The Mill of Midas

For 6 level 8 PCs, 3 to 3.5 hours, 3 encounters. Cure the king if possible.

Style: Urban curse investigation where greed, panic, and quarantine are more dangerous than blades.
Win: Midas is cured or contained, the millstone is cracked, and the market keeps enough food and trust to recover.
Lose: The golden touch becomes a civic plague; bread, coin, and bodies turn beautiful and useless.
Maguffin: Clay Loaf of Pact-Breaking · Ally: Philon the Coin-Shaver · QG: Queen Damodice

"A flour-dusted receipt stamped with a gold thumbprint and a list of missing bakers."

Major Beats

A child tries to trade a golden apple for bread no one can eat.
Midas speaks through a door with both hands tied in linen.
A market bell turns to gold mid-ring and keeps vibrating.
The millstone whispers prices for every heroic compromise.

Difficulty

Tier	Adjust
As Written ★	6 PCs · APL 7
Library Standard	6 PCs · APL 8 — Slight bump: elite HP +15–20%, one extra minion in Enc. 1 or 2, DCs +1. Enc. 3 as written is near-parity.
Easier	APL 5–6: −1 elite; boss loses one recharge attack.
Harder	APL 8–9: +1 elite; boss recharge improves by 1 step.

ENC 1 — Quarantine at the Saffron Gate

Enc. 1 - Social investigation · ~50 min · Market gate, sealed bread stalls, gold-streaked fountain, guard cordon, rooftops for stealth entry.

Run a 4-success DC 15 challenge with Persuasion, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, or Stealth.
Failures increase the Riot clock; at 3 marks the Gilded Panic Mob surges.
Clay Loaf reveals curse-tracks from touched bread to the royal mill.
Recruit Philon by protecting civilians or using him as a guide instead of a scapegoat.

ENC 2 — The Counting House Crawl

Enc. 2 - Stealth and clues · ~55 min · Two-story counting house, flour hoist, locked ledger room, bridge to the royal mill.

Three clue nodes: contaminated flour, Midas's sealed apology, and coin dust from the millstone.
Stealth can bypass Wardens; social proof can convert them into a noisy distraction.
Auric Homunculi flee toward the mill unless boxed in by clever positioning.
A cursed object touched barehanded requires DC 15 Constitution save or disadvantage on Dexterity checks until cleansed.

ENC 3 — Midas at the Grinding Stone

Enc. 3 - Hard boss fight · ~85 min · Royal mill floor, turning gears, flour pits, gold-crusted sluice, and a locked viewing gallery.

Midas is a protected objective: if isolated and spoken to, he spends his turn resisting the curse.
At initiative 20, the millstone golds one object, exit, or 10-foot floor patch unless disrupted.
Maguffin payoff: feed the Clay Loaf into the stone or Midas's hands to make the curse vulnerable for 1 round.
Victory can be cure, containment, or shattering the possessing Avarice; murdering Midas counts as a bitter loss.

STAT BLOCKS

Default: 6 PCs level 8; 3 encounters; 3 to 3.5 hours.
Enc. 1/2 support social, stealth, and investigation solutions.
Midas is best cured or contained, not murdered.
Golded creatures are restrained or cursed, not automatically dead.
Maguffin payoff exposes the curse engine in Enc. 3.

Maguffin

Clay Loaf of Pact-Breaking

Absorbs one minor golding effect or reveals fresh curse-tracks as dull clay footprints.
Pressed into the millstone or Midas's hands, it gives the party one round to redirect the curse into earth.

NPC / ALLY

Queen Damodice

Save her husband and the market quarter without starting a riot or inviting a coup.
She will not sanction murdering Midas while a cure remains possible.

Philon the Coin-Shaver

Recruit Enc. Enc. 1 or Enc. 2: Protect his sister's stall, expose a profiteer, or promise amnesty for his quarantine smuggling.
AC 14 · HP 52 · Dagger +6 to hit, 6 piercing; Help as bonus action for Stealth, Investigation, or street Persuasion.

Remember

Midas is cured or contained, the millstone is cracked, and the market keeps enough food and trust to recover.

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