Troy's Hollow Gift
A level 10 siege infiltration about what victory is allowed to cost.
📜 Session Summary
| Style Siege heist with double agents, civilian stakes, and a construct payload. |
| Win Condition Place or sabotage the wooden colossus to end the siege on the party's chosen terms without razing Troy as the victory condition. |
| Loss Condition The colossus becomes an excuse for massacre, the party is named as the betrayal, and both armies learn the wrong lesson. |
| Players 6 × Level 10 · 3–3.5 hrs · 3 encounters |
| Key Ally Cassandra, Unbelieved Witness (recruit Enc. Encounter 1 or 2) · Maguffin: Cedar Heart-Key |
Description
Sinon, Professional Survivor hooks the party. Maguffin Cedar Heart-Key pays off in the finale against Wooden Colossus, Hollow Gift. Recruit Cassandra, Unbelieved Witness along the way.
Plant (or sabotage) a wooden colossus inside a siege without becoming the betrayal.
Major Beats
- Sinon makes the plan sound simple because he has hidden every consequence.
- Cassandra offers truth without the comfort of certainty.
- The colossus is a tool; the betrayal is deciding people are only terrain.
- The final turn of the heart-key defines what kind of victory survives the song.
Creature / Enemy List
| Creature | Easy | Med | Hard | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Troy Gate Watch | — | med | hard | CR 5 · Alert guards with civic duties |
| Hidden Greek Raider | — | med | hard | CR 6 · Impatient payload soldier |
| Bronze Owl Sentry | — | med | hard | CR 7 · Automaton scout and alarm engine |
| Wooden Colossus, Hollow Gift | — | med | hard | CR 11 · Boss construct, siege payload, and moral machine |
| Cassandra, Unbelieved Witness | — | 1 | 1 | Recruit Enc. Encounter 1 or 2 |
Encounter 1 — The Gift at the Ditch
Overview
Between trench fires and city walls, Sinon offers the party a way to move the wooden colossus while every faction lies about what happens after the gate opens.
🗺 Terrain
Greek siege ditch, abandoned altar, horse scaffolds, messenger tunnels.
Mechanics
- Non-combat path: gather terms from three factions with Insight, Deception, or History.
- Use the Cedar Heart-Key to discover the colossus has more modes than Sinon admits.
- Recruit Cassandra by honoring her warning or preserving the evacuation map.
- Choose a branch: plant, sabotage, delay, or convert the hollow gift.
Creature Cards
Sinon, Professional Survivor
Medium Humanoid (human), slippery neutral quest giver
Motivation. Get the colossus through Troy's gates and make sure someone else owns the moral stain if it goes wrong.
Secret. He has sold different versions of the plan to Greek captains, Trojan dissidents, and a god's silent priest.
Hard rule. He will not enter the horse himself; he always keeps one exit and one scapegoat prepared.
Cedar Heart-Key
Wondrous Item (maguffin), Unique
Appearance: A carved cedar heart with bronze pins that can lock, wake, or cripple a larger wooden body.
Handout. "Turn once for silence, twice for soldiers, thrice for fire. A fourth turn belongs to no king."
Enc. 1–2. Opens hidden panels in the colossus, quiets its joints, and grants advantage on one sabotage, repair, or concealment check.
Enc. 3. Inserted into the colossus core, it chooses the payoff: open gates, lock the payload, evacuate civilians, or disable the construct.
Cassandra, Unbelieved Witness
Medium Humanoid, Neutral · Recruitable Ally · Prophetic ally and civilian conscience
AC 14 | HP 58 | Speed 30 ft.
Role: Prophetic ally and civilian conscience
RECRUITMENT (Enc. Encounter 1 or 2). Listen without asking her to prove the curse, protect a civilian route she names, or admit the plan may be wrong.
Aid. Acts on party initiative when recruited; prefers nonlethal when asked.
Strike. Ritual dagger +6 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing; prophecy imposes disadvantage once.
Hidden Greek Raider
Medium Creature · CR 6 · Impatient payload soldier
AC 16 | HP 92 | Speed 30 ft.
Note. May become enemy if the party sabotages the massacre plan.
Attack. Short blade +8 to hit, 2d6+4 piercing plus 2d6 if attacking from hiding.
Encounter 2 — Inside the Wall's Shadow
Overview
The colossus inches toward the gate while the party slips through inspections, omen rites, and panicked civilians who may be saved or used as cover.
🗺 Terrain
Gate plaza, inspection ramp, refugee lane, shrine balcony, hollow horse interior.
Mechanics
- Non-combat path: 6 stealth or social successes before 3 alarm failures.
- Spend successes to open civilian exits, hide raiders, or plant sabotage charges.
- Cassandra can identify which omen is fake and which alarm is real.
- If the party treats Troy as already doomed, Greek Raiders act with advantage in Encounter 3.
Creature Cards
Cedar Heart-Key
Wondrous Item (maguffin), Unique
Appearance: A carved cedar heart with bronze pins that can lock, wake, or cripple a larger wooden body.
Handout. "Turn once for silence, twice for soldiers, thrice for fire. A fourth turn belongs to no king."
Enc. 1–2. Opens hidden panels in the colossus, quiets its joints, and grants advantage on one sabotage, repair, or concealment check.
Enc. 3. Inserted into the colossus core, it chooses the payoff: open gates, lock the payload, evacuate civilians, or disable the construct.
Cassandra, Unbelieved Witness
Medium Humanoid, Neutral · Recruitable Ally · Prophetic ally and civilian conscience
AC 14 | HP 58 | Speed 30 ft.
Role: Prophetic ally and civilian conscience
RECRUITMENT (Enc. Encounter 1 or 2). Listen without asking her to prove the curse, protect a civilian route she names, or admit the plan may be wrong.
Aid. Acts on party initiative when recruited; prefers nonlethal when asked.
Strike. Ritual dagger +6 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing; prophecy imposes disadvantage once.
Troy Gate Watch
Medium Creature · CR 5 · Alert guards with civic duties
AC 17 | HP 84 | Speed 30 ft.
Note. Not villains; bribery, forged rites, or evacuation orders can bypass them.
Attack. Spear wall +7 to hit, 2d8+4 piercing; ally gains +2 AC while adjacent.
Bronze Owl Sentry
Medium Creature · CR 7 · Automaton scout and alarm engine
AC 18 | HP 105 | Speed 30 ft.
Note. Can be reprogrammed with the heart-key or blinded by sacred smoke.
Attack. Razor wing +8 to hit, 2d10+5 slashing; marks target with ringing bronze.
Encounter 3 — The Belly Opens
Overview
Inside Troy, the colossus wakes as soldiers, sentries, and prophecy collide. The party must decide what the hollow gift does before the siege becomes a sack.
🗺 Terrain
Gate court, colossus belly, winch towers, civilian alleys, fire buckets.
Mechanics
- Hard fight: the colossus shifts modes between stealth payload, gate ram, and evacuation crane.
- Maguffin payoff: insert the Cedar Heart-Key to select or lock the construct's final mode.
- Branching win: plant, sabotage, expose, or evacuate, but razing Troy is not the win.
- Every spared watch squad or rescued civilian creates a witness who can refute betrayal.
Creature Cards
Sinon, Professional Survivor
Medium Humanoid (human), slippery neutral quest giver
Motivation. Get the colossus through Troy's gates and make sure someone else owns the moral stain if it goes wrong.
Secret. He has sold different versions of the plan to Greek captains, Trojan dissidents, and a god's silent priest.
Hard rule. He will not enter the horse himself; he always keeps one exit and one scapegoat prepared.
Cedar Heart-Key
Wondrous Item (maguffin), Unique
Appearance: A carved cedar heart with bronze pins that can lock, wake, or cripple a larger wooden body.
Handout. "Turn once for silence, twice for soldiers, thrice for fire. A fourth turn belongs to no king."
Enc. 1–2. Opens hidden panels in the colossus, quiets its joints, and grants advantage on one sabotage, repair, or concealment check.
Enc. 3. Inserted into the colossus core, it chooses the payoff: open gates, lock the payload, evacuate civilians, or disable the construct.
Cassandra, Unbelieved Witness
Medium Humanoid, Neutral · Recruitable Ally · Prophetic ally and civilian conscience
AC 14 | HP 58 | Speed 30 ft.
Role: Prophetic ally and civilian conscience
RECRUITMENT (Enc. Encounter 1 or 2). Listen without asking her to prove the curse, protect a civilian route she names, or admit the plan may be wrong.
Aid. Acts on party initiative when recruited; prefers nonlethal when asked.
Strike. Ritual dagger +6 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing; prophecy imposes disadvantage once.
Wooden Colossus, Hollow Gift
Large Creature · CR 11 · Boss construct, siege payload, and moral machine · Boss
AC 18 | HP 225 | Speed 40 ft.
Role: Boss construct, siege payload, and moral machine
Note. Boss last. Winning is choosing and enforcing the payload's purpose, not razing Troy.
Hard encounter focus. Win condition may be steal, escape, disable, or drive-off — not always kill.
Multiattack / Assault. Cedar fist +10 to hit, 4d8+6 bludgeoning; splinters create difficult terrain.
Advance (1). Move up to half Speed.
Strike (1). One attack from Assault.
⚖️ Difficulty Scaling
As Written ★ — 6 Players, Average Level 10
- Baseline for this guide. Numbers, DCs, and win tracks assume six PCs at average level 10.
Library Standard — 6 Players, Average Level 8
- Dial back: reduce boss HP ~20–25%, cut one legendary action option or recharge breath to 6 only; Favor/track thresholds −1 where present; skill DCs −1.
Easier
- APL 8–9: use the Library Standard (6×L8) box, then shave one more minion wave.
Harder
- APL 11–12: boss HP +20%; +1 legendary; Favor/track +1 to win.
📋 Appendix — Cards
Sinon, Professional Survivor
Medium Humanoid (human), slippery neutral quest giver
Motivation. Get the colossus through Troy's gates and make sure someone else owns the moral stain if it goes wrong.
Secret. He has sold different versions of the plan to Greek captains, Trojan dissidents, and a god's silent priest.
Hard rule. He will not enter the horse himself; he always keeps one exit and one scapegoat prepared.
Cedar Heart-Key
Wondrous Item (maguffin), Unique
Appearance: A carved cedar heart with bronze pins that can lock, wake, or cripple a larger wooden body.
Handout. "Turn once for silence, twice for soldiers, thrice for fire. A fourth turn belongs to no king."
Enc. 1–2. Opens hidden panels in the colossus, quiets its joints, and grants advantage on one sabotage, repair, or concealment check.
Enc. 3. Inserted into the colossus core, it chooses the payoff: open gates, lock the payload, evacuate civilians, or disable the construct.
Cassandra, Unbelieved Witness
Medium Humanoid, Neutral · Recruitable Ally · Prophetic ally and civilian conscience
AC 14 | HP 58 | Speed 30 ft.
Role: Prophetic ally and civilian conscience
RECRUITMENT (Enc. Encounter 1 or 2). Listen without asking her to prove the curse, protect a civilian route she names, or admit the plan may be wrong.
Aid. Acts on party initiative when recruited; prefers nonlethal when asked.
Strike. Ritual dagger +6 to hit, 1d4+3 piercing; prophecy imposes disadvantage once.
Troy Gate Watch
Medium Creature · CR 5 · Alert guards with civic duties
AC 17 | HP 84 | Speed 30 ft.
Note. Not villains; bribery, forged rites, or evacuation orders can bypass them.
Attack. Spear wall +7 to hit, 2d8+4 piercing; ally gains +2 AC while adjacent.
Hidden Greek Raider
Medium Creature · CR 6 · Impatient payload soldier
AC 16 | HP 92 | Speed 30 ft.
Note. May become enemy if the party sabotages the massacre plan.
Attack. Short blade +8 to hit, 2d6+4 piercing plus 2d6 if attacking from hiding.
Bronze Owl Sentry
Medium Creature · CR 7 · Automaton scout and alarm engine
AC 18 | HP 105 | Speed 30 ft.
Note. Can be reprogrammed with the heart-key or blinded by sacred smoke.
Attack. Razor wing +8 to hit, 2d10+5 slashing; marks target with ringing bronze.
Wooden Colossus, Hollow Gift
Large Creature · CR 11 · Boss construct, siege payload, and moral machine · Boss
AC 18 | HP 225 | Speed 40 ft.
Role: Boss construct, siege payload, and moral machine
Note. Boss last. Winning is choosing and enforcing the payload's purpose, not razing Troy.
Hard encounter focus. Win condition may be steal, escape, disable, or drive-off — not always kill.
Multiattack / Assault. Cedar fist +10 to hit, 4d8+6 bludgeoning; splinters create difficult terrain.
Advance (1). Move up to half Speed.
Strike (1). One attack from Assault.