Master Dungeons M2: Curse of the Kingspire

Posted by Mark Gedak on Friday, February 27th, 2009

So you’ve stormed the Keep on the Shadowfell and explored the Thunderspire Labyrinth, but they haven’t satisfied you. If you found them to be too easy, too linear or too combat-driven, Goodman Games may have the solution to your problem. M2: Curse of the Kingspire is the second adventure in the company’s Master Dungeon series. This new adventure series is designed for experienced game masters and players, and presents challenging encounters while rewarding intelligent play.

This 64-page adventure is designed for heroic characters of 4th through 6th level. The adventure is densely packed with combat, roleplaying, stealth and trap finding encounters. Curse of the Kingspire is sure to please experienced players as they struggle to rise above the challenges, and fill game masters with evil glee at the same time. If you are looking for a challenging adventure that rewards thinking and creative play, then M2: Curse of the Kingspire is exactly sort of product you should be picking up.The remainder of this review will discuss details of the plot. Consider yourself warned.

The adventure involves the characters’ investigation of a ruined Eladrin fortress. Those gamers familiar with Dungeons and Dragons: Fourth Edition should recognize the Eladrin as one of the new player races detailed in the Player’s Handbook. The race’s name comes from the Planescape setting of Second Edition, though these Eladrin are a reinvention of the concept. In Fourth Edition, they are a more fey-like elven race, roughly equivalent to High Elves from earlier editions - graceful, aloof, and detached from mortal concerns. It is suggested that the players could be attracted to the adventure site by the lure of lost lore, the hunt for a fabled artifact, or desire to disrupt a dangerous new cult. Regardless of the hook to bring the party of characters to the Kingspire, there is considerable adventure for them to experience.

The start of the adventure involves the PCs becoming aware of the threat of the cult inhabiting the spire. This area is designed for infiltration, with the PCs having opportunities to negotiate, bluff or sneak their way past opponents to reach the cult leader at the height of a ritual to reunite the Eladrin court with the material plane. Even though all opponents have been provided with combat statistics, there is no assumption that all encounters will degrade into combat, and several are more difficult if the heroes resort to violence first. At the end of this section the PCs will have infiltrated the hamlet near the Kingspire, fought voracious undead, and interrupted a magical ritual that sweeps them into a prison demiplane of the Kingspire’s last night.
Experience as a gamemaster is definitely needed in the second section of the adventure, as the players become caught within a time loop, reliving the final thirteen hours of the Kingspire’s final night. In this section there are a number of time sensitive encounters that activate if the characters are in the right place at the right time. This area will require careful roleplaying to avoid the pitfalls of a decadent Eladrin court while struggling for a means to escape the demiplane.

The final section involves the PCs descending into the catacombs of the Kingspire to find a way to end their imprisonment in the demiplane. This section is more straightforward, with brute force working very well for most areas, with the exception of the final encounter with the Devourer Worm. Once the heroes have recovered the artifact that can free them from the demiplane prison, the best approach to dealing with the Devourer Worm is to run like hell and hope you run faster than the slowest guy in the party. Strangely the worm has a bite that grabs, but no special attack on a held grab.

There is definitely an “old school” feel to this adventure. There are some extremely tricky traps, such as in the torture chamber. In this encounter, the first PC to see the iron maiden may be psychically linked to the spirit of a half-elf killed in the far past. They begin to bleed out until they are removed from the room or the iron maiden is opened (there is no option for saving to ends the effect). Once open, the ceiling above the maiden begins to collapse while the corpse of its victim tries to grab the PC who opened the iron maiden. If the grab is successful, the ceiling automatically hits.

There are some potentially devastating encounters, such as when the PCs try to cross the swamp only to be attacked by swamp zombies. If the zombies are successful at getting several hands on the raft, they overturn it, sending the heroes into the swamp with the intent of drowning them. There are powerful magic items that are both boon and bane, such as a magic orb allowed you to reset a daily power at the loss of heroic surges (possibly permanently), or a magical artifact that is liable to consume your PC in the long run. There are some plot fiats that constrain the story at key points - the magical ritual that the PCs arrive to prevent cannot be stopped, so as soon as they enter the ruined Kingspire they will be drawn into the demiplane and become trapped. This is tricky, because if the hook you used to draw the PCs to the adventure was to disrupt the cult, this fiat will likely make them feel ripped off that they had no control over the outcome. This is something that needs careful consideration before your players reach this point. My suggestion would be to use one of the other hooks to avoid this potential disappointment.

This module is published under the Open Game License instead of the Game System License. As such, the symbols used in the stat blocks are not the same as those that appear in products by Wizards of the Coast. The symbols are similar though and it takes little effort to make the adjustment. The adventure also does not use the “delve” format common to modules by Wizards of the Coast, which results in two significant changes. The first is that encounters do not fall into a strict format, so it will be necessary to prepare for adventure ahead of time. The second change is that by not relying on a rigid encounter format, the author is able to provide us with more encounters in a module of equal length. Anything that results in me getting more adventure for my gaming dollar is fantastic.

As I read through the module, I was initially distracted by a number of editing errors. These were not grammar or spelling, but things that didn’t get adjusted as the module went through internal revision. For example, the opening section says the adventure is for characters of 4th to 6th level, while later on the same page it says 1st to 6th. Or at another point the module text indicates the Miller’s apprentice is in area K-5, but he’s actually in K-6. Occasionally an opponent is misnamed in text and stat block. Once I got past the initial section on the Kingspire Hamlet (section K), the editing improved.

Overall, I really enjoyed Curse of the Kingspire - the adventure provides lots of opportunities for creative and intelligent gaming, with nods to an older style of play. There are opportunities for stealth, skill challenges, and roleplaying as well as combat. I would absolutely recommend this module to anyone looking for a Fourth Edition compatible module packed with challenging encounters. Plus bonus points for Clyde Caldwell cover art.Want to learn more about Master Dungeons? Read on…

Atomic Array: Episode 017: Master Dungeons
Game Cryer: Curse of the Kingspire Review
Gnome Stew: Mastering Goodman’s Dungeons
Musing of the Chatty DM: Curse of the Kingspire Preview
Campaign Mastery: The Plot Thickens - Hooking Players Into Adventure
Drop by Goodman Games to pick up your copy today!

Gygaxian? It’s all about aspiration

Purple Pawn asks ‘What is Gygaxian?’ - and discusses Gary’s writing style, referencing the deliciously baroque descriptions used in Vault of the Drow (Note to some of my newer players who may be reading this, and who haven’t yet experienced the pleasures of that adventure - patience - your time will come - now step away from the link….!). This set me thinking about my own view of what constitutes a ‘Gygaxian’ style of play.
In this post-Gygax era, various schools of thought begin to emerge, each striving to write its own gospel regarding the true meaning of The Way Of Gygax - much as occurs after the death of all great prophets, I suppose.
Of course, the real Gary Gygax was, like any other human being, a complex individual, his style of refereeing irreducible to a convenient soundbite without selectively ignoring all kinds of things that made up the greater whole.
Amongst the interweb chatter I have read, from the keyboards of a variety of sources, that ‘Gygaxian’ means any of the following:

• Killer Dungeons - after all, he wrote ‘Tomb Of Horrors’, right?
• Comedy Dungeons - after all, he wrote ‘Dungeonland’, right?
• Gaming focussed on Dungeon Crawling in general - kill monsters, take their stuff
• Adversarial gaming, where the referee is the enemy of the players, or at best indifferent to the suffering of their characters
• Rules-light gaming - he wrote (or co-wrote, at least) OD&D, right?
• Rules-heavy gaming - look at all those tables in the AD&D DMG, right?
• Naturalism - adventures set in a realistic world where monsters behave realistically and have lives and motivations beyond that of merely being adversaries for the player characters
• Surrealism - monsters, traps and other encounters appear in random locations with no logical explanation
• Prosaic writing - frequent use of words such as ‘antithesis’ and ‘thereof’ and all manner of obscure pieces of vocabulary

I’m sure evidence could be presented to refute the universality of all of these statements, some of which constitute cherry-picking in the extreme, and for me, none of them fully captures the essence of Gygax’s greatest contribution to the D&D gaming world.
For me, Gygaxian is all about having aspirations. It’s about building a world instead of just skulking in the dungeons. More than that, it’s also equipping yourself with the knowledge and ability to go about that enterprise. It’s all about the ‘grand milieu’, an immersive campaign built to last that develops its own life and history, a campaign rich in variety, with room for horror, and room for humour, and for realism, and the odd patch of surrealism as well. If you can do that with what you consider to be a lightweight set of rules, that’s fine, but if you need to resort to something more complex to achieve your ambitions, that’s also fine - rules are a means to an end, tools to do the job and some tools can be easier to master than others. NB - I’m not claiming here that Gygax’s AD&D rules were all ideal, or that game system development was his strong point. The point I’m making is that you try to make your campaign world the best it can be, and that sometimes takes effort, and intellect.
AD&D was ‘Advanced’ Dungeons and Dragons for a reason. I am still in awe of his ambitions laid out in the 1st Edition DMG. Reading that book made a generation of referees aspire to the challenge of becoming the ‘Renaissance Man’ Gary talked about as being the ideal DM - an ideal, he said that few of us could hope to achieve. *Slap!* A thrown gauntlet if ever I read one. (You can’t write things like that now, of course - you might injure some poor soul’s self-esteem).
As to criticisms of his very prosaic style of writing, this puts me in mind of a quote attributed to Stan Lee of Marvel who also received similar comments regarding his use of sophisticated vocabulary in his comics:
“If a kid has to go to a dictionary, that’s not the worst thing that could happen.”

Can you run a gritty combat game with the 4e D&D rules?

In the discussion about my last post, there seems to be a split along the lines of people who favor grittiness in their combat and others about whether or not the sheer amount healing in 4e can reduce the tension of combat. Personally, I think the amount of healing makes the game lack suspense for the players…it’s not a matter of whether or not they’ll finish a combat, it’s just how long it takes. Sometimes I think the players are encouraged to use Daily abilities just to finish a long combat faster, because the auto-healing means that if they just sit and beat monsters down they’ll be no worse the wear at the end of the combat no matter how many blows they take.
Others are saying that 4e has just redefined the lines of where you begin to feel tension. You feel the loss of healing surges more than the loss of hit points, and there might be one combat a day where you wish you had a healing surge left. Some are just saying flat out they don’t think tension in combat does anything for the game.
So, what I want to know is, can you run a gritty, more realistic combat simulation with the 4e rules, or is there too much healing too easily accessed for it to ever feel like that?
I personally think it’s something missing in 4e…in previous editions, you had more flexibility to tweak combat to taste, but now since everything is so tightly wound into the idea of healing surges, even magic items, that it would require a major overhaul to make a grittier game possible
There’s only one individual combat per day where anyone should feel worried.

Why 4E D&D is geared towards combat

A few days ago, I posted that my group wasn’t having fun playing 4E. I stated that I thought 4E was really geared towards combat. Someone told me that they didn’t think this was true, so I laid down my reasons. I’ve posted these below.
Powers
Look at all the powers available to the players. All of them are specifically designed to make the PC better in combat. And 4E revolves around powers. Most powers either deal with how to hit a creature with a weapon or to use a blast, burst, or area effect of some sort. These effects all state how many squares are affected, necessitating minis and either Dungeon Tiles or grids of some sort.
The Kobold
The kobold is a D&D staple. Let’s compare the 3.5 kobold to the 4E kobold.

From the 3.5 Monster Manual
Kobolds are short, reptilian humanoids with cowardly and sadistic tendencies.
A kobold’s scaly skin ranges from dark rusty brown to a rusty black color. It has glowing red eyes. Its tail is nonprehensile. Kobolds wear ragged clothing, favoring red and orange.
Kobolds usually consume plants or animals but are not averse to eating intelligent beings. They spend most of their time fortifying the land around their lairs with traps and warning devices (such as spiked pits, tripwires attached to crossbows, and other mechanical contraptions).
Kobolds hate almost every other sort of humanoid or fey, especially gnomes and sprites.
A kobold is 2 to 2-1/2 feet tall and weighs 35 to 45 pounds.
Kobolds speak Draconic with a voice that sounds like that of a yapping dog.
COMBAT
Kobolds like to attack with overwhelming odds—at least two to one—or trickery; should the odds fall below this threshold, they usually flee. However, they attack gnomes on sight if their numbers are equal.
They begin a fight by slinging bullets, closing only when they can see that their foes have been weakened. Whenever they can, kobolds set up ambushes near trapped areas. They aim to drive enemies into the traps, where other kobolds wait to pour flaming oil over them, shoot them, or drop poisonous vermin onto them.
KOBOLD SOCIETY
Kobolds live in dark places, usually underground locations and overgrown forests. They are good miners and often live in the mines they are developing. A kobold tribe sends out warbands that patrol within a 10-mile radius from the lair, attacking any intelligent creatures that enter their territory. Kobolds usually kill prisoners for food but occasionally sell some of them as slaves. Their nasty habits and their distrust of most other beings mean that they have many enemies.
A kobold lair has one noncombatant child and one egg per ten adults.
The patron deity of the kobolds is Kurtulmak, who despises all living creatures except kobolds.

From the 4E Monster Manual
Kobolds revere dragons and tend to dwell in and around places where dragons are known to lair. They skulk in the darkness, hiding from stronger foes and swarming to overwhelm weaker ones. Kobolds are cowardly and usually flee once bloodied unless a strong leader is present.
Kobolds like to set traps and ambushes. If they can’t get their enemies to walk into a trap, they try to sneak up as close as they can and then attack in a sudden rush.
Kobold Minion Tactics
Kobold minions are fierce in packs, but cowardly when separated. They can shift as a minor action each round to achieve flanking positions.
Kobold Skirmisher Tactics
Kobold skirmishers gang up on a single target to gain the benefit of mob attack, shifting as a minor action to gain combat advantage. They retreat when the fight turns against them, leading pursuers through passages and rooms riddled with traps, if possible.
Kobold Slinger Tactics
Kobold slingers avoid melee combat. They prefer to stay behind cover and bombard foes with special shot and sling stones.
Kobold Dragonshield Tactics
Kobold dragonshields are capable frontline combatants, keeping enemies away from their weaker kobold allies with their swords and shields. They like to gang up on single targets.
A kobold dragonshield gains resist 5 against a specific damage type based on the type of dragon it serves or reveres. For example, a kobold dragonshield working for a blue dragon has resist 5 lightning.
Kobold Wyrmpriest Tactics
A wyrmpriest keeps lots of kobold underlings between it and its enemies, using incite faith to embolden them. It prefers to make ranged attacks using energy orb, and enemies that get too close are blasted with dragon breath.
A wyrmpriest’s energy orb deals damage of a specific type based on the type of dragon the wyrmpriest serves or reveres. For example, a kobold wyrmpriest working for a black dragon deals acid damage with its energy orb power.
Kobold Slyblade Tactics
The kobold slyblade stays close to other kobolds, using sly dodge to turn them into living shields while it makes twin slash attacks against foes. Whenever possible, it shifts as a minor action, moves into a flanking position, and gains combat advantage.
Kobold Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful Nature check.
DC 15: Kobolds often dwell near a dragon’s lair, maintaining a safe distance but bringing sacrificial offerings to their “god.” Most dragons ignore kobolds, as a crocodile ignores the birds that pick its teeth clean. Once in a great while, however, a young dragon takes an interest in its kobold cult, which then becomes a real menace to the dragon’s enemies.
DC 20: Kobolds are skilled at making traps, which they use to capture prey and to acquire sacrifices for their dragon lords.

So in 3.5, you get a six paragraph description of the a kobold, a two paragraph description of how they act in combat, and three paragraphs about their society.
In 4E, you get two paragraphs to describe the kobold, eight paragraphs on tactics in combat, and two paragraphs on their society.
In other words, you get more fluff in 3.5 and more crunch in 4E. That’s what I see all throughout 4E.
The Fighter
The fighter is usually the simplest class to play. The fighter in 4E has three paragraphs of fluff describing the fighter, then crunch on the type of fighter you can be, some class features, and 10 pages of their powers.
For the 3.5 fighter, you get a description of the class, why they adventure, the characteristics of the fighter, the type of alignment fighters usually fall under, examples of religions fighters follow, backgrounds on the fighter, how certain races deal with being fighters, how other classes deal with fighters, and what role fighters play in the party. All that is spread over about a full page.
In 3.5, about 50% of the fighter entry deals with “crunch.” In 4E, about 99% of the fighter entry deals with “crunch.”
Conclusion
You don’t need a book to tell you how to roleplay, I know that. But the 4E Player’s Handbook has seemingly stripped out almost all of the fluff associated with creating characters and left in almost pure crunch. It is streamlined to help you figure out how to use the numbers associated with your character with almost nothing to give you ideas of how your character sees themselves in the world they’re in. So, unfortunately, I find that 4E plays more like a video-game than previous editions and, like most RPG video games, it all boils down to how the character does in comba

10 Crazy Ways to Kick Off Your Next Campaign

It’s a tradition as stale as the beer in the town’s lowliest tavern:

“You’re at the inn. Suddenly an old guy walks up and offers you a job.” Or, “You’re at the inn. Suddenly a bunch of orcs rush in and start busting up the place.” Or, “You’re at the inn. A drunk guy bumps into you, and you realize your coin purse is lighter.”

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with starting your adventure at the inn. But sometimes you just need a change of pace to keep your players on their toes. If you’re running low on inspiration, you’re in luck! Here are 10 unconventional ways to set your game in motion.
#1 – The Worst Hangover Ever
The PCs awaken to find themselves seated around an opulent table full of exotic foods and wines. The food is beginning to mold, and insects have gathered. Nobody can recall what they’ve done in the past few days, and nobody knows where they are or who hosted the dinner. But there is the small matter of a well-dressed corpse with a dagger between its shoulder blades. And is that the sound of guards coming…?
#2 – Escape from the Gallows
One of the PCs has been wrongly convicted of a heinous crime. Their sentence is death by hanging. The objective is to rescue them before the hangman’s work is done. This should provide a great opportunity for swashbuckling adventure, ala Pirates of the Caribbean. How will the party pull off the rescue, and how will they prove their friend’s innocence while living on the run?
#3 – Kidnapped!
The party members find themselves in a wagon, traveling over rough terrain. Their vision is obscured by black hoods, and their hands are bound behind their backs. They could be on their way to an audience with a powerful and super-secretive personality, or they could be on their way to certain death. Will they escape their bonds, or stay the course and see where fate leads them? As a twist, you could have the PCs awaken in a sealed room and struggle to find their way out.

#4 – Murder at the Masquerade
The PCs are guests at a masquerade ball. Everyone who’s anyone has been invited. Have the PCs choose their costumes and enjoy a fun evening of drinking, dancing, and maybe a tryst or two. At midnight, a servant runs screaming into the room. The host has been slain. She was last seen strolling toward her private garden with someone in costume – the exact same costume that one of the PCs is wearing. Watch them scramble to come up with an alibi.
#5 – The Message
The party is hailed by a small child holding a bound scroll. The seal looks familiar. In fact, it appears to be from someone very important. Just as the child draws near, a cloaked figure knocks him aside and snatches the missive. Watch the party frantically chase the thief through the city streets, and witness an urban landscape (with all its crowds, hazards, and hiding places) in its full glory.

Picture by Alex Rouvin

#6 – Disaster Strikes
Ever wanted to end the world? The PCs will certainly feel like their world is ending when a disaster (magical, natural, or war-driven) strikes their base city. There will be droves of deaths, massive destruction, and possibly flaming, falling debris. Survival is the goal of this harsh opening scenario.
#7 – The Prophecy
The party is ambushed by a band of assassins. They manage to capture one and interrogate him. It turns out that the killers were hired to slay one of the PCs in order to prevent a terrible prophecy from being fulfilled. The PC and his pals will have starring roles in what might turn out to be a series of world-shaking events.
#8 – The Chase is On
You know how some action flicks start with a car chase? You can do the same thing in D&D. Open the game with the PCs on horseback, ducking and dodging their way through a thick forest while their enemies give chase. If riding at breakneck speeds through hostile terrain isn’t exciting enough, you could always throw in the obligatory cliff.
#9 – Rude Interruption
The PCs have come to pay their last respects to a fallen hero of legend. Hundreds have gathered for the public funeral service. It’s a touching scene until something goes horribly wrong. This untoward event could be an invasion, a disastrous wizard duel, or the dead hero rising as an undead monstrosity. Your choices are only limited by your imagination.
#10 – Dreams and Visions
Dreams and visions can be used in many ways. In this case, they can be used to kick off your campaign in style. Give your PCs a dream so real it hurts – literally. Maybe they get wounded in the dream, only to wake up and find very real marks on their bodies. Or give them a premonition of future events so vivid that the PCs believe they’re actually living through those events right now.

Worldwide D&D Game Day

Saturday, March 21st, 2009

Ready an Action to Play on March 21st!

Prepare yourself (and your friends) to join D&D fans all around the world on March 21st for Worldwide D&D Game Day: Player’s Handbook 2. Everything you need to play will be on-hand, so it’s a great chance for new players, as well as veterans, to band together and find some adventure.

Details about what’s in-store (and what classes you might be playing) will be along soon. So, mark your calendar and tell your friends—WWDDGD: PH2 is coming.

Game Day Locations

At this time, we'd direct you to our Store and Event Locator. Be sure to check there for locations in D&D Game Day near you!

Organizer Information

This year, the 2009 D&D Game Days are being run through the Wizards Play Network. You must be a WPN Organizer in order to run a D&D Game Day. If you're interested in running a Game Day, please review the step-by-step instructions on how to schedule!

If you are not currently a WPN Organizer, there are some steps to take to become one. Please visit the WPN Organizer sign-up page.

And, don't hesitate in contacting us with any questions at wpn@wizards.com.

• Game Day sign-up instructions (171 Kbs PDF)
• Game Day information (153 Kbs PDF)

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Have a great Game Day!
--The Game Day Team

Danger in the Wilderness - Steal This Hook

The D&D website said this about the forthcoming 4th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons : "Civilized folk live in small, isolated points of light scattered across a big, dark, dangerous world. Most of the world is monster-haunted wilderness." Even in the 3rd Edition of the game, the wilderness is generally a monster-filled treasure house of fun for adventurers. A hydra looms out of the mountain pass to snap up several victims at once. A dragon swoops down on a caravan that has no way to stave it off. Undead crawl out of crypts or dark places in the forest. The wilderness is again the focus of Steal This Hook, as this month we look at some ideas involving the conflict between nature and civilization.

Wolf at the Door -- Forgotten Realms

Thesk straddles the western end of the Golden Way, the trade road that connects far-off Kara-Tur with the main part of Faerûn. Because of this, Thesk is a very wealthy nation and handles a lot of trade. "I want you to go to Two Stars," says the woman seated across from you. "I have a certain property coming in on a caravan from Shou Lung, and I would like to have it 'diverted' from the Golden Way before it reaches Telflamm and gets taxed. All you have to do is meet with a merchant named Beavom Tastald and give him this, and he will give my package into your keeping. Take it south on the Cold Road into Nethentir and meet the Spry Jewel of the Sea. The captain will take it off your hands."

Assuming they agree, the PCs find themselves traveling the Golden Way toward Two Stars in very wintry weather. It is unseasonably cold, so much so that trade has been slowed on the Golden Way through Thesk and Rashemen. The farmers curse the weather because crops have been ruined (assuming you place this adventure in a season other than winter). And to top off everything, reports of monsters in the wilderness increase as one travels eastward from Phsant.

About a day's journey from Two Stars, the PCs come across the remains of six people and two large wolflike creatures. The people have been eaten to the bone, their possessions lie scattered around and hidden underneath the snow; to their credit, they apparently took down two of the wolves before succumbing to the rest of the pack.

In Two Stars, the PCs find that the caravan they are waiting for has been delayed, or at least that it has not arrived yet. While they wait, they may encounter the following possibilities:

d100 Adventure Directions

00-50 At the Crossroads Tavern, a member of the Gallidy family sees the PCs and tries to hire them to determine where the monsters are coming from. Monsters are bad for business.

51-80 Beavom Tastald notes the PCs' interest in the delayed caravan, and he offers to pay them to travel the Golden Way and find it, or at least discover what happened to it. This leads the PCs into Rashemen, where they are attacked by winter wolves.

81-00 A farmer in Two Stars, or encountered along the road, could ask the PCs to find a missing relative (who has been mauled by winter wolves).

d100 Story Elements

Choose or randomly generate story elements from the table below, or make up your own.

00-40 Winter wolves from the Sunrise Mountains in Rashemen have expanded their range into Thesk because of the unusually strong winter storms. Packs of them ravage the countryside and eat farmer and merchant alike. If the winter subsides, the wolves would retreat to their normal range.

41-55 The storms center in northern Rashemen and are not natural. Wizards are causing them, and the spread of winter wolves is an accidental side effect.

56-70 Winter wolves are not the only monsters to spread into Thesk. Remorhazes, cold worms, frost giants, and other fell creatures pose dangers to the residents of Thesk and Rashemen.

71-95 The caravan carrying the package the PCs are to pick up has been attacked by ravaging winter monsters, and the package has been taken by frost giants into the Sunrise Mountains.

96-00 The winter has brought a trio of white dragons out of the northern Sunrise Mountains, and they have taken to attacking Mulsantir on a regular basis. The PCs could be asked to solve this problem too, and the dragons might be in league with the wizards causing the storms.

Campaign Adaptation

Frostburn is probably your best friend for this adventure, since it involves an area that has become a frostfell area.

Eberron: The Talenta Plains and eastern Karrnath are good for this adventure, since the winter wolves probably live in the mountains of the Mror Holds. Winter in the Talenta Plains could be a cause of considerable problems with the dinosaurs.

Greyhawk: The Duchy of Tenh is a natural place for this adventure, but Geoff or the March of Sterich could work too. The wolves (and weather) could even spread as far as the Hold of the Sea Princes.

Besieged -- Eberron

The land of Darguun is now a rougher place than it was when it was part of Cyre, chiefly because of its new masters. But the Mournland's presence on the northeastern border also contributes, since strange monsters stumble out of that ruined land and lay waste to whatever they find. The goblins at Gorgonhorn do their best to stop these incursions. But others are also concerned.

About three years ago, Oressny, a druid of the Warden of the Wood sect, established a small grove at the foothills of the small mountain range to the north of Gorgonhorn. She hopes to save the land from the Mournland, which she believes will grow slowly and engulf all of Khorvaire. She protects the land and the animals, and studies the blighting effects of the Mournland. She claims the whole mountain range as her grove, though her core grove is much smaller and on the southern side of the range. Her presence is not welcomed by all. The PCs receive, by means of animal messenger, a plea for help from Oressny.

d100 Story Elements

Select or randomly generate story elements from the table below.

00-55 Goblins are divided as to Oressny's presence. The goblins of Gorgonhorn welcome an ally of sorts that will help defend against the monsters of the Mournland, but some goblins like to hunt wyverns and other creatures in those mountains, and Oressny opposes them as well. They are gathering a force to attack the grove and remove the threat to their recreation.

56-90 Oressny has established her grove on a secret node of power, and even she is not aware of it. The node can be harnessed for evil, and a group of goblins dedicated to the overthrow of the Darguun government (in their favor) want to use that power. To do so, they must remove Oressny.

91-00 Oressny claims the whole mountain area, but others in that area don't recognize her claim. Specifically, a goblin druid living deeper in the mountains has his own grove. This goblin wants to eliminate the competition, and he musters a force of beasts and goblin allies to deal with Oressny's grove.

Campaign Adaptation

When inserting this adventure into campaign worlds, you may find Races of the Wild useful, or Complete Divine, or even Masters of the Wild if you want to convert some stuff.

Forgotten Realms: Try somewhere near the Reaching Wood and the nearby hills.

Greyhawk: This adventure could work in the Flinty Hills, with the goblins coming from a tribe in the hills rather than a nation nearby.

Bats and Snakes -- Forgotten Realms

The High Moor and the Serpent Hills are well known for being the haunts of monsters, and both are wisely avoided by the prudent traveler. But danger does not always stay contained. Monsters enlarge their territory or move into new areas when forced.

Traveling near Scornubel, the PCs hear of yuan-ti attacks on local residents near Soubar, Triel, and Hill's Edge. Specifically, reports come of massive attacks across the region by roving yuan-ti bands that were thought to live in relative isolation in the Serpent Hills. The PCs receive a message to come to Elturel, where High Rider Dhelt wants to meet with competent mercenaries. Lord Dhelt explains that the spread of the yuan-ti will soon reach his area of control, and he has insufficient soldiers to repel them and provide the normal level of protection to travelers that he guarantees. Lord Dhelt would like to hire mercenaries (the PCs) to go north and stop the yuan-ti raids by whatever means are necessary. He is willing to pay handsomely for this service, and he has access to somewhat rare magic items because of the volume of trade that passes through Elturel. He is willing to see what he can acquire that the PCs might be looking for but be unable to find.

d100 Motivations

00-60 Lord Dhelt is sincere; he really wants to head this problem off at the pass, so to speak.

61-85 The yuan-ti, if captured, are interested in getting help in removing the threat in their homeland that has driven them south.

86-00 A local wannabe warlord, Darkal Ish, has rallied the roving yuan-ti to his banner with the promise of solving their problem if they'll slay a few humans for him. He wants the PCs dead and puts out a price on their heads as soon as they are involved.

d100 Story Elements

Choose or randomly generate story elements from this table.

00-30 The yuan-ti have been driven out of the Serpent Hills by massive swarms of stirges. The yuan-ti are raiding in the area to gain equipment so they can return and reclaim their homelands.

31-50 Untold thousands of stirges are streaming from a portal in the High Moor at the edge of the Serpent Hills. They are moving southward too, and will cover the lands of the Western Heartlands like a blight if the portal is not closed. There may even be fiendish stirges from a gate to the Abyss.

51-75 There are a relatively small number of stirges, but a yuan-ti vampire controls them and hopes to drive out its fellow yuan-ti in an attempt to claim the Serpent Hills for its own. It plans to amass an army of minion creatures and overrun the lands to the south. The yuan-ti vampire has used the stirges strategically to create the impression that far more of them exist.

76-00 The stirges themselves are vampires (monstrous vampires from Ghostwalk) and thus even more dangerous than normal. They have claimed the whole of the Serpent Hills and even driven away the less powerful dragons (imagine fifty creatures attaching themselves to you and doing 1d4 Con damage or a negative level per round).

Campaign Adaptation

This adventure fits into any campaign world with yuan-ti living in a remote place. Since stirges are magical beasts, there are no sourcebooks to help flesh them out, but you could use Ghostwalk for monstrous vampire stirges or apply templates to make them more interesting. Yuan-ti are described in numerous sources, but Serpent Kingdoms is probably the best.

Eberron: This adventure would be great in Xen'drik somewhere, since there is a lot of wilderness. The yuan-ti would be driven toward Stormreach or harass explorers penetrating the surface. On Khorvaire, the stirges could come from the Demon Wastes and drive yuan-ti of the Eldeen Forest into western Aundair.

Greyhawk: Stirges might come out of the lands of Iuz and infest the Vesve Forest, and thus drive yuan-ti down into Furyondy and Highfolk.

About the Author

Robert Wiese has been playing D&D since 1978 after he watched a game played in the car on the way home from a Boy Scouts meeting. He was fascinated, and delved into this strange world of dragons and magic and sourcebooks. Years later, he was hired to edit tournaments for the RPGA Network, and from there progressed to running the network after his boss was assassinated in the great Christmas purge of 1996. Times were tough, but he persevered and brought the RPGA into a shining new era. Eventually he met a girl who liked to play D&D too, and he left Renton for the warmth and casinos of Reno, Nevada. Now, he works in the Pharmacology department of UNR studying mouse foot muscles and the effects of RF emissions on same. He spends as much time as possible with his wife Rhonda, son Owen, and newborn daughter Rebecca.