The evil has broken its ancient bonds!
Can you brave the darkness and stop the nightmare creatures without becoming one of them?
This adventure is for 4–5 characters, levels 8–10.
Trigger Warnings
This adventure contains elements of body horror, violence (including choking and falling), and enclosed spaces. Player discretion is advised due to potentially disturbing content.
Synopsis
The party navigates a panicked crowd after a nearby mysterious tower’s roof explodes with darkness. As they work through the crowd, they face six talontulas, dismembered hands animated by dark magic. Recognized as heroes, the party is implored by the townsfolk to investigate the Forbidden Tower. Legends speak of a dark power sealed within, now unleashed.
Scaling the tower, they encounter signs of death and decay, with the ground barren and a dark cloud surrounding the top. Inside, they descend a spiral ramp, facing off against creepers seeking to hinder their progress. At the tower’s depths, they confront the dreadfallen, a formidable undead mass of body parts.
Finally, they must destroy five stones to seal a gateway to the Negative Material Plane while the necrotic energies threaten to turn them into a new dreadfallen. Once all stones are destroyed, the gateway is sealed. Ethereal figures emerge, revealing themselves as wizards who built the tower to contain the dark power. Grateful, they explain their sacrifice and thank the party.
Returning to the population center, the party is hailed as heroes, having prevented a catastrophe and earned valuable rewards.
Adventure Hooks
- Rumors of a powerful artifact hidden within the Forbidden Tower have spread across the land, attracting adventurers seeking fame and fortune. The party hears of these rumors and decides to investigate.
- The party receives a distress call from a member of a secret society dedicated to protecting the world from dark forces. The message warns of an impending catastrophe emanating from the Forbidden Tower and requests the party’s assistance in investigating and neutralizing the threat.
- The heroes witness the explosion from afar and decide to investigate.
- A renowned scholar contacts the party, seeking assistance in uncovering the secrets of the Forbidden Tower. Believing it holds the key to unlocking ancient knowledge, the scholar offers a reward for their help.
Where are we?
This adventure can take place in any populated center that may have a mysterious tower nearby.
Adventure
A Show of Hands
As the sun begins to set, an explosion shakes the community. In the distance, a spray like a smokeless volcano of ink erupts into the air as slivers of pure darkness surge across the landscape. One of those motes lands on the outskirts of the community, easily detectable by the screams of those nearby, which get louder and closer as more voices join in.
When the party investigates, the panicked crowd makes movement through the community nearly impossible. Each character must decide how to get through the crowd and succeed on an applicable DC 10 ability check such as Strength (Athletics) to push through, Dexterity (Acrobatics) to dodge between people, or Charisma (Intimidation) to get people to avoid them unless using magic or another strategy. On failure, the character gets trampled by the crowd, taking 1d4 bludgeoning damage and must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or fall prone. Characters using wheelchairs or other seated mobility devices or using a stability service animal have advantage on the check to avoid falling prone. This continues for three rounds, and if prone, the character must succeed on an applicable ability check with disadvantage to return to an upright position.
GM Note
While this encounter is intended more for atmosphere and introduction than danger, feel free to increase the number of talontulas or introduce waves of them to invoke stronger fear if your players seem unimpressed with six. The presence of the unarmed commoners likely offers a challenge as the party tries to protect them.
After the third round, the crowd disperses until twenty unarmed commoners remain on the 20 × 100-foot road. At this point, the party discovers six talontulas, pairs of dismembered decaying hands, thumbs intertwined, waving their fingers like butterfly wings, and flying through the streets.
Anyone obstructed by the crowd or too slow to escape becomes a target as the talontula lands on the victim’s neck, choking its prey while piercing the throat with mandible-like thumbs. As the target falls, the hands crawl along the ground and walls like a spider, its thumbs extended in search of its next victim, flying again when it chooses its next target. The talontulas are dispersed throughout the street, and each attacks the closest living creature.
All Hands on Deck
Once the party defeats the talontulas, the townsfolk recognize their bravery and power. They plead with the party to go investigate the Forbidden Tower and find a way to stop the dark magic from unleashing further abominations.
Six miles from the edge of town, the townsfolk point to the Forbidden Tower. They have learned its legend from childhood, and parents use it to scare their children into behaving while warning them to stay away. Many have scoffed at the stories, and while some have reached the base of the tower unscathed, none who attempted to scale it returned.
Legends tell of a dark power that was captured within it centuries ago. The stone tower has no doors or windows except a door at the top, sealed with powerful wards to prevent it from opening. Those who built the tower to contain the evil sacrificed their lives to contain it and became one with the dark power.
But now, the explosion must mean that, after all this time, the seal has broken, and the world will perish unless someone stops it. Someone needs to scale the tower to seal it or destroy the power within.
At Death’s Door
As the party travels to the tower, they notice several dead animals along the way, crushed or strangled. Larger animals like deer have two holes in their necks the size of thumbs. The tower’s eruption has ceased, but a dark cloud surrounds the top.
The ground in a fifty-foot circle around the tower is barren with no trees or undergrowth except some dead leaves and branches. A successful DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals humanoid boot prints in many directions and lines in the dirt as if a medium-sized creature or object were dragged to or from the wall of the tower. (A human recently climbed the wall, fell, died on impact, and was pulled through the wall into the tower.)
The wall is indestructible, sealed with powerful magic to contain its contents.
Climbing the wall with a climber’s kit requires a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check, DC 18 without the kit. The top of the tower has enough space for two medium-sized creatures to stand. A creature at the top helping with a long enough rope gives other climbers advantage on the check. A climber who fails the check must roll 10d6 − 1 to see how far they fall, taking 1d6 bludgeoning damage for every ten feet, rounding down. If tied to a rope with someone helping from the top, the helper can prevent the fall with a successful DC 10 Strength check. A climber’s kit reduces the fall distance to a maximum of 25 feet. After falling, the climber must attempt the Strength (Athletics) check again.
At the top of the tower, a roughly ten-foot square jagged opening emanates magical darkness, concealing the other side. The rest of the roof has a steep tiled slope, requiring a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check to climb and perch on it.
Ramping Down
No light enters the tower as magical darkness flows around the portal like liquid without gravity. Once inside, illumination and darkvision function normally, but magical darkness conceals the bottom thirty feet of the tower. A creature with Devil’s Sight can see through the darkness.
A spiral wooden ramp lines the interior wall, extending to the bottom. The ramp is five feet wide with a six-inch raised ridge along the inner edge, but no railings. The ramp slopes downward at a rate of ten feet per circumference of the tower, a total ramp distance of 600 feet.
Once the characters arrive within the tower, six creepers attempt to sneak up the wall to attack. To determine the starting location of each creeper, roll 1d4 for the hundreds place and 1d100 for the remaining two digits. The resulting number indicates the distance down the ramp where each creeper begins its turn.
Creepers each attempt to hide and move vertically toward the closest character until reaching the ramp, then they climb on the underside of the ramp until directly below the target, grabbing the ridge of the ramp and launching into an attack. Creeper attacks continue until the dreadfallen is destroyed.
Navigating the Tower
To keep track of character and creeper locations in the tower, simplify the spiral ramp into a straight line. The tower has a 20-foot diameter, with a 5-foot-wide ramp descending 1 foot per 10 feet of ramp.
Creepers climbing the tower cover up to 180 ramp feet per round (60 feet up the tower wall for every 10 feet climbed). They can only attack adjacent characters while moving vertically, so move them 60 feet at a time, then use the remaining feet to move along the ramp using normal distances. as if making 60-foot leaps and walking the rest, only able to attack targets within 5 feet or less of their landing position or with normal movement.
If characters attempt to long jump to the opposite side, the 12-foot jump requires a Strength score of 24, moving them 30 feet down the ramp. A 90-degree jump with a 15-foot movement requires a Strength score of 12, moving them 15 feet down.
A creature can swing down to the ramp below as a bonus action by succeeding on a DC 10 Dexterity (Acrobatics) check and using all of its movement. On success, it moves sixty feet down the ramp.
The dreadfallen and creepers do not speak verbally but communicate with each other through Infernal Sign Language, which they can sense using their blindsight. Creepers have disadvantage on attack rolls against anyone who can understand this language as they communicate their strategies to each other. Characters may notice the communicative movements, and a successful DC 10 Intelligence (Arcana) check recognizes the movements as a visual language. Characters who know at least one visual language have advantage on the check.
If a creature flies down the middle past a creeper, it provokes an opportunity attack as the creeper launches at the target. If the creeper misses with this attack, it falls to the bottom. Creepers attempt to use the ramp as cover when possible. At the GM’s discretion, spells like Fireball and Ice Storm may only affect creatures within one ramp level (The caster must consider elevation when choosing the spell direction and range.) due to cover from the ramps.
Negative Consequences
As the dreadfallen ceases its writhing, the remaining creepers collapse, and the magical darkness dissipates. Suddenly, the inert pile of limbs and organs begins to shudder and move as it seems to implode downward as if draining into a hole. The remaining flesh vanishes into a 5-foot diameter vortex of swirling green and black energy in the floor, surrounded by a pentagon of five non-reflective black stones. The energy flows into the stones as they become impossibly darker, then exploding outward.
Sealing the Gateway
Roll initiative as the party responds to the explosion.
The stones pulse with dark energy. At initiative count 20, each stone emits an explosive wave of necrotic energy, dealing 1d6 necrotic damage per remaining stone to any creature within 30 feet of it.
Negative Energy Stones
Armor Class 15
Hit Points 30
Immunities Necrotic, Poison, Psychic; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing from nonmagical attacks
Vulnerabilities Radiant Damage
To seal the gateway, the party must destroy the five black stones surrounding it.
Any creature at 0 hit points on its turn rises as a dreadfallen creeper on its turn the following round. Use the portal for determining its Dark Connection proximity. If three creatures thus transform, they merge over the stones and portal as a new dreadfallen. Once all five stones are destroyed, the portal implodes. The negative material plane connection is severed, sealing the gateway for good.
The Tower’s Builders Speak
Once the gateway closes, the stone fragments glow bright white, and ethereal figures of five wizards emerge from the light. They include a towering minotaur with intricate tattoos adorning his horns, his arm around the shoulder of a purple tiefling with curly black hair and horns with a similar shape and tattoos, a gnome with shimmering silver hair cascading down her back and a clockwork prosthetic leg, a human in a cyan parka that seems trimmed with ice and snow and who has tattoos on their face that transform their burn scars into a dragon, and a sea elf with aqua skin, indigo hair, and lightning-like trim on his robe.
The wizards express gratitude and explain that, centuries ago, they erected the tower to contain an ancient, malevolent force. To fortify the wards, they bound their spirits to the stones. However, the insidious being within the tower, rather than attempting to escape, cunningly manipulated the very stones that restrained it. Through dark machinations, it orchestrated an escape into the Negative Material Plane, leaving behind a rift that animated the remains of those who fell in the initial battle and those who dared to investigate the tower. These unfortunate souls metamorphosed into the dreadfallen, embodying the twisted remnants of their former selves. The cataclysmic explosion occurred when the pent-up negative energy breached a weak point in the tower’s roof, expelling a surge of force that birthed the talontulas, a grotesque manifestation of the escaping darkness.
As they finish their tale, they fade away, leaving only a shaft of light from the opening in the roof. When the party decides to leave the tower, they must find a way down from the roof.
Rewards
Against the wall rests a large pile of rusting and rotting equipment, the former belongings of the tower’s victims that the dreadfallen expelled. If the party examines the pile, they find the following.
- 8,800 gp
- 2,160 pp
- Silver chalice set with moonstones (750 gp value)
- Spell Scroll in a hollowed-out bone case: Ice Storm
- Arrow +2
Returning to Town
Returning from the tower, the relieved and grateful townsfolk greet the party, eagerly awaiting news. With the threat vanquished, the community begins to heal from the trauma. They hail the party as heroes, their bravery and sacrifice celebrated by all.
Maps
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To use the tower map, enter through the portal at the top left. As characters move left to right down the ramp, it continues on the left side at the next level until reaching the bottom. It’s a steady decline, displayed with different angles for VTT compatibility.
Credits & Copyright
- Writer: Dale Critchley
- Cartographer: Dale Critchley
- Artwork by Dale Critchley, public domain illustrations, and Adobe Stock Art
Legal
This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
All content, unless otherwise noted, ©2024 Wyrmworks Publishing
