Description
Your past finally caught up with you, and now is the time to pay the price. Only you know what you did and who your misdeeds might have angered. 
After being ambushed and subdued by a shadowy group of mercenaries, you find yourself in a secret facility, deep in the Frostfall mountains, ran by a wealthy elite that can afford bloody spectacles of gladiatorial combat. You will have to best the opposition – whatever it might be, arm yourself with powerful pieces of magical equipment and brave the biting cold of Borealis, or die trying. 

ATTENTION: The module is intended for either 7th or 13th level party. Characters below level 7 will automatically be leveled to 7 or 13, depending on the chosen starting point of the module. The player is given the freedom to import characters that are lower level than the aforementioned, although do note that balance revolves around freshly created parties.

6-Man version of this module exists on Nexus and Steam:
https://www.nexusmods.com/solastacrownofthemagister/mods/269
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3413578584

Escape from Stormhold Arena is a higher starting level, combat-heavy, ‘roguelike’ module that is almost entirely randomized to offer unique experience on each playthrough. This includes maps, items, rewards, skills checks and enemies. There will never be two identical playthroughs.  
The other aspect that is emphasized is economy and resource management, meaning you will be granted a set amount of gold and loot after each fight that can be used to slowly upgrade your party. Some items are gated behind randomized rewards, some are unique to skill checks, and some can only be bought. 
You will be fighting three battles before being allowed to long rest, with the 3rd usually being more challenging than the previous two, so conserve your resources. Short rests on the other hand are completely free to be taken after each fight and are even encouraged. Succeeding to beat the 3rd encounter, you will be rewarded with a level-up alongside long rest. 
The fighting encounters were crafted with meticulous care to offer the best balance between variety of enemies and fun/challenge. Same tactics will not always work, so you will have to oftentimes improvise. 
It is also worth mentioning that this is a story-light module, with no direct quests or objectives, and simple NPC interactions.  
Unfinished Business mod  is not required  but is highly recommended for maximizing character building options.
 
The gameplay loop for 1st part is the following: 
1. Enter the fighting arena when ready from main hub. 2. Get loot for beating the arena + resolve a skill check for additional rewards. 3. Get back to the main hub, resolve social-related skill checks for additional rewards (+ spend gold on various vendors if you have just beaten 3rd encounter) and prepare for the next round. 
The 2nd part is more linear than the first, the maps aren’t randomized and there are no out of combat skill checks. You will still be fighting three battles per long rest. 
 
Features

 
• A highly randomized module (as close as one can get to ‘roguelike’ within 5E system and Solasta DM tools) where most aspects are entirely random. 
• A higher-level module, starting at 7th or 13th level (depending on initial starting point), and will bring you all the way to 16th level (maximum of 19 with Unfinished Business mod). 
• Two starting points of the campaign. You choose if you wish to go through the module from the beginning, or start its second, even more action-packed point. The second point will grant the player a hefty amount of gold to spend in a variety of shops. Spend it wisely. 
• Milestone leveling – you will never be over-leveled or under-leveled. 
• Combat-heavy module, with light story elements and simple NPC interactions, of which most interactions are completely optional. 
• Highly tactical, challenging combat that will put your party building and combat skills to the test. 
• Works perfectly for parties of any size. Six-man groups will still have a lot on their plate with a bit of difficulty tweaking as the party will be outnumbered in majority of encounters. 
• Perfect for ironman runs and trying out different party compositions. 
• Emphasis on economy and resource management. 
• Dozens of powerful new custom weapons, and buffed versions of a few existing Solasta-original items. 
• Lots of skill checks yielding various powerful rewards, with all skills being used one way or another. There are a total of 123 skill checks, of which you will roughly see a third of. 
• Estimated playtime ≈ 15 hours. 
• 85 locations in total. 
• 163 custom monsters to challenge, split into 90 encounters in total, of which a party will battle 30 + a special final encounter that is even more random than the previous ones. 
• Those familiar with basics of DM can easily use the module for various combat tests by being able to insert a party on any stage they wish. 
  1. Open module in DM 2. Choose a battle arena and “Set as Start”, with battle arenas being named X A/B/C 123, where X is the appropriate level of party, and A/B/C 123 being various maps that contain enemy encounters. Whichever way you access these rooms (be it via “New Campaign” or “DM Test”) – you will always spawn enemies. Those that use UB can simply create a test party with desired characters and DM Test any room immediately, without the need to “Set as Start” or starting “New Campaign”. 

 
 
Notes & Tips

 
• Do NOT have all party members flying after finishing and starting to exit the 3rd arenas! There are area activators that require creatures to walk over them (game limitation) to activate. Without these, level ups will not be distributed properly!  (This might be fixed in the future once I get the time to tinker with it more. 6M version DOES NOT have this issue; you can fly at will whenever you want)
• Each skill falls into one of two categories: Combat and Utility. Combat skills are exclusively used in combat and have no other purpose. Utility skills are used in skill checks and can yield various rewards. Combat skills are: Athletics, Acrobatics, Stealth and Medicine. All other skills are Utility skills. 
• Press and hold ALT-key (Default) to easily find skill checks (glowing yellow areas). Being within 5 feet of any skill check will automatically give the player more information about it, including the skill that’s being checked and its DC, so you can buff your party members for better odds of succeeding. 
  After every 3rd encounter, there will also be a special container that’ll allow the player to choose an item as a reward (Choice between two randomized items from the pool of three). 
• Stock up on potions whenever you can. You never know when you are going to need them.  
• Rushing into groups of enemies alone is oftentimes the best way to get "Game Over” screen. A combination of wearing your enemies down, applying difficult terrain and hard CC is the best way to approach most encounters. 
• Potions of Heroism/Speed/Giant Strength are purposely rare. Save them for more difficult encounters. 
• Always keep your HP high/full before getting into a new encounter. 
• Have at least one high AC party member that can take the heat and one AOE specialist. 
• Encounters are built to be as diverse as possible, which also means that it is possible to run into rare extremes (resistances to most non-physical damage specters for example). The more versatile your party is, the better your odds of making it through that encounter. 
  

 
Found Bugs?
While I’ve personally extensively tested the campaign, slipups and overlooks are always a possibility. If you found something that seems like it isn’t intended/doesn’t work as it should, don’t hesitate to leave a comment describing the bug along with the location name for easier identification (you can save the game and inspect the save as it’ll show the location name there). 
If you find typos or wrong use of grammar, feel free to report it so that it can be corrected.