Content Warning

This adventure includes death and violence, undead, and kidnapping.

Can you stop the serpent god?

Lizardfolk have been kidnapping people from the village to summon an ancient serpent god. Can you prevent the return of the Soil Serpent?

This one-shot adventure is designed for 4-5 characters, levels 5-8, with a total of about 24 levels.

About this Adventure

The village of Cleargrove endures increasing attacks by lizardfolk, and scouts from the village believe they’re planning to recover a staff hidden within the haunted ruins of the Shrine of the Soil Serpent. A representative from the village asks the party to recover the staff to keep the lizardfolk cultists from getting it and summoning the soil serpent, an elemental snake god. When the party reaches the inner court, they find that the staff is a stalk, the stem of a potted carnivorous plant. The lizard folk try desperately to acquire the plant, as it has charmed them into bringing it victims. If the party brings the plant to the village, the representative will plant it in the ground, claiming that it will grow fruit to keep the lizardfolk away, but once planted, it quickly grows into a monstrous attacking plant, allied with the village representative.

Adventure Hooks

This adventure begins in any population center. It’s written for a village, but the size of the community is of little importance besides the availability of a town guard to handle the lizardfolk; even if the guards protect the community, the party can still be enlisted to investigate the sudden increase in attacks.

The adventure takes place in the village of Cleargrove, but you could use any community in your campaign world that’s near a forest, rainforest, or swamp.

Dramatis Personae

• Elel Talthanryl
• Ryia
• Erelmil
• Lizardfolk Plant Ghoul
• Plant Ghast
• Plant Ghoul

Lizardfolk Ambush

Shrine of the Soil Serpent Marketplace Map

While the party is going about their business in town, they hear a scream as 3 Lizardfolk Plant Ghouls grab 2 villagers and attempt to drag them away. They appear to be typical lizardfolk, except they don’t speak. A successful DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check when within 5 feet of them reveals that they smell like a combination of rotten meat and a clove-like spice.

Once the party defeats them and rescues the villagers, Elel Talthanryl, who owns a greenhouse in town, approaches the party and thanks them profusely. He explains that they’ve been having problems with lizardfolk attacks, dragging away villagers. As soon as the party asks any questions, Elel says, “We’ve sent some scouts to find out. Let me get them for you.” He walks over to a nearby merchant tent where Ryia and Erelmil are chatting with a vegetable seller. He introduces the pair to the party.

Roleplaying the Scouts

Since Ryia has difficulty speaking due to pain in her mouth, the GM can emulate this either by speaking quietly with minimal lip movement or by describing her speech, such as, “She speaks quietly, but if you listen closely, you can hear her say….” Especially when playing in noisy environments or remotely, this descriptive narration will give players insight into Ryia’s experience. At times, Ryia may gesture to Erelmil, who’s used to listening to her, to repeat what she said or expand with his own experience, but only when she asks him to.

When Erelmil is in combat, he will use his hand crossbow from a distance, then sneak attack and cunning action to strike and hide. While hiding, he may take that opportunity to reload his hand crossbow when it’s prudent to keep his distance. When Ryia uses the same tactic and hides near Erelmil, she can help him load it, using one of her multiattack actions or a bonus action.

The scouts are eager for the party’s help. As the party asks questions, they will be able to give the following information:

• Six people have been kidnapped from the village of different ancestries and ages. Ryia and Erelmil can determine no pattern to the kidnappings.
• The kidnappings started about 30 days ago. Before this, lizardfolk rarely came near the village and generally kept to themselves in nomadic families throughout the area but sometimes came into town to trade goods or information, and besides some misunderstandings with some local farmers, interactions with them have always been positive.
• If asked, nobody has heard the attacking lizardfolk speak, not even to each other, which is unusual.
• They’ve been tracked to the ruins of the Shrine of the Soil Serpent, which has been abandoned and overgrown for centuries. Nobody goes there, because it’s haunted. If pressed, nobody can remember details about that except that the story goes that those who’ve gone near it disappeared, and some stories say that the missing people were seen later as zombies.

When Elel hears of the shrine, he becomes horrified. His monocle drops from his eye, and he grabs it and puts it back in place. He says, “Oh no! They must be seeking the staff!” When the party asks about the staff, Elel informs them that the Staff of the Serpent is believed to be buried deep in the shrine, and those who possess it can use it to summon the Soil Serpent, an ancient snake god that legends say came up out of the earth to consume and dominate the world. However, the staff is also believed to be capable of destroying the Serpent instead of just banishing it, which is why the staff was buried, not destroyed. Elel urges the party to go and recover the staff to keep it from the lizardfolk, and possibly destroy the Serpent once and for all.

If the party asks Ryia and Erelmil to come along, they’re willing to take the party within sight of the shrine but refuse to get any closer, and will immediately return to the village.

Trek to the Shrine

Shrine of the Soil Serpent Forest Map

The shrine is about three miles from the village in a dense part of the forest. Erelmil and Riya can give detailed instructions but have no desire to go back. When they say, “It’s just past this next hill,” 4 more Lizardfolk Plant Ghouls ambush the party, throwing their javelins while hiding in the trees, then leaping on the party.

The Shrine of the Soil Serpent

The ruins of the shrine are home to a vast network of vines, but as you get closer, you see a door to a buried complex, a pile of rubble that seems as if it would collapse were the vines not holding it together. A snake slithers out from between the cracks and darts to catch a rodent, taking its mouthful of prey into another crevice. The sun shines down on an 8-by-8-foot square stone doorway with seemingly more gaps than stones, yet it still stands.

Shrine of the Soil Serpent Shrine Map

1. Entry Chamber. As the party approaches the doorway, the air fills with the combined odors of mildew, rotten meat, and a clove-like spice. The doorway leads to a wet stone hallway with a slight downward slope. Anyone walking must succeed on a DC 8 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone. Anyone in a wheelchair or similar mobility aid makes the check with advantage and slides to the bottom without becoming prone on failure.

The rectangular room is decorated with serpentine green and orange patterns, most of the paint having long since faded. A small snake comes out of one crack in the wall to the left and immediately disappears into another crack on the same wall. Another doorway lies ahead.

2. Former Priest Living Quarters. A sink, fire pit, and rotted wood that used to be furniture are all that remains of the possessions of the priests that used to serve this shrine. If the party investigates the piles of wood, they’ll find a chest within, which nearly falls apart on opening, revealing rotten clothing and disturbing a Swarm of Centipedes within that will attack the party unless someone is carrying a fire source. The swarm will scatter at the first sign of fire.
3. Discard Room. The smell of rot gets stronger as you approach. The floor is scattered with torn and moldy fabric and bones, some of which still has rotten flesh attached. A few rats scurry from pile to pile, and a constrictor snake crawls out from under one of the larger piles. It will threaten the party for a round by coiling for a strike, but if the party backs off, it will go snatch a rat instead, only fighting in self-defense.
4. Guard Chamber. As the party enters this large stone chamber, strewn with broken furniture, they notice the smell of rot and spice getting stronger, almost unbearable, especially for those with sensitivities to strong odors. A Plant Ghast and 3 Plant Ghouls, which look identical to their undead counterparts, spring from behind the furniture to attack, attempting to surprise the party. They will fight to the death as they try to protect the Staff of the Serpent from intruders, targeting anyone wielding fire first.
5. Chapel. The serpentine patterns on the walls extend to the floor, forming a spiraling pattern that surrounds an altar in the center of the room. The first character to touch the altar each day heals 1d8 hit points. If a second person touches it, vines spring from the cracks, and the character must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw or be grappled for 10 minutes or until the vines take 20 points of fire or slashing damage.
6. Sanctuary of the Staff. The serpentine walls and floor of this room’s design are accented with gold flake, which reflects the faint light that pokes through cracks in the ceiling, making this dim light the brightest room in the shrine. The air has become so damp that condensation on the broken ceiling drips from its jagged edges. The clove-like smell hangs heavily in the air, stronger here than anywhere else. In the center of the room, a 2-by-2 feet cylindrical metal pot of dirt decorated with cobra designs holds a 6 ft. vertical green shaft wrapped in snake-like vines. On inspection, the party can see roots extending from its base into the dirt, and the vines have tiny buds protruding from them, and the clove-like smell gets stronger near it. The potted plant is the Staff of the Serpent, and the party can move it, but it weighs 250 pounds. Removing the staff from the pot will not destroy it.
7. Former Ritual Preparation Room. This room contains a rotting table and cabinets, coils of rope, a rusty round shield with a two-feet diameter dirty water ring in the center, and several rusty and blood-stained manacles and cutting tools. Close inspection will reveal a rusted metal box in the cabinet with 212 sp and 76 gp.
8. Antechamber. This room has a wooden trapdoor in the ceiling that’s cracked open just far enough for the legs and bottom rung of a ladder to protrude. A braided cable hangs down from it to 6 feet from the floor. A player pulling on the cable can release the jammed hinges with a successful DC 8 Strength check. Once released, the door opens, and while the ladder remains attached to the door, a heavy paper box full of mold falls out and fills the room with toxic spores. All creatures in the room must succeed on a DC 14 Constitution saving throw or take 13 (4d6) poison damage and be poisoned for 2 hours. A character attempting to catch the box as it falls must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity check. On success, they prevent its spread to others but get a face full of spores and must make the saving throw with disadvantage. Any amount of fire or cold damage sent into the opening before pulling the door will destroy the mold and ruin the effect. The space above the trap door is an otherwise empty cavity.

Returning the Staff

Once the party returns the staff to the village, Elel excitedly takes the staff and looks for a patch of open ground to plant it. He explains that the buds will produce fruit that’s needed for the ritual to destroy the serpent. As soon as the staff gets planted, it grows in 1 round into the Soil Serpent. It attacks the closest creature but will not attack Elel, who is thrilled that his plan as the secret leader of the Cult of the Serpent is succeeding. If the party is having trouble defeating the Soil Serpent, Riya and Erelmil will arrive and join in the combat at the beginning of the third round of combat, and the town guards will arrive and join in during the fourth round (as many as necessary).

Seeds of Future Adventures

Once the Soil Serpent is destroyed, the town guards will arrest Elel. If the plant isn’t burned completely, the wind will carry its seeds away where another staff will begin to grow….

Credits

Writer: Dale Critchley

Copy Editor: Naomi Hazlett

Sensitivity Readers: Naomi Hazlett, Melissa Critchley, Simone Arnold, Matthew Rickmon, Amy Weisner

Layout Editor: Beth the Bard

Stock art by Jacob Blackmon and Adela Quiles

Maps by Dale Critchley, © 2022 Wyrmworks Publishing

Time-Is-of-the-Essence-1.1 full PDF

Time Is of the Essence 4K Maps

Time Is of the Essence Map Keys

The device has 55 HP with a 19 AC.

Horror of the Shade

Written by Theo Kogod

In the fell clutch of circumstance,
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

-“Invictus,” by William Ernest Henley

Running the Adventure: 

Players:

“Horror of the Shade” is a one-shot adventure designed for a party of 4–6 characters of levels 5 or 6. 

Fellow Travelers:

As caravan guards, the player characters will meet others accompanying them on the road. 

Kassios (He/Him): The charming caravan master is an impeccably dressed satyr with a waxed mustache who walks with a pronounced limp, using a well-polished cane (actually a cane-sword). He is partially deaf, uses a prosthetic bronze eye, and has a penchant for theatricality.

Ssauri’yanik (They/Them): This red dragonborn priest has dedicated their life to helping others. A skilled healer and herbalist, Ssauri’yanik uses their knowledge of plants and medicine to design specialized potions to heal injuries and help people manage their disabilities. 

Tessaria (She/Her): A pragmatic gold dragonborn librarian transporting her book-hoard across the country, Tessaria possesses encyclopedic knowledge of history and myths. Her face and tone seldom reveal her emotions. She is sensitive to sound, and may verbally snap at others when she feels overwhelmed. 

Background:

Millennia ago, the Naodh-Meer were a prehistoric matriarchy whose priestess-queens controlled trees and had transcended death. The Naodh-Meer were eventually conquered by the Anahksi, a patriarchal magocracy who torched the Naodh-Meers’ groves and built huge stone structures in their place.

Both the Naodh-Meer and Anahksi have long since vanished. All that remains are the stony ruins they built and the depleted remnants of their magic. 

In the present, the characters serve as caravan guards who make camp amid Anahksi ruins, once built to imprison the undead Naodh-Meer witch-queen Wrot’idauth by entombing her in a demiplane. But the magics holding her have weakened. Gargoyles attack the caravan, and Wrot’idauth tries to escape during the fight. This triggers a magical defense which transports the ruins—and the caravan—into the prison dimension. To escape, the characters must either defeat the undead witch-queen, or else help her defeat the immortal stone guardians imprisoning her.

Introduction

The adventure begins as a caravan traveling through the hills prepares to make camp amid ancient ruins. The caravan master, a satyr named Kassios, has hired the characters as guards. 

To begin, read the following text:

You were recently hired by the satyr Kassios to help guard his caravan, along with other travelers who paid for safe passage. Bandit raids and heavy rains have made the main road too treacherous for safe travel, forcing the wagon train into the hills to find a new route. 

It has been a slow, bumpy ride across uneven ground choked with roots and hardscrabble. Cracked granite columns and crumbling stone blocks pock the otherwise empty slopes. The darkening sky breathes chill, moist air through the hills, portending a coming storm. As evening approaches, you search for somewhere to take shelter when suddenly Kassios shouts, “There! Just what we’re looking for!” 

He points up the slopes with his cane. Amid toppled columns and broken masonry, a single building stands, its gable roof and marble walls seemingly still intact. 

The caravan is composed of five wagons, each pulled by a pair of mules. There are roughly twenty passengers: mostly a mix of humans, dwarves, and halflings, plus two dragonborn. When the caravan stops, Kassios asks the player characters to ensure the ruins are safe and check in with the paying passengers while he attends to the animals. 

Black roots grow over the structure and much of the surrounding rubble, but there are no trees in sight. Players scouting the structure and surrounding area find no enemies. For more info, see section A1: Ruins. (Horror of the Shade Map 1)

A successful DC 20 Intelligence (History) check reveals that the ruins were built by the lost civilization of the Anahksi. When examining the black roots, an unfamiliar, acrid odor is faintly detectable. A successful DC 10 Intelligence (Nature) check points out that there are no nearby trees and that the roots are pushing up through the soil. A successful DC 20 Intelligence (Nature) or Intelligence (Arcana) check shows that these are unlike any known tree root and may possess slight necromantic properties. Players looking through the rubble who succeed on a DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check will discover a toppled six-foot statue of a horned, fanged humanoid with wings.

As the caravan unloads, both dragonborn take longer than the other travelers. 

One of them, a red dragonborn in priest’s robes named Ssauri’yanik, examines a patch of roots. They are a healer and herbalist who makes potions from plants, but have never seen anything like this. 

The other, a gold dragonborn named Tessaria, is carrying a heavy chest, causing her to move slowly. If someone tries to assist her, she thanks them but refuses. Tessaria has a Sensory Processing Difference (IE 2) and is sensitive to continuous high- and low-pitched sounds. The grind of wagon wheels on their axles took a toll. Her chest contains rare books, a warm robe, and a tea set, which help ease her nerves. 

A1: The Ruins

The ruins are an ancient Anahksi structure with walls, ceiling, and floor constructed from granite and marble blocks. General features:

Walls: The walls are 4 feet thick and sturdy but a section of the eastern wall has collapsed.

Ceiling: 20 feet high. A massive marble slab forms the ceiling. Two more slabs above it form a gable roof.

Columns: Two rows of marble columns run down the center of the room.

Entrances: The post-and-lintel entrance has no doors. The only other way in or out is the eastern wall’s gap.

Statue: A 10-foot-high statue depicts a seated man flanked by snarling horned beasts. Roots protrude from cracks under the statue, spreading across the floor toward the hole in the wall, creating difficult terrain in the northeast corner.

The ancient structure’s walls and floor are constructed of massive, smooth stone blocks. Strange glyphs mark the stone lintel above the entrance. Two rows of marble columns run down the length of it to the very back, where a statue depicts a man seated and flanked by wild beasts, their eroded features polished and cracked from age . Dark twisted roots have pushed up through cracks in the paved floor, growing toward a large hole in the eastern wall, from which a damp breeze wafts in.

The glyphs are from the lost Anahksi language. A successful DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals similarities to the Primordial words “Tomb” and “Queen.” Characters fluent in Primordial or who consult Tessaria roll with advantage. The Comprehend Languages spell deciphers the full text: 

“This Tomb Holds the Undead Forest Queen.”

Players who examine the statue notice that the man is seated on a petrified tree stump. A successful DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals that the wild beasts flanking him have small horns and folded stone wings. 

Kassios follows the characters inside as it begins to rain. The satyr starts a fire near the hole in the back wall using firewood he brought with him. This downtime offers a chance to get to know the NPCs. 

Kassios regales his passengers with stories around the fire. 

Tessaria prepares some tea, reading a dense book by firelight that confirms her suspicion that the ruins are of Anahksi origin. If asked, she may reveal that the Anahksi who built this were an ancient empire who wielded elemental magic. 

Ssauri’yanik cuts a clipping off one of the black roots to study as they mix herbs for potions. If a character has a noticeable injury or disability whose symptoms seems to be causing pain or discomfort (or if they volunteer such information), Ssauri’yanik may inform the character that they have a potion that could help manage symptoms. 

As night descends, it begins to rain, and a loud roar echoes among the hills. 

Kassios unsheathes his sword-cane and orders the players to take up their posts as guards. Outside, four winged gargoyles descend from the sky, growling loudly, their rough granite wings and arms grinding with every movement. Two approach the front door while two more attack the hole in the eastern wall. Sparse mosses and lichens dot their bodies, releasing a fetid earthy odor from being in the rain, and when a gargoyle is struck in combat, weapons and spells will occasionally impact the soft film of vegetation. They do not understand any modern language and cannot be reasoned with. They are guarding the ruins and intend to kill all trespassers.

Kassios fights with his sword-cane and has Stiffness (Legs and Feet) (IE 2). Tessaria or Ssauri’yanik might offer support through their breath weapons. Tessaria inserts earplugs at the start of combat. Ssauri’yanik has Hyperelasticity (IE 4) and Skeletal Flexibility (IE 3) and Dislocation (IE 3) and is cautious to avoid injury, but heals anyone who becomes seriously injured. 

The other travelers try to flee to the back of the room to escape the monsters. Multiple travelers can squeeze together into a five-foot square, pressed close as they try to avoid the fray.

After the first gargoyle is killed, the two beasts flanking the statue at the back of the room begin to move, unfurling huge batlike wings and roaring loudly. These gargoyles are Small, and have 20 HP and 12 AC. 

After a second gargoyle is killed, read the following: 

As the gargoyle dies, you hear the bursting crack of ruptured stone from the back of the chamber. The statue explodes, dusting the room with splinters of shattered rock as a writhing tangle of black tree roots pushes up from below the floor. The remaining gargoyles react immediately, flying straight at the breach. They collide with a deafening crash and darkness flashes across your vision. 

You recover a moment later to discover the gargoyles, tree roots, and broken statue have all vanished. In their place is a massive rent in the floor, the mouth of a passage. Outside the building, everything as far as you can see has been consumed by yellow glowing mists.

One Door Closes, Another Opens:

Any characters who were outside the building are instantly transported back inside.

The yellow mists outside shimmer and swirl, pressing against the building but not entering. From a distance, they smell faintly of burnt tin. The mists generate light for 30 feet and dim light for another 30. These are part of an ancient magical defense system created by the Anahksi to safeguard the structure and prevent the undead Naodh-Meer queen entombed below from escaping. It is impossible to see, hear, or scry anything through the mists, which cannot be dispelled. Teleportation spells such as Misty Step or Blink do not work normally within them. No one from outside can teleport in and no one inside can teleport out into the mists. If a character tries to teleport outside or travel to another plane, they feel a tingling pressure against their skin as their attempt fails. However, characters can teleport from one place to another within the main structure. This effect extends below the building into the passageway and rooms beyond, as characters can move about freely within any area on the map but cannot leave or enter a designated area using teleportation. 

The rent in the floor is roughly 10×10 feet and opens to a passage that winds deep below the earth.

Everyone from the caravan is clearly shaken. Kassios tries to calm them, but the attack has ruined his good mood. He asks the players to explore the passage to neutralize any danger. If they resist, he offers to double their pay.

Either Tessaria or Ssauri’yanik can be persuaded to accompany the adventurers. The din of battle upset Tessaria, but she recognized the gargoyles as Anahksi Guardians, and is curious to learn more about the Anahksi ruins. Ssauri’yanik is interested in learning about the strange roots, and they want to provide medical support if the adventurers need it. 

Anyone who tries leaving the building must succeed on a DC 16 Constitution saving throw when they enter the mists or when they begin their turn within them. On a failed save, they take 12 (2D8 + 3) psychic damage or half as much on a success.

(Horror of the Shade Map 2)

A2: The Passage

The passageway is 10×10 feet and runs hundreds of feet deep underground, its dirt floors snaking back and forth with roots running along its walls and ceiling. The air is stale, humid, and permeated by a moldy odor. The first 50 feet are dimly lit before it becomes dark. 

At the end, there is an open doorway where a massive stone slab has been pushed out and shattered on the passage floor. Beyond is a dimly lit room. 

Examining the slab reveals it was once an intricately carved door with a complex locking mechanism that involved several sliding stone facets. At some point, roots pushed the door off its hinges. Beyond this door is a room glowing with dim, eerie yellow light.

Players will not discover this until later, but the tunnels originally connected the building above to a demiplane that the Anahksi created by drawing power from the Astral Plane and the Elemental Planes of Fire and Earth. They used it to imprison their greatest enemy, the Naodh-Meer witch-queen Wrot’idauth, locking her in a tomb with immortal stone guards. The roots breaking free during the fight above triggered a defense mechanism, pulling the tunnels and building into the demiplane.

The areas ahead have the following features:

Five-foot square stone blocks form the walls, floors, and ceilings. 

Ceilings: 20 feet high. The ceiling is also 30 feet thick, eventually opening out into empty dimensional space.

Doors: Most doors are 8-foot-wide stone slabs that slide to one side along a groove in the floor. 

Lighting: Darkness, except where yellow mists provide dim light.

Breathability: Every room allows for regular breathing. More than 30 feet beyond the outside of the structures in any direction, the pocket dimension does not allow for breathable air.

Anti-Teleportation: No one is capable of entering or exiting any room using teleportation. They also cannot travel to another plane. However, they can teleport from one area to another within a room.

Anti-Magic: The Hall of Murals, Guardian’s Chamber, and Bridge Across the Abyss all are protected by a faint Antimagic Field. This was created to prevent Queen Wrot’idauth from escaping, but has degraded over the millennia. Anyone casting a spell in the affected areas must succeed on a DC 10 roll using their spellcasting Ability + proficiency bonus or else the spell automatically fails. 

B1: Trapped Chamber

Just inside the doorway lie the gargoyles who flew into the tunnel, smashed to rubble by the roots. 

The smashed doorway opens into a wide room, dimly lit by a flitting yellow glow coming from a crack in the ceiling from which cool sterile air breathes into the chamber.

Strewn across the entryway lie scattered chunks of broken masonry, among which are the gargoyles’ recognizable horned faces and wing fragments. 

Dim yellow light filters in through a crack in the ceiling. Anyone looking up notices something shocking: despite the party traveling deep underground, the crack passes through just 30 feet of rock, beyond which they can see the starry night sky illuminated by much-closer clouds of the glowing yellow gas. The crack also allows fresh air into the room. 

The roots that run from the eastern door to the western one pushed both doors off their hinges, completely shattering the latter. A successful DC 10 Intelligence (Nature) check confirms that it is unusual for roots to not grow on the floor; DC 15, that they pushed down the westernmost door; DC 20 reveals wood fragments amid the broken gargoyles. 

Two gargoyle guards used to sit on the plinths, which would sink six inches into the floor under the creatures’ weight. The gargoyles departed, causing the plinths to rise up and thereby priming the trap. If there is any weight on the floor for more than a minute, all of the floor tiles lining the eastern and western walls superheat, glowing red hot and causing the air above them to ripple with the scent of burnt ozone. Anyone who steps on these heated tiles or begins a turn on them must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw, taking 3D6 fire damage on a failed save or half of that on a success. After another minute, the next innermost rows of tiles heat up. After 3 minutes, the middle tiles heat.

A successful DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals that the plinths can sink down six inches into the floor and reveal scrape marks left by the gargoyles’ claws. Applying 40 pounds of pressure to both plinths at once causes them to sink down, disabling the trap. Alternatively, piling the rubble onto the hot floor tiles allows someone to cross over them unharmed. 

The northern unbroken door can be accessed with a successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check, forcing the heavy stone door off its hinges. Alternatively, a successful DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check can slide it open to one side along a hinge in the floor, while a successful DC 15 Intelligence (History) or Intelligence (Investigation) check will uncover a simple mechanism in the floor, triggering the door to slide open along its hinge, leading to the Mason’s Room. The already-open door leads to the Gargoyles’ Vigil.

B2: Mason’s Room

The door grinds to one side and dry stale air wafts out. Chalky dust coats the floors and a rubble heap is piled high in the northeast corner, beside which lies a stone slab. 

This room was used by Anahksi masons building the tomb, who discarded broken masonry in the rubble pile. Several tools lie on a level stone slab that once served as a work table, caked with dust. These can be discovered with a successful DC 12 Intelligence (Investigation) check.

These crystalline tools are completely unrecognizable, except for one, the Hammerspike, with a double-sided head formed from solid silvery crystal which resembles both a pickaxe and a hammer.

This tool counts as both a warhammer or war pick and can be used by a character proficient in either. A player can decide whether to deal 1d8 bludgeoning or piercing damage when attacking with it. The Hammerspike is versatile, increasing the damage to 1d10 when wielded two-handed. It deals an additional 1d6 fire damage against Undead and Plants. 

B3: Gargoyles’ Vigil

Two rows of gargoyles once stood here, but now the room is overgrown with dark roots which have smashed and smothered the bodies of the stone wardens. 

This narrow room is completely choked and overgrown with a twisted knotwork of roots and black-leafed branches, growing out from an open door in the southeast corner. The gnarled pungent vegetation is so thick that you almost fail to see the hunched stone figures completely ensnared within tangles of wood.

Neither the roots nor the gargoyles pose any harm to the characters. A successful DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals that the gargoyles have been smashed by the roots and pose no threat. Some of them are held upright by branches and vines, and if they are distur bed, pieces of broken masonry will fall to the floor. 

Anyone passing through the corridor must either make 3 successful DC 14 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) checks or else become restrained by entanglement in the roots. Breaking free of these restraints causes the wood to snap loudly, releasing a shower of dry leaves. The roots can be destroyed with fire or weapons. They have AC 15, 200 HP, and take 30 minutes to be burned through. Inhaling the smoke chokes a person with its caustic bitter stench and causes 7 (3d4) poison damage. 

If Ssauri’yanik is with the party, they will note that the leaves look especially flammable. The dragonborn will also observe that the tree roots must have moved at an alarming speed to break the gargoyles in this way. If Tessaria is present, she is eager to learn what is in the next room at the far end of the hall. In either case, the NPC should urge players forward.

B4: Hall of Murals

As you enter this room, an excited frisson tingles across your skin. Eight brightly painted bas-reliefs run along the southern wall of this beautifully stunning hall. The statuesque murals were masterfully carved with lifelike detail, and seem to tell some kind of story. 

More of the familiar black roots have burrowed into the room through holes in the ceiling and floor, but these seem much thinner than the others, growing feebly toward the direction of the hallway you just left. Another sealed door is in the southwest corner. 

This is the first of three rooms affected by the depleted Antimagic Field, but over the centuries, the field has weakened significantly (see the Anti-Magic Field section listed before entering B1). If Ssauri’yanik is with the party, they will recognize that the roots look sickly (a result of the Antimagic Field stifling them). 

The bas-reliefs are three-dimensional and brightly colored with high contrast, so a person with limited vision should have an easier time seeing them if the room is lit. 

 

They tell the story of the ancient Naodh-Meer queen, Wrot’idauth, who used tree magic to return from the underworld, and how she was eventually imprisoned in this tomb by the Anahksi. In order, the bas-reliefs depict the following, which you can read aloud from the next two pages.

If Tessaria is present, she can explain the history of this story, identifying the woman as the Naodh-Meer Queen Wrot’idauth, who was worshiped as a goddess and magically controlled trees. She was buried in a sacred grove, but resurrected herself. She dominated her former worshippers before trying to conquer the neighboring Anahksi. In response, the Anahksi burned the Naodh-Meer groves and used gargoyles to bury her in this tomb. 

The door is shut but not locked. A successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) or DC 15 Dexterity (Sleight of Hand) check causes it to slide to one side along a groove. Holding fire to the door opens it automatically. Anyone studying the paintings for clues can discern that the Anahksi used fire in their magic so fire might help open the door. 

M1. 

A woman stands, painted gold, crowned with a wreath of black tree branches. Before her, other gold-painted people kneel. A massive black tree towers over the woman, its branches and roots outstretched.

M2. 

This bas-relief is similar to the previous one, but the woman has been painted the same black as the tree, whose trunk now bends low toward her, emulating a bow.

M3. 

The woman no longer stands, but lies horizontally beneath the tree, the roots wrapping around her to form a coffin. The gold-painted people still bow, but now the tree stands straighter than ever, its branches pointing up toward the sky.

M4. 

The woman rises up through the center of the tree, bursting out the top, her arms outstretched. The gold people who bowed in earlier panels turn away, cowering.

M5. 

Hovering above a forest of gnarled black trees, the woman holds her arms outstretched, claw-like hands reaching toward a different group of humans on a distant hill. This new group is painted a shade of gray almost indistinguishable from the stone on which the relief was carved.

M6. 

The gray humans brandish lit torches and flaming axes. Overhead, winged gargoyles fill the sky. Opposite them, the woman hovers above a copse of black trees.

M7. 

Humans torch the forest, dark trunks flaming brightly while gargoyles restrain the woman.

M8. 

Once again, the woman lies horizontal beneath the earth. A massive gargoyle looms over her, while several smaller ones holding torches form a circle around them both. Above ground stands a four-sided building, a clear depiction of the structure where you made camp earlier.

 

B5: Guardian’s Chamber

This is the chamber of Vigilant-Warden, an immortal guardian created by the Anahksi to prevent Wrot’idauth from escaping. This chamber is made of perfect polished marble that catches the light and magnifies sound, causing every heavy footfall and spoken word to echo. 

This room is built all of glinting marble, its pristine surfaces so clean they reflect the light. A pair of arched doors are set in the eastern wall, one carved from a single piece of jade, the other of obsidian. Between them, a massive statue of some sphinx-like beast lies on its belly. Then, it raises its muzzled head. “New people,” says a gravelly voice, echoing inside your skull. “I have not seen new people in such a long time.”

Vigilant-Warden communicates telepathically. It harbors no ill intentions. If the players attack, it refrains from fighting back for one full round of combat, at which point it heals any damage it sustained, reknitting its body back together. It has no quarrel with these newcomers, who are the first people it has seen in millennia (though it has no idea how much time has passed). It readily answers any questions characters might have, glad for the opportunity to talk and share knowledge.

Vigilant-Warden’s sole purpose is keeping Wrot’idauth from escaping. While the creature is sentient, its inhuman mind is incapable of feeling boredom or loneliness despite the years. It harbors no personal malice toward the Naodh-Meer queen, but is wholly committed to preventing her escape, which it acknowledges probably means destroying her — something it would have attempted if it could.

With the Antimagic Field weakened, Wrot’idauth has regained much of her former power. She sent out the tree roots to burrow her free and destroy the remaining gargoyles jailing her. But so long as any of the Antimagic Field remains intact, she can neither escape nor harm Vigilant-Warden. And so long as she stays where she is, it cannot reach her.

Vigilant-Warden can provide the following information to players:

• It and the other gargoyles were built by the Anahksi to guard the tomb of Queen Wrot’idauth, an undead Naodh-Meer witch who tried to conquer the Anahksi people. 
• The yellow mists, gargoyles, and Antimagic Field were designed to keep Wrot’idauth from escaping and to stop anyone who might free her. 
• The magic used to make this place is weakening. This has allowed Wrot’idauth to regain much of her power and make numerous escape attempts, sending out roots to attack her guards and try to dig free.
• The tomb is part of a demiplane the Anahksi created by drawing power from the Astral Plane and the Elemental Planes of Fire and Earth.
• The above-ground building has been pulled into the demiplane by magical security measures.
• Unless Wrot’idauth is slain, the tomb’s magical defenses will not let the players or the rest of the caravan leave. 
• Her body was once locked in a tower, which she has since turned into her lair. The tower can be reached through the doors in the eastern wall.

Vigilant-Warden asks the players to help it by destroying Wrot’idauth, which will allow them to go free and make the world safer. If they demand that the guardian free them, it will say it has no power to do so. If they agree to help, both doors behind it slide open at its command. 

If anyone asks why the two doors are different colors or why both lead to the same place, Vigilant-Warden does not know, but says it is appreciative that the doors gave it something to look at. 

B6: Bridge Across the Abyss

A platform connects to a narrow stone bridge that stretches across a black empty void of space, surrounded by huge floating rocks and more swirling yellow mists. These mists are the only form of illumination, providing dim light.

Read the following:

A sturdy platform extends from the wall behind you, which you now realize was carved into a massive cliff. The walkway abruptly drops off into empty space, a fathomless noiseless black void stretching far above and below. Boulders float aimlessly by, and the only lights are the yellow glow of gaseous clouds and the pinpricks of distant stars.

A narrow bridge juts straight out from the platform, reaching across the void and connecting to another landing that hovers motionlessly in space. A colossal towering tree rises from it, dark twisting branches faintly illuminated by the shimmering mists. The canopy extends higher than any oak you have ever seen. Far more daunting are its twisted roots, some of which sink out of sight into the endless night below even as others reach across the abyss, burrowing into the side of the cliff. 

The bridge is 90 feet long, 5 feet across, and 5 feet thick. It counts as difficult terrain. After a player moves ten feet or more across the bridge, everyone needs to roll initiative.

A character who wishes to cross at their full speed must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check. On failure, they trip and are knocked prone. If they fail by more than 5, they fall off the bridge. Characters can use any relevant teleportation spells or abilities to attempt to cross the bridge, but cannot travel to another plane (as with the Blink spell) or teleport more than 30 feet into the air. If a player falls, they can try teleporting back to safety.

Every round, a boulder flies into one of the people crossing the bridge, striking on Initiative 20, +7 to hit, 13 (3d6 + 2) bludgeoning damage). The target must succeed a DC 12 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If they fail by more than 5, they are knocked off the bridge. 

Anyone who falls off the bridge will drift slowly out into the void at a speed of 15 feet per round. They can use their action to cast a spell, throw a rope to their companions, or try to get back to the bridge some other way. After two rounds, if a player has not managed to stop drifting away, they exit the thirty-foot area of breathable air, passing into a freezing extraplanar expanse of endless astral darkness. A character without flying can survive for one round in this void before they drift helplessly away and die.

On the far side of the bridge is another stone platform. The vague outline of a stone tower can be seen through the bark of the tree that has overgrown it. The front door remains uncovered.

B7: Shade’s Lair

The floating platform has a small landing where characters can recoup after their crossing. The tower that stood here once held Queen Wrot’idauth prisoner. When she regained her magical abilities, she grew this huge black tree, which has since enveloped the entire tower. The stone archway to enter is still visible, and granite blocks poke through gaps in the gnarled dark trunk.

When players walk through the arch, read the following:

Within, the tree is hollow, a reminder that this was once a stone tower. But now bark, roots, and branches grow along its entire length, crisscrossing and covering everything. A fetid stench of decay and tree sap fills your lungs. On the floor opposite you is a massive marble sarcophagus, its lid broken. A gaunt humanoid woman floats beside it, toes hovering a few inches above the ground. Inky hair frames her grim translucent face. A crooning voice speaks in your head, sending a shiver running through you. “You are not Anahksi. Who are you?”

Queen Wrot’idauth communicates telepathically, as her language has been lost to time. She is vain and vicious, and will attack at the slightest provocation, but these new people offer a potential opportunity, and she is curious to learn if she can use them. The Antimagic Field has prevented her from crossing the bridge and defeating Vigilant-Warden, and so long as it lives, she cannot leave here. 

She admits to wielding powerful magic and having warred against the Anahksi, but insists that the Anahksi massacred her people and unjustly imprisoned her. She tries to convince players to help her defeat Vigilant-Warden, saying that if it is destroyed, both she and the characters will finally be free. This is half-true. While the Anahksi did eventually conquer the Naodh-Meer, Queen Wrot’idauth had initially attempted to conquer them, which prompted the war and led to her confinement.

If she convinces the players to attack Vigilant-Warden, she will join them. If the characters fight her, she will not surrender and abandons all attempts to communicate. 

Anyone trying to fly or climb up the tree’s interior can ascend 80 feet before branches block their way.

Resolution:

Killing either Wrot’idauth or Vigilant-Warden will free the players. In either case, when they kill their opponent, whatever structure the players are in will begin shaking, there will be a flash of bright warm light, and then they will find that the structure has been magically transported outside the pocket dimension and right next to the original building where they sought shelter, just as the dawn peaks over the hills. The rain has stopped, leaving behind the scent of wet grass in the crisp morning air.

Other rooms and elements from the dungeon dot the landscape. 

If Queen Wrot’idauth is slain, Vigilant-Warden looks fondly at the players and offers a final word of thanks before crumbling into rubble, having fulfilled its purpose.

If Vigilant-Warden is killed, Wrot’idauth revels in her freedom, vowing to avenge herself upon the world. Now returned to her full power, she causes five massive black trees to sprout out of the earth, then teleports away. 

Kassios and any other surviving members of the caravan greet the adventurers, grateful for their return, and very ready to leave this place and continue their journey.

A village has fallen to a plague. Can you rescue them in time?

The Shaggy Plague has afflicted a nearby village, and it’s up to you to save the people and prevent its spread, but the cure requires a rare plant that’s heavily guarded. Can you recover it in time?

Content Trigger Warnings

 This adventure includes themes of disease, bullying, extortion, betrayal, violence, and death.

Background & Synopsis

A village is suffering from a plague, and Zilji Larka asks the party to help retrieve a rare herb that’s needed for a cure. The herb, known by sorcerer and apothecary Jaydrey, only grows in a particular mountain valley. As they near the valley, they encounter Orrelius and learn of a dragon in the area. The dragon has scouts who meet the party and learn of their quest. The party must get to the valley either by navigating rapids or exploring a cave. When they arrive, the young red dragon is there and demands the party pay tribute, or it’ll torch the needed plants. It offers them a quest to steal a gem from a nearby cottage at the top of a cliff. The cottage is an entrance to the lair of a silver dragon, the same dragon that gave Jaydrey her sorcerous origin. The silver dragon won’t relinquish the gem, so the party must find another solution. Once the party acquires the plants, they take them to the afflicted village, but on the way, they encounter werewolves but get help from a druid. On arriving at the village, while helping the suffering, the red dragon attacks with its dwarven minions, so the party must protect the village.

This adventure is designed for 3–5 characters, level 5–7, with a total of 18–20 levels.

Adventure Hooks

This adventure can serve as a side quest or as an introduction to a campaign featuring a war between dragons in the mountains.

Where are we?

This adventure can occur in any population center with a nearby village and mountains within a few days’ travel.

Opening Encounter

As the party walks through a city or town, a small clockwork griffon the size of a raven swoops at the party, then climbs straight upward and begins plummeting to the ground. Zilji Larka comes running to catch it, and if the party doesn’t interfere, he dives to their feet and barely catches it. He pulls out a pair of tools, casts Mage Hand, and holds the griffon with the spectral hand while tinkering with the object.

“I thought I had that stabilizer fixed! Looks like it needs some more adjustments.” He stops suddenly and looks up at the party. “Oh! Hey! You look like adventurers! Maybe you can help me!”

He tells the party that the Shaggy Plague has struck his village, and he needs help saving them. It can only be cured with a rare herb, kindleroot, that grows in the nearby mountains, so he’s looking for someone to go find it for him. “I’ve researched it and know what it looks like, but I need to head back to the village and help my parents. I don’t know how much time they have left, and you can find it in time, I got some help from the local apothecary that should at least buy them some time. I have to take the chance. She can tell you more about kindleroot.”

If asked, he explains that the Shaggy Plague is so named, because it causes a fur-like growth to spread over much of the body, but after about a month, the hair begins to grow inward. It begins with pain in the skin, then it attacks the arms and legs and causes gradual paralysis, then the organs eventually fail. “Now you understand why I need to cure this.”

Apothecary: Forewood & Pestle

The apothecary is a long narrow wooden building that’s more window than wood, but the interior is darkened by the plants hanging across the windows and growing up from the windowsills. Shelves filled with salves, potions, and other jars line the walls below the windows, tinted green from the leafy curtains filtering the sunlight. The air combines aromas of soil, mold, musk, and alcohol. Characters sensitive to strong odors or with pollen allergies are triggered and must attempt corresponding saving throws.

At the end of the long aisle that comprises most of the interior, a halfling, Jaydrey Forewood, bounces among a distillery, a table with ceramic bowls filled with a variety of powders and creams, and a few potted plants from which she carefully takes trimmings. Once the party begins to approach her, she looks at them like a mother to children returning home from a long trip. She notes a feature of each of the party and compliments them, asking sincere questions about their journeys, where a particular scratch in their armor came from, or anything else she notices from their appearance or words. This continues until someone from the party asks about the kindleroot or some other topic. The party notices that, due to her facial cleft, when she talks, she replaces dental sounds like D, T, and Th with other sounds, which may take them a minute to get used to, but her welcoming attitude soon eclipses that distraction. (We recommend that the GM describe her speech impediment instead of attempting to reproduce it.)

When they mention the Shaggy Plague, Zilji, or kindleroot, she stops abruptly and tilts her head with compassion. She begins pausing as she speaks, trying to keep her composure. She expresses deep concern for them but notes that the kindleroot is difficult to acquire. She has a friend who’s trying to get it but hasn’t been able to, because it’s too dangerous. When the party expresses interest in harvesting it, her voice softens with concern, her eyes filled with both compassion and protectiveness. “That’s so sweet, but the world needs kind people like you, and if you try that, the world will be poorer without you.”

Because Jaydrey fears for their safety and doesn’t want to be responsible for their deaths, the party must convince her to give them the needed information. She can be convinced if they demonstrate the following: 

commitment to follow through

commitment to environmental preservation

magical prowess to handle unexpected challenges

ability to survive harsh environments

compassion for those in need

The party can demonstrate those by multiple people communicating their values, by telling stories of past accomplishments as examples, etc. At first, she does not specifically ask about any of those points. She’ll just refuse, telling them she doesn’t want their blood on her hands. Once their pleas convince her on two of the points, if they don’t cover the others, she’ll ask pointed questions. “But what about…?”

Once they succeed, her face lights up with hope, and her skin shimmers silver for a moment. She gives the party a drawing of a kindleroot plant, which has huge, spear shaped leaves, which are usually light orange. It also grows tiny flowers, which can be orange, dark gray, dark gold, silver and gold. A patch of them on a breezy day looks like a bonfire. She needs the juice from the leaves and flowers of twenty mature plants to brew antidote to cure the whole village, but if they cut them carefully and leave the shallow roots intact, they will grow back in case of another outbreak or simply to preserve their beauty. She also sketches out a map to show them precisely where to look. (Show Map to Kindleroot) If the party asks how she knows all this, she tells them that she’s been there before and studied the plants there, but then she gets a wistful look on her face and says, “But it’s been a long time. Too long.” If the party asks about the house on the right, she says, “There’s a little house up there,” but gives no more information.

Jaydrey suggests that the party get some rest at the town’s local inn and set out in the morning. During the evening, Zilji talks to them at the inn about his home village, its location and the environment around it, and the kind people there, all the while tinkering with a clockwork moose that he never quite gets working.

Before they set out, Zilji arrives to see them off and gives them a handheld white porcelain clockwork bear. “I’ve worked on this for a long time. It’ll protect you from extreme heat and cold when things get rough out there, but I’m not sure how long it’ll last.”

Zilji’s Bearable Environment

Wondrous Item, Uncommon

This white porcelain bear figurine has 2 charges. While holding it, you can expend a charge as a bonus action to produce an aura in a ten foot radius sphere around the bear. All creatures within the aura have resistance to fire and cold damage for 1d3 rounds. The bear can’t recharge and makes a loud popping noise, cracks, emits a harmless spark, and leaks a clear acrid oil when its final charge is expended.

Optional Travel Encounters

The pass into the mountains is two days from the town where the party started. The journey follows a well-marked dirt road, where the hills grow taller and longer as the mountains in the distance seem close enough to be over the next hill, yet never are, and each hill seems higher and longer than the one before, although that’s an illusion created by anticipation. The leaves on the trees gradually give way to needles on conifers, and the dirt underfoot adds the uncomfortable texture of growing rocks that announce the forthcoming cliffs.

Along the way, the GM may wish to include some encounters by choosing or rolling on the following table or skip to the next section. Use the Road through the Hills map if needed for these.

d6	Encounter
1	A loud rustling in the forest approaches the party as fast shadows move toward them. A pack of six wolves chase an elk, which weaves around trees and runs directly toward the party. As it runs at them, the elk charges at a random member of the party in an attempt to get past.
2	Three ogres are patrolling the road. They’re messengers for Cheruss (See Chase the Dragon) who bring him food. If the party offers them more food for less work, they’ll accept it in exchange.
3	Two eagles fly overhead. Then they fly over again. They seem to be following you for several hours, then they fly away toward the mountains.
4	A horse-drawn cart full of crates comes toward the party. One of the front wheels is missing, and a bugbear is carrying the axle with difficulty. If the party helps her replace the wheel, she thanks them profusely. She refuses to answer questions about the contents of the crates. They’re full of medical supplies for the ailing village, and she doesn’t want anyone to steal them. If the party helps, they will meet her in the village, helping the sick.
5	A goblin merchant approaches the party and offers them homemade skunk jerky, only 1 cp each, or 10 for a dozen! He won’t take no for an answer, insisting that nobles consider it a delicacy. It usually goes for ten times as much, but he has a surplus at the moment, so he’s willing to sell it at rock-bottom prices!
6	The party hears the sound of a baby crying. Over the next hill, a mule-drawn wagon approaches, the driver carrying the crying baby and clearly stressed. He asks the party whether they have any leather that his teething baby could chew on.

Interest Peaked

When the hills become so steep that hopelessness begins to threaten the party’s morale, from the summit of the next hill, the party notices a river slicing through a nearly vertical mountain wall, a sparkling blue thread through the vertical eye of a colossal stone needle. Jaydrey’s map denotes this river. The party has arrived at last.

The river is fifteen feet wide and averages four feet deep with fifteen feet of land between the bank and the cliff on each side. The cliff extends 150 feet upward and curves gradually outward, widening into a large valley.

Those with a passive Wisdom (Perception) higher than 15 notice that, while the mouth of the valley has no trees except some high above, the ground is littered with dry branches that crack loudly as the party walks over them unless they succeed on a DC 14 Dexterity (Stealth) check.

Around the first curve, Orrelius waits on a ledge eight feet above the ground. If the party doesn’t make a successful stealth check, he hears them and says, “Greetings, travelers. What brings you to this valley?” If he heard them coming, he has already cast Zone of Truth, and the party feels its effects but must succeed on a DC 17 Charisma saving throw to avoid its effects.

Orrelius is suspicious of the party, but if they tell him the truth about their mission, he tells them that he believes that the plant they seek is in a valley further in, but he’s also heard credible rumors of a dragon in the area, although the reports have conflicted widely as to the color.

If any of the party are injured, he heals them. He then asks for directions to the afflicted village, hoping to provide help to the most afflicted until they bring the cure. “I can’t help everyone, but if I can soothe them and fend off the Reaper until you arrive, we may accomplish more than if I join you.” As the party gives directions, if they use visible landmarks in their directions, Orrelius asks for additional environmental details like precise directions, the density of the woods and types of trees around the roads, inhabited areas, and other features he may detect with his other senses. If they don’t know directions to the village, he asks for directions to town so he can find and ask someone there.

Eyes of the Wyrm

The roughly circular valley widens out to a half mile diameter, most of it densely packed with coniferous trees with a visible corridor on the opposite end. Once the party reaches the mouth of the corridor, Gwanla Marblerock, a dwarven spy, sees them and welcomes them. She claims to be gathering mushrooms and berries (technically true at the moment) and offers them some pine nut bread with mushroom jam. She casually asks what brings them to the mountains, and if they tell her, she expresses sympathy and wishes them well. She asks which direction they’re headed, and if they show her the map, she offers them directions to a safer passage through a narrow cave.

Gwanla works for Cheruss, the young red dragon, and the shortcut she offers to the party is a trap. Once the party leaves, she takes an alternate path to report back to Cheruss. If the party successfully spies on her, they see her slip behind a brush pile into the side of the mountain. The tunnel she takes is small and narrow, allowing small creatures to walk in it single file, but medium creatures need to crawl, and most large creatures cannot fit.

Gwanla’s Tunnel

If the party follows Gwanla’s advice, they find an abandoned mineshaft in the left wall of the mountain before it curves inward toward the river. (Use the Gwanla’s Tunnel map) The walls and floor are wet with condensation, and a gelatinous cube fills part of the corridor and surprises unwary adventurers.

The mineshaft ends in an increasingly steep and slippery slope. Everyone must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone and slide into a thirty-foot pit at the end, taking 3d6 bludgeoning damage. The pit is a cylinder, sixty feet in diameter. On the opposite side stands a fifteen-foot arch blocked by a large stone that, from inside of the pit, can only be moved with a successful DC 25 Strength check. The wall has a one-foot diameter window beside the arch. 

If the party arrives here and makes any noise, Cheruss hears them and sends Gwanla (or another spy if Gwanla isn’t available) to check on them via the window. Once Cheruss hears the party’s status, he goes to the pit to talk to the party, rolling the stone out of the way. If the party attacks him, he uses his breath weapon against them and leaves. A few minutes later, four dwarven veterans appear, crossbows loaded, followed by Cheruss’s face appearing out of the dark corridor beyond. (Skip to Chase the Dragon)

The River Valley

If the party doesn’t follow Gwanla’s directions, they need to follow the river across the next valley. As they cross the valley, a hunting party of four saber-toothed tigers attempts to surround and ambush them. (Use Mountain Valley map)

At the valley’s far end, the cliff walls narrow until no dry land runs between them, and the river turns to rapids with only wet walls bordering it for two hundred feet. The party must find a way to get past the rapids. (Use River Rapids map)

Raft: Creating a seaworthy raft from trees requires a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check. Proficiency with carpenter’s tools adds the character’s proficiency bonus to this check. The raft has 40 hp. The raft moves twenty feet per round and requires a successful DC 17 Dexterity check to avoid hitting a rock. Proficiency with water vehicles adds to this check. Each round the raft hits a rock, the raft takes 1d8 bludgeoning damage, and everyone on the raft must succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall into the water, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage. Those who fall in the water must swim or use their action to succeed on a DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check to grab the raft, then use their action the following round to attempt to climb onto the raft, requiring a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check. Creatures with a swim speed have advantage on checks to grab and climb onto the raft. If someone on the raft uses their action to help, the person climbing on has advantage on the check, but the person helping has disadvantage on any check to avoid falling off in the event of a collision. Each round they are in the water attempting to climb aboard, they take an additional 1d6 bludgeoning damage.

Swim: Swimming the rapids requires a successful DC 20 Strength (Athletics) check each round to avoid drowning. Failure indicates that the character begins choking. See Suffocating in the Basic Rules, Chapter 8. The swimming character must also succeed on a DC 15 Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check each round to avoid hitting rocks and taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage. Creatures with a swim speed or webbed digits have advantage on this check.

Climb: Characters may attempt to climb the cliff wall to get past the rapids. Climbing the rocks requires a successful DC 15 Strength (Athletics) check each round to avoid falling. A climber’s kit gives advantage on the checks. Climbing closer than twenty feet above the water gives disadvantage on the checks due to splashing water making the rocks slippery. Winds buoy non-evil creatures that fall. Such creatures descend at a rate of 60 feet per round and take no falling damage but still suffer the effects of the water current and rocks.

Once the party gets past the rapids, the canyon widens out again into a field as long as the first but not as wide as the previous one. The green grass is accented by orange blades, and the far left quadrant appears to be ablaze as the kindleroot plants flicker above the green blades. Against the left wall, smoke wisps rise from a large cave entrance. (Use Kindleroot Valley map.)

As the party approaches the kindleroot, four dwarven veterans, crossbows loaded, emerge from the cave, followed by a large red dragon. Cheruss the dragon glares at the party.

Chase the Dragon

Cheruss likes his “fire grass” and won’t allow anyone to take it, especially for such a paltry reason as saving lives or ending suffering. “You want to end suffering? Point me to that village, and I’ll immolate the place!”

If Cheruss hasn’t learned the party’s purpose yet, he demands to know why they’ve invaded his domain. He doesn’t appreciate thieves who don’t work for him, and anyone who would steal from him is volunteering to be his next meal. At the same time, he constantly watches for ways to benefit himself in any encounter, and combat with even moderately formidable foes has no guaranteed benefit, so he manipulates the encounter to his advantage.

If the party tries to fight for the kindleroot, as soon as he notices them raising their weapons or making spellcasting gestures, he threatens to burn the whole field. He likes his landscaping, but it’ll grow back if he doesn’t burn the roots, and a season or three while it grows back is quick as a spark for a dragon.

He does not allow them to leave without paying a price for disturbing him, even if they give up on the kindleroot.

He considers negotiating with them. Atop the cliff in the previous valley, an old woman has a large ruby that he wants. She’s a powerful wizard, he says, so it hasn’t been worth the effort to get it himself, but he’d be willing to exchange it for the amount of “fire grass” that they need.

Get the Ruby

If the party attempts to get the ruby, they must get back to the other valley. If they came through the tunnel, they can go back the same way once they find a way out of the pit. (Cheruss won’t help them. He’d rather leave them there to die.)

The valley wall extends 150 feet vertically. As they climb, an eagle flies over and circles for a few minutes before flying back up the mountain. Winds buoy non-evil creatures that fall. Such creatures descend at a rate of 60 feet per round and take no falling damage.

After that, the climb changes to rough terrain for another 300 feet as the slope becomes more gradual. At this point, the party can see a large silver cottage, the eagle perched on the roof, and a nest with two giant eagles twenty feet away. All of the eagles watch the party closely as they approach.

Aside from the massive nest nearby and the mountaintop location, the cottage looks like an unassuming, well-maintained home. The windows, made of silvered glass, allow no one to peek inside. The single door is unlocked if the party enters without knocking.

Inside the cottage, shelves of trinkets, antiques, and other mementos line the walls among silver wall sconces and rows of old books and scrolls. Light comes in through the windows unobstructed. Portraits of humanoids of many different ancestries fill the remaining wall spaces with smaller ones on shelves. A successful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check notices that one of the portraits on a shelf shows a younger image of Jaydrey.

If the party knocks, a feminine voice calls, “You’ve come this far. It would be rude of me to send you away. Come in.” An elderly human sits with her back to the door, reading the handwriting on a yellowed sheet of paper. She holds it to her chest, sighs, and sets it down on a small table beside her. She picks up a glass of dark brown liquid, takes a sip, and says, “Welcome to my home. You must be tired from that climb. Sit, and I’ll get you some tea and scones. How may I help you?” She grabs a wooden crutch, gets up, and tends to her guests.

The woman is Layni, the adult silver dragon who is the source of Jaydrey’s sorcery, shape changed into human form. The cottage covers the entrance to her lair, a vast network of chambers below the mountain, which she accesses through a trapdoor in the back room. She has tolerated Cheruss and kept him from terrorizing the surrounding countryside, knowing he’ll eventually move away in frustration. Every item in her cottage has sentimental value to her, as each belonged to an old friend, most of whom are long gone, along with many of their civilizations. She values these items, all she has left of those she loves. She does not reveal her true nature unless necessary, and she answers any questions about her age or nature with a cagey response like, “Don’t you know it’s rude to ask a woman about her age?”

If the party mentions Jaydrey, Layni says, “Oh! You’ve met my daughter! My own blood!” She dismisses questions about the physical differences between human and halfling, assuring the party that love and commitment make someone family, not physical resemblance, and she answers every question with a corresponding question about Jaydrey.

If the party asks about the ruby, Layni gets suspicious and questions why they’d run errands for Cheruss. She knows he wants it and has no intention of handing it over to him to be just one more sparkle in his vault. If the party acts trustworthy, she’s willing to show it to them, opening an engraved brass coffer and producing a brass hair clip with a half-inch ruby setting attached to a red braid of hair. (The ruby is worth 5,000 gp.) “This is Sartyn. She lived under this very mountain long before your grandparents were born [present elves excepted]. Her descendants still live there.” (She refers to her mementos as if they are the owners, not because she’s confused, but because her memories of each are tied to the item.)

Layni wants to help the suffering village but can’t bear to part with the ruby. She’s open to suggestions on how to proceed but is reluctant to get directly involved. She would rather not “bully little Cheruss” and prefers to give the party the opportunity to solve their own problems. “That’s how you grow, my dear! You have so little time in your life, you need to use that time to develop your little mind and achieve your potential!”

If the party asks Layni to go with them, she agrees only as a last resort. She steps outside and changes to her true nature, a huge silver dragon who walks with a limp in her left hind leg. She speaks to the giant eagles in their language, to which they respond by flying up, then swooping down and picking up the party gently in their talons. When they fly to Cheruss’s cave, Cheruss threatens to burn the kindleroot, to which Layni says, “If you do that, I will freeze you so solid, they’ll sharpen blades on your eyeballs!” Cheruss insists that the plants are his property and will only part with them with an appropriate payment.

If the party negotiates for a different payment, Cheruss insists that the party could never give him anything he wants unless they’d like to offer one of their own for his next meal or provide him something he’d be unable to acquire himself. He is cruel and arrogant, so he meets too small an offer with, “That sounds like a fitting tribute to let you live. I accept it in exchange for your life. (He’s serious.) Now what can you offer that’s worth more than your lives?”

The dwarves working for Cheruss appear loyal to him, but they only serve him as an agreement that he won’t attack the rest of the village in the tunnels below the mountains. If questioned, they only admit the truth on a successful DC 20 Charisma check and then only if they believe that Cheruss can’t hear them. If the party convinces the dwarves to rally their community with the promise of assistance and helps them escape into a tunnel in the mountain wall, news of an uprising leads to Cheruss flying away, knowing he needs reinforcements to fight an entire community that’s no longer afraid of him. Layni is unaware of this arrangement, and if she learns that Sartyn’s family is being held hostage by Cheruss, she becomes enraged and chases him away, threatening him if he ever returns.

The Road to Recovery

Use Road through the Hills map.

As the party takes their acquired kindleroot to the ailing village, they see a humanoid in a cloak with shaggy exposed arms limping toward them from the general direction of the village. It may appear to be a victim of the Shaggy Plague but is actually a werewolf with two more hiding in the woods nearby in wolf form. Once it gets within thirty feet of the party, it and the hiding wolves attack the party. At the beginning of the second round, another wolf appears from the woods and attacks the werewolves on its turn. This fourth wolf is Eilwynn Ilaras in wild shape.

Following the combat, Eilwynn uses Cure Wounds on anyone who’s injured. If she or a member of the party received a bite from one of the werewolves, her Baseless Emotion triggers as fear that the injury will cause lycanthropy causes a panic attack. She sits down and focuses on her staff, running her fingers over the runes and staring intently at them for 1d10 minutes. Assistance will not reduce her recovery time, and she will meet attempts to assist with appreciation for the concern and a request to give her a few minutes. After the panic subsides, she tells them that those wounds should get checked soon as a precaution. After the encounter, she offers to travel with the party to help them, as she heard about the plague.

A Dose of Joy Is a Spiritual Cure

When the party nears the village, a small collection of halflings and gnomes living in wattle and daub houses surrounded by a stream and farmland, Zilji and Jaydrey meet them on the road and eagerly take the plants to a nearby hut where brewery equipment awaits the final ingredient. Zilji then heads back into the village to tend to the sick.

If the party enters the village, they find Orrelius near one of the homes, wiping cold water on one of the victims. The voice of any party member will sound familiar, but he will ask for their names again to jog his memory., “I pray you have come to bring blessings to this village. I’m thankful to be a vessel of hope and healing here, but even with my gifts, the disease spreads faster than I can keep up, and many whom I’ve healed have fallen ill again.”

If the party mentions the werewolves to Orrelius, he casts Remove Curse on up to three of the bitten. He tells them where to find some wooden buckets and rags and asks them to take the buckets to the nearby stream, fill them with cool water, and tend to those with fevers.

The GM may consider the backgrounds and other abilities of the party and encourage them to use their skills creatively to help in various ways, such as cooking, repairing neglected items, foraging for more food, etc. Cure Wounds and other spells can reduce the damage caused by the disease and sustain those closest to dying or in pain. The cure takes a day to prepare, so the party can use the rest of the day to help. The villagers express their appreciation, and those currently healthy or in early stages of the disease eagerly help the party.

Refined by Fire

Late the next morning, a scream echoes through the village. “Dragon!” (Use Village Rescue map)

If Cheruss is still alive, he has come to assert his dominance over the weakened village. If he still controls the dwarves, three dwarven veterans come riding on saber-toothed tigers from the road and threaten the villagers, who attempt to flee for safety.

Orrelius has already expended all but his fourth-level spell slots healing villagers but first casts Spiritual Guardian, then the second round invokes Spiritual Weapon on his sword and hurls insults at Cheruss, attempting a contested Charisma (Persuasion) check to get Cheruss to focus on him. “The bloated iguana is so weak that it can only bully a dying village!” If he gets Cheruss within melee range, he uses his remaining fourth-level spell slot for an Improved Divine Smite.

Jaydrey prefers to continue working on the cure while Zilji stands guard at the brewery hut. After the first round, Jaydrey will step in if the outcome is doubtful, moving as far from the hut as possible, asking Zilji to guard and monitor the cure. 

If appropriate, Eilwynn enters combat using Entangle on the mounted dwarves followed by Thunderwave if possible, then uses Shillelagh, shortbow, or Wild Shape.

As the battle ends, Layni swoops in, having learned that Cheruss was heading this way. When Orrelius hears another dragon, he welcomes the challenge and starts threatening Layni until he learns that she’s an ally. If Cheruss still lives, Layni chases him away and returns to the village.

Layni lands near the hut, changes shape to her human form, and calls, “Jaydrey, my blood?” Jaydrey runs out of the hut and embraces Layni. They go into the hut together, still tending to the cure while chatting.

That afternoon, as the cure nears completion, Zilji asks Orrelius and the party to find those in the most advanced stages of the disease and bring them out for the first doses of the cure. Jaydrey and Layni bring out small cups of glowing orange liquid and ask the party to distribute them. After drinking, pain and other internal symptoms gradually begin to subside after an hour, the fur begins to shed after four hours, and in the worst cases, the complete recovery takes up to a day.

The villagers invite the party to stay for a celebration, quickly assembling a feast as children reenact the battle, sometimes arguing over who gets to be which member of the party until they decide to take turns. As they repeat the drama, they add more dragons and tiger-riding dwarves so more can participate, and the story becomes increasingly embellished with each retelling.

Cry me a river…wait! I didn’t mean that literally!

A light is shining in the long-abandoned wizard’s tower, but is this good news or bad? And why is the ground so soft?

This adventure is designed for 3–5 characters, level 5–7, with a total of 20–24 levels.

Background & Synopsis

A long-abandoned tower has recently had lights in an upper window. Hadarai Liadon climbed up to see what’s going on and saw items gathered for a ritual. A wizard is trying to open a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water to flood the area. The wizard was bullied and wants revenge. First, some mud mephits enter the city and start causing chaos. Local farmers near the tower report that their fields are too wet in spite of mild rainfall. The ground near the tower is getting waterlogged. A Mud Elemental enters town and seeks out the bullies. If the wizard gets the portal open, it will soon destroy the entire city, not only the flooding, but the water elementals that are coming through with it! But when the wizard sees that he’s endangered those who were kind to him, he has a change of heart. But is it too late?

Adventure Hooks

This adventure can serve as a side quest or as a way to introduce characters in an existing community. The opening encounter will draw the party into the action, and if they’re not immediately interested, the mire mephits will annoy them until they have to act.

Where are we?

This adventure can occur in any city with a library and nearby forest and farmland.

Opening Encounter

The party may be in any public space, such as an inn, park, or marketplace. Hadarai Liadon bursts on the scene, swinging down from a rooftop or rafters if available, scarves trailing behind faer. Fae immediately starts asking locals, “Have you seen anyone head toward the old wizard’s tower?” Fae was in the trees in the woods near it and noticed a light coming from the window at the top. If asked about it, fae says fae climbed up the outside and peeked in, and while it was unoccupied, it had a pile of new supplies: bottles of something white, a book, a chest, a jar of pearls, and two barrels.

Ebus has secretly gathered them with the intent to open a gateway to the Elemental Plane of Water and flood the city.

Out of the Cauldron, Into the Soup

Map: Muddy Buddies

Once the party has time to react to the news but before leaving the area, the closest pile or puddle of mud or body of water begins bubbling, and six mire mephits fly out, making flatulence-like noises and shouting vulgar taunts in Aquan. They fling putrid mud at anyone nearby, leaving the targeted local residents incapacitated with nausea. When threatened or noticing anyone preparing to attack them, they fight any aggressors to the death.

Local Clues

City Rumors

• Many suspect Lechlun, “the jewelers’ boy with the weird face.” He studies dark destructive magic.
• Two thugs, Wally and Eddie, complaining loudly about the mess of mud, will mention a tiefling monk who just came into the city recently, hanging around with that weird Ebus. (Wally and Eddie have bullied Ebus most of his life. Lechlun is aware of this, and he endured some bullying from them as well, but he was better at staying out of their way, so they didn’t notice him as much.) If asked about Lechlun, they’ll say, “Yeah, he might have something to do with it.” If asked about Ebus, they’ll just laugh and start talking to each other about mean pranks they’ve pulled on him. “Remember the time we…dipped his favorite book in goat milk, stuck his head in a bramble bush so his horns got stuck, etc.” They don’t think Ebus is capable of anything.
• If the party asks those who guard the city gate, they won’t remember anyone specific coming or going, but if asked about Ebus or Lechlun, both leave most days for several hours, and they’ve both been out of town a lot lately.
• Most people in town recognize Ebus but don’t know his name or anything about him, as he’s quiet and keeps to himself.
• Nobody suspects Hadarai, but fae spends most of faer time in the woods or on rooftops, so most people don’t even faer but are used to faer suddenly swooping down onto the street to enter a shop or the like. Although if you’re suddenly missing something that you thought you just set down, the locals use the expression, “Haradrai’s hands,” suggesting that fae stole it when they weren’t looking, which isn’t usually true, and it’s more a local joke than an accusation. Around dinnertime, the large hat in the corner booth usually hides most of faer body as fae eats the daily special, but if approached, fae will jump onto the table and remove faer hat, bowing in a grandiose gesture, after which fae will happily converse with anyone, answer questions, and offer to help any way fae can. Fae will be happy to lead the party to the tower if asked and climb it to answer more questions.
• A few local farmers are in town for supplies and local gossip, and two who have farms near the tower note that their crops in the field closest to the tower are rotting from too much moisture, even though rainfall has been moderate lately.

Jeweler

Julius & Gemma run the local jewelry shop, and their son, Lechlun, helps when not pursuing magic projects. The two story shop is a brick building with barred windows. The inside is lit like daylight, the entire ceiling magically illuminated. Several chests with shallow drawers line the walls, the drawers partly open to display shiny jewelry. 

The couple sit at benches, cutting gems or piecing together jewelry, and Lechlun is sitting at a table with a candle burning and four large tomes open, writing with the charred end of a stick on a slab of limestone, then erasing with a damp sponge and writing more. 

When anyone comes into the shop, Julius and Gemma welcome them warmly while Lechlun ignores the noise and continues his research.

If addressed, Lechlun typically raises a fingers a gesture to wait, finishes the section he’s writing, and then steps away from his work and greets his guest with a smile.

If asked about Ebus, Lechlun will speak favorably and sympathetically about him. “He’s a decent person, but trouble seems to find him. I’m used to people treating me differently because of my appearance, but he’s like a bully magnet.”

Ebus recently stopped into the shop and bought all of the abalone they had in stock, but they will only reveal this if specifically asked about Ebus’s recent behavior.

If asked about Wally and Eddie, Lechlun suggests staying away from them. “Those guys are just mean. Always have been. Only people they’re nice to are their wives and kids, and even with them, well, I wouldn’t treat people like that. I guess they think they’re funny, but I see the looks on their families’ faces — they don’t appreciate it.”

Lechlun is usually at the shop, but lately, he’s been leaving for several hours to go to a nearby granite quarry to mine for obsidian. His magic allows him to carve through rock without a pick. The shop has several drawers full of obsidian, both uncut pieces and jewelry.

Library

Emmara

Emmara owns the local library, which is supported by a nearby magic school and by sages and wizards who pay to use its resources for research. It also has meeting rooms available for rent and a large room that functions as a school for children.

If asked about Lechlun, Emmara will note that he used to spend a lot of time at the library and still comes in occasionally, but he has made comments about, “less study, more experiment,” and he has expressed frustration at not being able to find books related to his tradition, needing to write his own instead.

If asked about Ebus, she takes on a protective, condescending tone, like a parent concerned about their child. Ebus has always spent a lot of time at the library since he was very young. He was often bullied by his peers and found the library as a safe haven. Since then, it has become like a second home to him, where he spends long hours reading casually and studying. Emmara has spent many hours over the years offering a shoulder to cry on and a welcoming ear to absorb his sorrows. Any mention of Wally and Eddie will bring an angry frown.

Rohna

If the party comes to the library during the day, Rohna will be in the classroom section with twenty children who are all busy working on painting and sculpting projects. As she moves from child to child, the arms of her wheelchair offer alternative brushes, grab extra boxes of clay and jars of paint, pick up dropped objects, and hold a cup of tea that she sips while encouraging and coaching the children. When a jar slips off the table out of her reach, she uses Mage Hand to grab it and put it back on the table, though not as close to the edge. At times, the party may notice the figures in the paintings seem to move, but only for a moment. If asked about this, Rohna will answer that art is a form of magic in itself that you have to make more than read.

Rohna has spent time teaching Lechlun and Ebus when they were much younger, before they began studying magic, but hasn’t had as much contact with them lately. Since Ebus used to be at the library every day, she has noticed that he hasn’t been there lately. “He always warms my tea for me, that sweet boy, and my tea and heart aren’t as warm when he doesn’t come in.” (She has a ceramic pot of steaming hot tea sitting on the counter with no heat source in sight. She can warm it herself, but she likes to let him do it for her as an act of kindness.)

If asked about Wally and Eddie, she’ll describe them as, “boys with many gifts that they’ve never learned to recognize.” 

Precision & Ebus

A pair of tieflings sit at a table outside the library, drinking tea, talking [in Infernal], and laughing. One with tan skin, ram horns, and a black goatee reaches over to the teapot on the table, and his fingers glow red until the teapot steams heavily. He pours more tea for his companion, who has purple hair and wildebeest horns and holds his cup in his toes as his arms appear constricted by his chest, his purple tail toying with the hand crossbow strapped to his leg.

If asked about recent events, they get nervous and defensive. [Precision doesn’t know that Ebus has caused it.] Precision will say sarcastically, “It’s always the Tiefling, right?” Ebus will say, “I’ve always been the target, not the aggressor. Maybe listen for the harshest voices in town instead of accosting us!”

If asked about Lechlun, Ebus will acknowledge that they were friends in school but drifted apart. Ebus was uncomfortable with the dark energies Lechlun was exploring. Ebus was more interested in exploring a variety of magical energies, while Lechlun focused on Oblivion magic.

Precision was traveling and arrived in town three days ago and is staying at the closest inn. He met Ebus shortly after arriving, and the two have met for tea for an hour each day.

Ebus claims to have been at home the rest of the time, researching and relaxing. (He hasn’t, and if followed, he will leave the next day to go to the tower.)

The Tower

Maps: Wizard Tower 1, 2, and 3 (early)

The tower, two miles outside of the city in the forest, is a four-story stone ruin, abandoned for over a century, and generally considered unsafe by local residents, though most stay away from it regardless of its condition for fear that the wizard who used to own it left some remaining protective wards on it. The former owner’s identity is unknown to most, and even the elves who lived in the area at the time (Emmara arrived more recently, and Hadarai was a baby when he vanished.) only remember a mostly reclusive scholarly human who used couriers for supplies and deliveries.

As the party nears the tower, they notice that the ground gets gradually softer and wetter, the dirt turning to mud, and a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check notices that the side of the building facing the city is slightly wet.

The interior of the tower has a ten foot wide stone spiral staircase along the walls, the stairs eroded with time into an irregular graded ramp that a wheelchair can navigate with relative ease. The bottom floor is cracked stone with weeds forcing their way through the cracks. The other floors are rotting wood of dubious integrity, with large sections lost to time and termites.

On the first floor, a family of six badgers have carved through the stone opposite the entrance for a burrow. If the party gets within ten feet of the entrance, the badgers will attack, but otherwise, they will stay in the burrow and snarl at the intruders.

The second floor has a bookshelf with a large wasp nest near it. Attempts to examine the shelf will result in an attack by a swarm of insects (wasps). A successful Intelligence (Investigation) check while searching the rotting books on the shelves will locate the only useful information, a spell within one of the rotting books, Iz’zart’s Swarm Limb.

Iz’zart’s Swarm Limb

1st-level conjuration

• Casting Time: 1 action
• Range: Self
• Components: V, S
• Duration: 1 hour

You summon a swarm of fey spirits that take the form of a swarm of beasts of Challenge Rating 1 or lower shaped as an adaptive limb, responding to telepathic commands like the appendage it’s replacing. This spell cannot add an extra limb beyond those typical for your ancestry.

The summoned swarm is also considered fey, and it disappears when it drops to 0 hit points or when the spell ends.

The swarm gets no actions of its own, but you can use its bite as an unarmed attack.

The swarm can detach on command as a bonus action. While detached, it retains its link and can attack and follow simple commands up to 30 feet away from you. If it moves further away, the spell ends.

The third floor is nearly impassable. Some rotting bedroom furniture lines what remains of the floor along the walls. Searching through the debris will reveal a rotten chest with 200 sp and 60 gp.

Only a fifteen-foot section of floor nearest the stairs remains on the fourth story. At the top of the stairs are stored three vials of salt, a book written in Aquan with information about the elemental plane of water, a chest full of abalone, a jar of pearls, a small barrel of sand, and another of water.

The stone roof is mostly intact, but a hole where a trap door once gave access to the roof is now only a pair of rusty hinges with no sign of the wood once attached to it.

If the party follows Ebus to the tower, he confronts them if he notices them and claims he came to check out Hadarai’s claim. If asked why he’s been leaving town each day or about purchasing the abalone, he claims that he’s been missing his parents lately and has been going to visit their graves outside of town, and while he was there, he noticed that their gravestones are getting weathered and bought the abalone to fill in the chips and beautify the stones at the same time. (He’s lying.)

The Quarry

If the party investigates the quarry, they will find a 200 foot wide, thirty foot deep pit of limestone with granite ribbons running through it. The side has a staggered ramp leading to the bottom with tracks once used by mining carts. Tunnels lead into the walls of the crater, and inspection reveals perfectly circular five foot diameter smooth cylindrical holes extending different distances as far as sixty feet into the darkest granite seams. Inside some of these cylinders, small sections have been roughly chipped away with a small tool such as a hammered chisel.

Getting the Dirt

Map: Out of their Element

The next morning, the ground in town has become damp and muddy as if it rained all night, even though everything above ground is dry, and the sky was clear through the night. When the party is outside in or near the marketplace, they hear screams as a mud elemental appears near the marketplace and heads toward Wally and Eddie’s cart where they sell furs and venison sausage. The elemental will attempt to catch and kill them, smashing their cart in the process. Everyone else flees in panic, and if the party attacks the elemental, it will fight the party until it doesn’t consider them a threat, then it will continue to pursue Wally and Eddie.

While nobody noticed Ebus casting the spell to summon the elemental, if the party specifically asks whether anyone saw him, several people remember seeing him in the marketplace before the attack. Immediately following the attack, he left for the tower, as the gate guards can confirm. They note that he was carrying a twelve foot ladder.

Lechlun was still in bed during the attack, and Precision was eating breakfast at the inn.

The Rising Tide

If the party isn’t following Ebus by this point, Precision will cross paths with them and ask whether they’ve seen him. “I was hoping he’d come by and share breakfast with me at the inn, but he never showed up. He’s not at his house or the library, either.”

At this point, the muddy ground is getting wetter, and water begins flowing through the city. The party can easily trace its current as coming from the general direction of the tower and can follow it back, although the ground has now become difficult terrain. A party with additional mobility needs may need to take an indirect approach to the tower, curving around and approaching it from the side where the ground is dryer.

Maps: Wizard Tower 1, 2, and 3 (late)

When the party arrives at the tower, the stream has become a five foot deep river, flowing from the roof over the side of the tower. Ebus stands on the roof at the mouth of the extraplanar river, and when he sees the party, he yells, “You’re too late! The portal to the plane of water is open, and it will soon be permanent! Those who stood by and watched my torment all those years will finally know what it feels like!”

If the party tries to reason with Ebus, he considers everyone in the city to blame for allowing Wally and Eddie to bully him. Only reminding him that this will destroy the library and could hurt Emmara and Rohna will cause him to stop.

If the party tries to get to Ebus by climbing the tower, either inside or outside, he waits until they get to the third floor and uses his Aquatic Torrent ability, although if they attack him with ranged attacks immediately, he doesn’t wait. When Ebus is on the roof, he has full cover against any attacks, but attacks he makes against those on the outside or on the second or third floor inside have partial cover against him.

After any dialog between the party and Ebus, regardless of the outcome, out of the river at the base of the tower, a deluge dragon rises up and attacks the party. Note that Ebus is not controlling this elemental—it came through the portal with the flowing water and will attack the closest creature.

If, during the combat, the party tells Ebus that this will hurt Emmara or Rohna, he will stop fighting the party and join in the attack against the deluge dragon. If the deluge dragon attacks him, he will defend himself against it.

If anyone attacks the deluge dragon from inside or outside the tower, it will consider all creatures in the direction of the attack to be threats, including Ebus if applicable. The dragon reaches a height of thirty-two feet, and the tower is forty feet tall, but 40 hp damage against a section of the wall (AC 15) will topple the tower.

Depending on the strength of the party, if this encounter doesn’t provide enough challenge, additional water elementals may also attack, and if the party is outmatched, Hadarai, Lechlun, and/or Precision may show up to help.

After the third combat round, Emmara shows up, yelling to Ebus to stop, that the library is beginning to flood. A wave causes them to slip in the mud and fall into the dragon’s Deluge and begin to drown. Ebus immediately cries out for Emmara and focuses only on rescuing them.

If Ebus is unconscious before Emmara appears, Emmara will rush to Ebus and stabilize him if necessary.

Feeling Drained

Once Ebus stops attacking, the planar portal closes. This doesn’t stop any elementals, but the flooding tapers off. 

Emmara asks Ebus to return to town to resolve this without more destruction, and he reluctantly and remorsefully complies, apologizing profusely to Emmara during most of the walk back to the city.

By the time everyone returns to town, Hadarai has seen what happened and has spread the word, which spread quickly through the city. The city guard asks Ebus to come peacefully to jail while they sort everything out, and Ebus agrees.

Wally and Eddie stand with their families in front of the assembled crowd. Their children cling to them, and Eddie’s son says, “Daddy, don’t let him hurt us!” Wally and Eddie both look terrified but are trying to hide their fear, unsuccessfully. Ebus looks at them, sees their fear, and looks horrified. Ebus hangs his head and says to himself, “This is what I’ve become. I’m so sorry.”

After Ebus leaves, Wally’s daughter cautiously approaches the party and says, “Thank-you. Mommy told Daddy that he and Uncle Eddie made this happen. Thank-you for making it not happen more.”

Most of the residents nod in appreciation and walk away, going back to their lives. 

Precision says, “The guy without friends is going to need a friend after this,” and he begins walking to the jail.

Rohna, holding a sack with one of her chair’s arms, uses the others to begin picking up debris that washed into town. Lechlun and a few others nod and help.

Hadarai drops down in front of one of the party from a roof, hanging upside-down on a long silk scarf and smiling. With one hand, fae makes a grandiose gesture and says, “Well done! Here, I found this. Keep it as a memento!” Fae hands over a Ring of Water Breathing. The party member with the highest Wisdom (Perception) score will recognize the ring as one worn by Ebus when they first met him.

If the party stays in the city in the days following, they will notice Lechlun, Rohna, Emmara, Wally, and Eddie each going to visit Ebus in jail.

Characters

Ebus

Medium humanoid (tiefling), Chaotic Neutral

Armor Class 12 (15 with mage armor)

Hit Points 40 (9d8)

Speed 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
9 (-1)	14 (+2)	11 (+0)	18 (+4)	12 (+1)	12 (+1)

Saving Throws Int +7, Wis +4

Skills Arcana +7, History +7

Damage Resistances fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages Aquan, Common, Infernal, Terran

Challenge 6 (2,300 XP)

Innate Spellcasting. Ebus’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 12, +4 to hit with spell attacks). He can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will: Thaumaturgy

1/day each: Hellish Rebuke, Darkness

Spellcasting. Ebus is a 9th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Intelligence (spell save DC 15, +7 to hit with spell attacks). He has the following wizard spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): Fire Bolt, Light, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation

1st level (4 slots): Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Protection from Evil and Good, Shield

2nd level (3 slots): Levitate, Misty Step

3rd level (3 slots): Counterspell, Fireball, Fly

4th level (3 slots): Conjure Minor Elemental, Ice Storm, Stoneskin

5th level (1 slot): Cone of Cold, Conjure Elemental

When anticipating combat, Ebus casts Mage Armor and Stoneskin and will use his reaction to cast Shield if attacked before his turn.

Actions

Aquatic Torrent (1/day). Ebus can fill with water a 20-foot-tall cylinder with a 40-foot radius centered on a point he chooses within 150 feet. The area is heavily obscured, and exposed flames in the area are doused.

    The water moves suddenly and quickly through the area to the lowest elevation at a speed of 60 feet, making it difficult terrain. When a creature enters the spell’s area for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there, it must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, it takes 13 (3d8) bludgeoning damage, falls prone, and moves 60 ft. in the direction of the water’s current. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage.

    If a creature is concentrating in the spell’s area, the creature must make a successful DC 12 Constitution saving throw or lose concentration.

    If the water is in an open space, it will spread to half height and double the radius the second round on Ebus’s turn with the same effects on all within the area. By the third round, it dissipates enough to lose its force.

Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage.

Mire Mephit

Small elemental, neutral evil

Armor Class 11

Hit Points 22 (5d6 + 5)

Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
8 (-1)	12 (+1)	12 (+1)	7 (-2)	10 (+0)	10 (+0)

Skills Stealth +3

Damage Vulnerabilities bludgeoning

Damage Immunities piercing, poison

Condition Immunities poisoned

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages Aquan, Terran

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Death Burst. When the mephit dies, it explodes in a burst of noxious mud. Each creature within 5 ft. of it must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) poison damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

False Appearance. While the mephit remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an ordinary mound of mud.

Innate Spellcasting (1/Day). The mephit can innately cast Acid Arrow, requiring no material components. Its innate spellcasting ability is Charisma.

Actions

Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 3 (1d4 + 1) slashing damage plus 2 (1d4) acid damage.

Mire Breath (Recharge 6). The mephit exhales a 15-foot cone of noxious mud. Each creature in that area must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking 3 (1d6) poison damage and becoming incapacitated due to nausea for 1 round on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Variant: Summon Mephits (1/Day). The mephit has a 25 percent chance of summoning 1d4 mephits of its kind. A summoned mephit appears in an unoccupied space within 60 feet of its summoner, acts as an ally of its summoner, and can’t summon other mephits. It remains for 1 minute, until it or its summoner dies, or until its summoner dismisses it as an action.

These small vaguely humanoid mud beings smell of stagnation and rise up from pools of mud to cause havoc. They lack wings and seem to fly by floating on mists of expelled miasma.

Mud Elemental

Large elemental, neutral

Armor Class 13 (natural armor)

Hit Points 114 (12d10 + 48)

Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	12 (+1)	18 (+4)	5 (-3)	10 (+0)	8 (-1)

Damage Vulnerabilities cold

Damage Resistances fire; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Damage Immunities poison

Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious

Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages Aquan, Terran

Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Fired Brick. If the elemental takes fire damage, it partially solidifies; it loses its swim speed, but its attacks cause an additional 8 (1d6 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Freeze. If the elemental takes cold damage, it partially freezes; its speed is reduced by 20 ft. until the end of its next turn.

Mud Form. The elemental can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. It can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Actions

Multiattack. The elemental makes two slam attacks. If both attacks hit a Large or smaller target, the target is grappled (escape DC 15), and the elemental uses its Engulf on it.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Engulf. The elemental engulfs a Large or smaller creature grappled by it. The engulfed target is blinded, restrained, and unable to breathe, and it must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw at the start of each of the elemental’s turns or take 14 (2d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage. If the elemental moves, the engulfed target moves with it. The elemental can have one Large creature or up to two Medium or smaller creatures engulfed at a time.

Deluge Dragon

Huge elemental, neutral

Armor Class14 (natural armor)

Hit Points161 (14d12 + 70)

Speed 30 ft., swim 90 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
20 (+5)	14 (+2)	20 (+5)	10 (+0)	12 (+1)	14 (+2)

Damage Vulnerabilities cold

Damage Resistances acid; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks

Damage Immunities poison

Condition Immunities exhaustion, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, unconscious

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11

Languages Aquan

Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Deluge. Each creature within 15-feet of the elemental that is prone and does not have a swim speed must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to stand up. Any prone creature that fails this check and is unable to breathe water cannot breathe and takes an additional 4 (1d8) bludgeoning damage.

Water Form. The elemental can enter a hostile creature’s space and stop there. It can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

Actions

Multiattack. The elemental makes two slam attacks.

Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +8 to hit, reach 15 ft., one target. Hit: 23 (4d8 + 5) bludgeoning damage.

Breath Weapon (Recharge 5–6). The elemental exhales a watery blast in a 30-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 45 (10d8) bludgeoning damage and being knocked prone on a failed save, or half as much damage and isn’t prone on a successful one.

The neighborhood is on fire!

Can you stop the spread, rescue the families, and prevent more destruction all at once?

This adventure is for 3–4 characters, level 5–6, with 18–22 combined levels.

Background & Synopsis

A nearby building with people inside starts on fire, and the party needs to rescue those inside and stop the fire from spreading, but what started the fire in the first place? As the party rescues those within, they encounter others who may have clues. Rork’s family has been living in the basement and never got along well with the landlord. Naiara Trevica is helping to rescue the residents but seems to know a lot about arson. Aderyn Lloyd has a reputation for mischief—did they inadvertently cause it?

The truth is that the landlord, Arrias, has a gentrification scheme in mind, wanting to burn down the block and rebuild with newer buildings with higher rental costs that will force all of these families, who already struggle, into homelessness.

While constantly blaming others for the problems, he tricks a child into lighting the first fire, then hires someone to unleash a giant crocodile on the neighborhood, then uses his Warlock powers to unleash hell hounds to finish the job. When discovered, he summons two more hell hounds and attacks the party.

Adventure Hooks

This adventure can serve as a side quest or as a way to launch a campaign in an urban setting.

Where are we?

This adventure can occur in any large city with a financially marginalized neighborhood or district. For those using the Nethermaw campaign setting, this adventure would take place in a poorer neighborhood of Smoke.

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

As the party travels through an economically disadvantaged district, they notice smoke coming from one of the windows, followed quickly by flames and a voice crying for help. When they get to the house, Naiara Trevica is there and tells the party that people are trapped inside and asks, “I don’t know you, so I don’t know how capable you are. How can you help?”

Whatever the party decides, Naiara will help, either rescuing or stopping the spread.

The houses in this part of town are made from sturdy timbers with wattle and daub walls and thatch roofs, each typically housing two or three families in their two-story structures, one on each level, including a cellar. These walls have a 14 Armor Class and 11 (2d10) hp to break through.

Any room that’s burning will cause 1d4 fire damage to all creatures within and be filled with smoke. Medium or larger creatures will need to remain prone and crawl. Each round a creature is not prone and breathing in a smoke-filled room, it experiences smoke inhalation, requiring a successful DC 15 Constitution saving throw every round to avoid taking 1d6 poison damage and becoming poisoned until succeeding on the saving throw, which may be attempted again during each rest until successful.

In addition, every round a room burns, burning pieces of the ceiling will fall. Creatures in the room must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to avoid taking 1d4 bludgeoning damage and 1d8 fire damage.

The building has 2 floors plus a cellar with the following rooms and residents:

1. Kitchen (1 occupant: Leofrick Morningfall)
2. Living Room (1 occupant: Rose Mistsplitter)
3. Bedroom (2 occupants: Daisy & Violet, 7-year-old human twins)
4. Stable (1 goat, 3 sheep, 11 chickens, 1 donkey)
5. Ramp (to upstairs)
6. Upstairs living room (1 occupant: Gorme Twofoot, a 44 year old non-binary lightfoot halfling)
7. Upstairs bedroom (1 occupant: Urzoth Skullbinder, a 90 year old female orc)
8. Cellar (3 occupants: Rork and his parents, Mug and Guk)

The fire began in the kitchen on the first floor but is spreading each round as follows:

1. Kitchen and living room
2. Bedroom
3. Stable (After this round, a rhythmic drumming fills the air as Ollie Dragao summons the town to help.)
4. Upstairs Bedrooms; Rork and family escapes the cellar via the cellar door, dragging out an empty barrel and bucket
5. Adjacent building (upstairs) on kitchen side (occupied by the Brawnblade family downstairs; Na and Erhice upstairs); Rork casts Create Food and Water, filling the barrel with water.
6. Adjacent building upstairs completely burning; Ollie, his dog, Tazz, and several townsfolk will use a fire hook to collapse any vacated burning building and focus on preventing the spread to other buildings. Rork begins scooping water out of the barrel with a bucket, and throwing it onto the fire. People in adjacent buildings have escaped.
7. Both floors weakened. Each round, each medium-sized creature on the floor must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall through the floor, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage. Adjacent building first floor is now burning.
8. Adjacent building on the other side begins burning.
9. Townsfolk have stopped the spread via fire hook and bucket brigade from a nearby fountain.

Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire

Once the fire is under control, an elderly tiefling with long, wavy, black hair, green eyes, and purple skin approaches the party and thanks them profusely. He introduces himself as Arrias, owner of the buildings on this block. He thanks them for rescuing the tenants and preventing further spread. (If the party doesn’t trust him, a successful DC 15 Wisdom (Insight) check will reveal that his mannerisms seem forced, like he’s trying too hard to show gratitude.) To any remaining residents, he assures them that he will rebuild the ruined houses and replace them with even better homes than before. He talks about how much the neighborhood could benefit from brick buildings that won’t burn and shops on the first level for easy shopping. He then talks to each family from the affected houses to make sure they’re ok.

Meanwhile, some of those who helped with the fire start cheering for “Mug & Guk’s kid” (Rork) and the way he was the first to the scene with water. Upon receiving this attention, Rork looks up from the wicker ball he’d been focused on, slips behind the closest building, and vanishes. Anyone who chases after him sees a crocodile in the distance slipping into a sewer opening. (He doesn’t like crowds, so he panicked at being the center of attention and wild shaped into a crocodile to slip away, but some may find this suspicious, especially since they don’t know him.)

Local residents:

• Rose Mistsplitter is a human in her late 20’s. She works in The Anvil (the forge district) as a courier. She’s pleasant and friendly but always tired.
• Leofrick Morningfall, Rose Mistsplitter’s husband, is a stay-home-dad who cares for their two twin daughters, Daisy and Violet. He focuses on caring for the children, and after the fire, he’s mainly focused on comforting them. If the party encounters him later, he’s friendly and loves to work puns into his conversations.
• Gorme Twofoot is a 44 year old non-binary lightfoot halfling. They work at the local general store as the shopkeeper’s assistant. Gorme lives with their friend, Urzoth, and their salary barely feeds and houses the two. They get frustrated when they have to skip a meal due to Urzoth giving away yet another knit item, but that’s also why Gorme and Urzoth are such good friends — Gorme proudly wears a sweater Urzoth made for them when they were cold and homeless.
• Urzoth Skullbinder is an elderly female orc, a dear friend of Gorme, who’s always wearing a colorful short-sleeve wool sweater. Urzoth has chronic Pain [IE 3] and Leg Weakness [IE 2] and uses a rollator to walk around the house but also has a wheelchair for travel around the city. Urzoth enjoys knitting and uses that skill to earn some extra money, but she often has trouble charging for her beautiful scarves, mittens, and blankets when she sees someone cold and in need.
• Na Mardon is a 30-year-old human who delivers coal to Anvil with her partner, Erhice. Her clothes and skin are stained black from the coal, but her eyes twinkle like the forges she serves, and she enjoys conversation, often talking long after others are done listening.
• Erhice Ildessint, an elf with a more burly build than is typical for his ancestry, helps deliver coal with Na. Erhice is quiet and enjoys listening and learning from others, which is why he and Na work so well together, Na keeping the long hauls of coal interesting with her stories while Erhice happily enjoys the tone of her voice as much as the stories she tells.
• Gralnar Brawnblade, a middle-aged dwarf, works as an assistant in a weaponsmith shop in Anvil. He’s kind and friendly, but when stressed, he quickly gets angry and yells.
• Arros Brawnblade, Gralnar’s wife and also a middle-aged dwarf, is the neighborhood teacher. She has an excellent relationship with the local children and, out of habit, tends to talk to adults as if they’re small children. (If someone notes her tone, she’ll apologize and take a more mature approach.
• Elrin Brawnblade, their daughter, the dwarven equivalent of a human tween, likes to run off and explore and frequently comes home with interesting items in her pockets that she discovered, which has led to Gralnar and Arros sending her to give the item back to its owner. Elrin doesn’t mean to steal, but she has trouble controlling her impulses when she finds something interesting.
• Mug (kobold) works in the sewers with Guk, making sure everything flows and reporting anything unusual. She takes pride in their work and know that the city would cease functioning without her and her coworkers, and she gets frustrated with those who think less of her for any reason but also avoids conflict with anyone bigger than her.
• Guk (kobold) works with Mug, and while he believes in the work he does, he internalizes the disdain of those around him and feels inadequate as a person. If someone blames him for the fire, he may accept the blame and assume some carelessness led to the fire, although Rork and Mug will defend him.
• Rork lives in the woods but came to town to visit his parents. He doesn’t enjoy being in town and is eager to leave. Once he returns to his parents after slipping away, he’s eager to convince them to come live with him in the woods. He keeps urging them by saying, “We really need to get out of here right away,” which is mainly motivated by his anxiety, but it can appear that he’s trying to avoid getting caught.
• Aderyn Lloyd knows Elrin well, as they’ve been on some adventures together. Aderyn acts as a mentor to Elrin, but while they always keep Elrin safe, and her parents trust Aderyn, they sometimes get into mischief together. If anyone questions Elrin, she’ll confide in Aeryn before anyone else. Meanwhile, some townsfolk may blame Aderyn for their recklessness and suggest that they caused the fire, “by knocking over a lantern or something.”
• Naiara Trevica knows this community, as she acted as a mercenary in a nearby turf war recently. When investigating the source of the fire, she will note that it spread from the wall, not the inner hearth, so it looks like it came from outside. She can point to the exact spot where the fire started and note that this is the most vulnerable part of the exterior. “Trust me. If you’re going to burn this style of house, here’s where you light it.” She has burned houses this way as part of the war, but when some of those fires spread, she helped rebuild the homes of the innocent, which is why she’s still in town.
• Ollie Dragao uses his lute to heal anyone hurt in the fire and immediately begins the cleanup process, encouraging others to join in the effort, which they gladly do. He sings as he works, and many others join in, but he soon needs to stop and rest to catch his breath, although he still taps out a motivating rhythm on his drum.

Note: Arrias has been planning this renovation for a long time and deliberately started the fire to force the current tenants out, because he can charge higher rent to a shop owner, and he recently got a good deal on bricks. He saw the Brawnblades’ daughter, Elrin, playing in the street and told her about some fireworks on the ground between the houses. He told her to stay away from them after making them sound enticing enough that she couldn’t resist, and she inadvertently started the fire, but she’s too afraid to admit it. If questioned, she’ll deny it, but she still has some fireworks in her pockets that she forgot about. She likes Arrias, who knows about her impulse control struggles and often points out interesting items that he secretly wants her to take for various reasons. She will be reluctant to connect him with any of this, but a successful DC 10 Charisma (Intimidation) or Charisma (Persuasion) check will convince her to explain Arrias’s role, although he’ll emphasize that he told her to leave them and was just warning her to stay away from them.

Smoke and Mirrors

When the cleanup work is done, Ollie invites everyone back to the local inn to relax. (Note: The inn is not on the main map. If using an existing campaign setting, any inn within a mile will work, otherwise tell the players that the inn is two blocks north of the map. The Miner Solution Inn map may be used here.) The rhythmic singing, driven by the beat of Ollie’s expert drumming, has a soothing effect on everyone after the stresses of the day, and a belly full of bean and sausage casserole, the inn’s Dish of the Day, brings a sense of that everything is going to work out.

If the party watches Elrin, they will see her pick up a small iron unicorn figurine from the fireplace mantle, examine it, and slip it into her pocket. If confronted about it, she doesn’t remember pocketing it, having done so absentmindedly.

The innkeeper tells those who’ve been displaced that they can sleep on the straw mats there until they find more permanent housing.

The party can use this time to talk to the residents to gather more information, and the innkeeper offers them a straw mat for the night.

Early the next morning, the party awakens to a panicked crowd outside and the sound of another house collapsing in the same neighborhood. A giant crocodile has surfaced from the sewers and destroyed another home, heading toward those still standing.

Once the party defeats the crocodile, even more questions and accusations surface.

• Mug and Guk work in the sewers and slept with Rork in a sewer alcove overnight. Besides their sewer connections, Rork was seen transforming into a crocodile yesterday. And the crocodile broke through the same opening where Rork went yesterday. They show up after the combat, shouting a warning that they found evidence of a giant crocodile in the sewers.
• Aderyn shows up as the combat ends and shows fascination with the massive creature. Some suggest that this was some kind of prank caused by them. While they deny it and insist that they would never deliberately destroy someone’s home, they’re intrigued by the idea of such a massive prank if it could be done without endangering anyone.

Arrias shows up at the end and is quick to blame the kobolds. He complained that they didn’t clean up well enough after working in the sewers, and they were ruining his building. This led to a steady stream of arguments between Arrias and the couple. Arrias insists that they were trying to ruin him.

The crocodile was arranged by Arrias, who hired a lizardfolk animal handler to destroy the other homes. Investigating the sewers will reveal an iron chain harness near the opening, but the handler fled upon unleashing the giant crocodile.

After the battle, Naiara shows up, impressed by the dead creature. If asked about it, she says she saw a lizardfolk heading the other way that she thought looked familiar. It could have been an animal handler that she encountered during a past job involving using giant creatures in a battle. She has no idea where the handler was going and wouldn’t be able to trace them, but if that was them, someone hired them.

If the party wants to investigate the sewer system, Mug and Guk tells them that the sewage in the sewer system is six feet deep, and the city uses oozes as part of their sewage processing system.

Burning a Hole in His Pocket

While the cleanup continues, a pair of hell hounds come running into the neighborhood and begin igniting the remaining houses. The hell hounds will attempt to ignite all the homes, then kill anyone who prevents or extinguishes the burning, lighting the remaining homes as they get to them. If the party continues to extinguish the fires, they will turn their attention to the party, but their primary goal is arson.

After the battle, Aderyn is on a nearby (tile) roof, having witnessed Arrias summoning the hell hounds, and begins laughing, knowing Arrias has incriminated himself.

Arrias panics and summons 2 more hell hounds and then attacks the party and Aderyn. He will use his scimitar on nearby creatures and send the hell hounds after the those out of range. He is on the verge of losing everything and is desperate, so he will fight to the death. After his death, the party will notice paper in his pocket, a receipt for building materials, including all the bricks and tools they need to rebuild the block themselves and take ownership and create something they can afford, that makes sense for the current community, and will help the entire community grow together.

If the party defeats Arrias without killing him, two of the town guards will come to investigate and take him away.

Arrias

Medium humanoid (tiefling), lawful evil

• Armor Class 12 (15 with mage armor)
• Hit Points 48
• Speed 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
8 (-1)	14 (+2)	10 (+0)	14 (+2)	15 (+2)	18 (+4)

• Saving Throws Wis +4, Cha +6
• Skills Deception +6, Intimidation +6, Perception +4, Persuasion +6
• Damage Resistances fire
• Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
• Languages Abyssal, Celestial, Common, Infernal
• Challenge 3 (700 XP)

Spellcasting. Arrias is a 9th-level spellcaster. His spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). Arrias has the following Warlock spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): Eldritch Blast, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, Thaumaturgy

1st level (at will): Mage Armor

2nd level (1/day): Darkness, Hellish Rebuke

5th Level (2 slots): Blight, Confusion, Counterspell, Dispel Magic, Hypnotic Pattern, Invisibility, Protection from Evil and Good, Remove Curse, Scrying, Shatter, Slow, Vampiric Touch

Dark One’s Blessing. When Arrias reduces a hostile creature to 0 HP, he gains 13 temporary HP.

Dark One’s Own Luck. Once per short rest, when Arrias makes an ability check or a saving throw, he can use this feature to add a d10 to his roll.

Infernal Armor. When Arrias casts Mage Armor, his armor flickers with red flames. When a creature damages him with a melee attack, it takes 2d10 fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Actions

Thirsting Blade. Arrias can attack with his pact weapon twice, instead of once, whenever he takes the Attack action on his turn.

Dagger. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage. (Arrias carries 3 daggers.)

Eldritch Blast. Ranged Spell Attack: +6 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d10 + 4) fire damage.

Scimitar (Pact Weapon). Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage + 11 (2d10) fire damage.

Arrias always begins the first round of combat by casting Mage Armor to invoke his Infernal Armor ability, then usually uses his scimitar against those in melee range or Eldritch Blast if enemies are further away.

Opening Tagline

Can you brave the icy tundra, unravel a sinister plot, and bring warmth back to a frozen village?

An adventure for 4–5 characters levels 11–16.

Background & Synopsis

The party finds themselves in a remote arctic village, where a blizzard sets the stage for a harrowing adventure. The initial encounter challenges the party to navigate the blizzard’s fury, after which they discover the disappearance of Ava, a blind baker from the village. As they track her, they uncover her transformation into a remorhaz and a sinister plot orchestrated by the blacksmith, Kaldur. The adventure includes encounters with frostbite spiders, rescuing wolves from an icy ooze, and the choice to assist or hinder ice trolls pursuing the remorhaz. Along the way, a dwarf barbarian and a dragonborn ranger offer unexpected aid. In the climactic showdown, the party faces the remorhaz controlled by Kaldur and his ice devil patron. The adventure concludes with a heartwarming homecoming in the village, offering closure and rewards for the party’s heroic efforts.

Content Trigger Warning

This adventure contains themes of sudden natural disasters, perilous weather conditions, missing persons, forced transformation, mind control, and combat encounters.

Adventure Hooks

This adventure works as a side quest for larger adventures set in cold climates such as Rime of the Frostmaiden from Wizards of the Coast or chapter three of Empire of the Ghouls by Kobold Press. If you’re using the Andovir campaign setting from Wyrmworks Publishing, this adventure fits well in LOCATION PENDING. This may also serve as a catalyst to launch an arctic campaign or story arc. If not native to the region, adventurers may be present for many reasons, including:

The party may be traveling through the tundra on the way to another mission.

Someone has hired the party to rescue, escort, find, or deliver a person or object in the region.

The party has heard rumors of a powerful magic item’s location.

A caster’s spell misfires and accidentally teleports the party to the village, so they need to find their way home.

Where are we?

This adventure takes place in a frozen region and can be adapted for arctic, tundra, or mountains.

Dramatis Personae

Ava the Baker

Medium humanoid (gnome), neutral good

Armor Class 11

Hit Points 9 (2d8)

Speed 25 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
8 (-1)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	14 (+2)	12 (+1)	16 (+3)

Skills Perception +3

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 13

Languages Common, Gnomish

Challenge 1/8 (25 XP)

Baker’s Tools. Ava is proficient with baker’s tools and can use them to prepare delicious pastries and baked goods.

Blindness [IE 4]. Ava’s vision is absent completely, and she has learned to navigate the world with no reliance on her eyes, depending on other senses instead. Because she has grown accustomed to this condition a long time, she has a −4 on sight-related attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws including ranged combat beyond 10 ft. but a +4 bonus when using other senses to compensate, not because they’ve become stronger, but because she’s learned to use them more effectively.

Actions

Baking Tools. Ava can spend 1 hour and use her baker’s tools to create a batch of pastries or baked goods. Consuming these treats grants temporary hit points equal to her proficiency bonus. These temporary hit points last for 1 hour.

Distract (Recharge 5-6). Ava can use a bonus action to throw flour into the air, creating a blinding cloud in a 10-foot radius centered on herself. Creatures within the area must succeed on a DC 12 Constitution saving throw or be blinded for 1 minute. A blinded creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

Frostbite Spider

Large monstrosity, unaligned

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 26 (4d10 + 4)

Speed 30 ft., climb 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
16 (+3)	16 (+3)	12 (+1)	2 (-4)	11 (+0)	4 (-3)

Skills Stealth +7

Damage Immunities cold

Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 10 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages —

Challenge 2 (450 XP)

Spider Climb. The spider can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Web Sense. While in contact with a web, the spider knows the exact location of any other creature in contact with the same web.

Web Walker. The spider ignores movement restrictions caused by webbing.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage, and the target must make a DC 11 Constitution saving throw, taking an extra 7 (2d6) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one. A target that fails its save becomes slowed (as per the slow spell) until the end of its next turn. Targets with resistance to cold damage have advantage on the saving throw.

Frigid Fiber (Recharge 6). The spider weaves a web of icy strands in a 20-foot radius sphere around itself. Creatures within the area must make a DC 11 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, a creature is restrained by the icy web and takes 3 (1d6) cold damage at the beginning of its turn until freed. As an action, a creature restrained by the web can make a DC 11 Strength check to break free. The webbing can also be attacked and destroyed (AC 10; hp 10; vulnerability to fire damage; immunity to bludgeoning, cold, piercing, poison, and psychic damage).

Glacial Sludge

Large ooze, unaligned

Armor Class 17 (natural armor)

Hit Points 85 (10d10 + 30)

Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
16 (+3)	12 (+1)	16 (+3)	1 (-5)	6 (-2)	1 (-5)

Skills Stealth +7

Damage Vulnerabilities thunder

Damage Immunities cold, lightning, piercing, poison

Condition Immunities blinded, charmed, deafened, exhaustion, frightened, prone

Senses blindsight 60 ft. (blind beyond this radius), passive Perception 8

Languages —

Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Amorphous. The sludge can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.

False Appearance. While the sludge remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an icy field.

Shattering Shards. When the sludge takes bludgeoning or thunder damage, the damaged area explodes in a burst of crystalline shards. Each creature within 10 ft. of it must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) piercing damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Spider Climb. The sludge can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Actions

Multiattack. The sludge makes two attacks.

Icy Tendril. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage plus 18 (4d8) cold damage and the target is grappled (escape DC 14). Until this grapple ends, the creature is restrained, and the sludge can’t constrict another target.

[Add Ice Devil stat block before publication]

Ice Troll

Large giant, chaotic evil

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 105 (10d10 + 50)

Speed 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
19 (+4)	12 (+1)	20 (+5)	7 (-2)	8 (-1)	7 (-2)

Skills Perception +2

Damage Resistances fire

Damage Immunities cold

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 12

Languages Giant

Challenge 8 (3,900 XP)

Keen Smell. The troll has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on smell.

Regeneration. The troll regains 10 hit points at the start of its turn. If the troll takes acid or fire damage, this trait doesn’t function at the start of the troll’s next turn. The troll dies only if it starts its turn with 0 hit points and doesn’t regenerate.

Variant: Loathsome Limbs. Whenever the troll takes at least 15 slashing damage at one time, roll a d20 to determine what else happens to it:

1-10: Nothing else happens.
11-14: One leg is severed from the troll if it has any legs left.
15- 18: One arm is severed from the troll if it has any arms left.
19-20: The troll is decapitated, but the troll dies only if it can’t regenerate. If it dies, so does the severed head.

If the troll finishes a short or long rest without reattaching a severed limb or head, the part regrows. At that point, the severed part dies. Until then, a severed part acts on the troll’s initiative and has its own action and movement. A severed part has AC 13, 10 hit points, and the troll’s Regeneration trait.
A severed leg is unable to attack and has a speed of 5 feet.
A severed arm has a speed of 5 feet and can make one claw attack on its turn, with disadvantage on the attack roll unless the troll can see the arm and its target. Each time the troll loses an arm, it loses a claw attack.
If its head is severed, the troll loses its bite attack and its body is blinded unless the head can see it. The severed head has a speed of 0 feet and the troll’s Keen Smell trait. It can make a bite attack but only against a target in its space.
The troll’s speed is halved if it’s missing a leg. If it loses both legs, it falls prone. If it has both arms, it can crawl. With only one arm, it can still crawl, but its speed is halved. With no arms or legs, its speed is 0, and it can’t benefit from bonuses to speed.

Actions

Multiattack. The troll makes three attacks: one with its bite and two with its claws.

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage.

Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) slashing damage.

Bonus Actions

Snowstorm Aura (1/day). The troll can unleash a burst of frigid energy in a 15-foot radius around itself. Creatures within the aura must make a DC 14 Constitution saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) cold damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Kaldur Ironfist

Medium humanoid (dwarf), neutral

Armor Class 16 (chain mail)

Hit Points 65 (10d8 + 20)

Speed 25 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
16 (+3)	10 (+0)	14 (+2)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	8 (-1)

Skills Athletics +5, Insight +2

Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages Common, Dwarvish, Infernal

Challenge 4 (1,100 XP)

Dwarven Resilience. The dwarf has advantage on saving throws against poison, spells, and illusions, as well as to resist being charmed or paralyzed.

Innate Spellcasting. Kaldur’s innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 9, +1 to hit with spell attacks). He can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:
At will: Ray of Frost
3/day each: Fog Cloud, Gust of Wind

Actions

Multiattack. Kaldur makes two attacks with his warhammer.

Warhammer. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage, or 8 (1d10 + 3) bludgeoning damage if used with two hands.

Icy Blast (Recharge 5-6). Kaldur can strike the ground with his hammer and release an icy blast in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 9 Constitution saving throw, taking 18 (4d8) cold damage on a failed save or half as much damage on a successful one.

Kaldur Ironfist, a talented dwarf blacksmith, harbored a deep desire to craft a weapon of unparalleled power. Having spent too many days helping rebuild after white dragon and frost giant attacks, he was determined to protect his village from any threat. Fueled by this ambition, Kaldur made a pact with an ice devil. The devil's influence pushed Kaldur to seek a legendary forge hidden within the icy wilderness, where he believed he could create the ultimate weapon. Now, Kaldur's journey is marked by his relentless pursuit of power and the moral challenges he faces along the way. Though well-intentioned, his pact has changed him, and he must grapple with the consequences of his choices as he seeks to fulfill his destiny.

[Add Remorhaz stat block before publication]

The Rising Storm

[SIDEBAR: The Frostfang Inn

Gertrude "Gertie" Frostfang is a tough and resourceful halfling with a no-nonsense attitude and a heart of gold. She runs the Frostfang Inn, providing a warm and welcoming home for her family and a gathering place for the village. The inn is a sturdy wooden building with a cozy common room, where Gertie serves hearty meals and ale and other spirits. Gertie's family includes her two adolescent children, Willem and Selma, who help her run the inn.

Gertie is a beloved member of the village, known for her generosity and her determination to keep the community together. Her inn is known for its delicious food and in-house brewery.

The Frostfang Inn is an important hub of activity in the village, serving as a place for travelers to rest and for the villagers to gather and socialize. It is a warm and welcoming place, and Gertie is always happy to make new friends and share her stories with visitors.]

As the party arrives at the village of Frosthold and finds the inn, a sudden storm whips up, turning the air nearly opaque and biting into any exposed skin. The wooden building shakes, and the atmosphere seems to pull the inhabitants toward the roof. Gertie the innkeeper watches the window, pacing, and after a huge gust, says, “The walls won’t hold. We need to get out.”

Gertie tells the party to follow her. Through the gale, they hear something cracking and snapping. A nearby hut looks like it’s about to fly away. A child’s scream barely breaks through the howling wind. Gertie points into the darkness and yells that a stone building ahead will offer safety and continues toward the building regardless of what the party decides.

If the party investigates, the hut flies away shortly after they arrive. A young-looking half-elf father is trying to protect his children, an infant and a toddler. He shouts a plea for help to the party. (If the party doesn’t investigate, they will find the family frozen to death after the storm.)

Finding the shelter requires a DC 10 Wisdom (Survival) check, but everyone who leaves the innkeeper for the hut must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or acquire hypothermia unless using protection from the elements beyond standard cold weather gear, acting as if affected by the Confusion spell. If the party doesn’t provide additional protection to the father and children, the father experiences the Confusion effects, and the children become incapacitated with hypothermia.

Treat movement through the village as rough terrain. Every round in the storm after the second, everyone takes 1 cold damage.

Once arriving at the shelter, Brace, the village cleric, immediately attempts to treat those suffering from hypothermia with healing spells and wool blankets that have been warmed near a central fire. The party may attempt to help Brace or treat others at the same time.

The Tumult after the Storm

The storm ends as abruptly as it began. The residents gradually step outside to survey the damage. Some buildings, including the inn, remain standing with some broken windows, while others are replaced with collapsed timber or just a stone floor.

A voice shouts over the chatter of residents, “Ava! Where’s Ava?”

Ava, the village baker, is missing. Her home still stands with relatively little damage, but nobody can find her in the village. The villagers describe her as a gnome with brown skin, black hair, and a tattoo on her neck depicting the faces of her husband and son, who died in a hunting trip many years ago. The ground near her home is icier than elsewhere in the village, and an investigation reveals a path of ice leading to the edge of the village.

Unknown to anyone, Kaldur Ironfist, the dwarven blacksmith, made a deal with an ice devil to improve his craft. The devil told him that the heat of a remorhaz is needed to forge the ultimate weapon in a mystical forge in a cave a day’s travel from the village. The fiend gave him an amulet to summon the storm and an armlet that transformed Ava into a remorhaz and allowed Kaldur to command her to go to the cave.

The ice near her house is the result of the remorhaz’s heat melting the snow and freezing after she left.

Kaldur, who claims to have remained in his stone house during the storm, offers to join the party to look for Ava. He knows the area, as he often travels to nearby caves to mine iron and other ore.

As much as everyone wants Ava back, the villagers suggest that the search party should set out in the morning.

Optional Travel Encounters

D6	Encounter
1	Frozen Stream Crossing: The party comes across a frozen stream. Each must make a DC 12 Dexterity check to safely cross it. On a failure, they slip and fall, taking 1d4 cold damage.
2	Lost Supplies: The party discovers a partially buried dogsled with supplies. They can choose to investigate it and find a crate of preserved food and a bottle of warming brandy.
3	Frozen Carcass: The party stumbles upon a partially frozen carcass of a mammoth. They can choose to investigate or ignore it. If they investigate, they find nothing of value but notice that it has a large bite out of its side. The snow has no tracks around it.
4	Ava's Cane: The party discovers Ava's cane, which had caught on her during her transformation.
5	Frozen Pond: The party encounters a small frozen pond. They can choose to investigate or skate on it for fun. If they investigate, they find the frozen remains of a few fish.
6	Impish Spy: The party notices movement in the distance, something peeking over a snowbank. Anyone succeeding on a DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check, either by sight or the faint smell of brimstone, recognizes a fiendish connection, and characters who can see it and know the Infernal language or succeed on a DC 12 Intelligence (Arcana) check recognize it as an imp. It disappears as soon as the party discovers or moves toward it.

Cold Feet

Around noon, the party arrives at a treacherous ice field and notices the ice cracking under their feet in some places. Six frostbite spiders emerge from the snow to attack them.

The fresh powder over hard ice conceals hidden thin patches of ice, which collapse into twenty-foot pits. Creatures who enter a space with thin ice must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall into the pit, landing prone and taking 2d6 damage. The frostbite spiders can move over the spaces without collapsing them, using their tremorsense to navigate around the thinnest parts.

Anyone who falls into or examines the pits will notice that they are not individual pits, but an irregular icy tunnel that has collapsed in some parts. The tunnel follows roughly the same course that the party is going. It’s the path of the remorhaz, although it has collapsed in many parts, so the party can’t follow it underground.

A Pack of Trouble

The party sees a pack of eight wolves crossing the tundra one hundred feet ahead of them. As the wolves pass just beyond a hill between them and the party, sudden barking reverberates across the landscape. When the party reaches the crest of the hill, they see the ground below the wolves splashing with icy sludge as one of the wolves goes under, and ice and water erupt from the large puddle. A successful DC 15 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals the icy puddle itself is attacking the wolves.

The puddle is a glacial sludge intent on consuming the wolves and kills one per round unless the party intervenes.

At the end of the first round, more barking emerges from another hill, and a dog sled speeds over the crest and banks hard as a dwarven barbarian in a wheelchair, Donna Nason (she/her), launches from the sled, chains flinging a ram to the front of the chair, crashing into the sludge with a Wheelchair Ram attack. Donna is raging and will continue to attack with her ax in subsequent rounds as her partner, Michael (he/him, veteran), a tall light-skinned human with brown hair and gray insulated clothing, moves the sled out of the way to keep the dogs safe. Michael will only join in the fight if he believes Donna is in danger, as he’d rather let her have all the fun.

As the battle finishes, Michael brings the dogsled down the hill to Donna. Michael adjusts Donna’s legs and helps her detach the ax from her gauntlets. Donna amorously thanks Michael as he wipes the remnants of the sludge from her wheelchair and gear. In an affectionate tone that contrasts the rage the party just witnessed from her, Donna introduces herself and Michael to the party and asks what brings them out to the snowy wilderness.

GM Note: Depending on the strength of the party, Donna and Michael may join them in their quest if they need an extra blade, but otherwise, they will continue on their way, as they’re tracking frost giant marauders. If they part ways and the party gets into trouble, they can return to help, saying they noticed the remorhaz trail and were wondering whether that was a clue to find the giants.

Run with the Remorhaz and Hunt with the Trolls

Mid-afternoon, the party encounters two ice trolls, who have been tracking the remorhaz and are eager to capture it for its valuable hide and quantity of meat. One holds and sniffs Ava’s cane, which caught in the remorhaz’s carapace and fell off nearby. The trolls sniff it and notice an overlap with the smell of the remorhaz, which they find curious enough to discuss with each other, but it’s nothing more than a curiosity to them.

The trolls’ reaction to the party depends on the party’s behavior. They flash their claws and fangs but don’t immediately attack unless they feel threatened or see the party as an easy snack, instead pointing and ignoring the party while still aware of their location by smell. If the party demonstrates power without hostility, the trolls try to ignore the party, focusing on tracking the remorhaz. If the party attacks or interferes, the trolls attack.

Shortly after the party decides their course of action, they hear the sound of a sled approaching from the top of a nearby hill. A blue dragonborn ranger, Rivaan Linxakasendalor, comes into view, using javelins to propel herself down the slope on a sled. If the party is fighting the trolls, she joins in against the trolls. Rivaan is determined to find the remorhaz, as she believes it to be the one that killed her father years ago, and she will ally herself with anyone she believes will help her destroy the monster, which may include siding with the trolls if necessary.

Since the trolls and party are both heading in the same direction, confrontation is nearly inevitable, either by the party or the trolls’ annoyance, although the trolls may decide to let the party kill the remorhaz and then take advantage of the weakened party.

Getting Warmer…

Late in the evening, the party arrives at the cave. The floor is glare ice and slightly wet in spots. Rivaan has no problem navigating it on her sled, but anyone walking must succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) saving throw at the beginning of their turn to avoid falling prone during any combat within the cave unless taking measures to stabilize themselves.

Once within the cave, Kaldur attempts to slip away from the party. He points them to a path that he claims he doesn’t recognize and asks them to explore it. If caught, he tells them that he’s too “rusty” to fight a remorhaz and only wants to find Ava, so he’ll wait for them at the entrance to the cave.

Frozen Forge

The party comes to a large chamber with a table, anvil, hammers, tongs, and other forge implements but no bellows, only a fifteen-foot cube cage and a large pile of chains.

The tools lie on a page of scorched and blood-stained parchment inscribed with a poem written in Infernal:

Through ice and fire, power shall rise,

A pact of darkness, a deadly prize.

To wield the forge, no flame's embrace,

The chosen one shall claim their place.

Let molten cold consume your will,

And frozen flames your soul distill,

Till power binds your blood with ore,

Inseparable forevermore.

With passion’s fire and heart of ice,

Invoke the frost's infernal price,

Fulfill the pact, your power seize,

Ignite the world, and let it freeze.

In the corner of the room, a wooden wardrobe holds two pickaxes, two sets of crampons, and Braces of Frigid Flight.

Braces of Frigid Flight

Wondrous Item, uncommon (requires attunement)

The crystalline leg braces have icy wings extending from the sides and reduce leg-related mobility penalties by 1 while worn.

While you wear these braces, you have a flying speed equal to your walking speed. You can use the braces to fly for up to 1 hour, all at once or in several shorter flights, each one using a minimum of 1 minute from the duration. If you are flying when the duration expires, you descend at a rate of 30 feet per round until you land. When the duration expires, the braces melt and cannot be used again and are rendered non-magical.

A Hot Mess

Warm fog fills the final chamber, and the remorhaz senses anyone walking on the floor while waiting in a hot pool in the back of the chamber, springing out once anyone walking approaches within thirty feet of the pool and attacking.

The remorhaz wears a black iron cuff on one of its legs, noticeable with a DC 10 Wisdom (Perception) check. A successful DC 12 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals an inscription in the neck of its carapace depicting two remorhaz heads, one larger than the other. If the party doesn’t notice the inscription, Rivaan notices after a round of combat.

Remorhaz Subjugator

Tiny construct, unaligned

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)

Hit Points 10 (4d4)

Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
12 (+1)	16 (+3)	10 (+0)	3 (-4)	10 (+0)	1 (-5)

Skills Stealth +5

Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t adamantine

Damage Immunities cold, fire, poison, psychic

Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone

Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., passive Perception 10

Languages understands the languages of its creator but can’t speak

Challenge 1/2 (100 XP)

Immutable Form. The Subjugator is immune to any spell or effect that would alter its form.

Magic Resistance. The Subjugator has advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.

Spider Climb. The Subjugator can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings, without needing to make an ability check.

Actions

Anklet Attachment. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target. Hit: 0 damage, and the Subjugator attaches to the target. While attached, the target cannot remove the Subjugator. Anyone else besides the wearer of the Shackler’s Restraint attempting to remove the Subjugator must successfully grapple the remorhaz’s leg (as attempting to grapple, but regardless of size differences). On a successful grapple, the grappler must succeed on a contested Strength check against the Subjugator removes it.

Dominated Remorhaz. When attached to a target, the Subjugator can use its action to polymorph the target into a remorhaz. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Wisdom saving throw to avoid the effect. Once polymorphed, the target is charmed by the wearer of the Shackler’s Restraint as a Dominate Monster spell. The effect lasts as long as the Subjugator remains attached to the target.

The remorhaz subjugator is a tiny construct designed to resemble a remorhaz wrapped around a creature's leg, specifically crafted to be stealthy and discreet. Its primary purpose is to aid in the subjugation and control of creatures targeted by the corresponding Shackler's Restraint armband or anklet. The remorhaz subjugator can turn invisible to avoid detection until it's ready to use its Domination ability on a target, compelling them to follow the wielder's commands. However, with each use, it weakens the Shackler's Restraint wielder, eventually leading to exhaustion and rendering the Shackler's Restraint non-magical.

Shackler's Restraint
Wondrous Item (armband), rare (requires attunement)
This black iron armband allows you to telepathically control a single remorhaz subjugator and thus the subjugator’s dominated remorhaz. You can mentally command the figurine to crawl onto a target creature whose location is known to the wielder or subjugator. The dominated creature retains awareness but is compelled to obey the wielder's commands. You can command the dominated creature as the Dominate Monster spell, but with unlimited duration, no concentration required.

Removing either your armband or the subjugator ends the domination effect.

Each time the remorhaz subjugator attaches to a new target, you must make a DC 8 Wisdom saving throw, the DC increasing by 1 with each new target. On a failure, you are permanently polymorphed into a remorhaz.

If the subjugator is destroyed, you must succeed on an additional Wisdom saving throw with a DC as if it attached to a new target or 16, whichever is greater, or be permanently polymorphed into a remorhaz. On success, you instead take 4d6 psychic damage.

Kaldur hides in a corner of the chamber behind a boulder, watching the events unfold. If the remorhaz is killed or the subjugator removed from it, he controls it to climb onto another target. He intends to use it on another target as he needs the heat from a remorhaz to forge his weapon. If noticed, he claims to have come in looking for the remorhaz. He denies any connection unless a Detect Magic spell reveals the enchantment aura of the shackle under his coat.

The remorhaz is blind and can’t detect anyone moving silently along the walls or ceiling or flying, but if it hears them, it can attack them with a −4 penalty to hit, attempting to knock them to the floor where its tremorsense can pinpoint their location.

If events turn against Kaldur, he shouts, “Unqon!” and an ice devil appears and attacks the party.

If the combat goes against the party, depending how they handled previous encounters, the ice trolls, Donna Nason, or even the wolves may appear and aid the party.

A Warm Welcome

Night has fallen, and the cave offers shelter for a long rest. The next morning, Rivaan makes sure that the subjugator is destroyed and leaves in search of the remorhaz that killed her parents.

The GM may choose a random encounter from above or skip to the party’s arrival back at the village. As they travel, they hear the howls of wolves in the distance.

The party arrives in the evening. Most of the village sit around a central bonfire, resting after a hard day’s work repairing storm damage. Their weary faces gain new energy as they see the party return with Ava, but they ask about Kaldur and respond to news of his betrayal with shock and sadness.

Brace eagerly offers the party mugs of hot mulled wine and bowls heaping with venison stew in a savory cheese sauce with berry cobbler for dessert, asking them how they’re coping with the stresses of the adventure. “That must have been scary. I bet you’re feeling a tangle of feelings right now.” “Were there times you wondered how you’d succeed? How did you overcome?” “What’s going through your mind now that it’s all done?” He offers no advice, only empathy and appreciation.

Gertie offers her best bedding at the inn and asks whether they need anything else. The smell of roasted nuts fills the warm air, and the beds feel soft and welcoming.

The next morning, the aroma of Ava’s bakery wafts through the village. She’s been up all night baking, and she brings a cart full of sweet rolls and mincemeat pastries to the inn to greet the party. The flavors attract the rest of the village, and soon, the inn is bustling with joyful conversations and expressions of gratitude.

Brace reaches into his pocket and pulls out a package wrapped in string and brown paper and hands it to the party as an expression of the village’s appreciation. The box, padded with cedar shavings, contains an Aurora Breeze Chime.

Aurora Breeze Chime

Wondrous Item (windchime), common

The Aurora Breeze Chime is a beautiful windchime crafted from pure gold with intricately designed antler-shaped chimes. It has one charge. When hung up in an area where even a slight breeze blows consistently for the duration of a short rest, it creates a magical resonance within a 30-foot radius. This resonance affects anyone using hit dice for healing during the short rest, granting them an additional hit point of healing. The chime regains its expended charge daily at dawn.

The tundra is cold and hard, but the warmth of hearth and joy of the community provide a welcome contrast.

The Search for Dread

Can you find my mama? 

A parent was lost. Can you reunite the family?

This adventure is designed for 3–4 characters, level 5–6, with a total of 18–20 levels.

Background & Synopsis

Children at a playground are tormenting a tiefling child. Intentional, an adult tiefling, scares away the other children. The child, Sanctity, is new in town, having left the last one due to not being accepted with their parents. The mother (Dread) was lost along the way, kidnaped by bandits. Intentional and the child’s father ask the party to find Dread.

As the party retraces the family’s path, they encounter Moonmaeven, who welcomes the party and remembers seeing the father and child but never saw the mother. Moonmaeven offers them a sculpture that the same bandits dropped.

As the party travels, they enter an abandoned mine and encounter Lanark, who warns them of shoddy supports that led to the original owners’ demise and the new residents (cultists) who know nothing about masonry and engineering. As they navigate the mine, in a chamber with an altar. The cultists attack, and by the end of the encounter, Dread is free, as may be some devils. At one point, they may find treasure, but a collapse leaves them trapped, rescued by Veritas. When they return, the cultists have kidnaped the child, intending to turn the child into a “key” sculpture instead. Dread helps stop the cultists.

Once the party returns to their family, the cultists have kidnapped Dread’s son, Sanctity, and the party must rescue him as well.

Content Trigger Warnings

This adventure includes racially-motivated bullying (against a tiefling child), violence, and kidnaping.

Adventure Hooks

This adventure can serve as a side quest or as a connection or introduction to an ongoing cult-related villain.

Where are we?

This adventure can occur in any population center larger than about 400 people, which would typically include a public park, within a day’s travel of a forest.

Opening Encounter

Read or paraphrase the following:

As you travel through town, you pass by a park, which consists of trees, benches, a fountain with an iridescent dragon spraying a mist of water from its mouth that looks like a rainbow regardless of light sources or the viewer’s angle, a round field marked for some kind of ball game, and a large sand pit. In the sand pit, two human children are tormenting a tiefling preteen child with taunts and physical aggression. An adult tiefling sitting on a nearby bench notices the encounter and chants a short melody. The sand at the edge of the sandbox bursts into flame and begins moving across the sand toward the children. The two humans see it, look at the tiefling, and run away in panic. The tiefling notices the flame and walks over to it, staring at it curiously, getting closer, and eventually stepping into it. The adult walks over to the child as the flames vanish, speaking words of comfort.

As the party witnesses this and decides how to react, a middle-aged male human adult with long black hair in a ponytail and plain tunic comes running and hugs the boy, Sanctity, who bursts into tears. The adult, clearly Sanctity’s father from their overheard conversation, continues to comfort the child and thanks the adult tiefling. The tiefling approaches the party, welcomes them to town if they’re new, and introduces himself as, Intentional, assuring the party that not everyone in town is so cruel to those different from them.

Sanctity (commoner) is a brave preteen tiefling boy with hair like his father’s, crimson skin, and red antelope horns. He has experienced much persecution in his life to the point that, while it hurts him, he tries to hide it until he’s with someone safe. He’s kind to others but slow to trust anyone besides his parents, but he’s also learned to trust Intentional.

During this conversation, the father approaches Intentional, attempting with little success to hide his stress, barely finding strength to speak above a whisper as he uses what little energy he has to hold back tears. “Thank-you, Intentional. We came here looking for a place to thrive, but it’s been one struggle after another. First, my wife is taken during the trip, then we encounter this kind of hostility. I was really hoping we were done with this, but I guess that was naïve.”

He turns to the party and introduces himself as Numer. When Numer realizes the party are adventurers, his face lights up and says, “I wonder whether people of your skills can help me.” He explains that they recently moved from a small village, and while traveling, they were ambushed, and the bandits in red robes captured his wife, Dread.

He heard them say, “We need it alive,” so he’s confident that Dread is still alive somewhere. Even if the party can’t rescue them, any information would be appreciated. Numer tells them that he and Dread had saved a little money to help them get started in their new home, and the party can have it all if they can help rescue his wife. Intentional offers to chip in what he has if needed. If asked, Intentional won’t go along — he’s needed in town.

Optional Travel Encounters

While traveling, the game master may want to include an extra encounter along the road. If so, choose or roll randomly from the following tables. (Use Forest Path Maps)

Combat Encounters

D4	Encounter
1	A bandit party of 4 goblins and a bugbear leap out from behind trees and demand all the party’s money
2	A party of 3 centaurs believe the party are cultists and fire darts with sleep poison at the party. (Sleep Dart. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage. On hit, the target must succeed on a DC 13 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned for 1 hour. If the saving throw fails by 5 or more, the creature is also unconscious while poisoned in this way. The creature wakes up if it takes damage or if another creature takes an action to shake it awake.) The centaurs attack any remaining party members the next round, calling them “cultists” and telling them to get out of their forest. If the party tells the centaurs they’re not cultists, either through roleplay or with a successful DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check, the centaurs stop attacking. The centaurs don’t wish to kill the party — they just want to capture them and remove them from the forest.
3	An elven beekeeper (commoner) comes running and screaming for help, pursued by 3 giant wasps. He acquired them in an attempt to create magic hybrid bees to produce large amounts of honey, but they escaped before he could finish.
4	A ghast & 3 ghouls hope to make a meal of the party.

Non-Combat Encounters

D4	Encounter
1	An imp is spying on the party from a nearby tree and snaps a branch, which gets the attention of anyone in the party with a passive Wisdom (Perception) of 8 or higher. If captured, it offers 10 gp for the sculpture (see below), and if the party refuses, it haggles up to 50 gp. If asked why it wants the sculpture, it is reluctant to answer, but if forced, it says that it belonged to its master but refuses to reveal more.
2	Arixi Wigglepocket, a gnome doctor (commoner) riding on the back of a rhinoceros has lost control of her mount, which charges toward the party. She’s yelling, “Help me, but don’t hurt Nosy!” She’s traveling through the forest, and, “Some people in red robes were making a ruckus back there, which spooked my poor Nosy!”
3	A group of 4 goblins come from the opposite direction. They’re arguing with each other over directions. They ask the party for directions to the town the party came from. After the party gives directions, one says to another, “See? Pay up!” The other reluctantly hands over a cp.
4	That party hears a loud screech coming from not far off the road. An owlbear crouches there. If the party backs off, it leaves them alone, as it only wants to protect its eggs.

The Glassblower

Numer tells the party that he and his family came from Millview, eight days’ journey away, but the attack where Dread was taken came just off the road about a day’s journey from here. You can recognize the location by three boulders and two stumps in a clearing.

The road is a wide country path with wagon wheel ruts, first through a few miles of farms, then changing to woods. As the woods get thicker, the land rolls into gentle hills that get slightly steeper as they progress. In this woodland, they meet Moonmaeven and her massive dog, Freckles. Moonmaeven has set up camp near the road and is working over a fire to craft an intricate glass figurine that resembles Sanctity. When she sees them, she says, “Oh, there you are! Yes, that’s who I was expecting! Here, have some soup! I’m just finishing! Your timing is perfect!”

In the edge of the fire, a pot of soup holds an aromatic herb and lentil soup, and she sets the figurine into a ceramic box on the other edge of the fire and opens a wooden case, revealing a collection of beautiful glass bowls, separated by straw. She pours soup for anyone interested, a bowl for the dog, and one for herself.

Moonmaeven is happy to answer the party’s questions.

•   She had a vision of the party arriving but forgot the details, only that someone was coming, so she prepared for their coming and remembered the vision once she saw them.
•   That vision inspired the creation of the figurine she’s working on.
•   She remembers seeing Numer and Sanctity traveling through here but doesn’t remember anyone with them, “But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”
•   She was attacked by a group of bandits sometime after seeing them, whom she chased away, but when they fled, they dropped a pouch with an odd sculpture, a box on a round base with horns sticking up from it. She shows it to them: it is small enough to fit in a human hand with horns the size of dagger blades, crimson in color, and made from an unknown material that could be metal, stone, or bone, hard and seemingly indestructible. Detect Magic reveals an aura of transmutation magic. A successful Wisdom (Religion) check reveals the following:

o   15: It’s devilish in nature.

o   20: It’s associated with the cult of Ganzul, a Pit Fiend.

o   25: It’s a device used in a summoning ritual.

•   She offers them the sculpture in case it might help them.
•   She heard them say, “Something like mine or shrine or something like that, but I can’t remember, and I can’t make sense of it.”

She tells them the glass figurine will be ready by tomorrow, so if she’s still there when they come back, it’s her gift for the little one.

The Mineshaft

As the party travels on, they find the clearing just as Numer described. As the party investigates the area, the searcher with the highest Wisdom (Perception) sees a torn piece of red fabric on a trail that leads away from the road and clearing. The path leads to a mine entrance with a broken sign hanging from the top: Titan Trove Mine Map. Several rotting boards lay on the ground around the entrance, and another piece of torn red fabric is snagged on the boards on the entrance. (Use Titan Trove Mine Maps)

The entrance to the mine has a rusted iron pulley wheel just inside that was once used for mining carts. The 7-foot wide limestone passage forms a 30-foot-long graded ramp with rusted rails, sloping downward at a 45 degree angle. Most wheelchairs for medium or small sized creatures can fit against the rails to navigate the slope. Those without such supports who attempt to walk down the ramp must succeed on a DC 15 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check or fall prone and slide to the bottom, noisily hitting a pile of rubble at the bottom. Using a rope with the pulley gives advantage on the check.

1. Crashing into the pile of rubble or any other loud noise awakens a Swarm of Bats in Chamber One, which immediately attacks the party. Characters must succeed on a DC 8 Dexterity (Stealth) check to avoid disturbing the bats. Loud noises in one of the adjacent chambers also awakens them, but they then fly outside, not toward the noise.

The chamber is a carved mineshaft, support timbers looking new and firmly attached. The ground is covered in bat guano, the air pungent with ammonia, and anyone with a typical sense of smell experiences Nausea and vomits if they fail a DC 8 + (IE) Constitution saving throw, which leaves them incapacitated for 1d4 rounds.
In the back of the chamber, a stone door blends into the wall. A successful DC 20 Wisdom (Perception) check reveals the outline, and a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals the function of a spring mechanism to open it. Cultists use this door to sneak past Lanark into chamber 7.

2. The minecart track leads into and through this chamber. As the party nears this chamber, they hear an echoing bang and an annoyed voice say, “What did they use for supports, balsa wood?” Lanark stands by a broken beam with new beams nearby on the ground. He’s leaning on his ax, but when he sees the party, he says, “Ugh, more cultists! This is mine! You can’t pick this one! Just get out, or you’ll be in a tunnel trouble!”

Lanark heard about the abandoned mine a few months ago and decided to renovate it. Once he realizes the party aren’t cultists, he’s happy to answer questions.

1. If asked about his broken horn, he simply tells them that this is why solid engineering is important and won’t say more about it.
2. The cultists showed up a few months ago. He complains that they know nothing about masonry and engineering and have no business down there. He chases them out at times, but he’s too busy making repairs to deal with them most of the time.
3. He asks the party some questions about engineering that require a successful DC 15 Intelligence (Mining Tools Proficiency) check to answer accurately. If the party fails to answer accurately, he tells them they should leave before they hurt themselves. He won’t stop them, but if they need his help, they have disadvantage on all Charisma (Persuasion) checks with him. “You don’t know an ax from an elbow joint!”
4.   The cultists wear red robes and have been going deeper into the mine, but he hasn’t been back that far lately to see what they’re up to. “If they keep it up, the beams won’t keep it up — the ceiling, I mean.”
5. He hasn’t paid attention to their conversations, but he did hear them say something about losing something and needing to find it. “Sounds like they’re between a rock and a hard place.”
6. Before the party moves on, he warns them to watch out for cave-ins. “I haven’t worked my way back that far yet. A lot of people take this kind of work for granite, but when I’m done, you’ll marble at it!”
7.   As the party walks away, Lanark takes another chop at an old beam and grumbles, “I don’t think they knew a tongue and groove from a mortise and tenon!”
8. This large open chamber, strewn with broken mining equipment, rubble, and bones, has a slightly damp floor, and by the footprints in the mud pooled in some spots during rain, it has seen a lot of recent foot traffic. Searching the rubble reveals 18 cp fallen from the pockets of the dead miners, but nothing else that hasn’t been destroyed by time and moisture.
9. This alcove contains several stacks of lumber, a mining cart, and a flat cart in addition to a small chest and an ornately carved, minotaur-sized chair. Opening the chest immediately presents an aroma of thyme. It contains three large fresh round loaves of bread, two large sausages, and a variety of artisanal cheeses. The hinges on the chest have a ratchet that makes a loud clicking sound when opened and prevents shutting, which alerts Lanark that the party has opened his lunchbox. If the party investigates the box before opening, they see a lever on the back to release the ratchet and open it quietly or shut it. If Lanark catches the party with his lunch, he offers them some of the bread and a thick slice of griffon sausage. He appreciates compliments on his cooking, which makes him more likely to help if the party needs him later, giving them advantage on Charisma (Persuasion) checks with him.
10. This chamber holds a black wooden altar at the center with large horns on the corners, curving inward. A pedestal in the center has an indentation that looks like a perfect fit for the small sculpture they received from Moonmaeven. Magic detection reveals a fiendish aura.
11. When the party enters the chamber, four Acolytes of Ganzul attempt to ambush the party. Two have already cast Shield of Faith (+2 AC) and use Spiritual Weapon to attack apparent casters while two attempt to Hold Person on martial characters.
12. A priest protected by two hellcats stands away from the others, wearing a necklace with a red gem pendant (100 gp value). She holds the necklace to her eye and shouts, “They have the key! Get the key to the altar while I complete the incantation, but only while the incantation continues!” and begins chanting but not attacking the party unless the others die. The hellcats attack any of the party that approach the priest or attacks her.
13. The cultist party wants to put the object from Moonmaeven, the “key,” into the altar pedestal, but only while one of them is chanting. If the cultists succeed, Dread (without their familiar) is released from within the key, but a portal opens, and three bearded devils come through and attack the party.
14.   If the key is put in place without the chanting, it releases Dread but does not open the portal. If the priest’s chanting stops, the cultists start yelling to each other to keep the key away from the altar until the incantation resumes.
15. Dread immediately attacks the nearest devil, being able to smell them and feel heat coming from them, and when the devils have been vanquished, Dread helps against any remaining cultists, who are loud and smell of sulfur and sweat.
16. When Dread is released, regardless of whether the portal is opened, the walls shake, and the passage where the party entered collapses with twenty feet of rubble.
17.   Once the battle ends, Dread asks the party, “So, to whom do I owe my thanks?” Dread taps around with their cane and listens to the party and the sounds in the room to get their bearings. They ask how many are in the party and for each to introduce themselves to get to know their voices.
18.   If the party asks, Dread explains that the cultists kidnapped them and started chanting. Dread felt themself being pulled into the key and remembers nothing after that until being pulled out. They have no sense of how much time has passed, like waking from sleep and having a sense that it wasn’t instantaneous but with no clear sense of how long.
19. Dread wants to know how the release happened, and as soon as the party mentions Dread’s family, Dread interrupts and only asks questions about her family, their welfare, and how long it takes to get back to them.
20. Dread joins in any additional combat encounters and is eager to return to their family.
21. This room is thick with cobwebs, thicker on the side away from the entrance, and when the party enters, three swarms of spiders and a giant spider attack the party.
22. Twelve cultists are organizing cases of candles, lanterns, chains, and a chalk-like substance. If Dread is with the party, the cultists attempt to grapple and restrain them with the chains. A stone door identical to the one in chamber 1 blends into the south wall.
23. This chamber has another pile of rubble from a cave-in; bones and mining tools covering the ground around the rubble, and a green mist covers the ground. If the party disturbs any of the bones, they animate, and five skeletal miners attack the party.
24. This entire chamber is filled with magical darkness, and in the center of the and in the center of the chamber, a twenty-foot diameter and thirty-foot-deep pit. The party hears many quick movements around their feet and flapping above their heads. Any loud noise causes a swarm of bats and a swarm of rats to attack the party. If asked, Dread recognizes the sounds.
25. The hallway slopes downwards and gets wetter. Dark stagnant water covers the chamber’s floor six inches deep on average. If the party steps into the water, a black pudding attacks.
26. This dripping chamber contains three lanterns, three flasks of oil, and a chest in the back embedded into a forming stalagmite with a rusty lock, which can be unlocked with a successful DC 15 Dexterity check using Thieves’ Tools if first lubricated with oil, but the hinges are embedded into the wall, requiring 15 bludgeoning damage to remove. The chest contains 100 cp, 300 sp, 30 gp, and uncut 5 zircon stones (transparent pale blue-green) worth 25 gp each or 50 gp after a jeweler cuts them. If the party smashes the chest, the vibrations cause the entry to collapse, trapping the party inside. As they discuss how to get out, a tapping sound comes from above, and a hole breaks open in the ceiling, where Veritas breaks through and peeks into the room. When it sees the party, it asks who they are, and when convinced that they’re friendly, it drops in via a rope and offers to help them out via an old air vent. Veritas wanted to explore the cave but was annoyed by the “grumpy minotaur” by the entrance and decided to use “the back door.” The vent can lead them out of the cave, back to the forest, or drop into chamber #7. If they go to Chamber #7, Veritas helps against the cultists, who attempt to capture it, since it’s also a tiefling.

Out of the Shaft

Once the party is ready to leave, if they pass Lanark, he offers them a taste of his cheeses, including a spicy aged cheddar and chimera curds. If Veritas is with them, he refuses food to it and comments about its immature palate, to which Veritas rolls its eyes and comments about cranky minotaurs.

Quickly, back to my family!

Dread is eager to return home but honors any requests to rest first. When arriving at Moonmaeven’s camp, Moonmaeven is excited to see the party and is ecstatic that they rescued Dread. She offers Dread the figuring she created, and Dread takes some time feeling the intricate details of the tiny glass tiefling and begins to cry. They say, “This is my Sanctity, though more fragile than my strong child.” Moonmaeven gives Dread a wooden box lined with feathers to protect it and says, “It may be glass, but you will find it quite resilient. May it always warm your heart.”

Moonmaeven offers to prepare a meal for them, and as she digs through dishes and utensils, Dread asks whether she happens to have a brass brazier. Moonmaeven does, as she uses it in some of her glasswork. Dread politely borrows it, reaches into their coat pocket, and tells the party to eat when the food is ready, and that Dread themself eats after finishing a ritual. (She’s casting the Find Familiar spell.) An hour later, a raven flies out of the brazier and perches on Dread’s horn, to which Dread says, “Welcome back, Void, old friend.” They quickly eat and wash the utensils before moving on.

Where’s Sanctity?

When the party returns to town, Numer sees Dread from a distance and comes running, tears pouring down his face. Intentional follows at a slow pace, his head hanging low. When Numer gets close, Dread smiles, recognizing Numer’s gait pattern and his welcoming shouts.

Dread accepts Numer’s embrace and says, “You didn’t give up on me.”

Numer hugs Dread harder. “Never, my dear. Never shall I ever.”

Dread begins to cry. “You still love me?”

Numer cradles her head with his hands and kisses her tenderly. “Always and forever.”

Dread hugs Numer tightly and says, “Where’s Sanctity?”

By this point, Intentional has caught up to the party and says, “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t stop them!”

Numer and Intentional explain that some red-robed figures caught them by surprise in their house and took Sanctity. When they came into the house, Intentional was in the privy. They pinned Numer down with the couch and took Sanctity, dragging him into a cart and fleeing town. Intentional saw which way they went (a different road in the direction of the mine) but knew he couldn’t catch them.

Dread’s face combines fear and anger. “No! They will not use my Sanctity like they used me!” They ask Intentional to get enough horses for the party and them, and he runs off. They reach into their pocket, pulling out the box with the figurine, taking it out, and holding it in their hand. “It’s warmer,” Dread says, returning it to its box.

Intentional returns, out of breath, with the horses. Dread mounts one and says, “Someone, please take my horse’s rope to keep us with you, and don’t slow down.”

As the party heads out of town on the horses, Dread keeps reaching into their pocket, eventually extracting the figurine and holding it up. “We’re getting warmer! Keep going!” After about an hour, of fast travel, Dread says, “Slow down. We’re burning up.” They explain that the figurine has been getting warmer, and they believe it’s leading them to Sanctity. They must be close, and they need to be careful. She tells them to stop, and her raven, Void, flies on ahead, while Dread becomes still. “They’re around the next curve in a clearing. They stopped to eat. My Sanctity is tied up next to one of them. They’re five in number. Prepare yourselves.” Dread casts Mage Armor. (Use Forest Clearing by Path Maps)

When the party arrives at the clearing, two Acolytes of Ganzul and three cultists all move toward Sanctity. The cultist closest holds her scimitar to Sanctity and says, “Not another step! We only need one of you alive, fiendfake!”

Sanctity stomps on the cultist’s foot and tries to run, and the cultist slashes at Sanctity, leaving a narrow cut on his leg. As Sanctity falls to the ground, his finger points back at his attacker, and the attacker bursts into flames and falls to the ground. (He used his Hellish Rebuke.)

The remaining four attack the party. If the Acolytes of Ganzul begin to lose, one grabs Sanctity and holds him hostage, even threatening to use their Burn Out ability if necessary; although if they do, while the fire would hurt Sanctity, his fire resistance would keep him from dying, which the Acolyte may have forgotten. In this case, Sanctity might even provoke the acolyte to do so.

What’s Next?

Once the cultists are defeated and the family reunited, Intentional offers everyone dinner and rest at his house. As the party celebrates, a wagon comes into town, driven by a minotaur. Lanark is coming to town to get building supplies. When he sees the party, he comes over and says, “I found some useless lumber in my mine. I don’t see any good use for this stuff except as firewood.” In the back of his cart, he has the dismantled altar.

Bestiary

Acolyte of Ganzul

Medium humanoid (human), lawful evil

Armor Class

13 (leather armor)

Hit Points

33 (6d8 + 6)

Speed

30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
11 (+0)	14 (+2)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)	13 (+1)	14 (+2)

Skills

Deception +4, Persuasion +4, Religion +2

Senses

passive Perception 11

Languages

any one language (usually Common)

Challenge

2 (450 XP)

Spellcasting. The cultist is a 4th-level spellcaster. Its spell casting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 11, +3 to hit with spell attacks). The fanatic has the following cleric spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): light, sacred flame, thaumaturgy

1st level (4 slots): command, inflict wounds, shield of faith

2nd level (3 slots): hold person, spiritual weapon

Burn Out. When the cultist dies, it explodes in a burst of fire. Each creature within 5 ft. of it must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 7 (2d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Dark Devotion. The cultist has advantage on saving throws against being charmed or frightened.

Actions

Multiattack. The cultist makes two melee attacks.

Scimitar. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) slashing damage.

 

Hellcat

Medium fiend, lawful evil

Armor Class

16 (natural armor)

Hit Points

45 (7d8 + 14)

Speed

50 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
17 (+3)	14 (+2)	14 (+2)	6 (-2)	13 (+1)	6 (-2)

Skills

Perception +5

Damage Immunities

fire

Senses

darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 15

Languages

understands Infernal but can’t speak it

Challenge

3 (700 XP)

Keen Hearing and Smell. The cat has advantage on Wisdom (Perception) checks that rely on hearing or smell.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage plus 7 (2d6) fire damage.

Fire Breath (Recharge 5-6). The cat exhales fire in a 15-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 21 (6d6) fire damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Pounce. If the cat moves at least 20 ft. straight toward a target and then hits it with a bite attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 7 (1d8 + 3) bludgeoning damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 13 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. If the target is prone, the cat can make another bite attack against it as a bonus action.

 

These infernal minions appear as black panthers with red highlights in their fur, glowing flaming eyes, and flames flickering from their claws and mouths. When attacking, it uses its fire breath for multiple targets, then use its next turn to pounce.

 

Skeletal Miner

Medium undead, lawful evil

• Armor Class 14 (hide armor)
• Hit Points 13 (2d8 + 4)
• Speed 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
12 (+1)	14 (+2)	15 (+2)	6 (-2)	8 (-1)	5 (-3)

• Damage Vulnerabilities bludgeoning
• Damage Immunities piercing, poison
• Condition Immunities exhaustion, poisoned
• Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
• Languages understands the languages it knew in life but can’t speak
• Challenge 1/4 (50 XP)

War Pick. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage.

Rubble Rumble (Recharge 6). If the Skeletal Miner is within 5 ft. of a mine or cave wall, it can slam its pick on the wall and send a shockwave through the ceiling, causing a collapse in a 20-foot cone. Each creature in that area must make a DC 12 Dexterity saving throw, taking 10 (3d6) bludgeoning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

 

 

Because of the DMs Guild terms of service, we can’t post those resources here directly, but we can give you the combat maps from those adventures, sorted here with the links to the free adventures.

The Inevitable	Inevitable Maps
The Ember Elk	The Ember Elk Maps
Save the Queen!	Save the Queen! Maps
The Dark Watchman	The Dark Watchman Maps
Casts with Wolves	Casts with Wolves Maps
The Dour Dowry	The Dour Dowry Maps
The Weight of Glory	The Weight of Glory Maps
Fey & Fortune	Fey & Fortune Maps
The Price of Success	The Price of Success Maps
The Greater of Two Evils	The Greater of Two Evils Maps