D&D 5e Nerzugal's Dungeon Master Toolkit 3

Building Ablaze! As the ground shifts, you hear the sound of the crash of glass coming from one of the townsfolk's homes. The windows are already shattered, so the sound echoes through the area clearly. It seems that whatever alcohol this person had stashed in their home had already crashed to the floor, because the building swiftly goes ablaze! Citizens on this rooftop leap away to other nearby homes, but these homes are so close that it seems they might go ablaze as well if nothing is done! The fire risks spreading and potentially taking the entirety of the small town with it! The party and townsfolk will have to work together to suppress the flames the best they can! Magic can be very useful here, but dousing the nearby buildings in water or dirt can also prevent the spread. There are other creative solutions that can be used, but these just cover some of the main options. The worms seem to be drawn to the heat and even come up out of the ground for a bit to inspect the flames. (This is how they determine for certain that there are at least 3 of these monstrous creatures attacking the city.) It also allows them to keep an eye on the creatures and even hop down and enter buildings while the worms are distracted by the collapsing building and surging heat! If someone tries to run for the mines, the worms still turn and chase this new prey. There is no correct answer for success, but if the party does not come up with a workable idea, Ronah will suggest collapsing the buildings immediately around the burning one so it is harder for them to catch the flames and spread to other buildings. How to do that is still up to the party, but the worms might be able to help! Flying Worm Spawn Attack! Once the issue with the tavern has been taken care of (perhaps even burning down multiple buildings before the fire stops), the worms seem to have become a bit more aggressive in their intents. They pop up from the ground and seem to watch the townsfolk up on the rooftops with their eyeless faces. By now it is reaching noon and the sun is beating down on the survivors. Water is running low (unless they used the time during the fire to gather supplies!). People are becoming restless and beginning to fear the worst. Make sure to have Val, Eldra, and Ronah keep spirits high despite the danger of the situation! Use this time to get a bit of roleplaying in with the party, the primary NPCs, and the townsfolk. A few minutes after noon, all three worms emerge from the ground at once. They spit chunks of stone high into the air once again, some of the small boulders reaching heights of 100 feet. Before any of these rocks hit the ground, they unfurl and sprout large wings with a thin translucent membrane that keeps them aloft. The creatures hover overhead for a moment, snapping their diamond-shaped maws, before descending upon the town! Roll for initiative. The type and number of creatures your party faces depends on your APL. APL Enemies 1 3x Flying Worm Spawn 2 6x Flying Worm Spawn 3 2x Greater Flying Worm Spawn 4x Flying Worm Spawn 4 3x Greater Flying Worm Spawn 3x Flying Worm Spawn These are the worms that swarm around the party. Have additional creatures harassing all of the townsfolk, even knocking a few of them off of the rooftops to be devoured by the large worms down below. Val, Eldra, and some of the others fight back using the weapons they have available and kill the last of their own enemies as the party kills the worm spawn that attacked them. A Weakness Found! After the attack of the flying worm spawn, the people of the town are beaten and battered. They are thirsty and hungry and in mourning over lost friends and family. One of the men on a nearby building pulls a flute out from a bag at his side and begins to play a song to honor those who have fallen - and the worms go mad. They burrow and erupt in a strange dance, letting out terrible screeches as the man continues to play. Certain notes appear to be causing them great distress, but they are not attacking the building! The moment he stops, they slip back into the ground calmly. It is during this that Val looks to the party. “This is our chance. If we are going to get to the explosives in the mines, it is going to be now while these things are distracted! Let’s move!” She jumps down and the worms don’t even seem to react. “Jacob, don’t stop playing until we have reached the mines. We want to pull them away from town so we don’t destroy what buildings we have left!” If the players try to attack the worms in their agitated state, they lash out violently! Anyone that gets too close will still be attacked as their deeper, primal instincts take over. 51

Setting the Trap The party and Val charge the 1,200 feet across the desert leading to the base of the mountain and the Adaven Mining Company base of operations. Val pulls a key off of her belt and moves over to a door fixed to the stone itself. She opens the door to reveal a space carved directly into the side of the mountain holding over a dozen different types of explosives. “Alright, let’s take some of the bigger charges. These damned things don’t seem to have a problem eating a horse so I assume they won’t mind gobbling up a charge the size of a small dog!” She grabs a few bricks of explosives and carefully carries them out to a table just out in front of the mines. She calls to one of the players to grab some long fuses that are in coiled bundles in the room as well. “Someone light a torch, but be careful. One misstep and you blow us all to hell. I would never hear the end of it from Eldra! And someone keep watch so those bastards don’t sneak up on us!” Baiting the Trap “So, how are we going to get one of these giant townwrecking pieces of shit to eat one of these?” This is where the party will need to come up with another creative solution. They know that the creatures respond to sounds and movement along the ground. They will also need to figure out how to get all three of the worms to eat one of the bombs without gobbling up any of the party! They have long fuses as well as a half a dozen timers that can trigger a bomb after a set amount of time up to 5 minutes. There is a fairly large building just in front of the mine that contains miners outfits, water barrels, food, etc… and it is the only place large enough to fit the entire party atop its roof. There are also scattered boulders around the area that are thick enough and high enough that the worms can’t burrow through, but the party doesn't know that. Once the party has their plan ready, Val will take a few of the bombs and put them together in a pile a safe distance from the party, buried partially in the ground. “This should get their attention!” Shortly after, she detonates the bomb and the worms approach! The explosion is still ringing in your ears as you see the ground churning out near the town. All three of the worms are near the surface and casting dirt aside in massive waves. One of them emerges from the ground for just a moment and lets out a loud thunderous boom - something you have not yet seen from these beasts. It almost seems to be a battle cry as the creature burrows down again and they swiftly close the gap between the mines and the town. The Final Showdown The party will hopefully have come up with a clever plan to get the worms to swallow the bombs, otherwise they might be doomed! Once the bombs are detonated, huge chunks of stone blown out of their bodies rain down over the field and smash into some of the buildings and equipment. . . but when the dust settles there are still some remnants alive. These survivors are now damaged and in a desperate state . . . and they are tall enough to reach the tops of the buildings. Roll for Initiative. The type and number of creatures your party faces depends on your APL. For certain APLs, there are worm spawn in the battle as well. The surviving worm(s) simply ejects a few more children as the battle begins and they are added to the fight. The worms stay above the ground when in this desparate state, striking at anything and everything they can reach. APL Enemies 1 1x Fractured Rock Worm 2 1x Fractured Rock Worm 3x Worm Spawn 3 2x Fractured Rock Worm 4 2x Fractured Rock Worm 4x Flying Worm Spawn Aftermath With the worms defeated, the party and Val can head back to Adaven and tell the townsfolk that they are safe from these ferocious creatures. The town gives a sigh of relief rather than a celebration. They lost many of their friends in the attack and half of their town is in ruins. Regardless, they thank the party extensively for their aid in saving a group of strangers they had just met. They declare them the heroes of the town and insist on giving them a reward. The town is quite prosperous, and with all of the gold and silver that they will be mining in the months to come they will have no trouble rebuilding and getting their lives back together. Val heads out to the mining building and comes back with a sack of coins for the party. (The amount given is based on the party’s APL and is listed below). Ronah tells them that drinks will always be on the house at The Summit. Eldra claps them each on the back and makes comments about their combat prowess and how each of them has a build made for mining if they are looking for a safer line of work 52

Experience The Experience listed below represents a blend of monster encounters, non-combat encounters, and some bonus experience for finishing the quest. Feel free to adjust these values if you see fit. APL XP per player 1 300 2 600 3 1,500 4 2,500 Loot The reward your party receives for completion of this adventure is based upon the party’s APL. APL Rewards 1 250 gold 2 500 gold 3 750 gold 4 1,200 gold 53 Fractured Rock Worm Huge monstrosity, unaligned Armor Class 14 (natural armor) Hit Points 23 (2d12 + 10) Speed 30 ft., 30 ft. (burrow) STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 17 (+3) 8 (-1) 20 (+5) 3 (-4) 10 (+0) 1 (-5) Skills --- Senses tremorsense 300 ft., passive Perception 10 Languages --- Challenge 1 (200 XP) Actions Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one grappled creature. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) piercing damage. If the target is a Medium or smaller creature, it is swallowed by the worm. A swallowed creature is blinded and restrained, it has total cover against attacks and other effects outside the worm, and it takes 7 (2d6) bludgeoning damage at the start of each of the worm’s turns. If the worm takes at least 10 damage in a single turn from a creature inside it, they break through the damaged rock of the worm to freedom. They fall prone in an unoccupied space adjacent to the worm. If the worm dies, a swallowed creature is no longer restrained by it and can escape from the corpse by using 20 feet of movement, exiting prone. Clawed Tongue. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage and the creature must succeed on a DC 13 Dexterity saving throw or become grappled by the tongue (escape DC 13). The worm can have only one creature grappled at a time.

54 Worm Spawn Small monstrosity, unaligned Armor Class 15 (natural armor) Hit Points 13 (3d6 + 3) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 2 (-4) 8 (-1) 2 (-4) Skills --- Senses tremorsense 30ft., passive Perception 9 Languages --- Challenge 1/8 (25 XP) Powerful Leap. The worm spawn can leap up to 12 feet into the air without a running start. Actions Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 12). The worm spawn can only have one target grappled at a time. Acid Spit Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (2d4) acid damage. Greater Worm Spawn Small monstrosity, unaligned Armor Class 15 (natural armor) Hit Points 18 (4d6 + 4) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 12 (+1) 2 (-4) 8 (-1) 2 (-4) Skills --- Senses tremorsense 30ft., passive Perception 9 Languages --- Challenge 1/2 (100 XP) Powerful Leap. The worm spawn can leap up to 12 feet into the air without a running start. Sturdy. The worm spawn has advantage on Constitution saving throws.. Actions Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) piercing damage, and the target is grappled (escape DC 13). The worm spawn can only have one target grappled at a time. Acid Spit Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, range 30 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (3d4) acid damage.

55 Flying Worm Spawn Small monstrosity, unaligned Armor Class 13 (natural armor) Hit Points 14 (4d6) Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 12 (+1) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 2 (-4) 12 (+1) 2 (-4) Skills --- Senses passive Perception 11 Languages --- Challenge 1/4 (50 XP) Flyby. The worm spawn doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy’s reach. Diving Strike. If the worm spawn flies at least 20 feet straight towards a target and then hits it with a bite attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 5 (2d4) damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet. Actions Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage. Greater Flying Worm Spawn Small monstrosity, unaligned Armor Class 13 (natural armor) Hit Points 21 (6d6) Speed 30 ft., fly 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 10 (+0) 2 (-4) 13 (+1) 2 (-4) Skills --- Senses passive Perception 11 Languages --- Challenge 1 (200 XP) Flyby. The worm spawn doesn’t provoke opportunity attacks when it flies out of an enemy’s reach. Diving Strike. If the worm spawn flies at least 20 feet straight towards a target and then hits it with a bite attack on the same turn, the target takes an extra 5 (2d4) damage. If the target is a creature, it must succeed on a DC 12 Strength saving throw or be pushed 5 feet. Actions Multiattack. The worm spawn makes two attacks: one with its bite and one with its claws. Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage. Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (2d4 + 2) slashing damage.

Give a HOOT! A One-Shot Adventure for Levels 1-6 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventure Synopsis Humanoids for Outstanding Owlbear Treatment has been working for over a decade to ensure that the majestic owlbear does not go extinct as a result of over-hunting. These are people who care deeply for owlbears and feel that while they are dangerous, they deserve the right to live as much as any other creature of the wilds. Unfortunately, a group of bandits attacked the HOOT Sanctuary and took one of their precious owlbear cubs - Nekosi. Nekosi’s parents were not taken, but they both fled the sanctuary to go search for their baby. Now all three of them are missing! This adventure begins with the party being attacked by this same group of bandits and they try to coerce baby Nekosi to enter the fight. They beat the poor creature when it refuses. When the bandits are dispatched, the party will discover that Nekosi is from the HOOT Sanctuary and can return the cub to her home, only to discover her parents are missing. Through their studies of owlbears at the sanctuary, it is known that a cub separated from its parents too young will stop eating and playing as it falls into depression. This often ends in the death of the cub. So it is up to the party to use the divining chips implanted in Nekosi’s parents and find out what has happened to them! They need to be brought safely back to the HOOT Sanctuary or poor little Nekosi might not make it. These are animals raised in captivity, so they don’t have the instincts needed to survive in the wild - and who knows what fiendish individuals wait for the poach these precious creatures? Are your players willing to help reunite this owlbear family? Do they give a HOOT? Average Party Level (APL) This adventure uses the Average Party Level (APL) to scale the difficulty of encounters. This is simply the average of your players’ total character levels assuming you have 4 party members. If your group is larger than 4, increase your APL by 1 for each additional player. If your party is smaller than 4, decrease your APL using this same rule. Expected Length: 2-4 Hours The expected length of this adventure is 2-4 hours. Of course, these are expectations and what you experience may change based on player choices and pacing. Descriptive Text Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be read aloud for the players when their characters first arrive at a location or under a specific circumstance that will be noted. Adventure Introduction (Optional) This is suggested if you are running a one-shot separate from an overarching campaign and want to kick things off swiftly. If you are embedding this adventure in an existing campaign, there may be better ways to throw the party into the action. Your party is escorting a caravan of traders through a winding road flowing through a dense forest known for its goblin encampments, bandit squads, and dangerous creatures. It is a journey that few merchants are willing to make, and when they do it is as part of a group with mercenaries and sellswords hired to protect them. You are their mercenaries for this trip. You have been promised 10 gold each of you can safely accompany the six trade carts to the city of Neem on the other side of the Whispering Woods. You will have to earn this coin, though. As you crest over a hill, you notice a tree that has been felled in the middle of the path and the caravan comes to a halt. 56

Give A HOOT Key Events Reminder This page can serve as a quick reference to remind of major events, NPC names, locations, and any other relevant information that you may need during the adventure! The ordering of some of the events can change based on the player’s choices, but all of the events are detailed below with identifying headers. If you are running this at the table, I would suggest printing this out and having it at the ready to get yourself back on track no matter what happens! Major Events Bandit Attack! Rescuing Nekosi Arrival at the HOOT Sanctuary Meeting Ellie Job offer - Find Our Owlbears! Finding Catori Running through the woods Wolf showdown! Finding Sakana Goblin scout in the trees Path to goblin village with Sakana Releasing Sakana - multiple pathways: Distraction Sneaking Combat Bartering Return to the HOOT Sanctuary Important NPCs Owlbear family Nekosi - Cub Catori - Mother Sekana - Father Ellie - Founding member of HOOT and owlbear expert Notable Locations The HOOT Sanctuary 57

Bandit Attack! The log that sits in the middle of the path is simply a blockade for any caravans moving down the road. It is pretty obvious what is about to happen and the party will almost certainly immediately become suspicious. After about twenty seconds, two bandits pop up from behind the fallen tree with crossbows at the ready. They demand that the caravan workers start unloading their goods or there is going to be bloodshed. The party can attempt to talk down these bandits, but they won’t have any of it and eventually one of the bandits will let loose a bolt. Alternatively, the party can take the offensive and one member can get off a surprise attack before you need to roll for initiative. The types and number of bandits your party faces depends on your party’s APL. Consult the table below to determine the enemies in this combat. APL XP Enemies 1 4x Bandit (MM Pg. 343) 2 8x Bandit 3 1x Bandit Captain (MM Pg. 343) 3x Bandit 4 1x Bandit Captain 6x Bandit 5 2x Bandit Captain 2x Bandit 6 2x Bandit Captain 6x Bandit Read this section after the first round of combat! You see one of the bandits is dragging a baby owlbear on a leash and encouraging it to attack. He screams at the creature, but it refuses to move and simply cowers in fear. He kicks the owlbear cub and it gives out a hoot of pain before running to hide in a nearby bush. The bandit is pulled to the ground as the cub runs away, as it is the much stronger of the two. The bandit brandishes his blade and closes in on the owlbear. It is up to the party to intervene and save the frightened owlbear! Meet Nekosi Once the party has dealt with the bandits, they can still hear the whimpering hoots of the terrified baby owlbear. It continues to cower in the bushes with its head low to the ground and shaking. The party can make a DC 10 Wisdom (Animal Handling) to coerce the owlbear from its hiding, making the check with advantage if they offer food of some kind. On a success, the owlbear hesitantly comes out and approaches the party with a curious hoot. On a failed save, the owlbear gives out some low growls and backs away a bit. The party will have to try a new approach to gain its favor and attempt this save again - but the eventual goal is to get the owlbear to come out so make sure they eventually succeed in earning its trust. A small owlbear crawls out of the bush and nervously approaches you. Its color is a snowy white with large yellow eyes. It has a small black beak and feathers curl up around its head almost like horns. There is a bandage wrapped around its back left leg that has a bit of blood seeping through. Around its neck is a collar made of fine leather with a silver name tag that hangs down. It reads “Nekosi”. If your players inspect Nekosi, they will find that on the back of the name tag are the words “HOOT Sanctuary Family Member” in very small text that has been carved into the metal. Have your party make a DC 15 Intelligence (History) check to see if they recognize this name. On a success, they recall that this forest had its owlbears hunted to the point of near extinction and a group decided to create a sanctuary for these creatures. It isn’t too far away from where they are now! If they fail, they are not sure of what the HOOT Sanctuary is, but one of the members of their caravan will let them know that it is about five miles further down the path if the party asks them. The injury on Nekosi’s leg isn’t too bad. It seems to have been made from some sort of bladed weapon but was not properly treated. Unfortunately for the party, if they try to mess with the bandages to use traditional medicine, Nekosi will get upset and bite the person causing her pain! The party will need to either use magical healing, succeed on a DC 20 Wisdom (Animal Handling) check, or have someone back at the HOOT Sanctuary treat the wound. Nekosi’s Personality Nekosi is a curious little owlbear and will be constantly trying to get into the party’s bags to see what is inside. No food is safe while Nekosi is around and if she is left unattended for even a few minutes she will certainly find a way to destroy something as she inspects it. She is friendly towards people, but prefers women simply because most of the bandits that abused her over the last day were men. She knows basic commands such as sit, lay down, and rollover that she was taught at the Sanctuary, but her favorite trick is “Hoot!”. When she sees food, she will start to cycle through her tricks with the expectation of a reward. Do your best to make your party fall in love with this adorable owlbear and to get her reunited with her family. The HOOT Sanctuary The party continues traveling with the caravan for a few more miles and as they arrive at the HOOT Sanctuary it is starting to get late in the evening. During this journey, have Nekosi get very excited about a stick that she finds on the side of the road and keeps it with her the entire time, often bumping into things as she doesn’t realize the size of the stick is much wider than her body. If someone tries to take the stick from her, she will growl and run away playfully. 58

You can also consider having a squirrel run across the path during this time which causes Nekosi to go into a frenzied charge to catch it. The squirrel runs up a tree and she will swiftly attempt to climb it, but be unable to if her back leg has not been magically healed. She will circle the base of the tree, hooting and growling at the squirrel for some time before it finally leaps away and she loses interest. The party can lure her back to the path by using her favorite stick if they don’t want to wait for her to get bored. A Warm Welcome Your caravan rolls up to the HOOT Sanctuary and you can sense panic in the air as employees are working by lantern light to repair a large smashed section of fence. One of these individuals runs over to the caravan. She is a middle-aged human woman with black hair pulled back into a ponytail with a visor on that says “HOOT”. She is also wearing a shirt that says “I give a HOOT!” with a few adorable owlbears drawn upon it. She yells out to you, “I’m sorry, but we are closed. You will need to come back in the morning!” Nekosi goes running up to the woman and nearly knocks her down as the baby owlbear starts rubbing against her demanding to be scratched. The woman cries out in delight before turning to the other members of the crew, “Everyone, it’s Nekosi!” The woman turns to you with a huge smile. “Nevermind what I said before, please come in!” They open the gates and let the group enter the HOOT Sanctuary. The woman introduces herself as Ellie, an expert on owlbears and one of the founding members of Humans for Outstanding Owlbear Treatment. The previous night, a group of bandits broke into the sanctuary and stole Nekosi away from them. Her parents were so distressed that they smashed their way through their enclosure and ran off after her. The employees wanted to go search for Nekosi and her parents, but the damage from the thieves and from Catori (Nekosi’s mother) and Sakana (Nekosi’s father) was significant and they have had to work hard to ensure the other owlbears didn’t escape as well. Ellie asks how the party managed to find Nekosi and after hearing that they defeated some bandits, she asks them if they might be able to help recover her parents before something happens to them. She offers a 100 gold reward for each owlbear returned, but 20 percent of that will be paid to the members of the caravan as compensation for them for delaying their journey. Ellie will accompany the party on the way as the owlbears trust her and will be willing to follow her back to the Sanctuary. They are still dangerous beasts and she doesn’t want to see them harmed. If Nekosi's parents don't come back, it is quite likely she will stop eating, stop playing, and eventually just give up on her will to live. She is too young to be away from her parents and will die if at least one of them is not returned to the Sanctuary! To Find an Owlbear Ellie informs the party that each of their owlbears has an Owlbear Whereabouts Locator (or OWL for short) put just under their flesh when they are children. The HOOT Sanctuary has a divining disc attuned to each of the OWL devices that will allow them to track down the owlbears within a mile. With any luck, they won’t have traveled too far! These devices are about the size of a small dinner plate and when it is within the vicinity of the corresponding chip, a small light will appear along its edge that points in the chip’s direction. Ellie will offer the caravan use some of their land to park their caravans for the evening and get some rest before the party heads out in the morning. When morning rolls around, they have a huge breakfast waiting for everyone and offers to introduce the caravan members to some of the other owlbears of the Sanctuary - Pelakka, Shinu, Lilloka, and Jino. Take a moment to just have Ellie admire their beauty and grace and have a bonding moment with them to show how much these people care about the owlbears and why it means so much to have them back. The party can gather their things and Ellie comes out with a large backpack and the two discs needed to find Sakana and Catori. Her backpack is stuffed with weasel cakes - some of the owlbears favorite treats - but they produce a pretty powerful stench. Ellie hopes that the owlbears might smell it from a ways off and come looking for treats. She distributes the discs to the party and pulls out a sling to use as a weapon as she is not trained in much else. She is not intended to take part in battle and the party will need to keep her safe! Ellie’s Personality Ellie will be traveling with the party for the remainder of this journey and you can use her as a tool for roleplaying and to build some tension when the owlbears are in danger. She loves animals more than anything and abstains from the consumption of any meat. She is quite intelligent and knows the names of just about every plant and creature in the area. She will ask the party about any pets they once had as such stories delight her. When she sees the owlbears are in danger, she will go into complete panic mode and may threaten to ruin the party’s plans as a result. This seems to be the only time she willingly harms animals as well - but she will request the party frightens and disables as opposed to killing. Finding Catori A Dire Situation Ellie leads the party through the woods for a few miles, following damaged branches and footprints as far as she can. Finally, they start to get a blip on the divining disc. Ellie cries out with excitement immediately and lets the party know, but it immediately goes dim again. The party will have to pick up the pace and move through the forest quickly. Catori is Nekosi’s mother and she is being chased by a pack of dire wolves! She has already been injured and the pack is out for blood. She is running away from the wolves so the party will have to maintain a swift pace to catch up to her. 59

As you are charging through the forest, ducking under branches and hopping over logs to keep up with the disc’s guidance, you hear wolf howls echoing through the area. These howls are followed by a loud, deep hoot that is filled with terror. Ellie screams Catori’s name and breaks into a sprint. You can smell blood in the air and see sprays of it on nearby trees. Describe a run through the wood for your party for a while, branches smacking them in the face and thorns cutting at them as they sprint in the direction of Catori. You can even consider having them make Strength (Athletics) checks to see if some of the party might fall behind, but this is optional. The party does eventually reach her, though! You see surrounded by a pack of wolves as she tries to cower beneath an overhang of rock. She is swiping at the wolves and bellowing hoots and growls of warning, but the wolves do not seem intimidated. Catori is bleeding badly from her back left leg and has a few claw and bite marks along her shoulders and back. Ellie screams ”Get away from her!” and fires a shot from her sling, drawing the attention of the wolves. Roll for initiative. The types and number of wolves your party faces depends on your party’s APL APL Enemies 1 3x Wolf (MM Pg. 321) 2 5x Wolf 3 1x Dire Wolf (MM Pg. 341) 4x Wolf 4 2x Dire Wolf 2x Wolf 5 1x Winter Wolf (MM Pg. 340) 3x Dire Wolf 6 2x Winter Wolf 1x Dire Wolf Ellie will ask the party scare the wolves away but don’t kill them. It isn’t their fault that they need to eat, but she wants to save Catori. The party can still kill the wolves and there is no downside except for Ellie’s sadness. She will kneel over the bodies of the wolves and apologize and cry on their behalf. Her mood towards the party will become a bit passiveaggressive afterwards. Have the wolves retreat on their own after half of their numbers have fallen or have been seriously injured. The party can also use their own intimidation tactics to scare the wolves away even sooner. This is intended to put a choice on the party of potentially taking some extra hits to save the lives of the wolves. Reunion With the wolves dealt with, Catori will stagger over to Ellie. The large beast starts licking at her wounds and giving light hoots of pain. Ellie embraces Catori in a massive hug, then starts treating her wounds. It is clear that Ellie’s work hurts the owlbear, but she doesn’t growl or fuss as Ellie cleans the bites and wraps them in bandage. There is a deep bond between these two. Finding Sakana Owlbear Bonds With Catori secured, the party just needs to find Sakana. Ellie will tell the party that mated owlbears are extremely loyal to one another and can detect their partner’s scent from up to ten miles away. The two of them shouldn’t be separated, and if they are it is because something has happened! Catori is still fairly weak, but once she has had a bit of time to recover, she will start sniffing the air and begins limping rapidly off to the east with determination. After a full hour of travel - during which time Catori refuses to stop to rest despite her leg still bleeding from bite wounds - the divining disc begins to pulse! Sakana is nearby and appears to be stationary. Ellie looks to you with concern in her eyes, “Sakana should be able to smell Catori and should be trying to make his way to her. If he isn’t moving - well - it means something has happened.” Catori gives out a low growl and a hoot before shuffling along at a slightly faster pace. After a few more minutes of chasing after Catori, she turns rapidly and charges at a nearby tree, trying feebly to climb it as she unleashes angry hoots. Up in the tree is a lone goblin scout. It cries out in fear at the sight of Catori and nearly falls to the ground. It cowers and shakes as it raises a sling to fire down at Catori. At this point, the party can intervene and deal with the goblin. The goblin’s name is Razzi. His tribe managed to capture Sakana and are currently holding him in a pit in the center of their village and plan on eating him tonight in a grand feast. Of course, the party can only gain this information if one of them speaks goblin or they have some other way to understand the creature. From this lookout point, the party finds obvious signs of a path back to the rest of the goblin encampment. This is the same direction that the divining disc is pulling them and the direction Catori has been running. The party must be careful approaching because if they allow Catori to go charging into the village it could end quite badly for them! Ellie has the capability to calm Catori enough to hold still and keep relatively quiet while the party makes a plan to break Sakana free, but the party must request Ellie intervene or Catori will simply keep charging. As the party gets closer to the village, they spot more and more goblin footprints around the area which should give indication there are quite a few nearby. A goblin encampment is just a few hundred feet further down the path. 60

The Goblin Encampment The goblin encampment contains eight small huts arranged in a circle. There is a clearing in the center with a large fire pit surrounded by rocks and stumps for seating. The total diameter of the village is 60 feet and the diameter of the central area is 40 feet. You can see two goblins sitting on rocks near the fire pit while two others are piling logs up on top of it. Roughly 15 feet from this fire pit is a large hole that has a wooden lattice door over the top of it. From within you can hear the sounds of meek hoots. Sakana is surely within that pit, but it is in direct sight of the goblins. At the moment, you can’t see any other goblins, but you estimate a village of this size could potentially house up to two dozen. The number and types of goblins that are currently in this village depends on your party’s APL, but it will always be a rather deadly amount thanks to the fact that the party will have an owlbear that is willing to fight alongside them and the players should have the drop on the goblins. APL Enemies 1 4x Goblin (MM Pg. 166) 2 6x Goblin 3 8x Goblin 4 1x Goblin Boss (MM Pg. 166) 6x Goblin 5 3x Goblin Boss 4x Goblin 6 5x Goblin Boss 5x Goblin The party can approach this encounter via a number of methods. They can create a diversion and then try to free Sakana while the goblins are distracted. They can try to take the goblins head-on, getting a surprise round and using all of their most powerful abilities to weaken their forces before they can respond. They could even try to barter with the goblins if one of the party members speaks their language. Hopefully, the tactics below cover the strategy your party uses to get Sakana back. If not, it will be up to you to decide how the goblins react to the situation, but always be sure to reward particularly creative strategies to encourage your players! Method 1: Distraction Common tactics for distracting the goblins might be something like felling a tree nearby or one of the party members crying out in terror and luring out some goblins to investigate. If this is the type of distraction your party attempts, have the character responsible for this make a DC 13 skill check that aligns with the tactic used - usually Charisma (Performance). On a success, half of the goblins in camp will move to investigate. On a failure, only two of the goblins leave. Either way, this makes combat and sneaking through the camp or combat with the goblins a bit easier. Other distraction tactics are a bit more direct - such as setting ablaze one of their huts or leaving a small pile of gold and treasure on the outskirts of the camp for them to find and fight over. This type of distraction can be sufficient enough to allow the characters to free Sakana without fighting any of the goblins. It is ultimately up to you to decide how successful these types of distractions will be, but reward your players for creativity. Method 2: Sneaking Another method is to attempt to sneak over to the cage that contains Sakana and freeing him without the goblins noticing. Unfortunately, without the aid of some kind of magic, it is impossible to get the owlbear up out of the hole without the goblins noticing and attacking. Still, if the party can free Sakana before alerting the goblins, he will fight back against his captors and be incredibly valuable in the battle. The DC for sneaking up to the cage depends on if the party managed to distract any of the goblins. Baseline, it is a DC 17 Dexterity (Stealth) check to sneak up to the cage undetected in the encampment of goblins. If two of the goblins are missing, this DC is lowered to 15. If half of them are missing, the DC is 12. If the goblins are distracted by something like a fire, the DC is 8. On a success, they manage to sneak up to the cage which can be easily untied. On a failed save, an alarm is immediately sounded by the goblins and combat begins. Regardless, once Sakana is freed, the goblins realize something is wrong and grab their weapons. The real benefit is that Sakana can immediately join the battle. Method 3: Combat With this method, the players simply engage the goblins in combat and attempt to take them out. A player that moves over to Sakana’s cage can spend an action to untie the rope holding the cage shut and freeing the owlbear. Sakana and Catori both have the stats of an owlbear (MM Pg. 249) but Catori is injured and low on health from her encounter with the woods so she starts off the fight with only 25 hit points left. She will also likely be off in the woods with Ellie watching over her unless the party explicitly requests the owlbear’s aid. If either owlbear is ever reduced to less than 15 hit points, both of them will retreat from the fight and hide in the nearby woods. Goblins are also meek and easily intimidated creatures. Once the party has killed half of the goblins remaining in the camp on initiative count 20, roll a d20 to determine if the goblins stay and fight or flee. On a result of 10 or lower, the goblins throw down their weapons and run away. If an owlbear is actively in the fight, the goblins flee on a result of 13 or lower. 61

Method 4: Bartering If a member of the party can speak goblin, they can also try to talk their way through this situation. The goblins are not particularly reasonable and there is a fine line to be walked as if the goblins see the party has a great deal of wealth, they will attack so they can take it all! The leader of the goblin in the camp is named Zukli and he will be the one to talk to the party. He first asks the party what the owlbear is worth to them, because this is a meal that will feed his tribe for two weeks! He will want weapons and armor if available, for coins are not much use as most stores don’t sell to goblins. Once again, if the party shows off to much wealth, Zukli will call for his tribe to gather their weapons. If the party offers at least 100 gold worth of equipment, they can make a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check. On a success, Zukli accepts this gift and sets Sakana free. On a failure, he decides that he would rather have all of their wealth and calls his tribe to combat. Goblin Village Loot If the players defeat the goblins and are able to snoop through their huts in search of treasure, they will find a total of 2d6 x APL gold, two ornamental daggers worth 15 gold each, a bottle of rare black market whiskey called Banshee’s Kiss that is worth 50 gold to the right buyer, and a dragonchess set with onyx figurines worth 80 gold. Reunited With Sakana and Catori both free, they nuzzle against each other and give out soft hoots of joy and light purring sounds. They rub up against Ellie and expect scratches and weasel cakes before the journey back to the HOOT Sanctuary where baby Nekosi waits for them. It is an uneventful journey back but takes about two hours with the injured owlbears. As you emerge through the trees and see the HOOT Sanctuary ahead of you, Sakana and Catori both burst into a full sprint. They charge up to the reinforced fence where Nekosi waits on the other side crying out with excited hoots. The employees of the sanctuary panic for a moment until they realize what is happening and then all break out into a round of applause and cheering. They open the main gates into the area and the owlbear family is reunited once again! Ellie thanks you repeatedly for all of your help bringing their beloved owlbears back. She runs inside their main office and comes back out with two sacks of gold - one with 160 gold for the party and another with 40 gold to be given to the caravan members for putting their business on hold on behalf of the HOOT Sanctuary. She also hands each of you a patch that can be sewn onto your clothes. It depicts the face of an owlbear and says “I give a HOOT!” around the outside edge. The party is invited to join them for dinner - as well as the rest of the members of the caravan - where they are served a delicious meal with hot chocolate before getting back on the road. As the caravan is packing up to leave, Nekosi runs up to the side of her enclosure and begins to hoot loudly and excitedly, demanding one last round of fetch with the party before they are allowed to leave. The happy parents watch the playtime, nuzzled together and hooting happily. Experience The Experience listed below represents a blend of monster encounters, non-combat encounters, and some bonus experience for finishing the quest. Feel free to adjust these values if you see fit. APL XP Per Player 1 300 2 600 3 1,200 4 2,000 5 3,000 6 4,000 Loot The base reward for this adventure is the same no matter the party’s level - 160 gold pieces and some HOOT patches for their outfits. This may seem like a small amount to higher level parties, but hopefully the lovable baby Nekosi will be enough for them to want to help out! The party can receive additional loot if they successfully loot the goblin encampment: 2d6 x APL gold 2x Ornamental daggers (15 gold each) 1x Bottle of Banshee’s Kiss Whiskey (50 gold) 1x Onyx Dragonchess Set with onyx (80 gold) 62

Myths of the Sacred Temple A One-Shot Adventure for Levels 1-8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventure Synopsis In this adventure, your party will need to help the city of Gwenthas from total collapse. Terrible earthquakes have plagued the lands for months and they have grown worse and worse with each passing day. Half of the buildings in the town are mere piles of rubble and the rest are not going to last much longer. Large fissures run through the streets and threaten to swallow up the entire city. The lead historian at the Gwenthas Library, Rachael Rellastrum, thinks she may know what is causing the destruction and how to stop it, but she will need some adventurers to help! Over a thousand years ago, a powerful group of wizards unleashed a spell that would keep a Primordial Earth Elemental locked in a prison beneath the town. It was the reason the town was formed - as a way to watch over the prison, but all have forgotten this initial purpose over the centuries. Locked away in a nearby temple is an artifact called the Primordial Seal that should give life to these magics once again and put this titanic foe back to sleep. Unfortunately, this temple is filled with challenges, traps, and puzzles to ensure only those of pure intent and great strength can reach the seal! A guardian by the name of Melco will put the party to the test, challenging their combat prowess, mental sharpness, and reactions under pressure. Do your players have what it takes to enter the sacred temple and reclaim the Primordial Seal, or will the town of Gwenthas be doomed to crumble beneath the strength of this escaping titan? Find out in - Myths of the Sacred Temple! Average Party Level (APL) This adventure uses the Average Party Level (APL) to scale the difficulty of encounters. This is simply the average of your players’ total character levels assuming you have 4 party members. If your group is larger than 4, increase your APL by 1 for each additional player. If your party is smaller than 4, decrease your APL using this same rule. Expected Length: 5-8 Hours The expected length of this adventure is 5-8 hours so 2 sessions are recommended for this particular adventure. Of course, these are expectations and what you experience may change based on player choices and pacing. Descriptive Text Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be read aloud for the players when their characters first arrive at a location or under a specific circumstance that will be noted. You don’t necessarily have to read it word for word, but this information is considered key for the progression of the adventure. Adventure Introduction (Optional) This is suggested if you are running a one-shot separate from an overarching campaign and want to kick things off swiftly. If you are embedding this adventure in an existing campaign, there may be better ways to throw the party into the action. The town of Gwenthas has been experiencing strange seismic activity for a few months now, but recently things have escalated to levels of extreme destruction. Riders were sent out in every direction seeking the aid of anyone who is willing to help save their city with the promise of wealth as a reward for their aid. That is what brings your group to Gwenthas. The city houses over a thousand people - or at least it used to before the quakes. Almost half of the buildings have crumbled to debris and the ones that still stand are reinforced with additional wood and stone to keep them upright. Huge fissures tear through the streets and some homes and businesses have fallen into the depths. Makeshift bridges made of wooden scraps cover these fissures, but the town is on its last leg. The notice said to seek out a woman named Rachael at the library in the center of town for additional details - that is if the library still stands. 63

Myths of the Sacred Temple Key Events Reminder This page can serve as a quick reference to remind of major events, NPC names, locations, and any other relevant information that you may need during the adventure! If you are running this at the table, I would suggest printing this out and having it at the ready to get yourself back on track no matter what happens! Major Events Arrival at Gwenthas Travel to the Library Meeting with Rachael Rellastrum Earthquake Saving Marcia from the Rubble Journey to the Temple Introduction of Melco and Kirfog The First Trial: The Crossing The Second Trial: The Steps of Power The Third Trial: The Puzzle Chambers Compass Rose Puzzle Mirror Match! Keyed Code Puzzle The Final Trial A Victor Chosen Back to Gwenthas Battle to the Library / Saving Kirfog! The Sacrifice Important NPCs Rachael Rellastrum - Gwenthas librarian Melco - Guardian of the Temple Kirfog - Shapeshifting Temple Guide Notable Locations Gwenthas Sacred Temple 64

The Primordial Seal The party will have to cross many fissures on their way to the library, making their way across the long boards that span the abysses - some of which are nearly ten feet wide. The library is fortunately still standing and seems to be in great shape all things considered. In fact, all of the buildings in the center of town seem to be holding up just fine. This is due to the fact that they were built to withstand such forces almost a thousand years ago. The library is filled with refugees from the town. Adults huddle in small groups chatting while children run around, blissfully unaware of the catastrophe around them. When the party asks for Rachael, someone will go to fetch her. Rachael Rellastrum A human woman in her mid-sixties approaches you. She has a bit of a limp and uses a cane to help get around, but her appearance is tidy and regal for such a small town. She wears a dark green dress, has her gray hair pulled into a tight bun on the back of her head. She carries a wrapped piece of cloth under her right arm. She introduces herself as Rachael Rellastrum. In Gwenthas, Rachael's position of head librarian is second only to the Mayor. It is a role admired by all in the town and the wisdom of those that watch over the history of the town is respected. She is a woman of great intelligence and integrity. She knows more about this town than anyone else alive and will do whatever is needed to protect it. Heroes of Old Rachael will tell the party the story of a group of heroes from a millennia ago that defeated the Primordial Earth Elemental that threatened to destroy the entire continent. Rachael is a wonderful story-teller and will go into detail about the power and energy that flowed through the land itself and the circle of wizards that created the prison for the titan beneath this very town. She tells the party that the reason the library and surrounding buildings still stand is because they were built to resist the tremors that might strike if the elemental were to stir in its imprisonment. Her theory is that a recent natural earthquake weakened the imprisonment spell and now the Primordial Earth Elemental seeks to break free once again. Something must be done soon or the entire town will sink into the earth and something terrifying will rise up from the depths. Fortunately, the legends of the city tell of a Primordial Seal that was created and locked away for this very reason! In a temple not far from the town, this Seal waits for a group that is worthy to retrieve this ancient artifact and save Gwenthas! In the basement of the library, hidden behind some of the bookshelves, is a slot that will fit this rune perfectly. If the ancient texts are correct, the Primordial Seal will be drained of its power and the titan will be put to rest for at least another five hundred years. It may not solve the problem forever, but it gives them time to find a more permanent solution! The Key Once Rachael is done telling the story, she will answer any other questions. If this is part of your homebrew world, feel free to drop history bombs on the party that may hook into later adventures! Rachael makes a valuable NPC companion in your world as her knowledge is incredibly extensive and she knows of the region and the heroes of years gone by. She will offer the party a sum of gold in exchange for their help reclaiming the seal. Check the Loot section at the end of the module to determine the reward for your group's APL. Some of this will be paid in gold, while the rest is in ancient artifacts that have been lying in wait down in the library’s vault. You may consider also giving the party a magic item in exchange for their help! Think of something that would benefit your party and offer it as an additional reward - something that was used by the original heroes that defeated the Primordial all those years ago. When the party agrees to the mission, read the following: Rachael offers you the bundle of cloth that she has been holding under her arm. It is a piece of strangely cut stone roughly a foot across and one inch thick. The edges have very specific engravings and indentations that must have taken hours upon hours to carve. On this tablet is a map from the Gwenthas Library to the sacred temple that holds the Primordial Seal. It is perhaps an hour away and Rachael explains that it requires this tablet to be placed in a slot on the side of a cliff to be opened. The Quake The party can make their way out of the town and to the temple, passing a few beggars and other refugees out in the streets as they go. When the party nears the edge of town, the ground begins to shake as another powerful earthquake strikes. The ground tears open and a huge crash rings through the area as half a dozen businesses and homes collapse into a newly formed fissure a few hundred feet away. Additional buildings along the outskirts of town crumble as citizens go running into the streets to get out of the unstable structures. The tremors last only thirty seconds or so, but it is enough to cause major destruction. Smoke rises up in the distance and the screams of citizens echo through the air. A house no more than fifty feet away was among those that collapsed and a woman covered in dust runs out into the streets. She turns to the house and falls to the ground as she lets out a wail of agony, “Marcia! Marcia, where are you? No!” This woman is named Tessa and Marcia is her fourteen-yearold daughter. When the quake hit, she screamed for her daughter to get out of the house and ran around looking for her. When the building started to crumble, Tessa jumped out a window. The party can step in to find Marcia or they can call over some other volunteers if they want to get on the road, but this is the far less heroic option. 65

Saving Marcia Marcia is trapped under the debris of the house. She is hurt, but still alive. As the party approaches, they can hear cries for help coming from beneath the debris. The cries are barely louder than a whisper as they are dampened by all of the rubble on top of her, but it is enough to know Marcia is ok. The party can then approach this in whatever way they see fit. The rubble threatens to collapse completely, so they must approach with caution. At the same time, Marcia has very limited oxygen and will fall unconscious within minutes. Have the party make the appropriate checks for their method of retrieval. Hopefully, the party will roll well and all will be fine, but if enough bad rolls are thrown out, do not be afraid to have the debris collapse. This may seem vicious, but these earthquakes are deadly and this is a way to show the loss of life that will happen if the party does not succeed in their goal. It is intended to be a motivator to drive them onward with even more tenacity. Should they succeed, Tessa will wrap Marcia in her arms and thank the party over and over for their help and offer them all of the blessings that the gods have to offer. By the time the party frees Marcia, things seem to have settled quite a bit. Other rescue groups are moving to the far side of town to help where the fissure erupted. The party can choose to help over here as well, but try to encourage them towards the temple as the townsfolk have it under control and there will be no town left at all if they don't act soon! Welcome to the Temple The Journey Getting to the temple is a fairly straightforward trek through the forest outside of town. They will need to navigate using the old key. It leads to a river and then follows that for a while before reaching a waterfall. Embedded in the cliff about a hundred feet to the left of the waterfall is the bit of stone that the tablet fits into to open the way to the temple! When the tablet is placed into the slot, a quick snap of light illuminates its edges and the stone seems to meld together. Moments later, there is a grinding sound as the stone of the cliff begins to slide apart and reveals a narrow stairwell that descends into the ground and into complete darkness. Melco, Guardian of the Temple As the party descends, read the following: You reach the bottom of the stairs and step into a large square chamber. Blue torches go ablaze on the wall and cast the room in a beautiful azure light. The ground begins to tremble and the deafening sound of grinding stone echoes through the small space. Chunks of rubble fall from the ceiling and explode against the floor as a figure appears on the far wall. It is a massive face with square features and eyes formed from glowing rubies. “I am Melco, the Guardian. What brings you to this sacred temple?” The party will need to explain the situation back in town - that things have begun to fall to chaos and the only way to save it is the townsfolk is with the Primordial Seal. Melco will ask if the creature has emerged from its prison yet, how long it has been sealed away, and finally if the party is willing to risk their lives to retrieve the seal? He will tell him that he is the guardian created to protect this place against any intruder. The temple was made with strict orders that he cannot disobey, and anyone that enters the temple to retrieve the Seal, no matter their intentions, must face the trials within. “If you think you are truly ready, then let the trials begin. This lesser guardian shall aid you along the way.” Another chunk falls from the ceiling and crashes to the ground, but this time it is with a wet thud. It appears to be a ball of clay . . . but it begins moving. The amorphous ball shifts and folds on itself a few times before taking on the shape of a lizard with two jade eyes. It regards you and nods to the wall as Melco’s face melds into the stone and a set of handles appear. “Hello! I Kirfog. You go,” speaks the little clay lizard as it scurries to the door. Kirfog Kirfog is a companion to the party during the adventure. He will give the party general directions on what they need to do to succeed in the challenges, but will not tell them how to complete their tasks. He speaks in a high-pitched voice despite being made of clay and always speaks in short bursts - typically keeping his sentences to fewer than 5 words. Kirfog can take on the shape of any small creature and can even turn into a flying creature to soar across the room. Kirfog is silly and fun-loving, but also quick to startle when things start to go wrong. He will act as a hype man for the party and share sorrow in their failures. Kirfog plays a major part in this adventure and is part of its resolution, so do everything you can to make the party adore their little clay companion during these trials. 66

The First Trial: The Crossing This bit is quite complex, so you will probably need to read it several times and show your players the diagram of the area to convey the layout effectively. You pull open the doors and reveal a massive chamber sprawling before you - forty feet wide and a hundred feet long. The floor transforms into a platform extending ten feet beyond the door, then ends in a sheer drop off to water twenty feet below. This water spans the entirety of the room and you can see fish swimming down in the darkness. Hanging at the center of the room is a massive web of ropes that form a net twenty feet above the water. This rope net is rectangular in shape and spans the center thirty feet of the room. Hanging from the ceiling above the center of the net is a metal cage with chains that dangle down to a pulley system that is attached to the wall just off the side of the net. On the far wall of the room is a stone door near the ceiling, but you don’t see any way to get over to the door as the stone of the wall is flat and slick and there are no stairs or ladders. You can also see the top of a ladder on the nearby platform that descends down into the waters below. Hanging between the platform and the net at the center of the room is a twenty-foot long rope. This rope is a ten-foot leap from the edge of the platform and fifteen feet from the net. The only other item of note is a single stone box that is sitting on a pedestal located at the center of the platform on which you stand. You can see a keyhole on this box but do not see a handle to open it. Kirfog runs into the room and points to the far side with a single lizard toe and says, “Reach door! Exciting!” 67

Solving the Crossing To solve this challenge, the party will have to find a way to reach the door on the far side of the room and unlock it. To do so, this is the standard set of actions they must perform. This may change if the players use magic or are creative, but this explains the intended steps! Swing across the rope to reach the net at the center of the room. This requires success on a DC 10 Strength (Athletics) check. On a failure, they don’t make the jump and plummet into the water below. Use the pulley to lower the cage down to the level of the net. The pulley is on the edge of the room and so a player will need to lean over the edge of the net and succeed on a DC 10 Dexterity saving throw to avoid slipping over the edge. (This check can be avoided with clever techniques). If a player fails this saving throw, they can make an additional check to try to grab hold of the rope net. On a failure, they plummet into the waters below. (Allow this check only if the player specifies that they try to grab hold before falling!) Cut a hole in the net to allow the cage to pass through to the waters below without being hindered. Open the cage (it has a door on one side) and have someone climb inside to be lowered into the water. As soon as the cage hits the water, the piranha down below all start going mad! They thrash wildly in the waters, revealing that they cover a whole spectrum of colors, but only one of these piranhas is golden and sticks out like a sore thumb! The cage seems to repel these fish despite the fact they should be able to fit through the bars! The cage must be lowered to the bottom of the room where there is a golden key! This key is jutting out of the stone at the bottom of the water (about 15 feet down) and requires the solving of a riddle (See Key Riddle to the right for details) to pry free. Once the riddle is solved, the key can be taken. It is when used to open the box at the front of the room on the platform. When the box is opened, it reveals a button inside. While this button is pressed, a stone stairwell extends from the far door to the net at the center of the room. At the same time, the walls of the room close rapidly. It takes about twenty seconds for the walls to close in far enough to crush the party, but they will probably let go of the button before that happens. When the button is released, the walls slide back into place and the stairwell immediately retracts. The party must find a way to get everyone safely across the room using their limited time. (Once the door opens on the far side, other party members can lean out with rope to help their allies.) The golden key is also used to unlock the door on the far side, so they will need to take it with them. Key Riddle The key is sticking out of the stone at the bottom of the room. It looks as if it is inserted into a lock on the floor with only the looped end of the key exposed. The key cannot be budged from its spot no matter the strength of the creature pulling upon it and if a character attempts to use magics to shape the stone, Melco will prevent it. In glowing white text just above the key is the following text: A key is only useful if it has teeth to match the lock. The solution for this is fairly simple - the character must use the teeth of the golden piranha to pry to key from its slot. It is up to the characters to figure out how to snag the golden piranha from the waters as there are thousands of the fish and they never seem to stop moving. Things to Note! The waters are filled with piranha. If a character falls into the water, they take piercing damage per round they are down there. They can use the ladder by the initial platform to get back up. The damage dealt scales on APL: APL 1-2 - 1 piercing damage per round APL 3-4 - 1d4 piercing damage per round APL 5-6 - 1d4 + 2 piercing damage per round APL 7-8 - 2d4 + 2 piercing damage per round Melco does not like cheaters. If the party attempts to use a spell such as dimension door to teleport past the challenge entirely, he will counter the spell and Kirfog will give them a stern shake of the head and a “No no no! Use head, not magic!” The Second Trial: The Steps of Power Once the party has made it past The Crossing, they find themselves in a narrow hallway. Torches ignite on the walls as the party walks down this path. Kirfog transforms into a hedgehog and begins charging up ahead of the party. ”So excite!” he squeals. At the end of the hall is a stone door with numerous carvings etched into it. At the top of the door is an ornate hourglass carving with tiny specks of stone that dance along the wall and flow from the top to the bottom. Below the hourglass is a gong etching with a mallet next to it. At the bottom of the door are various stick figure humanoids in danger. One is running from a large boulder, another seems to have a volley of darts flying at it, and a final one is facing off against a swarm of giant beetles. Kirfog examines the door for a moment before turning to you. ”Go fast. Much danger. Ring gong!” Kirfog can give them some other minor details about the challenge, but he has trouble understanding the concept of time so he will simply tell the party to go fast. He will tell them about scary creatures, pointy things, big rock, and long stairs, but that is about all of the information he can really describe. The players should hopefully have a rough idea of their goal, for when the door opens, the timer starts immediately! 68

Overview As you push the door open, you hear the sound of grinding stone and see on the left wall a huge hourglass carved into the wall with buckets of sand falling from the top to the bottom at an alarming rate. The path in front of you turns into a set of stairs that descends for sixty feet, goes flat for another sixty, and finally goes up another set of sixty foot long stairs to a platform where there is a gong. The chamber is roughly thirty feet wide for its entire length and the ceiling is high overhead. Kirfog hops up into the air, transforms into a large mallet, and shouts ”Kirfog ring gong!” as stone slides open on the walls and hound-sized beetles of stone pour into the area. Roll for initiative. The goal of this challenge is fairly simple - take Kirfog to the opposite side of the room and use him to ring the gong before the timer on the wall expires. The hourglass is constantly dripping sand from the top area to the bottom and the party can discern pretty quickly that they only have a single minute to complete this task. As the party moves through the area, traps will trigger that will make traversing the room more difficult. There is also the matter of the stone beetles that will attack the players as they move past and try to grapple them in place with their powerful mandibles! All of the traps and considerations are listed on the next page, but this hopefully provided you a good idea of what lies in store for the adventurers. Most of the traps in the room are intended to hinder rather than harm, but a few of them do pack a punch. The party will need to choose whether or not to help each other out or try to make one powerful push to the gong with a single fast character. The traps are more difficult for more powerful parties and Kirfog’s interference should hopefully help ensure the party does not completely avoid the spirit of the trial. Kirfog’s Interference Kirfog is under strict instructions to prevent the use of powerful magics from ruining the nature of the challenge. He remains an ordinary weight until he is lifted over 5 feet off the ground, at which point he all of a sudden weighs hundreds of pounds, which will prevent flying from occurring. If a character attempts to teleport he will warn them before they cast the spell that ”can’t go!” and will remain in place and clatter to the floor if they follow through with the cast. Kirfog can also not be placed in an extradimensional space such as a bag of holding; any attempt to do so results in Kirfog slamming into an invisible barrier. The party can use spells to destroy beetles, create barriers, or aid the party - just not avoid the entire spirit of the challenge. Use your best judgment on when Kirfog should intervene! The Beetles The beetles are not here to harm the players, but they will hinder their progress greatly! There are six of them in total - one every twenty-five feet through the room. Use the stat block below to control them during the challenge. The Stone Beetle's stats scale depending on the party's APL. If there are three values listed, the first is for APL 1-3, the second is for 4-6, and the final is for 7-8. 69 Stone Beetle Small construct, unaligned Armor Class 13/15/16 Hit Points 10/25/40 Speed 25 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 16 (+3) 10 (+0) 14 (+2) 1 (-5) 10 (+0) 1 (-5) Damage Immunities poison, psychic Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned Senses passive Perception 10 Languages --- Challenge 0 Actions Mandibles. Melee Weapon Attack: +5/+6/+8 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: The target is grappled (escape DC 13/14/16).

The Traps Certain traps trigger on each round of this challenge, while others trigger when a character reaches a certain point in the room for the first time. Consult the tables below to determine when to use each of the traps! The traps have damage and DCs that adjust based on your party's APL. The first value listed is for APL 1-3, the second is for 4-6, and the final is for 7-8. Traps Name Effect DC Oil Slick Oil spills from cracks in the floor around a random trial-goerin the room. That creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or fall prone. Additionally, if that creature is on a set of stairs, they slide down 10 feet. 11 / 13 / 15 Numbing Dart Trap Darts with a numbing poison on the tip fire from the wall at a random trial-goer in the room. That creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or take (APL) piercing damage and must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, that creature has its movement speed halved for the next 1d4 rounds. On a successful save, the creature resists the poison. 12 / 13 / 15 Pitfall Trap The floor quickly slides open beneath a random trial-goer in the room. That creature must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw or fall into a pit. That creature takes 1d6 bludgeoning damage from the fall and must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) check to climb out without aid. 13 / 15 / 16 Sleeping Gas Trap A blast of sleeping gas erupts from a crack in the floor beneath a random trial-goer in the room. That creature must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or immediately fall asleep. That creature remains asleep for 1 minute, until it is dealt damage, or until a creature uses its action to shake the sleeping creature awake. 10 / 12 / 14 Sticky Sap Trap The ground begins to spill forth sticky sap around a trial-goer in the room. That creature must succeed on a Strength saving throw or become grappled by the sap. 11 / 13 / 14 Flare Trap A burst of blinding light erupts from a point along the wall. Each creature within 30 feet of that point must succeed on a Constitution saving throw or become blinded until the end of its next turn. 13 / 15 / 17 Folding Stairs A 30-foot long, 10-foot wide strip of stairwell folds back into the stone and creates a slick, smooth surface. Each creature that is in this area must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw to jump to a nearby section of stairwell or slide to the bottom of the 30- foot section. If a creature fails this saving throw by 5 or more, it also falls prone. 13 / 14 / 15 The River The stone at the center 30 feet of the room turns to sand and falls into fast-flowing water just below the surface. This water is moving perpendicular to the path of the room. Any creature that was in the center 20 feet of this area automatically falls into the water. These creatures are pushed to the wall and must fight the current to swim to the far side by succeeding on a Strength (Athletics) check. Creatures on the outer 5 feet must succeed on a Dexterity saving throw to jump to an adjacent unoccupied location. A creature that wishes to cross this water and does not have a swim speed must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) check. A creature that fails this check is swept away by the power of the current and can only proceed 10 feet forward no matter their movement speed. 11 / 12 / 13 Rolling Boulder A 10-foot wide boulder falls from the ceiling and begins rolling down the stairwell leading up to the gong. This boulder immediately moves 30 feet down the stairwell and any creature in its path must make a Dexterity saving throw to jump out of the way. Each creature that failed, takes 1d10 / 2d10 / 3d10 bludgeoning damage, is knocked prone, and is pushed 15 feet in the direction of the boulder. Each creature that succeeded moves to an adjacent unoccupied space. On initiative count 20, the boulder finishes rolling into the river. Each creature in its path to the river must make this saving throw or take the same damage. 10 / 12 / 14 70

Round-Based Traps Round Traps 1 2x Numbing Dart Trap 2 2x Sticky Sap Trap 3 Pitfall Trap, Flare Trap 4 2x Oil Slick 5 Flare Trap, Sleeping Gas Trap 6 Numbing Dart Trap, Pitfall Trap 7 Oil Slick, Flare Trap 8 Sticky Sap Trap, Numbing Dart Trap 9 2x Sleeping Gas Trap 10 Pitfall Trap, Oil Slick Event-Based Traps Traps Event The River First creature reaches the exact center of the room. Folding Stairs First creature makes it halfway up the stairs to the gong. Rolling Boulder First creature gets fifty feet up the stairs to the gong. Hitting the Gong As the gong is struck, the hourglass fades from the wall and Melco’s face takes shape once again. “Excellent work!” he bellows, and the entire room shakes and trembles. “Now, we shall put your minds to the test!”* The waterway that opened in the center of the room closes and a door forms in the stone along the wall. Engraved on this door is a single, large jigsaw puzzle piece. The Third Trial: The Puzzle Chambers This door leads to The Puzzle Chambers - a set of three rooms intended to put the party’s minds to the test! Unfortunately, the middle room of these chambers features a broken puzzle and so Melco decides to instead have the party fight a group of powerful creatures! The other two rooms are just ordinary puzzles. These are not intended to be particularly challenging and will hopefully be fun for your party. Kirfog will not aid in the puzzles, but if the party is really stuck, he will glance around the room nervously and perhaps transform into a creature that could be used as a hint or whisper a message for them to interpret. If this happens, Melco will bellow in anger and Kirfog will turn into a turtle and withdraw into his shell. He will not provide any additional aid during the puzzles after this outburst! Disclaimer If you have a group that does not necessarily enjoy puzzles, consider removing one of them and only having the party complete a single puzzle and the combat encounter. The Compass Rose Puzzle You step into a rather small square-shaped room. On the wall directly in front of you is a 4-pointed star painted on the stone. At the center of this star is the word “Rise” but the dot topping the letter “i” is a perfectly round, glowing yellow orb that protrudes from the wall. At each point of this star is a vase sitting on a small stone shelf. All of these vases are identical in style and size. On the wall around the star are eight circular recesses - one just beyond each of the star’s points and then one halfway between each. These recesses are all empty and seem to be the same size as the orb in the center of the wall. Along the edges of the room are sprawling flower beds filled with beautiful flora. Each of these flowers have a small sign embedded in the dirt in front of them, but they are too difficult to make out from this distance. To solve this puzzle, the flowers from the flower beds must be placed in the appropriate vases to form the points of a compass - Narcissus at the top, Edelweiss to the right, Sunflower at the bottom, and Water Lily to the left. The orb at the center represents the sun which rises in the East, and so it must be placed in the right-most slot. With this completed, the door opens. The Flowers The flowers labeled in the flower beds are as follows: Orchid Sunflower Iris Tulip Water Lily Daisy Rose Hibiscus Narcissus Edelweiss Peony Carnation 71

Mirror Match The doors open to a large square room, roughly eighty feet wide, that is filled with mirrors of all sizes. Each of these mirrors appear to be on a swiveling base and are scattered through the area. There is a shining source of light at the center of the room and bright lines of light are cast across the area in focused beams. There is a door on the far side of the room with a few large patterns engraved upon it. Just Kidding This is mainly just a distraction for the party, for as soon as one of them goes to move one of the mirrors it shatters and bits of glass fall to the floor. Kirfog gives out a loud shriek of terror and glances nervously around the room whisper “oh no” over and over. After a few moments pass, Melco’s face appears on a nearby wall with a frown. He looks at the broken glass for a while before speaking. “Well, that isn’t supposed to happen. No matter, the trial shall proceed in a different fashion! This shall instead be a battle of might! Prepare yourselves!” The mirrors in the room begin to shine and then explode into swirls of glass, metal, and stone. They spiral and pulse for a few moments before condensing and lowering to the floor, taking on the form of four-legged beasts with a bodies of stone and metal. Their claws, teeth, and a set of spines down their backs are formed of broken glass. The light in the center of the room begins to grow brighter and brighter, then explodes in a blinding flash. When vision returns to you, each of the creatures in the room are radiating their own pulsing light. And they look angry. Roll for Initiative. The number of creatures and their strength is determined by the party’s APL. The stat blocks for these creatures can all be found at the end of the module. APL Enemies 1 2x Glass Beast (End of Module) 2 3x Glass Beast 3 5x Glass Beast 4 1x Glass Warrior (End of Module) 2x Glass Beast 5 1x Glass Warrior 4x Glass Beast 6 2x Glass Warrior 4x Glass Beast 7 3x Glass Warrior 3x Glass Beast 8 4x Glass Warrior 4x Glass Beast As each of the creatures are defeated, their light flies back to the orb at the center of the room. When all of them are killed, a blast of light shines from this central orb and into the wall where it reveals the outline of a door that cracks open ever so slightly. 72

Solution Raw Value Decoded Numbers Final Translation W 3O B N+R 2W 7-18-5-5-14 G-R-E-E-N 5N+I W+R W+A 5N A+I 21-8-9-20-5 W-H-I-T-E 4N 3W 4N+A 3B+R W+B B 16-21-18-16-12-5 P-U-R-P-L-E The Keyed Code Puzzle The doors open and you find yourself in a small hallway - 10 feet long and 5 feet wide. On the far wall is a shelf with eight orbs sitting upon it. They are white, black, red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, and green. On the wall just above these orbs is the word “RAINBOW” and on the wall below the orbs are three slots that fit them. Even further down is a set of strange numbers and letters that you need to get closer to read clearly. Kirfog, now in the form of a rat, points to the wall and says, “one try!” The strange numbers and letters along the wall is a code that is used to figure out which of the orbs go into the slots to open the passageway forward. It has the following text, with each line distinct on the wall: W 3O B B 2W 5N+I W+R W+A 5N A+I 4N 3W 4N+A 3B+R W+B B Each letter in the code phrase is represented by a combination of numbers and letters from the key, which for this puzzle is RAINBOW. The number in front of the key is multiplied by the location of the letter in the keyed phrase to come up with a location within the alphabet. Key Letter R A I N B O W Value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 When the puzzle is complete, the door opens up and reveals a massive room beyond. 73

The Final Challenge You step into a massive domed room that extends for hundreds of feet in each direction. Hanging from the ceiling with a single glorious beam of light shining down upon it is what is no doubt the Primordial Seal. Though you cannot see him, Melco’s voice booms through the area. “You have done well to get this far, but only the most worthy amongst you may retrieve the seal. If any other but the one who is worthy attempts to touch this seal, they will be torn asunder and their body spread across all planes of existence! Find a symbol that most closely represents your warrior spirit and the final trial shall commence!” With those words spoken, dozens of additional beams of light shine down upon the room, illuminating a variety of stone symbols that are scattered through the area. The closest of these is a greatsword inside of a 5-foot wide circle of colored stone. The party must move across the room until they have all found a platform that represents them. There are eight different types of symbols available in the room and each is represented four times: A Greatsword A Dagger A Shield A Quarterstaff A Fireball A Bow A Lute A Claw Once all of the party has chosen their symbols: Melco once again booms through the room. “The warriors have chosen. Let the trial commence! You must use only the weapon you are given and the last remaining above is the victor!” The platforms beneath you begin to rise up and grow - first expanding to ten feet across and finally to fifteen as you are lifted thirty feet off the ground. Your ears are assaulted by the deafening sound of grinding stone as holes open up along the wall and begin letting tens of thousands of gallons of water flow into the chamber. It doesn’t take long for the floor to disappear and be replaced by churning waves. As the water rises, your platforms begin to slide. They shift and pull you across the room until you are all sixty feet apart. When everything finally comes to a rest - an opaque barrier appears around each of your platforms and you turn to see a weapon hovering just behind you. The type of “weapon” each party member gets is specific to the symbol they stepped upon. These are meant to be incredibly silly and remind the players of the old competitive TV game shows. All characters have proficiency with these weapons and they always use their primary stat for its attack rolls. Regardless of what skill it might seem to take to use these items, they immediately become attuned to that character’s natural talents. Symbol “Weapon” Range Greatsword A large handle attached to a four foot long foam “blade”. Melee 5 ft. Dagger Six short-handled, foam-tipped daggers. Melee 5 ft. or Ranged 20/60 ft. Shield A massive foam tower shield that is quite light. Melee 5 ft. Quarterstaff A six-foot staff with both ends capped by large foam cylinders. Melee 10 ft. Fireball A slingshot and a bag of slightly glowing foam balls. Ranged 30/90 ft. Bow A bow and a set of foam-tipped arrows. Ranged 60/120 ft. Lute A lute with a round neck and an open hole at the end that fires foam balls when strummed. Ranged 30/90 ft. Claw A set of large foam fists that fit over your hands. Melee 5 ft. Melee weapons deal 1d10 + Primary Stat Mod damage, while ranged weapons each deal 1d6 + Primary Stat Mod damage. If a character is level 5 or higher and does not have the multiattack feature, their attacks deal one additional damage die on hit. Characters still have access to all of their ordinary features, but a spellcaster that tries to cast a damaging spell will simply conjure a foam ball that launches at the target. Defensive spells and utility spells such as mirror image, bless, or barkskin all work just fine. A druid can shapeshift, but they will find that the ends of their teeth and claws are capped with foam and the total damage they can take is not reset upon transformation. 74

To Battle! When the characters have all grabbed their “weapons”, the opaque barrier falls and the party members will find that 5- foot wide stone walkways have formed between some of the characters. Each platform is connected to exactly two others and are exactly sixty feet apart. So for a party of 4, this is simply a square, for a party of 5, this forms a pentagon, and so on. The party members will then be free to choose which party member they want to battle. Whenever a character is dealt a set total damage from the “special weapons”, they fall into the waters below and are removed from the tournament. Characters may also grab and shove opponents from the platform if they’d like by performing a Strength (Athletics) check against the opponent’s Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics). The total damage a player can take before falling depends on the party’s APL: APL 1-4 - 25 damage APL 5-8 - 50 damage A Victor Declared! The last character that remains up above is considered the champion and is the person worthy of taking the Primordial Seal! A platform appears at the center of the room - between all of the battle platforms - and a path extends from each of the outer platforms to this central one. The last character standing must walk into this center platform and into the glorious beam of light beneath the seal. The Primordial Seal flashes with a bright pulse of green energy that causes the entire room to glow for several seconds afterward. The Seal slowly lowers from its location at the apex of the dome and towards the central platform, spinning slowly as it descends. Melco’s voice booms once again, “You and you alone are worthy of taking this ancient device. You with a clever mind, a virtuous heart, and the strength to keep it safe from any who may want to take it from your possession. Banish the evil that dwells below!” The seal hovers three feet off the platform, giving off a pleasant hum that draws you to it with an insatiable need. Once the victor takes the seal, the ringing and the shine of the seal fades. It appears to be little more than a simple stone disc with engravings along the outside. The water swiftly drains from the room as the platforms lower back to the level of the floor. “ You do very good! “ Kirfog squeals as he runs up to the person holding the seal in the form of an otter. He hugs their leg and leads them back through the puzzle chambers, the steps of ascension, and to the main entryway. The Crossing now has a sturdy stone bridge across its length. When the party reaches the main door, Kirfog will ask if he can travel with the party. It is critical the party say yes here, because the Primordial Seal being held by the party is not the true seal - Kirfog is! He must be taken beneath the library safely if they wish to reimprison the Primordial Earth Elemental that attempts to break free. Gwenthas Assaulted! The party makes their way back to the town without complications once again. Kirfog runs alongside the party, still maintaining the form of an otter. As you break through the forest and see the town in the distance, the sound of screaming reaches your ears. It is the citizens of the city, and while the ground does not tremble, it seems something is happening. You spot a chunk of rock that goes soaring through the air and smashes down onto a building with a thunderous crash. Smoke billows out of dozens more buildings and you spot a few people running out of the bounds of the city bloodied and battered. If the party questions these civilians what happened, they will be told that earth elementals have started breaking out of the ground and attacking the city. They are swarming around the library! The guards are doing the best they can to keep them at bay, but they just seem to keep coming. Elemental Assault The party can run into the city, carefully navigating around the giant ravines that split through the streets and houses. There are bits of rubble from defeated earth elementals scattered around as well as the bodies of a few town guards. A few others are engaged in combat, but if the party attempts to intervene they will scream for them to get to the library! Their quest is far more important than helping. Kirfog grows very frightened and will cling to the party. As they run up on the library, dozens of guards stand out front fighting the elementals as they hurl boulders at the ancient structure. It seems to be close to collapse. The guards scream for the party to get inside and use the seal, but as they are approaching, the ground beneath them trembles. It isn’t as powerful as the earthquake, but a tremor nonetheless as a hand reaches out of the stone and grabs Kirfog. The tiny guardian gives out a shriek and a plea for help as the elemental emerges and moves to crush him. A few more elementals break free as well and the party will need to roll for initiative. The number of creatures and their strength is determined by the party’s APL. The stat block for the Small Earth Elemental can be found at the end of the module. APL Enemies 1 2x Small Earth Elemental (End of module) 2 3x Small Earth Elemental 3 5x Small Earth Elemental 4 7x Small Earth Elemental 5 1x Earth Elemental (MM Pg. 124) 2x Small Earth Elemental 6 1x Earth Elemental 4x Small Earth Elemental 7 2x Earth Elemental 8 2x Earth Elemental 4x Small Earth Elemental 75

If the party tries to run away and leave Kirfog, you can continue to the section below, but they will come to the realization that Kirfog is the true key when the fake Primordial Seal does not work. This will end in a failure of the adventure and the party. All will perish as the ancient elemental breaks free. Otherwise, the party slays these elementals, retrieves their shapeshifting companion, and can then make their way into the library. Sealing Away the Primordial Rachael is waiting for you just inside the doors, beckoning you to follow her quickly as she guides you around a pile of rubble formed from a bit of the roof that has collapsed. She pulls off her necklace and uses the key attached to open up a reinforced door that leads to the basement of the structure. You dash down a set of stairs that seem to spiral down for at least fifty feet before opening up to a room lit by everburning torches mounted in sconces along the walls. You see a few weapon and armor racks to the sides of the room, a small bookshelf that is stuffed to the point of overflowing, and on the far wall a massive portrait of a group of heroes fighting an earth elemental that towers at least eighty feet high. Rachael traverses the room with an uncanny speed and asks for someone to help her take the portrait off the wall. Beyond it is a triangular indention in the wall that is pulsing with green light and energy. It seems to drip as if it were liquid and cascades down the wall. It shouldn’t take your players long to realize that their round Primordial Seal does not fit this triangular slot. No matter how they angle the seal or try to make it fit, it is to no avail! Give the party a moment to panic before Kirfog finally speaks up. “It decoy. Not real.” The party turns to see him turn from the shape of an otter into a pyramid shaped stone that perfectly fits into the slot. “You good friends. Keep Kirfog safe. Now Kirfog keep you safe. Kirfog will never forget friends. Please no forget Kirfog.” If you did a good job making the party adore Kirfog during the adventure, this should be a moment that pulls on their heartstrings, but they will quickly realize that they have no choice but to comply as the building begins to shake from rocks smashing overhead. “ It ok. Kirfog ready. It why Kirfog live,” is the last thing he says before being placed into the slot. Kirfog’s new form fits perfectly into the slot. Bright blue lines sprout from the seal and splinter across the wall in complex patterns, but all eventually leading to the floor of the room and disappearing. Five seconds pass before the first effects kick in - the ground gives one final mild tremor and then everything goes calm. You look back at the slot on the wall and see it is empty once again. Kirfog is gone. Victory and Relief As the party emerges from the basement of the library, they find the town is still in bad shape, but it has survived. All of the earth elementals that were smashing through the area minutes ago are now simply boulders scattered across the ground. The fissures and rifts that snake through the town do not repair themselves, but the town and its people will survive. The townsfolk mend their wounds, bury their dead, and start the rebuilding process for the town. Rachael disappears into another secret area of the library for some time before returning with the reward that was promised to the party at the beginning of the session. The party can then choose to stay and aid the town or be on their way to their next adventure - but they will always have the looming knowledge that in five hundred years this force will be unleashed and there are no more seals to keep it imprisoned. Kirfog’s sacrifice will not be forgotten. Experience The Experience listed below represents a blend of monster encounters, non-combat encounters, and some bonus experience for finishing the quest. Feel free to adjust these values if you see fit. APL XP Per Player 1 300 2 600 3 1,500 4 2,500 5 4,200 6 7,000 7 9,000 8 11,000 Loot The reward your party receives for completion of this adventure is based upon the party’s APL. APL Total Gold 1 200 2 400 3 600 4 800 5 1,500 6 1,800 7 2,700 8 4,000 76

77 Glass Beast Small construct, unaligned Armor Class 13 (natural armor) Hit Points 16 (3d6 + 6) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 14 (+2) 2 (-4) 10 (+0) 2 (-4) Damage Vulnerabilities thunder Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities exhaustion, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, unconscious Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10 Languages --- Challenge 1/2 (100 XP) Painful Debris. Whenever the glass beast is reduced to 0 hit points or receives a critical hit, glass shards erupt off of its body. The space that the construct occupied when it received the hit is considered difficult terrain and a creature that moves through one of these spaces takes 1d4 piercing damage from the shards of glass. Glass constructs are immune to these effects. This effect persists until a creature spends one minute cleaning up the area. Reflective Exterior. Whenever a creature makes a spell attack roll against the glass beast, it must roll a d10. On a result of 4-10, the spell functions normally. On a result of 2-3, the spell is deflected and is considered a miss no matter the result of the attack roll. On a result of 1, the spell is reflected back at the caster. Actions Claw. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) slashing damage. Glass Warrior Medium construct, unaligned Armor Class 13 (natural armor) Hit Points 52 (8d8 + 16) Speed 30 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 16 (+3) 14 (+2) 15 (+2) 2 (-4) 11 (+0) 2 (-4) Damage Vulnerabilities thunder Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities exhaustion, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, unconscious Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10 Languages --- Challenge 3 (700 XP) Painful Debris. Whenever the glass warrior is reduced to 0 hit points or receives a critical hit, glass shards erupt off of its body. The space that the construct occupied when it received the hit is considered difficult terrain and a creature that moves through one of these spaces takes 1d4 piercing damage from the shards of glass. Glass constructs are immune to these effects. This effect persists until a creature spends one minute cleaning up the area. Reflective Exterior. Whenever a creature makes a spell attack roll against the glass warrior, it must roll a d10. On a result of 5-10, the spell functions normally. On a result of 2-4, the spell is deflected and is considered a miss no matter the result of the attack roll. On a result of 1, the spell is reflected back at the caster. Actions Multiattack. The warrior makes two attacks with its sword. Sword. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) slashing damage.

78 Small Earth Elemental Small elemental, unaligned Armor Class 16 (natural armor) Hit Points 25 (3d10 + 9) Speed 40 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 14 (+2) 8 (-1) 16 (+3) 4 (-3) 10 (+0) 6 (-2) Damage Vulnerabilities thunder Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities exhaustion, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, unconscious Senses darkvision 60 ft., tremorsense 60 ft., passive Perception 10 Languages Terran Challenge 1/2 (100 XP) Earth Glide. The elemental can burrow through non magical, unworked earth and stone. While doing so, the elemental doesn't disturb the material it moves through. Actions Slam. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d8 + 2) bludgeoning damage. Fling Pebble. Ranged Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 +2) bludgeoning damage.

The Gorgeous and the Grotesque A One-Shot Adventure for Levels 5-8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventure Synopsis In this adventure, the party will be tasked with rescuing a beautiful young woman named Emma from a horrifying creature that has captured her and locked her away in a castle. Her father calls upon the group, begging them to aid for the others in town have ridiculed him and dismissed him as mad. He will not give up on his daughter and has been pleading to any travelers passing by for help. He tells them of a castle off in the woods - down a path long since abandoned and covered in overgrowth. The castle is quite large and nearly everything within thirsts for blood - from the suits of armor that line its corridors to the silverware in the dining halls. The party will need to navigate this maze of a castle - solving puzzles and battling the enchanted furniture as they work their way to the dungeons where Emma is trapped, locked in a cell whose only key is held by the abomination that keeps her prisoner. If you hadn’t figured it out yet, this is an adventure inspired by Beauty and the Beast. In this imagining of the tale, the beast is a werewolf whose family removed him from society as the curse put upon him grew worse and worse. He slew some of the staff and even members of his own family before those that remained fled. Only the werewolf’s father is left behind, working from a secret lab to try to find a cure for this curse! Will the party aid in making the beast whole once again or simply slay the beast to save the girl he has imprisoned? Think you have what it takes? Be my guest in The Gorgeous and the Grotesque! Average Party Level (APL) This adventure uses the Average Party Level (APL) to scale the difficulty of encounters. This is simply the average of your players’ total character levels assuming you have 4 party members. If your group is larger than 4, increase your APL by 1 for each additional player. If your party is smaller than 4, decrease your APL using this same rule. Expected Length: 5-8 Hours The expected length of this adventure is 5-8 hours so 2 sessions are recommended for this particular adventure. Of course these are expectations and what you experience may change based on player choices and pacing. Descriptive Text Text that appears in a box like this is meant to be read aloud for the players when their characters first arrive at a location or under a specific circumstance that will be noted. Adventure Introduction (Optional) This is suggested if you are running a one-shot separate from an overarching campaign and want to kick things off swiftly. If you are embedding this adventure in an existing campaign, there may be better ways to throw the party into the action. You are traveling in lands far from the nearest major city - an area dominated by small villages that form tight-knit communities that are self-sustaining. The landscape is dominated by thick forests exploding with a diversity of wildlife. Tall mountains loom in the distance and snow covers the ground with a thin sheet in this colder part of the world. As you are about to enter the small provincial town of Conquessa, a short middle-aged man comes running up to you. He has a thick white mustache that droops down the side of his face and a balding head with patches of white hair around the sides. His clothes are a mess and he emits a foul odor, but he has deep concern in his eyes. He holds up a flier as he cries, “please, please, won’t you help me?!” 79

The Gorgeous and the Grotesque Key Events Reminder This page can serve as a quick reference to remind of major events, NPC names, locations, and any other relevant information that you may need during the adventure! Your players may not always follow this path if they want to stray towards the more direct and heartless solution, but this should keep you on track if your party takes the path of the hero. If you are running this at the table, I would suggest printing this out and having it at the ready to get yourself back on track no matter what happens! Major Events Arrival in Conquessa A Plea from Maury Town Exploration Into the Woods Wolf Attack! Arrival at the Castle Gargoyles at the Gates Into the Castle Enchanted Armor and Weapons Attack! Eparius Introduction Aiding Lord Jorlen Pentival Secret Access Puzzle Meeting Jorlen Gathering Ingredients Ingredient #1 - Vial of Wolf’s Blood Ingredient #2 - Winterbloom Rose Ingredient #3 - Gargoyle Heart Subduing Xavier Cursed Cutlery The Furnace Faceoff with the Beast! Return to Conquessa Important NPCs Emma - Girl captured by the werewolf Maury - Emma’s Father Xavier Pentival - The werewolf Eparius - Pentival family defender trapped in a sword Jorlen Pentival - Xavier’s father and lord of the castle Notable Locations The Conquessa Tavern The Dark Forest The Pentival Castle 80

Journey to Castle Pentival Maury’s Plea Maury is a tinkerer in the town of Conquessa and most of the townsfolk consider him to be mad as the inventions he creates are quite strange. He is also fascinated by tales of myth and the supernatural. Over the years, he has claimed to have seen dozens of creatures of the underdark, the feywilds, and the elemental planes wandering through the woods. As a result, he has effectively no credibility with the town, so his claims that a werewolf scrambled out of the woods and stole his daughter have been met with nothing but sarcasm and derision. Surprisingly enough, this time Maury is telling the truth! A feral beast, half-man and half-wolf, scrambled out of the Dark Forest and stole away his daughter Emma. They were searching for rare herbs near one of the paths that have long since been abandoned. He tried to chase after the creature, but the sounds of vicious wolf howls nearby caused him to retreat to the town to recruit help, but no one will come to his aid! In exchange for help, he will offer to the party one of his newest inventions. Maury calls it a pistol and he claims it is the future of long-distance fighting in the world! Just a bit of black powder and some metal and it can take down even the strongest of foes! (If firearms are not something you would like to introduce in your world, or if they are already commonplace in your world, consider a Bag of Holding as a reward as most parties jump at the opportunity for some extra carrying capacity.) Maury will lead them to where Emma was taken, but unfortunately, he is not much of a fighter in his old age so he will keep a distance and perhaps fire the pistol a few times - but it is quite loud so that may not always go well. Once the party agrees, it is time to head out of town and to the place Emma was taken! Maury’s Appearance and Personality Maury is a man in his early sixties - quite short with a bald head and thick glasses. His face is dominated by a large, rounded nose that always seems to be red. He wears a forest green tunic that is stained with oil and has many off-color patches applied to it. Rather than an ordinary belt, he has a toolbelt that serves to hold up his trousers as well as provide quick access to anything he might need at a moment’s notice. Maury is a nice man, but the townsfolk are not wrong to treat him with skepticism. He rants about conspiracy theories constantly and how various supernatural creatures dictate all of the happenings in life. Lose your wallet? It is a poltergeist that haunts your home. Have a sudden illness? You must have crossed paths with a Bardlebumpt demon! He loves his daughter dearly and has done his best to raise her alone after his wife died during childbirth, but it is difficult as a single parent and they often just scrape by. Maury is also very easily distracted, often drifting off in the middle of a sentence or conversation to run over and inspect something interesting. He keeps a journal of ideas on his person constantly, writing down any interesting invention ideas that may inspire him or simply to document something he wishes to remember later. The Town of Conquessa The party may wish to explore the town of Conquessa a bit before they take to the forest. The town is fairly small and is up in the frigid north. It snows for most of the year, so every house and business has a fireplace constantly roaring with flame. The main attraction is the Conquessa Tavern whose walls are decorated with the taxidermied heads of many beasts hunted down by a local legend named Gant. He is a hulking man that frequents the tavern along with most of the other locals. The town also contains a bakery, a small library, a schoolhouse, an apothecary, a blacksmith, and a few other general goods stores along with roughly one hundred homes inside the city walls. There are about a hundred more houses outside of the city walls along with a lumber yard and a few large barns for raising livestock. The people here are generally quite friendly and frequently join in song at the Conquessa Tavern. They are quick to help out their neighbors in need, but poor Maury has a case of “boy who cried wolf” and with so many false alarms, even the local guards have been requested to not respond to his warnings as it is a waste of time and money. If they question the folks in the tavern about the path in the woods, someone will have information that an old rich family used to live out there in seclusion, but there was some awful tragedy and they closed the whole area down. No one has been out that way in years so they assume the place is just crumbling stone and overgrowth by now. Once the party is done exploring the town, they head into the Dark Forest and you can continue to the next section. Off the Path You are led into the Dark Forest via the primary north road out of the town of Conquessa. The road is paved with cobblestone and has a white wooden fence along its edges. Beyond these fences are large, looming trees that reach high into the sky and form a thick canopy that blocks almost all sunlight. Two miles into the journey, there is a spot where the road clearly used to split off to the right but is now blocked by a newer fence that is covered in overgrowth. Maury leads you through the brush and down the remnants of this ancient road. Most of the cobblestone on this path has broken apart by plantlife but the way is still clear. Maury continues down this path for half a mile before stopping and pointing to a particularly thick-trunked tree and muttering, “This is where the creature took her.” With success on a DC 13 Wisdom (Perception) or a Wisdom (Survival) check, the party can spot the path the beast took with Emma, as its paw prints sink deep into the soft ground in this area. This will take the party all the way to Pentival Castle where the werewolf resides. 81

If the party searches the area for additional clues, have them each make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. On a result of 15 or higher, they find a small scrap of red cloth that is stuck to a tree about forty feet away. From here, the party can repeat the Wisdom (Perception) check to spot the footprints, or make an additional DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check to spot another scrap of cloth on the forest floor off a way. Emma tore off scraps of her dress and used them to make a trail for others to follow! The party can use these to find the path back to the castle as well. Alternatively, if the party simply follows the winding road for long enough, it leads to the castle. The werewolf takes a more direct path through the woods, though. Hungry Predators As you are following the path, a set of echoing howls rings through the trees. “Those are the same howls I heard when the beast took Emma! Hungry pack of wolves if I had to guess!” Maury whispers and pulls the pistol out of his toolbelt, loading a bullet into the chamber. The density of the trees causes the sound to echo with no clear source, but it is certainly nearby! The party has many options to handle these wolves, but I will highlight some of the primary options - outrunning the wolves, scaring the wolves, and fighting the wolves. Outrunning the Wolves When the wolves start to close in on the party, they are still either in the middle of the woods or traveling down the road (depending on their choices in the last section). Regardless, the party will need to burst into a sprint and follow the path as fast as they can. Have each member of the party make a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check to see how well they can maintain a fast pace while fleeing. If at least half of the party succeeded (rounded up), then they manage to outrun the wolves and make it the walls of the castle. Otherwise, some of the slower members of the party become winded and the wolves burst out of the woods close on their heels and the party will have to fight or try to frighten the wolves. Scaring the Wolves These wolves are powerful and they hunt in a large pack, so it is quite difficult to scare them off, but it is by no means impossible. As the party brandishes their blades and perhaps makes a display of flame or lightning, have them make a DC 20 group Charisma (Intimidation) check. If at least half of the party succeeded (rounded up) the wolves run off into the woods, deciding to find an easier meal instead. On a failure, the wolves close in for the attack. The party can encourage Maury to fire the pistol to create a huge bang as the wolves approach. If they do, let them make this check with advantage as the gun is quite startling to the wolves. Fighting the Wolves The final option is to fight! The types and number of wolves that your party faces depends on your party’s APL. APL Enemies 5 4x Dire Wolf (MM Pg. 321) 4x Wolf (MM Pg. 341) 6 1x Winter Wolf (MM Pg. 340) 5x Dire Wolf 7 2x Winter Wolf 3x Dire Wolf 8 3x Winter Wolf 3x Dire Wolf Once the party has killed at least half of the wolves in the encounter, the others will realize that this is a losing battle and run off back into the forest. Gargoyles at the Gates Once the wolves are taken care of, the party can continue following the path until they finally come upon the castle. You see a beautiful yet foreboding castle looming ahead of you. An eight-foot-high stone wall surrounds the entirety of the property which is considerable. A spire rises up on both the west and east sides of the castle, but the eastern spire has collapsed. You can make out the front entrance to the castle itself, a set of beautiful wooden doors that still seem pristine in a juxtaposition to the rest of the castle’s state. You can also see a small lake, a set of hedges that have overgrown from years of neglect, and a stable whose roof has collapsed. One of the two wrought iron gates at the main entrance has fallen off its hinges, allowing easy entry. Two gargoyles sit perched on either side of this gate, their features worn and weathered. Maury decides to wait on the outskirts of the castle. There may be great danger within, and he is not exactly made for fighting, especially in his old age. He wishes the party the best of luck and starts working on erecting a tent. As the party approaches the front gates, one of the gargoyles will turn to look at them and cry out, “I wouldn’t go in there if I were you!” The other gargoyle then turns to look at them as well, speaking in a gravelly voice, “Yes! Those who value their lives would flee from here!” The gargoyles will not attack the party, they are merely there to warn those that would dare enter the grounds of the castle. The party can even ask them questions and they will provide some insight. 82

Gargoyle Information The castle is inhabited by a werewolf and yes he brought a young woman back with him recently. The castle is abandoned except for the werewolf and the former Lord of the castle - Lord Jorlen Pentival. The creature was once a young man named Xavier, son of Lord Jorlen. The family sought out a healer to cure his lycanthropy and afterwards there was a night of screaming and death. The gargoyles are not sure what really happened in the castle on that night for they are forbidden from leaving their post at the gates of the castle, but none have come or gone in years except Xavier. As far as they know, Xavier is lost to the rage of his affliction. He frequents the nearby forest and hunts down creatures for food, but he never speaks and often runs on all fours. His mind seems to waver. Into the Castle Once the party is done talking to the gargoyles, they can make their way up to the castle. A path leads from the front gates all the way to the massive, beautiful double doors that open to the main foyer. There are other methods into the castle, but they are locked and boarded up from the inside. The party can of course break these down, but that will cause quite a bit of noise so it is discouraged. If your players do take an alternate route into the castle, adjust the combat encounter below to occur in one of the hallways in the castle and for Eparius to find them in this alternate location so you can get things back on track. This will derail the entry a bit, but there is no major impact on the adventure! Armored Assault You push open the front doors and are presented with a breathtaking entryway. A 30-foot square rug is laid out in the main area, its brilliant red colors faded from years of neglect and covered with muddy paw prints. A dazzling chandelier hangs over the center of this room, crystals still glistening from the light of ever-burning torches in the area. Off to the back-right is a piano covered with a dusty white cloth. Along the outside of the room are numerous suits of armor bearing the symbol of the house - a large red rose. Forty feet in front of the door, a large staircase ascends twenty feet before breaking into two smaller staircases that flare out in opposite directions to the second level of the structure. To the left and right of the room are arched doorways that lead to other areas of the castle. The castle is completely silent except for the occasional creak of wood as the foundation settles. It is quite disturbing to see such a large place with absolutely no movement. Fortunately for the players, this won’t last long. As one of the party members steps onto the red rug in the middle of the room, the suits of armor around the edge of the room start to come to life along with some of their weapons and even the rug itself! Roll for initiative! The types and number of enemies that your party faces depends on your party’s APL. APL Enemies 5 1x Rug of Smothering (MM pg. 20) 2x Animated Armor (MM pg. 19) 4x Flying Sword (MM pg. 20) 6 1x Rug of Smothering 3x Animated Armor 4x Flying Sword 7 1x Rug of Smothering 4x Animated Armor 4x Flying Sword 8 1x Rug of Smothering 4x Animated Armor 6x Flying Sword Eparius, Dedicated Protector When combat ends, there is a moment of silence before it is interrupted by a voice, “What is all of the commotion!?” it cries out from the top of the stairs. Another sword appears and begins hopping down towards the party. It does not float like the others they just fought, but hops along, lightly driving its point into the wood with each jump. The upper half of the blade is stained a deep crimson as if it were covered in blood and never cleaned. As it rounds the corner, there is an audible gasp as the sword speaks again, “Guests! And strong ones at that! Wait right there! I won’t harm you!” It hops to the bottom of the stairwell and seems to regard each of the party members, at least as well as a sword can. “I am sure you are all wondering what is going on here, yes?” The gleaming steel sword sways and wobbles in ways that shouldn’t be possible given its materials - displaying humanlike qualities that are quite unsettling. A masculine voice seems to come from the blade, though there is no discernable mouth from which the sound escapes. “Master Xavier, the heir to House Pentival, was afflicted with the curse of lycanthrope many years ago. When his father - Lord Jorlen Pentival - heard, he immediately began to study to find a way to end the curse and sent runners to find the greatest healers in the land to aid his son. Eventually, a wizard arrived, claiming he had been experimenting with magics that should be the curse to an end. Lord Pentival in his desperation agreed . . . but it had disastrous effects.” “Xavier, rather than being freed, was permanently trapped in the form of the beast. He slaughtered many of the staff and even his own mother in the hours after. Poor lad still has bursts of humanity and realizes what he is, but is a prisoner in his own body. Lord Penitval sent the others away and had many objects in the house enchanted to serve to keep others away and to take care of Xavier - but the magics have started to fade over time. Some simply stopped working; others fight rather than help. Lord Pentival keeps himself locked in his secret laboratory most of the time now. He still thinks he can find a cure . . . but I rarely see him. During the last burst of humanity from Master Xavier . . . he begged that I kill him and end his misery. I was . . . unable, but perhaps you can!” 83

The sword introduces himself as Eparius, High Protector of House Pentival. He was mortally wounded while protecting Lord Pentival from his son’s attack. Rather than pass from this world, he plead with the wizard that had botched the spell and asked that his soul be bound to his own blade so he could live on and protect the family. He has been here in the years since, watching and waiting for the opportunity to set things right as Jorlen Pentival - Xavier’s father - has been locked away in his laboratory for years in search of the cure. Eparius fears Jorlen has perished as he hasn’t appeared in months, but Eparius can’t be certain. If the party is willing to help him, Eparius desperately wishes to know what has happened to the Lord of the house. For this portion of the adventure - proceed to the [Aiding Lord Pentival] section of the guide. Eparius’s failure in ending the life of Master Xavier is due to the fact that the blade of his sword is not silvered. Without a body he has no way to remedy this fact either. He hopes that the party will be able to aid him, though. Most of the previous silver in the house was taken when the family fled, but Eparius knows that the dining utensils are crafted of the finest silver. If that is collected and taken down to the furnace in the basement, they may just be able to silver their weapons and end Xavier’s agony and imprisonment! For this portion of the adventure - proceed to the [Subduing Xavier] section of the guide. Castle Loot As the party travels through the castle and its many rooms, they will find an array of valuables hidden along the walls and on display out in the open. Depending on the party’s alignments, they may choose to take some of these objects for themselves. Feel free to scatter these items across the castle at your leisure or distribute it to the party if they search the castle in one final sweep after the deed is done. 1x Diamond necklace - 120gp 1x Decorated dagger - 75gp 2x Fine oil painting - 50gp 2x Marble bust - 30gp 2x Ceramic pottery - 10gp 2x Decorative tapestry - 10gp 4x Jade figurine - 8gp 8x Small ruby cat figurine - 6gp 12x Small emerald fish figurine - 5gp Aiding Lord Pentival This is the main path for the adventure, but the party can take a shortcut by deciding to slay Xavier and avoiding his father altogether. This section outlines the path to a cure and is the most likely course of action as the typical adventuring party is out to do good, but both options are included in this guide. If the party wishes to help with the fate of Lord Pentival, Eparius will lead the party to the library of the castle. He informs the party that the hidden entrance to the laboratory is somewhere in the room, but even he is not certain of the method as it was kept secret from all staff and he doesn't have much dexterity in his sword form. He begged for years to know the secret in case something happened to go wrong, but Lord Pentival was quite stubborn on the matter. Hell, even if he knew it, he might not be able to open the damned door in his current form. The room contains shelf upon shelf of beautifully preserved books that cover every single wall except for one. On this wall, there is a massive glass window that overlooks the backyard of the property. A fine wooden desk sits just in front of this window, decorated with many fine carvings and sculptures of animals scattered across its surface with light cascading down over them. There are a few sitting chairs scattered through the area as well as a massive rug that covers almost half of the hardwood flooring with an intricate red, white, and orange design. Lanterns still sit on hooks scattered around the room, but nothing here screams secret entrance to you. Secret Access Puzzle I will present two options to solve this puzzle - one is a bit trickier and should be reserved for the parties that enjoy a puzzle. The other is for groups that aren’t huge fans of puzzles and want to get back to the roleplaying and combat. Either way, the puzzle is all centered around the statues that sit on the desk in the office. There are 6 of them in total - A lion, a snake, a dragon, a wolf, a weasel, and an eagle. They are all crafted of wood, but they have been painted to have realistic features that have held up through the ages. They are all resting on identical rounded bases of marble. As the players get close to the desk or move to search it, note how fine the quality of these creatures are, that they are all sitting in small indentations carved directly into the wood of the desk, and that there are a few empty indentations as well. This should give them the cue that they are on the right track! There are 4 slots along the left side of the desk, 4 along the front, and 4 along the right side of the desk. When the party first discovers the statues, there are 4 sitting along the front, 1 on the left, and 1 on the right. Their starting position is not significant, however. 84

The Standard Clue When the party searches through the drawers of the desk, they will find that tucked inside one of the books is a small note with the following text: “Four on the left, five at the front, and six on the right.” “Only the first matters: 1-6 | 7-13 | 14-19 | 20-26” The first part of this clue is to tell the party that 4-letter animals go on the left, the 5-letter animals go upfront, and the 6-letter animals are on the right. The slot they are in is determined by the first letter of their name. Slot 1 is A-F, Slot 2 is G-M, Slot 3 is N-S, and Slot 4 is T-Z. Hopefully, the fact that the list goes to exactly 26 will tell the party that it has something to do with letters. This should be all they need to reach the Final Solution below. The Easy Clue The easy method has the same setup as the standard method, but the clues are a bit more obvious to help those that might not enjoy cryptic puzzles. When the party searches through the drawers of the desk, they will find that tucked inside one of the books is a small note with the following text: “Four-count on the left, five-count at the front, and sixcount on the right.” “Only the first matters: A-F | G-M | N-S | T-Z” The word “count” is added after the numbers in the first line to give the party the clue that it is the number of letters in the word and not the numbers along that side of the table. The second half uses letters instead of numbers, so it should be fairly straight forward to determine that each grouping goes with a slot on that side of the table. With this, the party should have everything they need to reach the final solution! Final Solution Lion - Left Side, Slot 2 Wolf - Left Side, Slot 4 Eagle - Front Side, Slot 1 Snake - Front Side, Slot 3 Dragon - Right Side, Slot 1 Weasel - Right Side, Slot 4 When all of these have been placed in the correct spot, one of the bookshelves along the wall to the right of the desk pops open ever so slightly and all of the statues tip over onto the desk. The Laboratory of Lord Jorlen Pentival The party can pull open the bookshelf which reveals a spiral stairwell leading down. This stairwell descends for 2 stories before leading to a plain wooden door that is shut and locked. If the players knock on the door, the haggard voice of Jorlen Pentival asks who is there with deep fear bleeding through the words. The party can pick the lock with success on a DC 15 Dexterity (Thieves’ Tools) check, but this will be met by immediate hostility from Jorlen. This won’t stop him from asking the players for help, but it will affect his tone and demeanor going forward. Jorlen Pentival, Lord of the Pentival Castle Jorlen is a man in his mid-fifties, but he seems much older as a result of hefty stress and poor quality of life over the last few years. He has lived in almost utter darkness so his skin is ghostly white. His face is decorated by a long and unkempt beard that is a dark grey with strands of white bleeding through. His eyes are set deep in the socket with bags under them that makes it obvious that sleep is infrequent. He also looks to be emaciated. With all of that being said, he is dressed in rather nice red, orange, and white clothing and has a ring on almost every finger. Jorlen is an arrogant man. He is incredibly intelligent and well-read but was raised in such a way that it is simply natural for him to look down upon people and to expect others to want to please him. As a result, he is resistant to use words such as “please” and “thank you”. He is direct and does not pull punches, expressing doubts in the party’s capabilities even as they offer to help him. But beyond all of this intensity and sometimes cruelty is a man that loves his son deeply and misses his wife dearly. He has done everything he can to help but still feels useless, and some of this frustration is directed to others. Plea for Help When the players enter the lab by one means or another, read them the following text: You see before you a laboratory in a thirty-foot square room. There is a disheveled bed off in the far corner of the room with a platter of goodberries sitting on a plate next to it. The walls are covered in cabinetry - some secured and some open - with jar upon jar of ingredients and labels inscribed into the wood in front of each. At the center of the room is a sprawling alchemy table decorated with beakers, vials, pestle and mortar, bowls, dozens of feet of tubing, and other strange devices. The place smells pleasantly sweet and is lit by a set of four lanterns that hang on the walls. Standing before you in a man who looks to be in his sixties, but his true age is hidden by eyes set deep in their sockets and dark grey bags beneath them. He is emaciated and has a long beard that has not seen a comb in months. His skin is ghostly pale and the skin is cracked, but the outfit he wears is lovely. It is a set of red, orange, and white robes with a rose embroidered over the heart. The man also wears a ring on nine out of ten fingers, all of which seem quite valuable. 85

Jorlen will present the players with a barrage of questions - how did they find the castle? How did they get down here? Have they seen the werewolf? Eventually he will tell the party of his attempts to find a cure for lycanthrope. He has been working at it for years, but his supplies are dwindling for many ingredients and he has been surviving on only goodberries for some time now. He does, however, think he might have come up with a combination that has potential! Unfortunately, many of the ingredients required he has run out of and he would have to risk being mauled if he wanders onto the castle grounds to find more. He asks if the party might be able to help him! If they do, he can make it worth their while. His safe remains hidden on the grounds with a great deal of wealth leftover when his family fled - a sum of 2,500 gold pieces in total. The items he needs are a vial of wolf’s blood, a winterbloom rose, and a gargoyle’s heart. The vial of wolf’s blood is straightforward and the party should know where to get some given their earlier encounter! The winterbloom rose is found in a special garden bed out back . . . but the enchantments to protect the castle also included the garden so they may be attacked on their way. The gargoyle hearts are fairly straightforward as well. The creatures that stood watch at the entryways are typically non-aggressive, but if attacked they will defend themselves. When it is dead, crush its chest and bring its stone heart back to the lab. Jorlen gives the party all they will need - a special hammer to smash through the stone of a gargoyle, a set of vials to use to collect the blood, and a set of gardening shears to clip the rose. He also hands the party an eighteen inch tall rounded top glass case and tells them it is for the rose. If it is out of the cold for more than a few minutes without protection then it will wilt. The case should keep it alive long enough for him to extract what he needs from it. Ingredient #1 - Vial of Wolf’s Blood This ingredient should be rather simple. The party will simply need to return to the spot in the woods where they were attacked by wolves. If they did not defeat them before, it won’t take long before a new pack finds their way over to the party. Simply return to the Fighting the Wolves section for details on this encounter. Simply gather some of the blood and they are done! Ingredient #2 - Winterbloom Rose The winterbloom rose is found in the garden on the backside of the house. The party can make their way back through the main entrance or have Eparius lead them through a secret back door if needed. This leads out to a massive sprawling walkway. There are large stone statues of the same animals that were found on the desk in the library as well as a variety of hedge animals that have somehow managed to retain their form. In fact, the garden looks quite nice - or at least the portions that have survived the cold winter weather. The winterbloom roses are found in a flowerbed near a currently frozen water fountain at the center of a spiraling set of hedges that are nearly ten feet tall. The other flower beds along the exterior of the fountain are all dead from the cold of winter. The roses are a beautiful white color with a light blue stem that looks to be made of ice with vicious thorns. They are absolutely beautiful. Up to this point, the party has yet to encounter danger, but as soon as the party damages any of the plants - such as snipping one of the winterbloom roses - they begin to hear rustling through the hedges. A few moments later, creatures begin crawling from out of the hedge maze - the hedge animals they saw on their way over - and they are not happy! Roll for initiative. The types and number of hedge animals that the party fights depends on the party’s APL. They use the stat blocks of ordinary creatures but also gain the following properties: Immunity to poison and psychic damage Resistance to piercing and bludgeoning damage Vulnerability to slashing and fire damage Immune to the charmed, exhaustion, frightened, paralyzed, petrified, and poisoned conditions APL Enemies 5 1x Giant Boar (MM Pg. 323) 1x Tiger (MM Pg. 339) 1x Lion (MM Pg. 331) 6 1x Elephant (MM Pg. 322) 1x Giant Boar 1x Tiger 7 1x Elephant 1x Giant Boar 2x Tiger 8 1x Elephant 1x Polar Bear (MM Pg. 450) 1x Giant Boar 2x Tiger Once the hedge animals are defeated, the party can take the rose back to the castle without further incident. Ingredient #3 - Gargoyle’s Heart The party needs a single gargoyle heart, but all of the gargoyles that decorate the castle are found in groups. The most obvious group is the one they moved past on their way into the castle and since they will need to go to the woods to get the wolf’s blood anyways, these are probably the ones they will fight. The gargoyles are not aggressive until they are actually attacked, so the party can ready their strikes and get a surprise round of combat before the creatures can respond. While the gargoyles are immobile, they have resistance to damage from bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. The strength of these gargoyles and the number that join in the fight is modified depending on the APL of the party. APL Enemies 5 3x Gargoyle (MM Pg. 183) 6 4x Gargoyle 7 1x Greater Gargoyle (End of Module) 2x Gargoyle 8 1x Greater Gargoyle 3x Gargoyle 86

Once the gargoyles are defeated, they can use the hammer Jorlen gave them to smash one of them open and extract the strange deep-blue stone heart that is buried in its chest. An Alternative Method If the party talks to the gargoyles before attacking and explains the situation, the gargoyles will show some empathy. It is their duty to protect the family, but none of them wish to die. The party can suggest a method where only one of them needs to die through some randomized selection or some other qualifier. The party will need to succeed on a DC 15 Charisma (Persuasion) check for this to work. On a failure, the gargoyles decide they shall not die and will immediately attack! On a success, the gargoyles will work with the party to find a fair way for one of them to die, but make this be a rather emotional ordeal with the gargoyle giving a final speech before being smashed. Returning the Ingredients When the party has all of the required items for Jorlen, they can return to the laboratory and deliver them. A Terrifying Optional Encounter! If you want to have some additional fun with the party, you can have Xavier in his werewolf form lumbering around the castle when they return. They will have to outrun him or lock themselves in a side room and escape out a window or use a similar tactic to get away! It is up to you if you want to do this depending on the time that you have left in your session! This can even add some horror aspects to the story as they are stalked by a potentially unkillable creature! Back in the Lab Jorlen begrudgingly thanks the party for their help, shedding a few tears as he breaks the ingredients down and extracting the components he needs from each. It takes over an hour, but he finally produces a flask filled with a deep blue potion. This gives your party the opportunity to take a short rest. Once they are done, read the following: Jorlen stares at the blue potion for a long while, before taking a deep breath and turning to you. “Now I have no idea what causes him to revert to his own mind, and those instances seem to last for incredibly short bursts of time . . . so you are going to need to subdue him to get him to drink it. Unfortunately, as you may already be aware, only silvered weapons seem to have an effect on those afflicted by lycanthrope. I think if we are going to help Xavier, we are first going to need to hurt him.” He will then mention the same information that Eparius did upon their first meeting - that the dining utensils in the kitchen are made of enough silver that they could coat weaponry if melted down in the furnace! The family never thought to bring their own silvered weapons because they still held onto the hope of saving their son, and they feared that if one of the guards had a silvered blade they may slay their precious Xavier in a panic. Jorlen will ask Eparius to lead the party through the castle to the places they need to find. Subduing Xavier To defeat Xavier, the party will need silvered weapons. Unfortunately for the party, there are no silvered weapons in the castle so they will need to make their own. As mentioned above, the strategy for this will be to gather silverware in the kitchen, to melt it down in the furnace, and then use that to coat their weapon and battle Xavier. Eparius is their guide as they move through these steps, taking through the twisting and often confusing halls of the castle. Cursed Cutlery The first step lies within the primary dining hall. Eparius leads the party to a massive set of double doors with a red carpet. Written above the door in ornate golden letting are the words “Be Our Guest!” As the doors open, read the following: The doors open to a massive dining area with two tables that could comfortably seat twenty-four individuals each. The area is free from dust, despite the fact that this area hasn’t been used in years. Still resting on the tables are fine sets of spoons, knives, forks, and plates with perfectly folded napkins resting nearby. Two glimmering chandeliers dangle from the ceiling. Sunlight bleeds in through windows near the top of this twenty-foot high room and causes brilliant rainbows to explode through the area in a chromatic dance. Along the outer edges of the room are additional displays filled with shining dinnerware. As the party steps into the room, everything seems calm. Eparius will tell them that things remain pristine because all of the cleaning instruments of the castle are enchanted to perform their tasks even when no one is around . . . but as he mentioned when they first met, some of the magics have begun to degrade. As soon as the party touches any piece of silverware, read the following: Dining utensils all around the room tremble for a moment before they rise up off the table and float. The blades of the knives glisten in the light and the tines of the forks point threateningly. The displays on the edges of the room have their doors thrown open as a first plate goes zipping out into the area and in your direction! A candelabra on the table goes ablaze with light and waves its arm in a vicious display! Roll for initiative. The party is attacked by an entire fleet of animated silverware and cooking items. From forks and spoons up to threatening cast iron skillets. They move in swarms, floating across the room and attacking as a vicious, mindless force. The strength of these animated objects and the number of swarms depends on your party’s APL. The stat blocks for these swarms can be found at the end of the module. The enemies in this combat are on the following page. 87

APL Enemies 5 1x Swarm of Cutlery (End of Module) 1x Swarm of Silverware (End of Module) 6 1x Swarm of Cutlery 2x Swarm of Silverware 7 1x Swarm of Cutlery 3x Swarm of Silverware 8 2x Swarm of Cutlery 2x Swarm of Silverware When enough of the objects are broken and sliced in twain, the magic seems to fade entirely and all of the enchanted objects fall to the floor in a loud crash. The party can then collect these silvered goods and store them away as they move to the next step of their task. Eparius will congratulate them on their victory and request they follow him as he leads them to the basement and the furnace with its heat powerful enough to melt even silver. The Furnace With the silver at the ready, the party follows Eparius down into the depths of the castle, a few stories beneath the ground floor. As Eparius leaps down the stairs one at a time, he will tell the party that the dungeon is not far from here. If Xavier has a girl captured, it is likely he will have her in there. He seems to favor this area and Eparius thinks he tries to lock himself up when he regains his own mind in those short bursts, but nothing can seem to hold him for long. Eparius instructs the party to use a massive cauldron down in the basement and to load it over into the furnace. This can prove difficult as the cauldron is over one hundred pounds and the heat of the furnace is immense. Force your players to come up with a plan to load the cauldron through the furnace’s front gate and proceed when you are satisfied with their solution. With the cauldron in place, the party can fill it with the silvered weapons and over the next hour (giving the players the opportunity to take another short rest if needed) the contents all melt down into one bubbling mass of silver and other trace metals. Eparius thinks it should be enough to get the job done! The party must then dip their weapons one at a time into the cauldron to cover them with a fine layer of silver that can cause harm to Xavier in his twisted form. When all of the party is done, Eparius requests that the party dip him in there as well, as he wishes to help and fulfill his duty to the house as needed. If the party agrees, Eparius cries out in intense agony as he is dipped into the cauldron. Somehow this animated blade can still experience pain! The screams are cut off after only a few seconds as he seems to either die or pass out - it is not really possible to tell with a soul trapped within a blade. Eparius remains unconscious for roughly ten minutes before he wakes up sobbing. It was the worst pain he had experienced in his entire life - as if all of his flesh was being cooked at once but there was no mercy from it. Those few seconds he remained awake felt like hours, but the pain has subsided and he is ready to fight! The only thing that is left is to take on Xavier himself! Facing The Beast Xavier lurks down in the dungeons of the castle where he has Emma locked away in a cell. The path to the dungeon is a long, twisting stairwell that goes even deeper than the furnace. As the party descends, the temperature begins to plummet. Deep claw marks decorate the wall in vicious parallel lines and hair is scattered across the stone steps. At the bottom of the stairs is a doorway, but the door that once covered it has been ripped off its hinges and tossed aside. The sound of claws scraping against stone echos through the area as well as the stifled sounds of a woman crying. Xavier - or what was once Xavier - paces in front of the cage containing Emma. She is curled up in the corner of the cell, wrapped in a thick blanket and sobbing deeply. There are five cells in total in the room, each roughly ten square feet and along the left wall. The total size of the dungeon is approximately fifty by fifty feet. Off to the right are a few tables, some of which contain bowls filled with food and water. There is a huge pile of rags and blankets in the corner that form a makeshift bed. There is no sunlight in the room, but four torches provide dim light in the area. There are also a few barrels and crates scattered throughout the room with labels for perishable goods carved into them. The werewolf is distracted, but also has a keep sense of smell. Have the party members roll a group Dexterity (Stealth) check against Xavier‘s passive Perception check to see if he notices the party. He may simply detect the smell of blood from their previous combat or he may be too distracted by his prisoner and continue pacing. Eventually, the party will have to make their move and face off against Xavier. The abilities of the werewolf are modified depending on your party’s APL. The werewolf is also always in hybrid form for the duration of this fight. Consult the table below to determine these changes for your party. APL Traits 5 The werewolf has 100 hit points and 1 Legendary action. 6 The werewolf has 100 hit points, 15 AC, 2 Legendary actions, and has its Strength increases to 16 (increases bonuses to hit and damage). 7 The werewolf has 130 hit points, 15 AC, 3 Legendary actions, and has its Strength increases to 18 (increases bonuses to hit and damage). 8 The werewolf has 150 hit points, 15 AC, 3 Legendary actions, and has its Strength increases to 20 (increases bonuses to hit and damage). 88

Legendary Actions The werewolf has Legendary actions available from the options below. Only one legendary action can be used at a time and only at the end of another creature’s turn. The werewolf regains spent legendary actions at the start of its turn. Claws. The werewolf makes an attack with its claws. Leaping Pounce (2 Actions). The werewolf pounces at a target within 15 feet and makes a claw attack against it with advantage. On a hit, that creature must succeed on a DC 14 Strength saving throw or be knocked prone. Attacks of opportunity provoked by this movement are made with disadvantage. Dreadful Howl (2 Actions). The werewolf lets out a terrifying howl. Each creature within 30 feet of the werewolf must succeed on a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw or become frightened of the werewolf for 1 minute. A creature frightened this way can repeat this saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success. When Xavier is reduced to 0 hit points, he is not killed outright unless your players choose to slay him. It will be obvious when he grows weak and can barely carry himself anymore. If the party never went and spoke to Jorlen, they may choose to simply slay the beast and put Xavier out of the misery of being trapped in his own body. If they did talk to Jorlen, they can now administer the lycanthrope cure. See the options below depending on what choice the party made. Killing Xavier As the party finishes off Xavier, Emma cries out from her cell for the party to please free her. There is a set of keys hanging on the wall in the dungeon. Xavier did not hurt her in her imprisonment, but he certainly frightened her. On a few occasions, he even spoke to her and told her that he was trapped and the loneliness has been unbearable, but he has to keep her locked up for her own protection. When his mind went dark, he snapped and snarled against the bars trying to break through, but fortunately they held as she cried out in terror. She feels bad for Xavier, but is also grateful to be freed from that imprisonment. Eparius is solemn and quiet for a great deal of time before finally hopping over to the body and saying, “You can finally rest, young master . . . and I can as well.” And with those words, the sword clatters to the ground and a strong burst of wind rushes through the area and causes goosebumps to break out on your arms and neck. The group can then leave the castle and head back to town or choose to explore the castle’s many rooms and secrets if they’d like. Continue to Return for Conquessa to wrap things up. Saving Xavier When the party force-feeds Xavier the potion, nothing happens for a full ten seconds. It seems the potion is a dud until his eyes snap open and they are no longer yellow and ferocious but blue and friendly. He starts to cry out in agony as he writhes on the floor, his body transforming back into that of a young human man. It takes over a minute for the process to finish, but in the end, he returns. Xavier is in his early twenties, but has a massive beard and accompanying mustache. His clothes are in tatters, leaving him nearly nude as he lays on the stone floor of the cold dungeon. His blonde hair is long and matted with dirt, hanging down over his shoulders. He looks around with large frightened eyes for a moment . . . and then they begin to swell with tears. “I’m me,” he whispers as he looks down at his ordinary hands (albeit with some incredibly long fingernails). “Thank you. Thank you!” he says and then screams and leaps at the nearest of you to embrace you while he is still on his knees. “Welcome back, young master," Eparius says tenderly. "It seems my duty is completed and my services are no longer needed.” The sword clatters to the ground moments later. A strong burst of wind rushes through the area and causes goosebumps to break out on your arms and neck. “Eparius!?” Xavier shouts as he looks around, but does not see the loyal family servant. “I swear I just . . . heard a voice." The party can free Emma from the cage - a set of keys hangs on the wall in the dungeon. Xavier apologizes profusely for what he did to her, but Emma is surprisingly understanding of the situation. She forgives him and even asks if she could return sometime and get to know the man behind the beast. Xavier agrees emphatically and they all return to the main floor of the castle and its embracing warmth. The party can then return to Jorlen in his laboratory. He and his son hug, crying as they hold each other tightly and share words of their struggles. It is a touching moment and Emma has to wipe away tears as she witnesses the reunion. Finally, Jorlen ends the embrace, giving Xavier a hearty pat on the back as he turns to the party. “Now I do believe I owe you payment for your services!” Jorlen moves to the desk and arranges the animal statues in a new pattern. When it is complete, there is a loud click and a set of books slide to the side and reveal a safe mounted in the wall. Jorlen reaches in and pulls out ten gold bars, each worth 250 gold pieces, and gives them to you. He then reaches back in and pulls out a ring as well. This is a Ring of Protection and he offers it to you as an additional thanks for your aid. He hands one additional gold bar to Emma to compensate for the trauma she must have endured which she hesitantly accepts. With the reward given and Xavier saved, the party can take Emma and start their way back to town to return her to her father. 89

Return to Conquessa The adventure back to town is rather unexciting. There are no wolves to be seen and the party makes it back to the main path without incident. Emma gives the party directions to her house where her father Maury waits and gives his daughter a massive hug when she returns. He gives the party a similar thanks as Jorlen, both of these men having their lost children returned to them. He then offers them their reward - a pistol or a bag of holding - depending on your campaign’s setting. He invites the entire party to the tavern to share their story with the rest of the town and prove once and for all that he is not mad! Experience The Experience listed below represents a blend of monster encounters, non-combat encounters, and some bonus experience for finishing the quest. Feel free to adjust these values if you see fit. APL XP Per Player 5 4,500 6 7,000 7 9,000 8 11,000 Loot The party received 2,500 gold from Lord Jorlen for saving Xavier if those chose to help him. In addition, Maury gives the party either a pistol or a bag of holding (depending on you campaign's technology level). The party may also receive loot that was scattered throughout the castle. As a reminder, these items are listed below: 1x Diamond necklace - 120gp 1x Decorated dagger - 75gp 2x Fine oil painting - 50gp 2x Marble bust - 30gp 2x Ceramic pottery - 10gp 2x Decorative tapestry - 10gp 4x Jade figurine - 8gp 8x Small ruby cat figurine - 6gp 12x Small emerald fish figurine - 5gp 90 Greater Gargoyle Large elemental, chaotic evil Armor Class 16 (natural armor) Hit Points 95 (10d10 + 40) Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 18 (+4) 8 (-1) 18 (+4) 6 (-2) 12 (+1) 6 (-2) Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing from nonmagical attacks that aren’t adamantine Damage Immunities poison Condition Immunities exhaustion, petrified, poisoned Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 11 Languages Terran Challenge 5 (1,800 XP) False Appearance. While the gargoyle remains motionless, it is indistinguishable from an inanimate statue. Actions Multiattack. The gargoyle 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. Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +7 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d6 + 4) piercing damage.

91 Swarm of Silverware Medium swarm of tiny constructs, unaligned Armor Class 15 (natural armor) Hit Points 44 (8d8 + 8) Speed 5 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover) STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 6 (-2) 17 (+3) 12 (+1) 1 (-5) 1 (-5) 1 (-5) Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing Damage Immunities poison, psychic Damage Vulnerabilities thunder Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, stunned Senses blindsight 30 ft., passive Perception 5 Languages --- Challenge 2 (450 XP) Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny piece of silverware. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points. Actions Slices and Stabs. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target. Hit: 8 (2d4 + 3) slashing damage plus 8 (2d4 + 3) piercing damage, or 5 (1d4 + 3) slashing damage plus 5 (1d4 + 3) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer. Swarm of Cutlery Medium swarm of tiny constructs, unaligned Armor Class 16 (natural armor) Hit Points 36 (8d8) Speed 5 ft., fly 30 ft. (hover) STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA 6 (-2) 19 (+4) 12 (+1) 1 (-5) 1 (-5) 1 (-5) Damage Resistances bludgeoning, piercing, slashing Damage Immunities poison, psychic Damage Vulnerabilities thunder Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained, stunned Senses blindsight 30 ft., passive Perception 5 Languages --- Challenge 3 (700 XP) Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature’s space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny knife. The swarm can’t regain hit points or gain temporary hit points. Slashing Storm. A creature that touches the swarm or hits it with a melee weapon attack while within 5 feet of it takes 5 (1d10) piercing damage. Actions Stabs. Melee Weapon Attack: +6 to hit, reach 0 ft., one target. Hit: 22 (4d8 + 4) piercing damage, or 13 (2d8 + 4) piercing damage if the swarm has half of its hit points or fewer.

Puzzles Compass Rose Setup The party steps into a room with a massive 4-pointed star painted on a doorway on the far side. At the center of the star is the rose "Rise" but the dot topping the letter 'i' is a perfectly round yellow-glowing orb that protrudes slightly from the wall. At each point of the start is a vase sitting on a small stone shelf. They are identical in size and shape and are all empty. On the wall around the star at eight circular recesses - one just beyond each point and then half-way between. These recesses fit the orb that sits above the letter 'i'. Scattered across the room are flower beds filled with various flora. Each of the sections of flowers have small signs near them that indicate the type of flower. These flowers are as follows: Orchid Sunflower Iris Tulip Water Lily Daisy Rose Hibiscus Narcissus Edelweiss Peony Carnation Solution To solve this puzzle, the flowers from the flower beds must be placed in the appropriate vases to form the points of a compass - Narcissus at the top, Edelweiss to the right, Sunflower at the bottom, and Water Lily to the left. The orb at the center represents the sun which rises in the East, and so it must be placed in the right-most slot. With this completed, the door opens. Puzzling Passage Setup Along a stone wall of a dungeon or in a castle, the text “Stand together and see as one”, but below that is a single bit of text that is a fragment of a much larger whole. Each player sees a different set of letters based on the number of players in the party and the final message itself. When the full message is spoken aloud, a passageway opens up to let the party continue on their way. The Message The message is broken down into X sections, where X is the number of players in your party. Each member of the party only sees every Xth letter. So for a party of 4 PCs, each member would get every 4th letter. Note: Spaces are included in this! The players will have to figure out how the message is broken down, combine their individual pieces together, and create the final message. Example Message "DOOM AWAITS THOSE WHO RESIST MY MIGHT" We will say Justin is 1st, Bella is 2rd, Kelly is 3th, and Jeff is 4th when we randomly assign positions. For Justin, we start at position 1 in the text, which is D and then continue with every 4th letter so his final message will be “D_ITEOS_MT”. Bella is 2nd, so we start at position 2 and have a final message of “OATH__IMI” Kelly has a final message of “OWSOWRSYG” Jeff has a final message of “MA_SHET_H” When you are telling people what their messages say, be sure to give them out in a random order so they do not assign any significance to them. I would recommend writing the text down on a slip of paper and handing them to the players and leaving it up to them to determine how they should fit together. An Extra Clue This could potentially be a difficult puzzle, so if your party is not big on puzzles you could consider adding a glowing number above each of their messages that represents their starting position. That number will hopefully give them what they need to piece everything together much easier than going forward with no guidance. 92

Simple Door Puzzles The section below represents three fairly straightforward little puzzles you can use to make getting through a doorway in a dungeon a bit more interesting than picking a lock or smashing it down. The Kissing Door Setup The players approach a door that is made of thick wood painted a beautiful shade of red. It has a gold trim and some sections of silver in a lace pattern around the edges. The handles in the center of the door form a heart shape of steel and there is an inscription upon them. The words: “The key may seem well hidden, but it is right under your nose.” Solution To unlock the door, someone needs to simply plant a kiss on it. Sightless Passage Setup As the players make their way down a hallway, they bump into a completely invisible barrier. It is impossible to break with ordinary weaponry, though dispel magic will remove the enchantments that are cast over the door. Mounted on the walls near the door are two uniquely crafted statues - women wearing blindfolds and holding their hands out in an inviting gesture. They are crafted of a light blue stone are meticulously detailed. Solution There is a door here, but it can only be felt and opened when no one is looking at it. The party will need to close their eyes or turn away, after which they can reach out and feel a pair of handles seemingly floating in the middle of the passageway. When pulled, the doors open and become visible to all until closed again. Unifying Force Setup The players approach a heavy door with the words, “If the burdens of the world seem too great to overcome, rely on the strength of your loved ones for help” inscribed upon it. The door is impossibly heavy - weighing multiple tons - and doesn’t seem to budge at all when someone tries to force it open. Solution Each unique individual that presses on the door reduces its weight. When a majority of the party is pressing on the door at once, it will start to move ever so slightly, but it takes the full strength of the entire party in order for it to open enough for humanoids to squeeze through. Crossed Words Setup The party comes across a room with an 8x8 grid on the wall. Sitting in a tray mounted beneath this grid is a large collection of tiles with letters painted upon them - at least six of each letter in the alphabet. These tiles can easily be popped into the slots on the grid. Next to the grid is a door that is only opened when the conditions of the puzzle are met. Instructions Inscribed on the door is the following text: Eight words intertwine and coexist But these words avoid their antithesis Hope and Dread cannot touch Truth and Lies cannot touch Life and Death cannot touch Faith and Doubt cannot touch Only these words can be in the list The Solution In order to solve this puzzle, the party must fit each of the words above in the 8x8 grid. ONLY those words can be present so if the letters overlap in such a way that it forms even a 2-letter word, the door will not open. All of the words must be connected somehow, but the ones that cannot touch must be completely separate from one another. - - D O U B T - - - R - - - R - L I E S - - U - I - A - F - T - F - D E A T H - E - - - I - - - - - - - T - - - - - - - H O P E 93

Barred Alphabetics Setup Painted on the wall of a room are a series of X’s and arrows pointing left, right, or both directions. There are 26 of these in total, so they match up to letters, but at first glance this will hopefully not be quite so obvious. These arrows work together to spell out different words by following them from left to right or from right to left depending on the direction they are pointing. The kicker for this puzzle is that the words you choose (if they are not from the examples below) must be in alphabetical or reverse alphabetical order! Have the words that are hidden on this wall be the answer to some nearby riddle or secondary puzzle - perhaps the players need to choose an item in a room to pass on to the next location. The real puzzle is finding the words, but the way to use them is up to you! Sample Codes EMPTY / WRONG The section below shows how this works out for the different letters. The Wall Symbology is what you would give your players to solve. A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z X X X X > X < X X X X X > < < > X < X > X X < X > X Wall Symbology: X X X X > X < X X X X X > < < > X < X > X X < X > X GHOST / SOLID Make sure to note that <> is a double arrow. It is different than < > (with a space) which indicates two separate letters. Wall Symbology: X X X < X X > > < X X < X X <> X X X <> > X X X X X X GLORY / TONIC Wall Symbology: X X < X X X > < X X X > < X <> X X > < X X X X X > X 94

The Keyed Code The Setup On the wall is a shelf with 8 orbs sitting upon it. They are white, black, red, yellow, orange, blue, purple, and green. On the wall, just above the orbs, is the word "RAINBOW" and on the wall below the orbs are 3 slots that fit them. Even further down the wall are a set of numbers and letters that the party will need to decode to solve the puzzle. When the correct orbs from the shelf are put in the slots below, a passageway opens up. The numbers and letters along the wall is a code that is used to figure out which of the orbs go into the slots to open the passageway forward. The Code Each letter in the code phrase is represented by a combination of numbers and letters from the key, which for this puzzle is RAINBOW. The number in front of the key is multiplied by the location of the letter in the keyed phrase to come up with a location within the alphabet. Key Letter R A I N B O W Value 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sample Solutions So to use one set of text below as a baseline - W 3O B N+R 2W - is one of the potential code phrases. Since W is in the 7th position in RAINBOW, that means the value for that slot is 7. G is the 7th letter in the alphabet so that is the first letter of the final translation. The next entry is 3O. Since O is the 6th letter in RAINBOW we take that and multiple it by the number in front of it. So 3 multiplied by 6 is 18. The 18th letter of the alphabet is R, which is the next letter in the final translation. You can continue following this logic to reach the final solution shown below. Wall Text Decoded Numbers Final Translation W 3O B N+R 2W 7-18-5-5-14 G-R-E-E-N 5N+I W+R W+A 5N A+I 21-8-9-20-5 W-H-I-T-E 4N 3W 4N+A 3B+R W+B B 16-21-18-16-12-5 P-U-R-P-L-E 95

Desk Decorations This puzzle comes with two separate setups - one the standard and one that is a bit easier. This will hopefully give you an opportunity to tune the puzzle based on your party's enjoyment of puzzles. Setup The puzzle is all centered around the statues that sit on a desk in an office. There are 6 of them in total - A lion, a snake, a dragon, a wolf, a weasel, and an eagle. They are all crafted of wood, but they have been painted to have realistic features that have held up through the ages. They are all resting on identical rounded bases of marble. There are 4 slots along the left side of the desk, 4 slots along the front, and 4 slots along the right side of the desk. Each of these perfectly fits the marble bases of the statues. When the party first discovers the puzzle, there are 4 statues along the front, 1 on the left, and 1 on the right. Their starting position is not significant, however. The Standard Puzzle When the party searches through the drawers of the desk, they will find that tucked inside one of the books is a small note with the following text: “Four on the left, five at the front, and six on the right.” “Only the first matters: 1-6 | 7-13 | 14-19 | 20-26 ” The first part of this clue is to tell the party that 4-letter animals go on the left, the 5-letter animals go up front, and the 6-letter animals are on the right. The slot they are in is determined by the first letter of their name. Slot 1 is A-F, Slot 2 is G-M, Slot 3 is N-S, and Slot 4 is T-Z. Hopefully the fact that the list goes to exactly 26 will tell the party that it has something to do with letters. This should be all they need to reach the Final Solution below. The Easy Puzzle The easy version has the same setup as the standard, but the clues are a bit more obvious to help those that might not enjoy cryptic puzzles. When the party searches through the drawers of the desk, they will find that tucked inside one of the books is a small note with the following text: “Four count on the left, five count at the front, and six count on the right.” “Only the first matters: A-F | G-M | N-S | T-Z ” The word “count” is added after the numbers in the first line to give the party the clue that it is the number of letters in the word and not the numbers along that side of the table. The second half uses letters instead of numbers, so it should be fairly straight forward to determine that each grouping goes with a slot on that side of the table. With this, the party should have everything they need to reach the final solution! Final Solution Lion - Left Side, Slot 2 Wolf - Left Side, Slot 4 Eagle - Front Side, Slot 1 Snake - Front Side, Slot 3 Dragon - Right Side, Slot 1 Weasel - Right Side, Slot 4 When all of these have been placed in the correct spot, a secret door opens in the room! 96

Cubic Conundrum Setup Players are presented with a cube - each side having its own buttons that must be pressed at the same time, so it requires multiple members of the team to work together to get it done. The instructions for the puzzle box can be given to them by an NPC or perhaps found elsewhere in the dungeon or even in the same chest as the cube itself. Once the cube's requirements have been met, it opens up to a small extradimensional space that contains a key or a letter or some other item of significance. If the players try to destroy the cube, it will also destroy the extradimensional space so they will have no choice but to solve the puzzle the old fashioned way. This is effectively just a math brain teaser, so I would only suggest using this particular puzzle if you have players that enjoy such puzzles! It is certainly not for every group so use your best judgment. Cube Legend The cube has six sides that are represented by A-F and each side has four buttons that are numbered 1-4. The Instructions Only one side has all four of its buttons pressed The same number is pressed on all six sides of the cube There are fourteen total buttons pressed and the total sum of their values is 32 Three of the sides have exactly two buttons pressed Side C has exactly three buttons pressed The sum of the buttons pressed on side C is the same as those pressed on side D The sum of the buttons pressed on sides B and E is the same as the sum of those on sides C and D The sum of the buttons pressed on side A and F equals 8, but A’s sum is greater The sum of the buttons pressed on side E is greater than any other side Solution Steps There are lots of ways to solve this logic puzzle, but the answer IS unique. I will step through one way to solve the puzzle and present the final answer. E is the highest total so it has to be the side with all 4 buttons pressed. Since Sides A and F sum to 8, that means the total of the other four sides is 24. C has three buttons pressed, so its total value is either 6, 7, 8, or 9. Since C = D, and C+D = B+E, the only possible total value for C is 6. This means C has 1,2, and 3 pressed. Since we know C has three buttons pressed and E has four pressed (as it is the highest total) that means there are three sides with two buttons pressed and one side with one button pressed. Since D = 6, it must have two buttons pressed The only possible values for two buttons pressed to sum to 6 is 4 and 2. Since C + D = B + E, we now know the sum of side B is 2, so it is the only side with one button pressed - 2! Now both side A and side F have two buttons pressed and they sum to 8, but one side is greater, so one side must be 5 and the other 3. From that we can determine that side A has 3 and 2 pressed and side F has 2 and 1 pressed. Done! Final Answer The numbers in bold and in brackets below are the buttons that are pressed! A B C D E F 1 1 [1] 1 [1] [1] [2] [2] [2] [2] [2] [2] [3] 3 [3] 3 [3] 3 4 4 4 [4] [4] 4 97

Musical Messages Disclaimer: This puzzle requires both the puzzle solvers and the puzzle maker to have a bit of experience with music. You will need to be able to draw out notes of a treble clef staff in 4/4 time. Setup The players are presented with a set of sheet music with notes upon it. The song is not particularly melodic whatsoever and seems to simply be a random spattering of notes. This is due to the fact that this music is actually hiding a secret message. Somewhere in the room or on another note, have the players uncover a message that says the following: A = 1, B = 2, C = 4, D = 8, E = 16, F = 32, G = 64 Now these values are used in conjunction with the notes on the sheet music to create the message. The value of the note is adjusted by the type of note you see on the page. These modifiers are pretty straight forward, but are as follows: Whole Note = 1 Half Note = 1/2 Quarter Note = 1/4 Eighth Note = 1/8 Sixteenth Note = 1/16 Each measure of the piece of music forms a single letter by adding the value of the notes together. There are many different ways to represent each letter of the alphabet, so the final note arrangement is up to you. A Quick Example We have a measure that contains 3x Quarter Note (E) and 2x Eighth Note (D). We would take the base value for E = 16 and multiply it by its note modifier, which in this case is 1/4. So we end up with 16 x (1/4) = 4. Since there are 3 of these, we add up those values and get 12. Now we move to the Ds. D = 8 and they are eighth notes, we get 8 x (1/8) = 1. We have 2 eighth note Ds so we add an additional 2 to our total value. 12 + 2 = 14. We look and find the 14th letter of the alphabet and get a value for the measure of N. There are many ways to get to a value of 14 and end up with N as our letter of choice, but this was just one quick example. Sample Music I will write out a sample of the notes that would appear in each measure to form the message BLACK DRAGON. Measures to encode "BLACK" [B] 2x Half Note (B) [L] 2x Quarter Note (E), 2x Quarter Note (D) [A] 1x Whole Note (A) [C] 1x Half Note (B), 1x Half Note (C) [K] 4x Eight Note (E), Half Note (D), Quarter Note (C) At this point, have one measure that simply contains a whole rest. This is a space in the message. Measures to encode "DRAGON" [D] 2x Half Note (E) [R] 1x Half Note (F), 2x Quarter Note (C) [A] 1x Whole Note (A) [G] 8x Eighth Note (G) [O] 2x Sixteenth Note (G), 3x Eighth Note (D), 1x Half Note (D) [N] 6x Sixteenth Note (E), 2x Sixteenth Note (F), 2x Quarter Note (D) 98

Torpor Orbs The party is presented with a door protecting an item of great value that they need to obtain. Covering the door is a set of electrical nodes that are sparking with energy on an 8x8 grid. The other spaces are empty, but they have indentions that could fit another node or another spherical object. If anyone attempts to open the door while any of these are still active, it will explode, dealing massive damage to anyone nearby and destroying the contents of the safe. For this puzzle, you will need to do two things: Provide the party with information about the security system. This can be through a note, NPC, etc... Give the party a set of 6 Torpor Orbs. If you are in a dungeon, try to have them scattered throughout the area so they must track them all down. This is a good way to make them clear the entire dungeon! Now, in order to deactivate the explosive device, the party must insert torpor orbs into the recesses on the grid. A torpor orb will deactivate the power of any electrical node around it (cardinal directions and diagonals). The trick to this puzzle is the party only has 6 of these orbs to disable 17 electric nodes so they must be careful with their placement! There are a few different solutions to this puzzle, but none of them are simple or obvious! Once all of the orbs are in place, the humming of the electrical nodes will stip and the door is safe to open! Setup The Xs in the section below represent electrical nodes while the dashes represent an empty spot that could fit a torpor orb. The electrical nodes are fixed in place and can not be moved. Draw this out on a piece of paper, or even better on a battle mat, so your players can work through a solution! - - X - - - - - X - - X - - X - - X - - - X - - X - - X - - - X - - - - - - X - - X X - X - - - - - - X - - X - - - - X - X - - Example Solutions The Os in the following section represent the location of the torpor orbs. In these two examples, all of the nodes are adjacent to at least 1 torpor orb which disables the security measures. Sample 1 - - X - - - - - X O - X - - X - - X - O - X O - X - - X - - - X - O - - - - X - - X X - X O - - - - - X O - X - - - - X - X - - Sample 2 - - X O - - - - X - - X - - X - O X - - - X O - X - - X - - - X - - O - - - X - - X X - X - O - - - - X O - X - - - - X - X - - 99

Merchants Merchant Contents Name Race Specialty Store Name (101) Arianna Nerrala Silver Dragonborn Extreme weather protection equipment Brave the Elements (102) Caden Carlisle Human Weapon and armor customization Emblems and Insignias (103) Deluga Crestbreak Water Genasi Items of the Sea Crashing Wave Equipment and Oddities (105) Fajilli Bullywug Bullywug "potions" Fajilli’s Mystical Concoctions (106) Farrah Half-Demon Decorative illusions and enchantments Farrah’s Cove of Fashion (108) Fleep Pixie Grab bag of random items N/A (109) Gorodon Minotaur Puzzles and traps The Labyrinth (110) Hazia Thelborn Half-elf / Werewolf Silvered weapons and monster hunting gear On the Hunt (112) Jinllak Gith Psychic infused magic items, Gith relics, puzzles Jinllak, Merchant of the Mind (113) Kelzenoth AKA Red Efreeti Powerful items in exchange for favors N/A (114) Kharjim Blackfist Dwarf Creature-bane weaponry The Slayer’s Supply (116) Penny Allerton Human Assassin's tools Penny’s Place / Whisper / White Smoke (117) Rekalla Swiftfoot Tabaxi Exotic pets Rekalla’s Exotic Pet Emporium (118) Rilka the Charmer Goblin Love potions, romance novels, and other charming items Rilka’s Chamber of Love (120) Rimly Nifflefoot Gnome Junk armor and weapons purchasing Rimly’s Junk Emporium (121) Smug Gnarltooth Half-Orc Aesthetically unappealing goods at a discount Smug’s Good Stuff Store (122) Tellenar Markaleth Aasimar Minor magic items and trinkets Tellenar’s Trinket Trove (123) The Hooded One Unknown Random magic item enchantments N/A (125) Tok’Kalora Goliath Tribal armor and weaponry Ancestral Armaments (126) Zuvia Satyr Instruments, alcohol, drugs, and party management services Zuvia’s House of Revelry 100