Holly

December 2, 2022

A pink tinted elf in a coniferous forest holding a giant candy cane

Medium Humanoid (Elf), Neutral Good
Cisgender woman (she/her)

Armor Class: 12 (16 with barkskin)
Hit Points: 27 (5d8 + 5)
Speed: 30 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
10 (+0)	14 (+2)	12 (+1)	16 (+3)	18 (+4)	10 (+0)

Skills: Medicine +6, Nature +5, Perception +6
Senses: passive Perception 16
Languages: Common, Druidic, Elvish
Challenge: 2 (450 XP)

Spellcasting. Holly is a 4th-level spellcaster. Her spellcasting ability is Wisdom (spell save DC 14, +6 to hit with spell attacks). She has the following druid spells prepared:

Cantrips (at will): Druidcraft, Produce Flame, Shillelagh
1st level (4 slots): Create Or Destroy Water, Thunderwave
2nd level (3 slots): Barkskin, Flaming Sphere, Hold Person, Moonbeam, Pass without Trace, Spike Growth,

Blindness [IE 4]. Holly’s vision is impaired to the point that it is absent completely, and she has learned to navigate the world with no reliance on her eyes, depending on other senses instead. 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. In addition:
She does not have disadvantage to hit invisible creatures.
She is proficient in the use of a stylus for reading and writing.

Fey Ancestry. She has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, and magic can’t put her to sleep.

Wild Shape. Holly can use her action to magically assume the shape of a beast that she has seen before (max CR 1/2, no flying speed). She can use this feature twice. She regains expended uses when she finishes a short or long rest. She prefers wolf, elk, or reef shark.

Actions

Candy Cane Quarterstaff. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit (+6 to hit with shillelagh), reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 3 (1d6) bludgeoning damage, or 8 (1d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage with shillelagh or if wielded with two hands.
This staff also reduces the IE of the Wisdom (Perception) check penalty by 1 to detect objects within 5 ft.
This staff has 1 charge. On a successful hit, she can expend 1 charge as an bonus action to cause an additional 3D6 cold damage. The staff regains its expended charge daily after a long rest.

Background

Holly was born with a rare condition that left her unable to see. She has always been a curious and adventurous spirit, and has spent her life exploring the arctic world and learning its secrets. She enjoys spending time in Santa's workshop, but all the tools reverberating off the walls can be disorienting to her, so she prefers getting outside and can comfortably navigate the tundra on her own.

Holly loves the smell of the pine trees, the brisk wind, and the majestic sound of ice cracking, but she's also learned to recognize the sounds of the threats that roam the landscape as well and has often saved Santa's village with advance warnings of approaching threats.

During the Christmas season, Holly is particularly attuned to the magic of the season, and uses her powers to spread joy and cheer to those around her. She is a valued member of her community, and is respected and admired for her wisdom and strength.

Tooth Fairie

December 2, 2022

Tiny fey, lawful evil

Armor Class 14 (hide armor)
Hit Points 2 (1d4)
Speed 10 ft., fly 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
3 (-4)	18 (+4)	10 (+0)	14 (+2)	13 (+1)	11 (+0)

Saving Throws Dex +6
Skills Perception +3, Sleight of Hand +8, Stealth +8
Senses truesight 120 ft., passive Perception 13
Languages Common, Elvish, Sylvan
Challenge 1 (200 XP)

Innate Spellcasting (2/Day). The Tooth Fairie can innately cast Misty Step, requiring no material components. Its innate spellcasting ability is Wisdom.

Actions

Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 1 slashing damage.

Shortbow. Ranged Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, range 40/160 ft., one target. Hit: 1 piercing damage, and the target must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or become paralyzed for 1 minute.

Invisibility. The Fairie magically turns invisible until it attacks or casts a spell, or until its concentration ends (as if concentrating on a spell). Any equipment it wears or carries is invisible with it.

Dragoshark

December 2, 2022

Large monstrosity, Lawful Neutral

Armor Class 15 (natural armor)
Hit Points 76 (9d10 + 27)
Speed 0 ft., fly 30 ft., swim 40 ft.

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
17 (+3)	13 (+1)	16 (+3)	7 (-2)	12 (+1)	10 (+0)

Skills Perception +4
Damage Immunities lightning
Senses blindsight 30 ft., darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 14
Languages understands Draconic but can’t speak
Challenge 5 (1,800 XP)

Pack Tactics. The Dragoshark has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the shark’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.

Water Breathing. The Dragoshark can breathe only underwater.

Actions

Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (1d10 + 3) piercing damage.

Breath Weapon (Recharge 5-6). The Dragoshark exhales lightning in a 40-foot line that is 5 feet wide. Each creature in that line must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw, taking 49 (9d10) lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Warmth Domain

December 2, 2022

When you’re alone and cold, a close friend will warm you. The Warmth domain focuses on close friendships and trusting relationships apart from the passions of romantic love. Gods of hearth, life, and war can claim influence over this domain, as can gods of love whose focus extends to a broader range of human relationships.

Warmth Domain Spells

Cleric Level	Spells
1st	Bless, Protection from Evil and Good
3rd	Aid, Warding Bond
5th	Beacon of Hope, Mass Healing Word
7th	Locate Creature, Mass Cure Wounds
9th	Forbiddance, Heal

Bonus Proficiency

When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency with Insight and Persuasion.

Better Together

Also at 1st level, you can strengthen your friends by each others’ presence. As an action, you choose a number of willing creatures within 30 feet of you (this can include yourself) equal to your proficiency bonus. You create a magical connection among them for 10 minutes or until you use this feature again. While any connected creature is within 30 feet of you, you can grant each temporary hit points equal to 1d4 + your proficiency bonus for the duration as long as they stay within range.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Channel Divinity: Bond of Friendship

Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to bolster the confidence of your allies. As an action, you present your holy symbol and choose a number of willing creatures within 30 feet of you (this can include yourself) up to your cleric level. While they remain within range, they have resistance to psychic damage and a bonus equal to your proficiency bonus on all saving throws against being frightened or charmed or on saving throws required by uncomfortable emotions such as Amplified Emotions or Baseless Emotions. The effect lasts for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated or die.

Channel Divinity: Through Thick and Thin

Starting at 6th level, your Better Together feature also gives each affected creature advantage on one Constitution or Wisdom saving throw of its choice while under the effects of this feature, and it also restores one hit die to each affected creature.

Divine Strike

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 psychic damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

Thick as Thieves

At 17th level, when you use your Bond of Friendship feature, all affected creatures also gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage from nonmagical attacks.

Ramp

December 2, 2022

1st-level conjuration (ritual)

Casting Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Components: V, S, M (a wood or stone wedge)
Duration: 10 minutes

This spell creates a plane of force, 6 feet wide, 1 inch thick, and up to 30 feet long, that connects 2 solid objects through an unoccupied space of your choice that you can perceive within range. The plane remains for the duration and can hold up to 500 pounds. If more weight is placed on it, if you move more than 30 feet away from it, or if one of the connected objects moves beyond the length of the plane, the spell ends, and everything on the plane falls to the ground.

At Higher Levels. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the plane length increases by 20 feet for each slot level above 1st.

The Insider

December 2, 2022

castle at sunrise against a mountainous backdrop

Content Trigger Warnings

This adventure includes betrayal, death, violence, and an injury that results in permanent disability.

Something stinks in Gutter Town!

A missing noble has led to the fall of a town and its surrounding area into the hands of criminals. Can you find the solution and restore order?

This adventure is designed for 3–4 characters, levels 5–7.

Background

Lord Zuulpa Thall was once a noble of great renown with a notoriously brilliant mind. Cherished by all, the lord was in charge of the administration of southern part of the kingdom, a position of great prestige that brought admiration upon him, as well as envy. The reasons why the beloved man has become an outcast whose name invokes fear in the hearts of all is covered in mystery. Rumors say that he lost his edge when his only daughter perished in a tragic accident, but only one thing is certain—the southern lands are unruly and chaotic, and the lord has not been seen for a decade, while everything dies around his manor as if a curse has fallen upon it.

When the lack of control and leadership became an insurmountable problem, the surrounding lords started to send their own people to investigate the absent lord and determine the reason for his lack of governance. All that went to the lord’s castle have returned in a box, discovered as as mutilated corpses, or didn’t return at all. The surrounding lords started annexing some of the land, partly taking advantage, partly having no choice but to rule over the land in order to resolve the problems brought by the absence of leadership.

The burg that surrounds the castle, however, remains unconquered in absolute chaos where the strong oppress the weak. A group of residents, led by an elderly former captain, have taken the destiny of the town in their own hands and are looking to hire a group of capable adventurers to enter the castle and find out what happened with their liege lord and resolve this tension once and for all.

It would be true to say that some of the lords that now control areas once controlled by Lord Thall had some economic advantages in the appropriation of lands under the excuse of keeping the king’s peace and protecting the people, but they are unanimously willing to give back the lands once the rightful owner appears again. As the king himself has not decreed otherwise, maybe for all the friendship that was between them, no one is authorized to take the burg by force in order to investigate the whereabouts of the missing lord or to reestablish order. Given the circumstances, a small criminal group has taken the town, and the people that refuse to abandon it are at their mercy, creating a safe haven for all varieties of backstabbers, cutthroats, and wanted criminals, since invading the burg would be an act against the king himself. In theory, Lord Thall is still the warden of the South and represents the king and his royal will, despite the ways his castle or lands are being used by others without his supervision.

The once beautiful burg, both the castle and the small town contained within its walls, are now a clear image of decadence. The front of the burg has strong walls and a thick gate. Around it, the natural protection of cliffs that surround it, so steep that only spiders could climb, or wings could reach. Around the triangular shaped piece of land, a canyon offers perfect protection from all other directions, and at the far end sits the lonely castle.

All are interested and involved in a collective effort to solve the dire situation in the most decisive yet discreet way possible. The Southern Lords, the king, the people, all want a resolution for the dilemma, either by finding a corpse, a man struggling with the effects of trauma, or even final evidence of his disappearance, anything that would assemble evidence enough for another lord to be named in his stead and the disbanding of the criminals that plague the region. Individually and collectively, the lords plot a way to send people in and unfold this mystery to bring order to the South.

Adventure Hooks

The king himself is bothered by the lack of solution on the matter and has sent an envoy, with the royal sigil, looking for a specialized group that will solve the issue without causing turmoil amongst the noble houses. There is animosity and suspicion that the Lords are not solving the matter for the advantages that they may gain.
The Southern Lords of the region gathered in a joint effort to rid the region of criminals and put an end to the dissatisfaction of their king. They are hiring willing capable people to solve the matter unofficially to get the criminals with their guard down and avoid further shame on the noble houses.
The Circle of Druids is highly concerned by the spread of maleficent corruption in the region and decay of the forests and are looking for “city dwellers” that could further investigate its origin, since its source comes from inside the city walls.

Where are we?

Chasm Town

The burg was founded by the Thall family over a century ago by a military genius-made-lord.

Strategically placed in the edge of a canyon at its highest peak so it would funnel possible hostiles and make them come from a single direction, maintaining the high ground as advantage, and controlling the situation. Strong and tall palisades at the town’s limits, built over irregular terrain that gets higher and higher in layers, would also compel invading forces to fight always at a disadvantage.

The castle itself is right on the edge of the final and highest point, overseeing the town and beyond its walls.

A shadow of its former glory, all is decrepit and forsaken. Ivy has taken the stones of the castle; the windows, either broken or sealed shut from the inside; the pieces of the tapestry hanging on the walls and the flag that were not taken by time, all torn and filthy. The town is a huge gutter with open air sewage, plagued by rats, half burned buildings, and a single well that is surrounded by thugs at all times, holding the resource at ransom.

The only building in town that is partially maintained is the Brawler’s Cauldron, a family business that is partly a tavern, the only one left, and partly a store that used to sell books, alchemical pastes and the like, that is now boarded up from inside. The former store section of the building seems to suffer constant vandalism, different from the rest of the building.

Stat Blocks

Encounters

Maps

Chasm Town
The Brawler’s Cauldron