The Forbidden Scroll

The Forbidden Scroll
General information
Developers	Magpie Games
Engine	Powered by the Apocalypse
Release date(s)	July 12, 2021
Mode(s)	Tabletop game
Chronology
Followed by	The Vanishing Act

The Forbidden Scroll is a pre-made campaign and a playable standalone adventure for Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game featured in the Quickstart book. The adventure is set during the Hundred Year War Era in the year 95 AG at the time of Fire Lord Ozai's coronation, and it involves a group of heroes trying to steal a historical scroll from the Dragonbone Catacombs in Hari Bulkan and being arrested by Fire Sage Bai. The elderly Fire Sage Niuan frees the heroes and gives them the scroll, promising to help him if they also smuggle him out of the city.

Overview

The night before the coronation ceremony of Fire Lord Ozai, Fire Sage Bai arrested several intruders trying to steal a historical scroll from the Dragonbone Catacombs in Royal Caldera City (also known as Hari Bulkan). These brave heroes hoped to save a bit of the undoctored Fire Nation history from Ozai's wrath, but they now face a lifetime of incarceration! Luckily, an elderly Fire Sage, Niuan, has freed the heroes and given them the scroll they sought, promising to help them if they agree to smuggle him out of the city during their escape. But can Fire Sage Niuan be trusted? How will our heroes escape from the city? And what will Fire Sage Bai do when he realizes they have escaped with the scroll... and Niuan?

Characters

• Fire Sage Niuan — A new ally to the player characters. He lived a mostly sheltered life for seventy years, growing up in Hari Bulkan and becoming a Fire Sage without a second thought, but self-doubt set in when he received a tour of the colonies for his loyal service and saw how people suffered under a regime he supported and empowered. He is now disillusioned with the Fire Nation and wished to retire from the capital and leave behind the hard questions of morality and guilt inherent to his position.
• Fire Sage Bai — Unlike Niuan, Bai had no illusions about the Fire Nation as he came into adulthood. He understands the truth about the Fire Nation's genocide of the Air Nomads and has decided the atrocities are acceptable for the greater good. He does not believe he is bad, just pragmatic, thinking that the Fire Nation, its culture, and its people are superior to others, and thus it is their natural state to conquer. In that vein, Bai will do nearly anything to maintain the integrity of the lies the Fire Lord and his minions have spun to the masses about the war and the other nations. He believes it is better for the common folk if they do not think too much about what the truth is and more about how they can serve their country.
• General Gong — General Gong is a woman in her late thirties who grew up in Harbor City and rose in the ranks of the city guard to finally being a general. She is in charge of the soldiers guarding Harbor City and is busy with the coronation celebrations for Fire Lord Ozai. She is a family woman who enjoys her job because it keeps people in the city safe. She is utterly in love with her husband, who cares for their five children, and calls Harbor City her home even though she could afford an estate in Hari Bulkan. She always picks her family first and then the safety of others, even if her decisions chafe against what her superiors want.
• The Burning Ember Gang — The Burning Ember Gang is a violent street gang led by the vicious Fai Lan. They operate all over Harbor City, and their headquarters is located underneath Ma's steamed bun business. The gang was once run by Ma herself, but she retired to play the role of senile bao maker, letting her son take over the operation while she keeps a watchful eye on her gang. The gang could help smuggle Niuan out of the city, but it means creating a possibly dangerous firework "accident" in the middle of a town square. They would use the distraction to get the PCs to safety through carts heading out of the city through a little-known mountain pass where pirates could carry them the rest of the way from the capital. The gang would want to be paid well for their assistance or request the PCs help them shake down some of the local merchants for protection money.
• Fai Lan — The leader of the Burning Ember Gang and the son of the former leader, Ma. He is cunningly smart like his mother but is not a firebender like she is, making him terrifyingly vicious, so no one in the gang crosses him. Most of the time, he plays the quiet and mysterious leader, but those closest to him know he is prone to bouts of violence if someone questions his authority. Any deal made with Fai Lan always comes at a price, whether that be something he requests right away or a favor he demands down the line. Despite his vicious nature, Fai Lan has managed to keep the loyalty of the people he protects (and extorts) by keeping the guards well bribed and dealing swiftly with anyone who crosses the people he protects.
• Rini — Rini is one of the eldest Fire Finches—she is 14 years old and knows every inch of the streets of Hari Bulkan. When her parents died quashing an uprising in the colonies, and her grandmother passed away, there was no one to take care of Rini, so she took care of herself. She was alone for two years before the Finches found her, and she quickly became one of its most trusted members, eventually ascending as their leader after their previous one "became old and boring". Rini is self-confident, charismatic, and dynamic, making her beloved by most Finches. She never gives up and would fight to the death for any Finch if she had to ... but Rini would never be that stupid. Better to run away from a fight and live to be with those you love than die for a cause.
• The Fire Finches — The Fire Finches are a group of street kids who commit petty crimes to defend and feed themselves. They are led by a sharp-witted, sassy firebender girl named Rini who is one of the eldest Finches and responsible for keeping them all safe. They grift, pick pockets, and know all the ins and outs of the city. The Finches could help the PCs, but are loyal to other Finches above all else; if the PCs want their help, they have to win over several of the Finches to get access to Rini. For example, a PC could help a Finch play a particularly good prank on a guard or hustle them a number of exotic festival treats. The Finches have tunnels leading out of the city to the other side of the island, where the PCs could hire a boat to escape.
• Sun Po — Sun Po, a calculating woman in her late forties who wears lavish silken robes, built her merchant fleet from the ground up. The biggest boon of her career has been using Fire Nation nobility to bankroll her exploits, carving out enough power for herself in the process that most people cannot touch her. She is a friend of Niuan—she met him at a party while wooing a wealthy patron into paying for an expedition and decided to keep him as a friend. The two play Pai Sho with one another every Sunday!

Pregenerated characters

The scroll contains a piece of Fire Nation history.

• Teek — Teek has The Bold archetype and an Impatient demeanor. He is a waterbender with the water whips specialty. He has the Outlaw and Wilderness backgrounds and comes from Grey Wolf Village in the Southern Water Tribe. Teek fled his village with his friend Aniki and her brother Minaq when Fire Nation troops attacked and sought to kill the benders. He traveled to the Fire Nation Capital, often thinking of his great uncle off fighting in the war. He wants to prove himself to be instrumental in ending the Fire Nation's domination and has heard of the Fire Nation hiding a valuable scroll in the Dragonbone Catacombs and sees stealing it as an opportunity to show he has not squandered his gifts. He is scrawny yet acrobatic, with unkempt clothes and bright eyes.
• Aniki — Aniki has The Guardian archetype and a Cautious demeanor. She is a nonbender weapons specialist who uses a cable-backed bow. She has the Outlaw and Wilderness backgrounds and comes from Grey Wolf Village in the Southern Water Tribe. She fled her village with her waterbender brother Minaq and friend Teek when the Fire Nation troops attacked, seeking to kill all the waterbenders. She knew she could never return home without endangering her family, so she kept moving. Teek told Aniki about a scroll that could expose the Fire Nation, but she thought it was a terrible idea to break into the Dragonbone Catacombs. She is decided to do it anyway to protect Teek and to get revenge on the villains that have taken so much from her. She always looks put together, with broad shoulders and a warm smile.
• Wenli — Wenli has The Hammer archetype and a Blunt demeanor. She is a firebender with the Fiery Flying Fists specialty. She has the Urban background and comes from Harbor City. She grew up in the poorest part of the city, where the strong exploit the weak, and the authorities did nothing to stop it. Trying to protect the weak from bullies landed her in a number of brutal fights, but she kept picking them, despite her sweet father trying to teach her restraint. She kept picking them, and her father was beaten to an inch of his life by Fai Lan's enforcers, stealing his daily wages while he walked home in the early hours of the morning. The police laughed off his father's injuries, leaving him infirm and unable to work. Knowing she had never change the system by playing by their rules, she decided to steal from the Fire Nation's ruling class in the Dragonbone Catacombs. She is short and striking and has long braided hair and practical attire.
• Xaipan — Xaipan has The Icon archetype and has a Sad demeanor. She is an earthbender with dancing with the earth specialty. She has the Privileged and Urban background and comes from Hari Bulkan. She grew up in the Fire Nation believing her parents were "guests", but they were actually glorified prisoners. After her mother died in captivity, she became the last of the "earth dancers," a skilled group of earthbenders brought to the Fire Nation as a curiosa from the colonies, something to admire and to watch go extinct. She tried to escape Fire Nation captivity and convinced General Gong to stop watching her, fleeing to the Dragonbone Catacombs as she believed it would provide an escape out of Hari Bulkan. She is slender and lithe, with powerful muscles and flowing clothes.
• Sunlin — Sunlin has The Idealist archetype and has a Joyful demeanor. They are a nonbender weapons specialist who uses dual throwing clubs. They have the Urban background and comes from Harbor City. They grew up an orphan after their parents died in an accident mining ore to build warships for the Fire Nation. The accident taught Sunlin the true price of war and committed themselves to find meaning in their parents' deaths. They did not grow up embittered, but were found by the Fire Finches, a child gang of low-level street criminals. A disagreement with Rini over the Finches' goals led to Sunlin leaving the group, hoping to find some way to do more good than merely survive. When Wenli told Sunlin about a scroll hidden in the Dragonbone Catacombs, Sunlin knew they had found a way to do good. They are tall and curvy, with a striking gaze.
• Yinzin — Yinzin has The Successor archetype and has an Intense demeanor. He is a nonbender technology specialist who uses smoke bombs. He has the Privileged background and comes from Dizin Island. He grew up on a picturesque island owned by his family for generations. He read from the unabridged history of the Fire Nation, written by his mother Zinlai, who inherited the title of National Historian from her mother, and so on. He was set to inherit the position he had trained for his entire life, but a visit from his aunt threw his life into turmoil when she claimed that everything his mother ever wrote was a lie. He now searches for answers, wanting to know if the words his mother penned were simply a beautiful lie obscuring a horrid truth.

Locations

The entire adventure takes place during the coronation ceremony of Fire Lord Ozai in the Fire Nation Capital, itself divided into Hari Bulkan and Harbor City. Important locations are broken down into three main categories: festival sights — which are sights PCs may see during the course of the day; NPC Locations — places where the PCs could encounter important characters; and city exits — different ways people can leave the city.

• Festival Sights
  • Flaming Fire Flake Competition
  • Firebending Dancers
  • Azulon's Legacy
• NPC Locations
  • Zoryu Park
  • Ma's Baos
  • Sun Po's Offices
• City Exits
  • First Lord's Harbor
  • Underground Tunnels

See also

• Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game
• Quickstart