MEETING VALETTA
The characters are met by Valetta, a dragonborn priest
of bronze dragon ancestry, with these changes:
- Valetta is neutral.
- She has these racial traits: She can use her action to
exhale a 5-foot-wide, 30-foot line of lightning (but can't
do this again until she finishes a short or long rest);
each creature in the line must make a DC^11 Dexterity
saving throw, taking 2d6 lightning damage on a failed
save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
She has resistance to lightning damage. She speaks
Common and Draconic.
If the characters mention the figure they saw on
the roof of the temple, Valetta identifies it as Nim, a
nimblewright that was gifted to the temple by a Lan-
tanese wizard. If they describe the incident involving
the mechanical bird, Valetta sighs and leads them up a
spiral staircase to an attic that Nim uses as a lair- only
to find the attic's door fitted with a new lock. Valetta
doesn't recognize the lock or have a key to open it, but
a character using thieves' tools can pick the lock with
a successful DC 20 Dexterity check. A knock spell or
similar magic also opens the door. Valetta won't allow
characters to break down the door, but she does permit
them to speak to Nim through the door. A character can
persuade Nim to unlock the door with a successful DC
17 Charisma (Persuasion) check. Valetta grants advan-
tage on the roll by strongly urging Nim to comply.
MEETING NIM
Nim understands Common but can't speak. It has de-
veloped a simple sign language that Valetta and other
members of the temple staff understand. After the inci-
dent with the bird, Nim hides amid the clutter in its lair,
but it emerges if the characters find their way inside or
coax it into unlocking the door. If the characters ask
about the other nimblewright, Nim admits (through ges-
turing to Valetta) that it built the other nimblewright to
ease its loneliness. But then Nim's creation Red in con-
fused terror a month ago. and Nim hasn't seen it since.
In light of this revelation, Valetta angrily orders acolytes
to remove Nim's tools and unfinished inventions from
the attic, while she forces Nim to look on.
Nimblewright De tector. Characters who search
Nim's attic or watch the area as it's being cleaned out
can find a 1-foot-long copper contraption with an um-
brella-like metallic protrusion at one end. A detect magic
spell reveals an aura of divination magic a round it. If
asked about it, Nim tells Valetta that it built this device
to find the errant nimblewright and tried to seek it out,
only to discover that Nim couldn't leave the temple
grounds. Once Nim explains how the nimblewright de-
tector works, Valetta allows the characters to take it.
To activate the nimblewright deteccor, a character
must hold down its trigger. When the activated device
comes within 500 feet of a nimblewright other than
Nim, t he umbrella begins to spin, whir, and click. The
spinning, whirring, and clicking accelerates as the dis-
tance to the target lessens, reaching maximum velocity
and volume when a nimblewright other than im is
within 30 feet of the device.N1MBLEWRIGMT DETEC. TORREWARD
If the characters want LO track down the wayward nim-
blewright themselves, Valetta says that the House of In-
spired Hands will pay them^500 gp to destroy it. If they
return with proof of its destruction, Valetta sees that
they receive the promised reward and also offers them
one each of the following nonmagical inventions:
Actjustable Stilts. The stilts take 1 minute to put on
or remove. They increase the height of any humanoid
wearing them by 2 to 5 feet. Each stilt weighs 8 pounds
and is 1 foot long when fully collapsed.
BacJcpacJc Parachute. A humanoid wearing this piece
of gear can deploy the parachute as a reaction while fall-
ing, or as an action otherwise. The parachute requires
at least a 10-foot cube of unoccupied space in which to
deploy, and it doesn't open fast enough to slow a fall of
less than 60 feet. If it has sufficient time and space to
deploy properly, the parachute allows its wearer to land
without taking falling damage. Once it has been used,
the parachute takes^10 minutes to repack.
Barking Box. This metal cube, 6 inches on a side,
has a crank on top. Using an action to wind the crank
activaLes the box for 8 hours. While activated, the box
barks whenever it detects vibrations within^15 feet of it,
as long as the box and the source of the vibrations are in
contact with the same ground or substance. A switch on
one side of the box sets the device to emit either a small
dog's bark or a large dog's bark.CHAPTER 3 I FIREBALi.