Evil Reigns in the Elven Ruins Where elves once built the shining city of Myth Drannor, demons and devils now prowl in search of prey. Ancient evil slumbers beneath mossy stones, waiting for those foolish enough to venture within its grasp. Bold swordsmen, stealthy rogues, and skillful wizards have all met their end within the walls of Myth Drannor. But the lure of the city's magical treasures still draws heroes and villains alike to tempt death—or worse. Drawn by the dream of limitless magical power, the Cult of the Dragon has carved out a secret stronghold in the heart of the ruins. Using the power of a corrupted pool of radiance, the Cultists stand poised to attain their goal of subjugating all of Faerûn... unless a group of brave heroes can stop them first.
The Fate of Faerûn Lies in Shadowy Darkness! Daggerdale is reeling from a sudden series of murderous drow raids. As a grave threat to the entire surface world develops in the war-torn dark elf city of Maerimydra, intrepid heroes must discover its source and destroy it, if they can.
The adventure begins with the characters discovering the recently murdered Returned, Varyas, and confronting his killers. Varyas's gold mask bears a code on it, one that points toward the sage Khea who lives in the nearby polis. When the characters investigate, they learn from Khea that the writing is undecipherable except for the first line, which refers to the legendary Court of Orestes, a site sacred to the god Phenax. She also notes that a recent earthquake has uncovered a cave along the Khystonos River that could be the secret site's location. If so, then perhaps within lies the key to deciphering the mask, along with its own treasures. With the information provided by Khea, the adventurers set forth into the wilds, where they'll face multiple storied dangers before reaching the Court of Orestes. Once at the lost holy site, the characters discover ancient guardians, as well as an unliving entity with the potential to reveal Phenax's lost secret.
The Soldiery has grown weary of dealing with a particularly nettlesome band of miscreants who have holed up in the Flooded Forest to the south. And so, you have been called upon to quell their activities so that trade along the North Road can resume unmolested. However, in so doing, the truth behind their activities reveal that much more than simple banditry is at hand. Will you be able to stop it?
Bringing Diablo II to the tabletop. The legendary Diablo and Diablo II computer games come to life with the release of the tabletop Diablo II: To Hell & Back roleplaying adventure. All a player needs is the Dungeons & Dragons(r) Player's Handbook (0786915501-8/00) to accompany the Diablo II game. Every level and all 4 acts of the computer game are represented in the tabletop mega-adventure, which will also include 64 pages of monsters, information for levels 1-30, and over 60 maps!
Sinister Forces Terrorize a Town The town of Brindinford is in the midst of its annual street fair. Joy and merriment abound - until calamity disrupts the celebration. Are rival gangs responsible? Is the government sliding into tyranny? Or is a nightmarish plot about to come to fruition? "The Speaker in Dreams" is a stand-alone adventure for the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game. Player characters are in for a wild ride in this river town. Leave the dungeon behind: the terrors lurking in Brindinford are more challenging by far! In The Speaker in Dreams, the town of Brindinford is besieged by evil forces under the command of Ghaerleth Axom. A street fair is interrupted by an attack, which serves as a distraction for the villain's forces to attack the keep of the local baron. This provides an entry point for the player characters into the main quest to discover the secret alliances trying to take over the town. The Speaker in Dreams is an event-based, rather than site-based, adventure.
The Raven Queen’s servants often seek out mighty allies. One of these is the black dragon Quetzallus, who resides in a deep cavern on the Shadowfell guarding a stream of souls flowing into the Raven Queen’s realm. But a death knight named Raxikarthus, betrayed by the Raven Queen in life, now seeks to enslave this dragon for his own purposes. He madly believes that he can stand against the Raven Queen, and seeks allies of all stripes—even her own servants—to do so. The death knight has found a pathway into the Shadowfell thought closed by mortals. Beneath a decayed keep, the undead dragonborn has reopened this portal and led his forces into the Shadowfell itself. The PCs are called in to beard the death knight in his lair. They find it abandoned, but discover a strange passage in the lower reaches. Pgs. 162-167
When the PCs stumble into the Feywild, they find themselves in the middle of Mithrendain— a glorious eladrin city of grace and beauty. But as the heroes find themselves the target of mysterious attacks, they begin to discover that something rotten lurks in the city’s heart. Sunlight bathes the soaring towers of the eladrin city of Mithrendain. Gentle breezes swirl through wooded parks and along well-kept streets, and in the ancient settlement whos golden hues have seen it named the Autumn City, thousands live in peace and prosperity. For centuries, the fomorian chasms deep beneath the city have stood silent below the great magical seals that closed them in the wanting days of the eladrin empire. Over long years, the folk of Mithrendain have forgotten the dark threats of old, becoming complacent in their tranquility. And so none suspect that corruption lurks at the heart of the city, spreading out from the shadows to taint all it touches. Pgs. 104-128
A derelict raft drifts into Mulmaster’s harbor carrying a young woman. Delirious with hunger, the only words she seems able to speak so far have been “ash and fire.” The only other clue to her identity is an ornate tattoo. Is the woman insane, or is something nefarious at play?
Often called the “Gateway to Chult”, the exotic city of Port Nyanzaru is built upon a landscape both mystifying and marvelous. However, the city’s vibrant beauty is overshadowed by a mysterious scourge that plagues all within the land. Can the divergent forces within the city discover the truth before all are overcome by this growing threat? Five Four-Hour Mini-Adventures for 1st-4th Level Characters
Into the Forsaken Temple's Crypt is a short adventure for four 10th-level characters. The adventure takes place in a buried temple crypt, which has been sealed for centuries. Dungeon Masters can adjust it for higher-level characters by expanding the dead magic areas and increasing the number and power of constructs and undead that inhabit the complex. Some things are best left untouched, and some secrets are best left untold. One such secret is the location of the resting place of the traitor Ellowyn Blacktree. Her body has lain undisturbed for centuries, undead but immobile, in the prison the elves created for her. The elven histories tell that Ellowyn was a powerful wizard back in a time beyond human reckoning. While others worked diligently to learn magic, Ellowyn's arcane powers came to her quickly. In her youth, she called this a blessing from Corellon Larethian, and she worked diligently to serve him for the good of all elvenkind. In time, she became one of seven female elves entrusted with the care of a mythal, or elven place of power, devoted to preserving the balance of magic and nature. But Ellowyn, it is said, kept a terrible secret of her own: She had fallen in love with a drow whom history knows as Orith To'rellen. One dark winter night she betrayed her sisters, Corellon, and all of elvenkind by allowing Orith and the followers of Lolth to overrun and defile the mythal. Ellowyn herself was then betrayed by the drow, who abandoned her on the surface near a vampire's lair as they returned to their home in the Underdark, leaving her to face certain death and elven justice alone. In the depths of their grief and anger, the elves sentenced Ellowyn, perhaps unwisely, to dwell forever in the darkness that she had chosen, thus ensuring that she never followed the normal path of life and death that most elves take. Many elves died at her hands before they could restrain her. With terrible spells rarely seen even in that ancient time, they bound her in an underground crypt far away from any living thing. There, the legends say, she waits, nursing a terrible hatred against elves, drow, Corellon, Lolth, and especially Orith To'rellen.
The Curious Tale of Wisteria Vale is the script of a play written in Common. It is split up into three acts, telling the story of a heroic bard before he becomes corrupted by evil. A wizard named Ryllia Liadon donated the book to Candlekeep as an entrance gift. She didn't tell the Avowed that the book contains the secret to accessing Wisteria Vale, a magical demiplane created by the Harpers to imprison a bard named Arrant Quill until they could free him from the influence of an evil artifact. The book has been hidden in the Candlekeep archives for three years, but the Harpers have finally discovered a cure for Quill's corruption, and the time has come to visit Wisteria Vale once more.
A Giant Ransom is a short adventure for four 11th-level characters. There are opportunities for diplomacy, stealth, and combat, based on the choices the PCs make, so any mix of classes is appropriate. The adventure can be set in any campaign world, in a frontier region near glacier-covered mountains. In the story thus far, the PCs have been tasked by Duke Ambrinigan, a local lord, to recover a stolen statue of a golden lion. The lion was stolen in transit by frost giant raiders, and was to be ransomed back to the Duke for 10,000 gp. The PCs were sent to perform the exchange. The giants, however, were attacked by the white dragon Whildenstrank, who stole the statue and retreated to his lair in the middle of a nearby glacier. The PCs encountered the remaining giants, and then set off westward toward the dragon's lair. They traveled across the flat part of the glacier, encountering the frost giant ranger Velg the Dragon Tamer, as well as some burrowing bulettes. Then they braved the hazards of frost worms and remorhaz in the Ice Canyons: a maze of twisting passageways surrounding the black spire of rock that the dragon calls home. The PCs now stand at the edge of an open space, looking at the towering edifice in front of them.
A long, perilous ocean journey behind them, the crew of the Sea Wyvern finds itself shipwrecked on the Isle of Dread. Their destination lies well over 150 miles to the south, miles heavy with the threat of the island's terrible inhabitants. Yet the unknown enemies are far more sinister, for more than just dinosaurs hunt the vast jungles. Before long, a cunning fiend picks up their trail, and its duplicitous master demands their sacrifice. "Here There Be Monsters" is the fourth chapter of the Savage Tide Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures appearing in Dungeon. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon's monthly "Savage Tidings" articles, a series that helps players and DMs prepare for and expand upon the campaign. Issue #352 of Dragon explores the Isle of Dread in detail, providing a complete ecology of the island and the writing of Larissa Vanderboren. This article can be used as a player handout to represent the journals the group recovered from the Vanderboren family vault in the first adventure in the Campaign. Shipwrecked on the Isle of Dread! Faced with a dangerous journey, the PCs must escort a ragged band of castaways through monster-infested wildlands in order to reach the safety promised by the colony of Farshore on the isle’s southern tip. Pgs. 32-60
Long ago, before the arrival of civilized humanoids, a large colony of ogres thrived in the local area. When a great invasion from another dimension threatened this colony, their king, Koptila, prayed for his people to be spared. The gods heard these pleas, but commanded Koptila to sacrifice himself. The leader did so, and the clan disappeared—whisked away by the gods and lost to time. Over the years, a city grew up above the former subterranean home of the ogres, and no aspect of Koptila’s ancient bargain was preserved or remembered. Even so, the stars are aligned for the return of Koptila and his people. These powerful repatriates are unlikely to appreciate the changes in their old home. A sage has found dusty documents prophesying this return, and he asks the PCs to investigate the catacombs to defeat the potential threat to the city. The PCs travel down through city sewers and subterranean passages before finding the catacombs that the ogre colony once called home. Pgs. 48-53
The Bloody Maul of Kord is a magic weapon protected by the priests of Kord, who occasionally allow a noteworthy hero to use it when going on a dangerous quest worthy of the storm deity’s blessing. Six months ago, Atrimos of Ardor took the Bloody Maul for a quest to the Caverns of Demise, hoping to end attacks to the realm being launched from the caverns. He never returned. Now, the clerics of Kord hire the PCs to go into the caverns to retrieve the Bloody Maul of Kord—and to find Atrimos, if possible. Pgs. 108-113
A fallen clock tower holds components from an ancient artifact. Upon discovery of the components, competing agents look to launch expeditions to uncover additional components scattered across distant places—and times. The now-lost Temple of Moloch and the construction site of the legendary Tomb of Horrors are two of those locations. However great the risks, finding the components demands the effort, for whoever does so can reassemble the fabled Infernal Machine of Lum the Mad!
On the outskirts of town lies an ancient temple to an unknown deity. Periodically, undead creatures issue from the catacombs beneath it. The party receives a commission from the city elders to venture into the catacombs and exterminate the undead. Pgs. 64-71
The characters arrive in Fallcrest just as a blizzard starts from the gloomy black clouds. the villagers gather to discuss how to survive the untimely and unusual blizzard. Suddenly between the roar of the wind and thunder, a ship descends filled with undead with one message: Return the ice scepter!. Afterwards, the characters must decide, find and return this relic to the Winter King, or bluff and plan to dethrone him. As they reach the tops of the mountains, possibly injured, the whole of the Winter King's inner domain stands before them. If they fail, winter will claim the Nentir Vale forever. Group of 4-6 players.
Zhentish soldiers, Maerimydran drow, and Sharran cultists have forged a dark alliance to subjugate the peaceful land of Shadowdale. Elminster's tower lies in ruins, Lord Amcathra governs at the sufferance of the dale's conquerors, and the very Weave of magic in this embattled land seems to fray with each passing day. The Zhentish yoke lies heavy over Shadowdale—but the Dalesfolk are ready to fight for their freedom, if only they can find true heroes to lead the way!