [Ignatius, Thaddeus, Pyramus, Kevin - stop reading now if you're here!] We're just about the start Shard of the Accursed (mission 9 of 13). I found the 'overarching' hook with the golden vault group very weak, and I've spent a tonne of time and energy writing an overarching story and stakes for it - trying to make the missions feel like phases in a single story, with consistent characters, groups, real stakes, and a BBEG.

Pretty pleased with the results and happy to share but will post as a comment if people are keen. We're currently working with one mafia group to stop (or possibly help) a cult release a demon, who'll serve as the BBEG. There's also a secret police, corrupt guard crops, a devil, and about 3.25million in stolen gold bars.

I'd love to hear how others have done this - what groups, stakes, characters, mission changes, etc. have you made, in order for the campaign to have the feeling of a campaign and not simply standalone chapters. I have a draft story outline for the final missions and how they hang together, but I'd love to incorporate pieces of some ideas from other DMs that have been successful if they fit.

(To address what will be the first comment: The rationale for choosing this campaign is that we were at one stage struggling to meet regularly, so something 'modular' made sense - however, since then we've got back into playing at least twice a month! Hence using a modular campaign but trying to de-modularise it.)