The Great Dale: Dungeons of the Demonlands 0 - (Revised) Introduction & Table of Contents

Some months ago, I made a vain effort to put start a new series of posts based on turning the Great Dale into a fairly old school sandbox with several large dungeons just sitting there waiting to be explored. This was largely based on trying to answer the question: "What would happen if you tried to set adventures by Necromancer Games in the Forgotten Realms?"

I also had some other motivations:

1. My Neverwinter: Year of the Ageless One campaign was (and still is) coming to an end and I wanted to be able to offer my players something less plot-driven and more location-driven, per some of our games of decades ago. (It turns out that's not what they want! :) )
2. I live in hope of converting some of my wife's family and friends to tabletop gamers. We live in the Philippines where the real unemployment rate is around 60% (the government numbers are wrong) and a lot of people play the World of Warcraft clone/offshoot DotA. You would think those two data point would combine into a pool of players for D&D but it doesn't. I will probably end up bribing some of them to try....
3. Clearly 5E is very popular and I want to make sure I have something on this blog that 5E fans can use, particularly seeing how (surprisingly) popular my expansion of the Lost Mine of Phandelver turned out to be. So, while I am running 4E, there is nothing here that is going to be 4E-specific: it's all just D&D. (I was hoping to fill the 5E void on this blog by expanding on Princes of the Apocalypse but I just cannot get excited about it.)

So, consider this a revision of <this post> and an attempt to outline a Great Dale-based campaign that is less sandbox but still not quite a railroad.

Warning: This is a long post. In view of my previous botched start to a Great Dale-based series of post, I want to make sure this first post had enough content to help someone get off to a flying start with a Great Dale-based campaign even if I never post on the subject again. So, if Demons & Dragons in the Realms interests you, please keep reading!

Introduction

The Great Dale is described in the 4E Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (from which the map to the left is taken) as follows:

The Great Dale is the vast, windswept vale that divides two enormous forests, the Dunwood to the north and the Forest of Lethyr to the south. The druids and other folk who inhabit the great rocky tor of Yeshelmaar are all that stand between the sparsely settled, wild southern woodlands and the festering evils of the northern forest.

Trade has collapsed along the Great Road, leaving the defenders of Yeshelmaar as the last bastion of civilisation in the Great Dale. Demons that were bound beneath the Dunwood by the long-fallen Empire of Narfell now stalk the northern forest and threaten to overwhelm the wild reaches of the Forest of Lethyr. The southern woods are home to hidden wood elf villages and a handful of human settlements along the border with Thesk.

Three major dungeons are noted on the map: Val-Murthag, Clymph, and Dun-Tharos. These are the three dungeons I am referring to in the campaign's title of Dungeons of the Demonlands. And the order that I have just used to list them is also the order in which I think they are best played. More on that shortly.

The Demonlands

For those unfamiliar with the term "Demonlands" in the context of the Forgotten Realms, these are the lands that were once part of the demon-summoning and -worshipping ancient empire of Narfell. The 4E Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide describes the Demonlands as follows:

This region consists of isolated territories of tough folk, hardened by decades of conflict with demonic beasts and fell magic. It includes Impiltur, Damara, Vaasa, Narfell, and the Great Dale. The region saw a glimmer of hope when King Gareth Dragonsbane united Damara and Vaasa into the unified kingdom of Bloodstone, and when young King Imbrar II of Impiltur dissolved the council of paladins (the Lords of Imphras II) and began ruling unfettered by the dynastic machinations of the past. This prosperity was not to last. The assassination of Dragonsbane’s heir twenty years ago led to civil war throughout Bloodstone, allowing the patient Warlock Knights to seize control of windswept Vaasa. King Imbrar’s death and the retreat of the Inner Sea in the Year of Blue Fire ended Impiltur’s hopes. The kingdom is now firmly in the grip of the Fraternity of Tharos, a fanatical cult of demon-worshipers. Demons freely menace the Dunwood and terrorize the villages of the Great Dale and frigid Narfell.

If I do end up running this campaign and the players which to continue further, I would expect to add adventures in both Narfell and Impiltur possibly with a goal to permanently removing some of the evil which makes the Demonlands such an apt name for these lands.

The Dungeons

While the <3.xE-era map> of the Great Dale shows several other dungeons - including Fortress Narder, the Great Barrow, and Tower Threespires - I'm just going to focus on Val-Murthag, Clymph, and Dun-Tharos, at least for now.

My plan is to give each of the locations a fairly distinctive theme to both aid in shaping my design of the dungeon and also so that the PCs can prepare accordingly. 

(Each of these locations will eventually get their own blog post but I also wanted to make sure this [revised] introductory post had some meat and not just bones.)

Val-Murthag

The FRCG says this about Val-Murthag:

This sprawling city was leveled by the Raumathari long ago. Its cyclopean walls and shattered towers lie in a wild and lonely corner of the Great Dale. Little is left on the surface, but deep vaults filled with imprisoned demons and restless Nar ghosts lie beneath the city’s numerous keeps.

3.xE's Unapproachable East describes it as follows:

North and east of Bezentil lies the wreckage of the old fortress of Val-Murthag, one of the largest Nar ruins not covered by forest. This great castle stood watch over the eastern approaches of the Dale, a formidable rampart in the path of any attack from Raumathar to the east. Val-Murthag was a place of madness and horror, the spiritual center of the demonic cult that dominated the dark empire's final days, and Raumathari battlemages visited untold destruction on the place in the final battle of the two realms. Little of Val-Murthag remains to be seen, except for sprawling old walls of weathered black stone that run for miles across the cold downs and the shattered stumps of watchtowers amid heaps of battered stone.

The ghosts of Nar demonpriests are said to haunt the ruins, and most of the Dalesfolk give the place a wide berth.

My version of Val-Murthag is going to be undead-heavy, consistent with the mention of restless Nar ghosts (4E) and ghosts of Nar demonpriests are said to haunt the ruins (3.xE). I would also expect to see cultists of Orcus here and maybe even an adventure inspired by Keep on the Shadowfell. (While I hate that adventure and consider it to have played a major role in the failure of 3E, the basic idea of a cultist of Orcus trying to open a portal to the Shadowfell would suit this location really well.)

Beyond that, the nature of the ruins suggests a collection of mini-adventures - aka dungeon delves, aka five-room dungeons - with most having an undead and/or Orcus-related theme. There may also be room for gnoll cultists of Doresain the Ghoul-King.

Clymph

While the map simply shows the name Clymph, the FRCG gives this location a longer name: 

Oracle of Fortress Clymph: The rocks and bricks of these ruins glow red with heat, and the crackling of massive flames emanates from a central fortress. The stones of the keep are imbued with powerful protection magic, transforming the perimeter of the building into a massive magic circle. Before the Spellplague, the magic barrier contained a portal that opened to the Abyss. Though that gate has been closed for nearly a hundred years now, and most of the demonic hordes within have succumbed, fiendish presences yet linger here.

In recent years, Clymph has become known as an oracle site. Those brave or desperate enough can approach the fortress’s front gate, knock three times, and wait to be addressed by a booming voice from the earth. The petitioner is allowed one question, but the answer is whispered so quietly that an ear must be laid to the gate to hear the answer. Many supplicants leave unharmed, happy with what they have learned. Others are absorbed through the gate into the fortress’s interior, never to be seen again.

The portal to the Abyss was open during the era in which Unapproachable East was set:

Once a proud, walled keep, Clymph Tower has lain in ruins for as long as anyone can remember. A mighty sorcerer named Clymph built the place nearly five hundred years ago. Clymph is also believed to have constructed Tower Threespires, for the two sites have a similar architecture and were built around the same time. Clymph Tower has remained untouched for decades, though, and the locals believe it is cursed for some transgression of its fabled builder against the gods.

The best story - or at least the one that gets repeated the most - is that Clymph was a powerful demonbinder, a student of the forbidden arts of ancient Narfell. He dreamed of forging a kingdom in the Great Dale with his demonic armies. He constructed this keep as a pen for his foul servants and imbued its very stones with abjurative magic, transforming the perimeter of the building into a massive magic circle. He then created a permanent gate directly into the Abyss. Unfortunately, Clymph was unable to control the demonic hordes he summoned, and his fiendish minions destroyed him. However, he had crafted his demon-trap so well that the fiends could not escape except through one portal leading to Tower Threespires, and that door is sealed. Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of demons are still trapped in the fell tower Clymph raised centuries ago.

Today, those few people who dare to approach the ruins report that its stones glow red with heat and that massive fire crackle from the depths. Even the most daring adventurers give the place a wide berth.

I wasn't a fan of the oracle idea on my first reading of the FRCG but it does offer an interesting adventure hook. But I suppose the more obvious adventure hook is to have someone trying to re-open the original portal to the Abyss.

The oracle idea makes me think that Clymph would be a great location to contain an imprisoned aspect of Fraz-Urb'luu, the demon prince of deception, but that doesn't quite match the description of the fiery heat of something in the tower. Of course, the two things don't have to be directly related... and Fraz-Urb'luu is known to have the ability to convince another demon that it has been summoned. What if the aspect summoned a fiery horde from the Abyss - or even a balor? - in an effort to fight off the bindings being placed upon it?

I was also thinking that this might be a good location to host a force of Red Wizards of Thay. At the end of the 3.5E era, Szass Tam slew Nevron the Zulkir of Conjuration who ended up in the Abyss as a mane. What if Nevron's descendants/loyal servants (there is a timeline issue with the latter option) are here to try and free him from the Abyss as part of a larger goal to see Szass Tam's rulership of Thay ended and the Zulkirs restored?

Beyond the Red Wizards, I imagine there are also Nar cultists of Fraz'Urb'luu present at Clymph Tower possibly trying to find a way to free the Prince of Deception.

However, it would make more sense in the context of the history of the Demonlands for Eltab to play a role in at least one of these dungeons and this one is arguably the most likely of the three. In such a case, it is Eltab - or an aspect of Eltab or one of his glabrezu or succubus servants - who provides the oracular services, so to speak. Actually, a succubus thrall of Eltab trapped in a demoncyst beneath the tower makes a lot of sense as the oracle. (And if you don't know what a demoncyst is, I explain it after Dun-Tharos.) 

And I even have a picture of a Red Wizard thrall of Eltab....

Dun-Tharos

The final dungeon arguably offers the most potential and maybe even deserves to be designed as a megadungeon akin to Rappan Athuk considering the role it plays in FR canon. The dumbed down version in the FRCG says this:

This half-buried ancient city sprawls for miles through the pines and bogs at the heart of the Dunwood. It was once the seat of a great and terrible realm of dark keeps and sinister lords. In a war between ancient Raumathar and Narfell, some mighty spell of unspeakable power leveled the entire area. So ended the demon-haunted kingdom of Narfell.
 

Nentyarchs of ages past raised a living fortress of magical trees over the ruins of Dun-Tharos, chasing off explorers lest they awaken the dire forces buried beneath. Treasures of Narfell’s baleful lords lie in deep storehouses and conjuring chambers under the old ruins. The Rotting Man drove out the Nentyarch and the Circle of Leth, disturbing those ancient secrets and, before his fall, unleashing an even worse power. 

Now demons of every shape move through the catacombs of Dun-Tharos and the forest above. Any creature that comes looking for ancient Nar treasuries risks much.

Actually, that's not too bad a description and there is also a sidebar noting the presence of petty demon lords:

Several powerful demons claim territory above and below Dunwood. Two of them are briefly described here.
Eschar: A powerful demon who commands others of its ilk in Dun-Tharos, Eschar is similar in form to a big, scaled ogre. A crown of horns protrudes from its head and glows with fiendish light. Evil pulses from Eschar like a heartbeat ringing up from the depths.
The Queen Abiding: Also claiming power in Dun-Tharos, the Queen Abiding is a blot of darkness a dozen yards across when she expands to her full diameter. The chill of coldest winter enshrouds her.

I could probably use Eschar if I need a big dumb brute and The Queen Abiding might make for an interesting sub-level of the dungeon-proper.

Unapproachable East provided a bit more detail:

Once the capital of the ancient Empire of Narfell, Dun-Tharos sprawls for miles through the pines and hogs at the heart of the Rawlinswood. From this place, the Nentyarchs (as the rulers of ancient Narfell were known) ruled a great and terrible realm of dark keeps and proud, sinister lords. Dun-Tharos was laid waste in the final cataclysmic war between Raumathar and Narfell, the entire city leveled by some mighty spell of unspeakable power. So ended the Nentyarchs and their demon-haunted kingdom.

Centuries passed, and the forest grew over the great black scar in its heart. A group of druids and rangers - the Circle of Leth - undertook the work of healing the wounded land, Their leader took the title of Nentyarch anew to signify that the druids of Leth ruled over the heart of ancient Narfell. In the ruins of Dun-Tharos, the new Nentyarchs raised a fortress to govern the great forest. The black keep of the old demonpriests was reborn as a castle of living trees, woven by druidic magic.

From this forest-castle the Nentyarchs ruled for nearly six hundred years, preserving the Forest of Lethyr and the Rawlinswood from encroachment by human kingdoms on all sides. The ruins of the old Nar capital reminded the druids of humanity's ability to harm nature, and the forest that had swallowed its black stones offered an example of what might be accomplished with patience and strength.

All things come to an end, though. Ten years ago, the Rotting Man, Chosen of Talona, began to gather a circle of dark druids in the western reaches of the Rawlinswood. The Circle of Leth fought against the rising power of the blightlords and contained the Rotting Man in the west, but two years ago the Rotting Man created a terrible new weapon to use against the Nentyarch - the blight of Talona. He corrupted a handful of captured Leth druids, changing them into blightlords who serve him. Through these tortured minions, he ensnared hundreds of volodnis and infected them with Talona's blight. At Midwinter in 1371 DR he hurled his blightspawned army at the Nentyarch's fortress and drove the Circle of Leth out of the Rawlinswood.

Dun-Tharos is still a castle of trees, but they are now dead, animated through the Rotting Man's foul sorcery. Hundreds of his minions lurk in the ruins of Narfell's old capital, ready to surge forth and slay at his command. His blightspawned warriors slaughtered the small community of Denderdale, north of the forest, only two months ago, and bands of evil volodnis harry the clanholds and farmsteads south of his forest. Dun-Tharos has become a place of death and madness once again.

I must admit, I would not have updated that write-up for 4E and I might keep the Rotting Man... but I would make him a dark druid of Demogorgon.

Ahhh, yes, Demogorgon. It seems the Big D is going to be playing a major role in the Rage of Demons storyline for 5E judging from the art that has been commissioned/published, including this 10-second video to the left. Demogorgon seems like a good replacement for Talona as the Rotting Man's patron/sponsor.

In truth, the real reason I want to include Demogorgon is that I have a miniature aspect of Demogorgon that I have never been able to use and I don't want to waste it. (Yes, I am being completely honest.)

The Grand History of the Realms included this timeline entry that ties the drow to Dun-Tharos:

–10400 DR: Dark elves of Clan Sethomiir travel by magic to the Riildath (present-day Rawlinswood and Forest of Lethyr) from Ilythiir, guided by the hand of the balor Wendonai. They construct an underground fortress named Narathmault [–10000], “the Dark Pit,” at the site of present day Dun-Tharos, recognising it as a place of great evil.  

The nature of that "great evil" is not explained but I rather like the tie-in with the drow and with a named balor. I cannot help but think of this piece of art commissioned from the soon-to-be-released Sword Coast Legends CRPG and wonder if I might end up using it to depict a couple of significant NPCs in this campaign:

At the very least, I rather like the idea of including a dungeon level which I will call the Dark Pit of Narathmault where a band of drow wizards and/or sorcerers are seeking to increase their personal power. (And for campaigns where the Demon Weave storyline from 4E's Rise of the Underdark is going to happen, this is probably a logical place for the drow to perform some of the necessary rituals. It also provides an alternative starting location for the Rage of Demons storyline.)

I also really want to include a traditional, old school, fireball-throwing, Demogorgon-created death knight in Dun-Tharos. And if Demogorgon is going to be involved, I should also use troglodytes, some yuan-ti, and maybe some awakened apes (see The Lost Temple of Demogorgon from Dungeon 120 for some ideas relating to awakened apes).

Demoncysts

As I expect that demoncysts are going to play a significant role in the campaign, I thought I better address them in this post rather than later. And to do I will defer to George Krashos over at Candlekeep:

The Narfelli bound demons into magical prisons known as demoncysts. The demoncyst form of trapping demons commonly occurred on the outer fringes of Narfelli lands (i.e. as a type of border security) to be called upon by Demonbinders as needed and was the least sophisticated means of compelling demons to service used by the Narfelli. The demoncyst ritual involved summoning the demon in question to the Prime and then using their own unique variant of the 'Imprisonment' spell to entomb the demon (or 'drith' in the Narfelli tongue) at a particular location.

What the Narfelli realised early on in the process was that the extra-planar nature of drith made a normal 'Imprisonment' spell prone to collapsing over time, which of course led to much devastation and trouble when an unbound demon appeared 'out of no-where' and started to run amok. This led to the Narfelli working on a more demon-oriented variant of that spell which proved much more stable - but not completely so. As such it was common for only relatively minor drith to be bound in this fashion (usually nothing more powerful than a chasme, more often a handful of dretch or rutterkin) and for there to be safeguards put in place to prevent unleashed demons from doing their own things if unleashed incorrectly. Those safeguards usually took the form of spell-trigger magics to banish said unleashed demon(s) or other types of ward magics to prevent their freedom of movement. As with all dealing with extra-planar creatures, the efficacy of such spells varied wildly on circumstances and the unpredictability of the Art.

I note that there were more than a few Demonbinders who refused to 'play by the rules' and used demoncyst magic to build secret sentinels/armies in more populated areas (i.e. in and around Narfelli settlements) and also were lax in placing appropriate safeguards on their demoncysts - so essentially, anything goes in this regard.

Most 'sanctioned' demoncysts needed to be recognisable to Demonbinders - for it was intended that they be an intrinsic aspect of the defence of the realm and so required to be accessible to all 'army personnel as it were - and so the releasing of subject demon(s) was by way of command word and the touching of a particular item (usually a small brass engraved disc) located at the site of the cyst. Most Demonbinders used "permanency" on themselves to give them the power of a lower-level variant "arcane sight" spell that allowed them to see drith summoning magics (specifically for location of demoncysts and wards against demons) and so could readily observe and activate such sites.

With the passing of the centuries, the demoncyst magics have all degraded to a degree. They are far less stable and accordingly, sometimes simply touching the brass disc located at a demoncyst site without uttering the command word is enough to release the demon(s) in question. It must be noted that the demoncyst ritual was keyed specifically to humans, so the touching of a disc by wild animals, elves, dragons, dwarves etc would all (usually) have no effect. Similarly, disturbing the area of ground at or nearby to a demoncyst by digging, ploughing, etc. has been known to unleash the demons entombed there. Most denizens of the Great Dale do no digging at all if it can be avoided - experience having taught them that the simple act of digging a grave can lead to deadly consequences. Customs in the Great Dale are modified accordingly (they cremate their dead rather than bury; they use hammered in stakes with stout ropes to hold wooden dwellings in place rather than digging stone foundations; etc.).

The largest concentration of demoncysts is located on the southern edge of the Great Dale along the northern part of the Forest of Lethyr, around present-day Mistbridge and the Falls of Erech, near the Citadel of Conjurers in Impiltur and in and around the environs of Dun-Tharos. This is despite centuries of "clean up" by the druids of the region.

I also want to make a demoncyst the centrepiece for my introductory adventure for the campaign.

Kront: The Safe Haven

My original plan was to use Uthmere as a fairly logical starting point for a Great Dale-based campaign... but that would make Dun-Tharos the nearest of the three dungeons which doesn't make sense when it's the most dangerous. Kront, however, is the nearest settlement to the first dungeon of Val-Murthag and it's also on a major trade road leading to Narfell and places north and Thesk and places south. Also, Lake Ashane is close by offering easy access to Rashemen. I mention these places because these are all good places from which PCs might come, although the Great Dale itself is a really good origin point.

The FRCG says this about Kront:

Trade Village; Population 400
The first glimmer of civilisation along the Cold Road from N’Jast in Narfell, Kront stands on a crossroads that leads to Two Stars in Thesk. Despite raids from far-roaming Nars, the rough frontier village still stands. No lord higher than the current Lady Chinilvur, of an Impilturan noble line, claims dominion over Kront. The Chinilvurs would have built the town in the Ashanath on Lake Ashane, but that stretch of land is prone to unnaturally regular and severe tornadoes.

Unapproachable East provides (as is to be expected) a bit more information:

Kront is a neutral trading ground for the surrounding lands. The merchants who regularly pass through here appreciate the lack of politics, especially since this translates into no direct taxes or tolls. The people of Kront make their living trading goods and services with travellers. Kront concentrates on providing services to traders, but it's also a key point for folk from hundreds of miles around to purchase tools and other items they cannot fashion on their own. Many merchants who start out thinking of Kront as a rest stop on their way to other points have decided this is a fine place to trade as well. In particular, fisherfolk come here every day to hawk their catches from Lake Ashane, providing fresh fish for those staying in Kront and smoked meat for them to take on their way.

I'm definitely going to have to flesh that out a lot more if I'm going to use it as a home base (unlike Uthmere where there is a lot of canon info, particularly from the 3.5E era).

A Rough Campaign Synopsis

Obviously, this is going to develop further as I do further research and design on the campaign but here's my rough outline for what would be a campaign for the Heroic Tier in 4E covering levels 1-11 or so (and arguably the same in 5E):

Adventure One: Dungeon of the Demoncyst

Levels 1-2 

I cannot write a proper introductory adventure without knowing the characters but the basic idea combines a dungeon with a demoncyst. Essentially, the seals on a demoncyst have been degraded by a combination of time and the rituals of a Nar demonbinder thus freeing some fairly minor demons (manes, dretches etc...) which are now running about near Kront. The PCs are hired to put an end to this threat which involves delving a Narfelli-era dungeon, fighting Nar barbarians, before dealing with a Nar demonbinder and his minor demon "horde".

Adventure Two: Ghosts of Val-Murthag

Levels 2-5

Deciding to explore the ruins of Val-Murthag, the PCs find that Nar cultists of Orcus have disturbed many of the Nar ghosts. A Nar demonpriest of Orcus is trying to raise a great army of undead from the ruins by opening a portal to the Shadowfell in an ancient temple of Orcus and it's up to the PCs to stop him (or her).

Adventure Three: Prisoner of Clymph Tower

Levels 5-8

The Rashemmi PCs in the party have heard that Red Wizards of Thay have occupied Clymph Tower. It's up to them to determine if this poses a risk to Rashemen and to stop the Thayan schemes.

Or not.

After all, they may be trying to bring back the former Zulkir Nevron in an effort to end the rule of Szass Tam.

Adventure Four: Dark Pit of Dun-Tharos

Levels 8-11

The corruption of the Dunwood has been increasing and now Kront and other formerly (relatively) peaceful settlements of the Great Dale are threatened and all the signs point to Dun-Tharos being the origin of these troubles.

With support from the druids of Yeshelmaar, the PCs set out to end the threat only to discover a major Nar cult of Demogorgon that has summoned an aspect of the prince of demons to the Realms with the side-effect of corrupting everything around Dun-Tharos. 

Delving deeper into Dun-Tharos, the PCs eventually come to the great twin altar of Demogorgon and there seek to banish the aspect of Demogorgon from the Realms before its corruption and madness spreads further!

***

I've written the synopses as railroads to save time but, when I come to preparing the posts for each adventure, I will make sure to include a variety of hooks and also to provide better links between the adventures than what is apparent here.

 Table of Contents

Finally, here's the revised table of contents. I will edit in the links to the relevant posts as they are made.

Adventure Locations

From the 4E map:

Clymph Tower
Dun-Tharos
Val-Murthag


From the 3.xE map:
Fortress Narder
Great Barrow
Tower Threespires 

Other Locations & Features

Bezentil
Dunwood
Easting River
Forest of Lethyr
Giantspire Mountains
Great Road
Kront
Lake Ashane
The Mucklestones
Narfell
Tammar
Thesk
Uthmere
Yeshelmaar

Helpful Links

WotC posted the sections on the Great Dale from both the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and Forgotten Realms Player's Guide <here> and <here> respectively.

All of the information from 3.xE's Unapproachable East - one of the best FR sourcebooks, IMO - can be found in four posts on another site: <overview>, <people>, <cities>, and <history>.

A Final Comment: Necromancer Games

As I have quickly re-read this post I realised that there is arguably enough content here and in the links to allow a DM to quickly put together a campaign set in the Great Dale particularly if he or she owns a few Necromancer Games products.

Start with Wizard's Amulet and Crucible of Freya as an introductory adventure and then segue into Rappan-Athuk but set in Val-Murthag. That's really all you need for a long-running campaign. And whatever bits of Rappan-Athuk aren't used in  Val-Murthag can be used in Clymph and/or Dun-Tharos instead. Slumbering Tsar could also provide source material for the same locations.

Add a bit of FR flavour by including Nar barbarians and demonbinders, Red Wizards of Thay, witches of Rashemen, and swapping out the deities for FR ones and it will still feel like FR but the work will have been done for you. After all, if you've paid for the products, you may as well use them! :)

Look what's coming in 5E for the Forgotten Realms...

... and, no, it is not a campaign setting but some form of regional guide book.

It's the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide which looks like it's going to follow the example of 4E's Neverwinter Campaign Setting and focus on a smaller area. And I mention the Neverwinter Campaign Setting because that seemed to be almost uniformly praised even by those whose natural reaction is to hate FR products.

But it's also interesting that, as expected, there's no campaign guide for FR. I don't think this is going to win the Candlekeepers (ie, diehard FR fans) back but I suspect it will, like the Neverwinter Campaign Setting, have fairly broad appeal especially if the CRPG Sword Coast Legends turns out to be a good product.

While I am not interested in 5E or the 5E Realms, I will still be grabbing this as the Sword Coast is a big part of why I am a fan of FR.

Dessarin Valley Sandbox 3 - Amphail & Getting a Campaign Started (II)

Princes of the Apocalypse "officially" begins at level 3 in Red Larch so the adventure gives some ideas for mini-adventures to take PCs from levels 1-3 if necessary. These mini-adventures are also centred on Red Larch, as are some of my own ideas mentioned in my <previous post>.

However, looking at the <regional map> some players might be wondering why they are in Red Larch and what route they took to get there. One obvious answer is that they came via Amphail so what happened when they were there?

Turning to 2E's Volo's Guide to the North once again for source material, it seems there are one or two things that might interest PCs en route to Red Larch....

Realmslore

Princes of the Apocalypse

Princes has little to say about Amphail and what it almost exactly the same as what appears in 2E's Volo's Guide to the North and the later 2E product The North boxed set which is also largely reprints from Volo's:

Amphail lies on the Long Road, about three days’ ride north of Waterdeep. The town is named after Amphail the Just, one of Waterdeep’s early warlords, who is said to haunt the surrounding hills in spirit form, frightening away monsters. Horses are bred and trained here, rich Waterdhavians maintain secluded estates in the hills, and farmland is plentiful. Stands of dark duskwood and spruce trees are everywhere.

In one corner of the town square stands the Great Shalarn, a black stone statue of a famous war stallion bred in Amphail long ago. Gelded by a prankster, the rearing horse is often painted bright colours by high-spirited locals. Children are allowed to hurl stones at birds perched on the statue, to keep it free of droppings. The children often climb it themselves and cling precariously to the high, tilted saddle, waving their arms and commanding imaginary armies into battle. Within spitting distance of the statue is the Stag-Horned Flagon, a cozy tavern.

Reason to Visit: Great Shalarn is a popular place to leave cryptic messages, either tucked under the statue’s hind hooves or slid between the sculpted curls of its tail.

There's not a lot to work with there but it would be in the finest tradition of a sandbox-style campaign for the PCs to find a message in the statue of the Great Shalarn and for that message to lead them to an adventure.

On a related note, a DM planning to run Princes largely as written could place a clue to the identity of one or more of the agents of Elemental Evil in Red Larch within a message in this statue. 

Volo's Guide to the North

One of the points of interest called out in Volo's is the horse pond and the tomb reported to lie beneath:

For a local spot of interest, you might try the Horse Pond. It'’s a placid, muddy home to frogs and water-lilies, and it is said to hide the underwater entrance to a tomb.

Local lore tells of the Maiden King, a female human chieftain who ruled here an age ago. According to the tale, she sleeps forever on a stone bed, with a magical two-handed sword on her breast. Adventurers have entered the pool several times looking for her sunken tomb, and at least one band did not return. Some years ago, a number of undead skeletons emerged from the pond and stalked through the village, strangling several folk before the beasts were hacked apart. The truth about what lies in the depths of the pond remains to be revealed. However, it is used daily, without incident, to water dirty, thirsty horses.

The Horse Pond Tomb. That's not a bad name for an adventure and it is definitely the basic sort of old school adventure that is perfect for kicking off a new campaign. Imagine the PCs arriving in Amphail only to discover a small horde of undead skeletons rampaging through the village. They save some of the folk of Amphail and are then hired to put a permanent end to the undead threat. What then follows is some underwater exploration which is particularly freaky when your characters are only level 1 before the PCs uncover the entrance to an ancient barbarian queen's tomb as otherwise described above.

Maybe the problem has been caused by a necromancer or evil cleric taking up residence - what if the Maiden King was a folower of Garagos the Reaver and it is a cleric of Garagos who has come back to fulfil an Arthurian prophecy that the Maiden King will rise again? - and animating some of the dead. Alternatively, maybe a thief broke through some protective wards and eventually awakened the Maiden King who is actually a creature of great evil bound beneath the earth some centuries ago.

In short, there's an extensive set of barrows, some of sort of necromancer or cleric, a trapped thief, and an a horrible unique undead barbarian queen who wants to regain her kingdom. Yep, that would work.


Then there are two more adventure locations that hold some promise:

At the north end of the village stands the burned ruin of the Laughing Bandit Inn. It was destroyed in a wild spell battle three winters ago. 

The battle was between a mysterious masked mage whose skin was ink black (some folk believe he was a drow) and the wizard Thalagh Tarn of Tethyr who was blasted to bloodspray. It'’s not clear if the other mage escaped the inferno of the inn. Many, many bones, cracked by the heat, were found in the ashes.

As the owner died in the conflagration, there is no great interest in rebuilding. Local children love to play in the ruins, where many “jools” of melted, puddled glass can be found. Somewhere under the charred timbers lie the inn’'s cellars, which may still contain some valuables. There’'s no way to get down there without doing a lot of digging that would have to be done in full view of the children and anyone passing on the road.

To the north is a disused temple to Waukeen. It is rapidly becoming overgrown with ivy and creeping vines.

Cellars of the Laughing Bandit Inn. Instead of requiring the PCs to dig into the cellars, perhaps the coming of Spring has caused the soil to subside so that there is now a narrow entrance to these old cellars but the folk of Amphail are too scared because of old legends to explore them for themselves. Instead, the PCs are hired to do so and first discover merely old storage rooms... but then a prison where captives were kept for sale to the drow. 

That then suggests some sort of passage into the Underdark and maybe a great fungus-filled cavern with the remains of a drow outpost. Perhaps there is a drider - with pet hunting spiders - there that survives by hunting myconids with the latter surviving from the rich fungal forest that they tend. 

 

Ruined Temple of Waukeen. I suspect the reason this temple was ruined was because, in the 2E era, Waukeen was a prisoner of Graz'zt and her church went into a period of decline. (In my own campaign set in the 4E era, this is still true but her church is thriving secretly run by a cult of Graz'zt.) What if the ruins are still haunted by minor demons from that era? And what if the church of Waukeen is now wanting to reclaim their former temple and is hiring adventurers to clear out the ruins? That's a fairly simple mini-adventure that could be ad libbed with the right map such as the monastery dungeon that features in the original Dungeon Master's Guide.

Beyond these three adventure ideas, there are several other suggestions in Volo's but they require a bit more work/thought.

Other Published Material

T1 The Village of Hommlet

I hate, loathe, detest, and despise T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil as being one of the most overrated, incomplete, nonsensical, and basically poorly-designed (and randomly-generated in large parts) pieces of crap ever published for D&D... but that's because I have such high regard for The Village of Hommlet and waited so long for Temple of Elemental Evil that a never-actually-finished-but-still-published piece of garbage was never going to satisfy my desire for a worthy sequel.

My rants aside, the Moathouse is a classic adventure location that almost needs to be in any campaign based on Elemental Evil, including Princes of the Apocalypse.

What if Amphail substitutes for Hommlet? The Moathouse can represent a move by an almost renegade faction of the Elder Elemental Eye to move further south toward Waterdeep and, of course, that faction would be headed up by Lareth the Beautiful....

Really, can Princes of the Apocalypse even be considered a successor to Temple of Elemental Evil if it doesn't begin with the Moathouse? :) Seriously, if the PCs need to be level 3 by the time they reach Red Larch, why not start Princes with an update of the Moathouse? And, if you do so, make sure you post about it online so that the Greyhawk purists weep....

Conclusion

I've run a few homebrewed "adventure paths" over the past few years and I have found that they ones that have worked best have begun with something a little bit different so that the players get some variety and don't feel like they're being railroaded from day 1. I think starting in Amphail and then travelling to Red Larch can provide that sort of start, even if the PCs end up taking on Lareth the Beautiful in an adaptation of the Moathouse from T1. But it might be better to run through one or more of the other adventure ideas first just to get the players used to their characters before they begin the process of tackling Elemental Evil....

The Great Dale Sandbox 0 - Introduction & Table of Contents

My Neverwinter: Year of the Ageless One campaign will conclude in a few more sessions and I need to get another campaign ready. I have a few ideas that I have been toying around with for a while - plus the ones I have mentioned in the past on this blog - but I realised today I needed something simpler: Good vs Evil. Dungeons. Maybe dragons. Very little plot. Fairly old school.

While looking for something else in the 4E Forgotten Realms Player's Guide I noticed this description of the Great Dale:

The Great Dale is the vast, windswept vale that divides two enormous forests, the Dunwood to the north and the Forest of Lethyr to the south. The druids and other folk who inhabit the great rocky tor of Yeshelmaar are all that stand between the sparsely settled, wild southern woodlands and the festering evils of the northern forest.

Trade has collapsed along the Great Road, leaving the defenders of Yeshelmaar as the last bastion of civilisation in the Great Dale. Demons that were bound beneath the Dunwood by the long-fallen Empire of Narfell now stalk the northern forest and threaten to overwhelm the wild reaches of the Forest of Lethyr. The southern woods are home to hidden wood elf villages and a handful of human settlements along the border with Thesk.

And then I looked at the map and realised it already showed a few dungeons which means I would simply show the map to the players and let them choose where to go to find adventure. That's simple. That's fairly old school. And that might be just what my players are looking for after a more plot-intensive campaign.

Further, I continue to hope that I can persuade my wife's extended family to play this game one day so a simpler dungeon-focussed campaign is probably a good thing to have as a standby. So, here comes a series of posts called The Great Dale Sandbox which could otherwise probably be called Dungeons & Demons....

(It also gives me something to blog about while I wait for my copy of Princes of the Apocalypse. Ahhh, the joys of living in a Third World country....)

What About 5E?

Frankly, I think this idea of dungeons-on-a-map would work perfectly with 5E or any of the old school editions/rules. It's also suitable for DMs who don't have a good grasp of FR as, at its heart, it's a fairly generic campaign involving exploring dungeons with a possible BBEG being an aspect of a demon lord (and I think of aspects in the context of the 3.5E Miniatures Handbook where they were CR 12 or so and not Epic threats - I think that would also work well in 5E).

Introduction

(TL;DR: I have come to think of this campaign as something like the answer to this question: What would happen if Necromancer Games set its adventures in the world of the Forgotten Realms?)

The layout of the Great Dale is quite simple. There is the demon-haunted Dunwood on the northern side and the druid-protected Forest of Lethyr on the southern side. Dunwood vs Lethyr, or demon vs druid, is a fairly simple shorthand for describing the conflict in the Great Dale and the source of so many adventuring opportunities.

Beyond that, the Great Dale is a place containing numerous ruins from the demon-worshipping/-binding ancient Empire of Narfell. For my own take on this sandbox-based campaign that I expect/hope to run, I am actually calling it Legacies of Narfell. In due course, I hope to post actual play reports... assuming that is the campaign that we run through next.

The BBEG is going to be an aspect of Demogorgon and this aspect will be the source of much of the corruption of the Great Dale and its forests. That said, I suspect some of the other unique tanar'ri such as Orcus - or at least said tanar'ri's followers and thralls - will make an appearance but it's going to be a campaign that ends in a confrontation with the Big D himself.

And, yes, that means I will be stealing ideas along the way from the Savage Tide adventure path.

Table of Contents

Adventure Locations

From the 4E map:

Clymph Tower
Dun-Tharos
Val-Murthag


From the 3.xE map:
Fortress Narder
Great Barrow
Tower Threespires 

Other Locations & Features

Bezentil
Dunwood
Easting River
Forest of Lethyr
Giantspire Mountains
Great Road
Kront
Lake Ashane
The Mucklestones
Narfell
Tammar
Thesk
Uthmere
Yeshelmaar

Helpful Links

WotC posted the sections on the Great Dale from both the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and Forgotten Realms Player's Guide <here> and <here> respectively.

All of the information from 3.xE's Unapproachable East - one of the best FR sourcebooks, IMO - can be found in four posts on another site: <overview>, <people>, <cities>, and <history>.

 

Starter Set Sandbox 17 - Hexcrawling Around Phandalin (post updated - previous post incomplete)

As per the revised post title, I originally posted this before I completed the post. I've edited in the missing content now.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I had now begun a 5E campaign set in and around Phandalin which I am currently calling The Twilit Land: Rise of the Zhentarim but may eventually be called by its original name - Tyrant of the Twilit Land - after a few more sessions. And If I end up with a beholder as the BBEG, it may even become I, Tyrant.

For me, 5E is the third edition of AD&D, although I also recognise the influence of both 3.xE and 4E in its design, but it feels and plays like AD&D, IMO (and YMMV).

And in a conscious homage to that old school vibe that it gives me, the campaign has begun with the basic idea of having an updated version of the Caves of Chaos from B2 The Keep on the Borderlands as its centrepiece. However, besides the Caves of Chaos, and in keeping with the old school vibe, I wanted to throw in a hexcrawl with various locations that can be explored and/or avoided.

So that's all a long way of saying that I've prepared a hexcrawl map for the 10 mile x 10 mile area south and east of Phandalin and some other DMs may find it useful. The scale is 1/2 mile per hex. (It was created using Hexographer which is such an elegant programme that I wished I had used before.)

And for those who want a little bit of inspiration for the locations I have placed on the map, here are my rough notes which I will gradually expand as we play.

01.01 Phandalin

This also includes hexes 01.02 and 02.01. This is the village of Phandalin described in Lost Mine of Phandelver.

04.12 The Statue Mines

Although these mines are rich, nobody will go there because of the petrified miners around the entrance and through the entrance tunnel. Basilisks lair here… and grimlocks can also be found.

The grimlocks worship a petrified, coiled, purple dragon (aka deep dragon) that "resides" in the middle of a vast amphitheatre-like cavern. The petrified dragon has been rubbed smooth over the centuries by the hands of grimlocks devotees.

04.17 The Moathouse

I think anyone reading this blog is familiar with the the Moathouse from T1 The Village of Hommlet or the execrable T1-4 The Temple of Elemental Evil. I think it's a fantastic little dungeon and I think it might work here. Otherwise, this could instead be the Place of the Unicorn or even The Shattered Circle.



(I note that the Place of the Unicorn should probably be northwest of Phandalin rather than south... but maybe the Spellplague caused it to shift? That statement, of course, is entirely tongue-in-cheek....)

05.05 Mines of the Goblin King

This is the location nearest to Phandalin and thus the one most likely to be explored first. I've already set up a Zhent-sponsored goblin threat to Phandalin in my game so this set of mines is going to be ruled by a goblin "king" but there will also be a Zhentarim presence.

10.03 The Last Copper Mines
 
The reason for the name is that miners believe you would have to be down to your last copper before you tried to delve these played-out mines which supposedly date back more than a thousand years…

… and are notorious for bad luck so lots of small shrines to Beshaba can be found along the way. Failing to pay homage at these shrines - or, even worse, desecrating same, can result in the Maid of Misfortune visiting the unbeliever with disadvantage on all saving throws, attack rolls, or skill/ability checks, or even all three.

It would also be a good location to run 2E's Dungeon of Death (which includes mines), although that adventure is set in The North so would require a few changes to place names and background details. And for those running it using 5E, you would need to convert a few monsters including the nabassu demons.

10.11 The Nexus Caverns

I am probably just regurgitating some ideas I had for the Old Owl Well, but I want at least one "weird dungeon" location in this area and I am thinking these could be something like S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.



Frankly, I should also take a fresh look at the wilderness portions of Lost Caverns and see if I can translate them to this hexcrawl map....

13.04 The Pit of Whispers

I want to take the basic idea of The Shattered Circle but have access to it be via a sinkhole or pit which resonates with weird whispers from the ancient past.

13.07 The Spire of Uruth Ukrypt

Ahhh, this is the orc-raised tower from the classic 3.5E adventure Sons of Gruumsh. Besides orcs - and orogs! - this adventure also conveniently includes Zhentarim which suits my purposes perfectly. It's one of my favourite adventures that I have yet to run and the maps are simply superb.

14.05 Forgotten Temple of Amaunator
 
I ran a year-long 3.5E campaign at a game store that began a couple of days after the revised edition's release and it was set in and around Deadsnows in the Silver Marches. I ran it as something of a hexcrawl using the map of the area around Deadsnows that appeared in 3E's The Silver Marches (one of FR's best ever regional supplements, IMO).

One of the few dungeon locations I used in that campaign was a lost temple of Amaunator that dated back to the Netherese era and still contained the clerics of that time, albeit as undead huecuvae (I am hoping that's the correct spelling of the plural of huecuva). The map was actually based on the dungeon in B3 Palace of the Silver Princess.

Anyway, I want to use it again. It's high up on a cliff top and accessible by a carefully hidden switchback path.

15.10 Lost Forgebar Mines

These are the Caves of Chaos from B2 The Keep on the Borderlands. They're supposed to be the focus of my new 5E game but I'm now not sure if the PCs will get there! :)

15.13 The Zhentarim Iron Mines
 
To support their activities in the area, and the eventually fitting out of the army they're raising, the Zhentarim have reopened some iron mines at this location and have pressed slave labour into doing the work. I don't have a published adventure to steal from at this point, but I may use the maps for the first section of the Mines of Tethyamar that appear in 3E's Lords of Darkness.

16.02 The Deep Delve

I want these to be active mines because the PCs have met a band of dwarven miners who were heading there... but I am also so very tempted to run 3E's Forge of Fury at this point, in large part because this campaign needs a dragon and there is a black dragon in Forge of Fury....

Alternatively, this could also be 4E's Orcs of Stonefang Pass....

18.15 Vulture's Roost

This is from the DDi adventure of the same name.

19.02 Temple of the Winds

This is based on the Lair Assault involving the temple of Shaundakul. However, it may now be the demesne of an ogre mage or three.

Basically, I want one location on this map to be up in the Sky. Temple of the Skygod is probably the best published fit, although I recall there is at least one published Dungeon adventure set in a cloud castle....

(5E) The Twilit Land: Rise of the Zhentarim 0 - Introduction & Hexcrawl Map

When I began typing this post, it was going to be a similar sort of introduction but for a campaign I was planning to call Tyrant of the Twilit Land. It was going to be largely based on B2 The Keep on the Borderlands - as explained in <this post> - with the town of Phandalin from Lost Mine of Phandelver taking the place of the titular keep. The Caves of Chaos would be lost dwarven mines where a tyrant - originally a beholder but I finally decided to use a blue dragon scion of the Blood of Morueme - had managed to unite disparate humanoid tribes and was gradually forging them into an army that would threaten Phandalin and other settlements in the North...

... but then we played tonight and my attempts to make Phandalin feel like Tombstone resulted in the players deciding they wanted to clean up this town and make it a safe place for miners, farmers, and their families.

And as the Zhentarim were identified as the primary threat facing this town - more on this when I write up the session report in my next post - I decided to use some ideas I have been playing with since 2E about the civil war within the Zhentarim between the Cyricist and Banite factions. So, while the Zhents are definitely trying to secure their position within Phandalin because of its easy access to several mines they expect to have real value, there are also two factions within the Zhentarim that are competing with each other in a desire to dominate the Black Network.

Anyway, here's some details of the four PCs that I'm running through this campaign which does not include a healer of any sort (but I do have a DMPC on standby, just in case). It's an odd group, including my very first drow ranger in 33+ years of D&D. But these are good players who I know won't turn the drow into some desperate, angst-filled, Drizzt-wannabe. And I am sure the fact that he is drow will be used against him more than once....

A. CG Male Drow Ranger

Background: Outlander.

Personality Traits: I'm driven by a wanderlust that led me away from home.

Ideals: Life is like the seasons, in constant change, and we must change with it.

Bonds: An injury to the unspoiled wilderness of my home is an injury to me.

Flaws: Don't expect me to save those who can't save themselves. It is nature's way that the strong survive and the weak perish.

A's favoured enemies are goblins and orcs.

B. CN Male Elf Monk

Background: Guild Merchant.

Personality Traits: I always want to know how things work and what makes people tick.

Ideals: Freedom. Everyone should be free to pursue his or her own livelihood.

Bonds: I owe my guild a great debt for forging me into the person I am today.

Flaws: I speak without really thinking through my words, invariably insulting others.

B is holding a letter of introduction from the Lionshield Coster in Waterdeep.

C. LG Male Human Fighter

Background: Soldier.

Personality Traits: Haunted by images of war.

Ideals: Greater good. Our lot is to lay down our lives in defence of others.

Bonds: I fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.

Flaws: I'd rather eat my armour than admit when I'm wrong.

C has a dice set (and, presumably, proficiency) and insignia of his former officer's rank. Unusually for a former soldier, he wears leather armour and fights with a greataxe. Coupled with his great strength (it is 18), the way he carries himself as a former soldier, and the fact that he is keeping company with a drow, the Zhentarim of Phandalin are going to look at him as a prospective recruit.

D. LG Male Human Warlock

Background: Noble.

Personality Traits: Despite my noble birth, I do not place myself above other folk. We all have the same blood. Even as a noble, I still feel the need to prove myself to others.

Ideals: Noble Obligation. I hope to become strong enough to protect all those beneath me.

Bonds: I will face any challenge to win the approval of my family.

Flaws: I hide a truly scandalous secret that could ruin my family forever.

A scion of House Adarbrent of Waterdeep, D enjoys the position of privilege trait of his Noble background. He also possesses a dragonchess set and presumably proficiency in same.

Hexcrawl!

I've been using an old computer for the past few weeks because of problems with my laptop which is being repaired. (And this is the Philippines so nothing happens quickly... or on time.) I had forgotten that I had bought Hexographer roughly four years ago and had never actually used it. Anyway, as part of a desire to give this campaign a bit of an old school vibe, I thought a hexcrawl might be the perfect complement to a conversion of Keep on the Borderlands.

Here's the map I made in a few minutes using Hexographer (it really is fast!) but I am still brainstorming what each of the locations mean and will include them in another post.

The PCs actually obtained this map during the course of the first session of play - see next post - which is going to help with the mechanics of actually running a hexcrawl online without using a virtual tabletop.

BTW, the scale is 1/2 mile per hex. It's a pretty simple map so I hope it makes sense without further explanation. I've also posted some ideas about the locations in <this post>, part of my Starter Set Sandbox series.

5E: Is This the First Edition Where I Don't Care About Official Products?

We have our first 5E game scheduled for tomorrow - Tue 06Jan15 - and I will be running a Phandalin-based version of B2 The Keep on the Borderlands which I am currently calling Tyrant of the Twilit Land.

As I have mentioned elsewhere on this blog, I am not really a fan of the 5E rules but I want to run this game purely because of important friendships which, of course, trump petty quibbles about preferred D&D editions.

So, as I have been reading and rereading the various 5E products plus messageboard posts in order to ensure that I am properly psyched up and positive about playing an edition that is not my first choice, I suddenly realised: this is the first edition where I genuinely do not care what products D&D's publisher plans to release.

And that's not a slight on 5E. I realised that, after 34 years of running D&D, I've arrived in that place where a lot of old school D&D fans have been for decades: I am actually quite prepared to simply create my own stuff.

I lost interest in new monsters years ago and converting to 5E is quite simple. I have enough adventures to last me through several lifetimes DMing and conversion is pretty easy. I can create or convert any spells I feel I need because 5E is so like AD&D in this respect. And even my preferred campaign setting, the Forgotten Realms, is now at a point where I actually prefer my own direction for the world than the one that WotC is taking.

And there's my positive attitude toward 5E that I need to be in the right mood to run the game tomorrow: it's the edition I can really make my own, much like when D&D first became my hobby in 1981 and, as a 12-year old, I had no money.

Maybe I do like 5E after all....

Starter Set Sandbox 14 - Phandalin, Redux & The Keep on the Borderlands

Firstly, as noted in my earlier post today, my apologies to the regular readers of this blog for the delay in updates. Sickness + travel + fried laptop (x2) = blog post delays.

Secondly, this post is going to be a little different to the others I have posted so far simply because this represents a rough outline for a game I am going to be running the New Year using 5E! I think we're going to start in the second week of January, to allow for all the family stuff associated with this time of year, and then it's going to be up and running.

I confess, I don't like 5E. I like it even less after spending time the other week trying to learn it because I kept having AD&D flashbacks. Now, I've been a fan of D&D since 1981 but I grew to despise AD&D for basically being a train wreck design-wise which only worked if you had a solid body of house rules. 5E is clearly better designed that OD&D, AD&D1E, and AD&D2E, but it has the same break points as those earlier editions - also shared with 3.xE and Pathfinder - whereby casters are eventually going to dominate.

Also, in returning to "theatre-of-the-mind" combat - although, obviously, you could always use minis - it missed an opportunity to do what 13th Age has done super-successfully: hard-wire a tactical overlay that works even with theatre-of-the-mind. 

Finally, monster and NPC building/re-levelling is still painful: it might be a bit easier than 3.xE, but it's more complicated than AD&D, and far less satisfying than 4E.

OK, enough negativity.

The good news is: we'll be playing D&D. I volunteered to run the game because one of the players - he's 17 - wants to begin DMing 5E. It seemed that the best way to help was by offering to run a few 5E sessions and his dad was immediately onside because I offered to run a 5E version of B2 The Keep on the Borderlands which he has been wanting to return to for more than two decades....

And the great thing about theatre-of-the-mind is that we can play this via Skype without having to worry about anything more complicated than an old school dungeon map which I can use a portable webcam to flash up on the screen. That said, I will do a bit more than that: some time back I came across the maps to the Caves of Chaos as created by a rather generous fellow who styles himself as The Weem (if you use that link, just find the Caves of Chaos tags) online. I'll be using those with simply adjustments in Paint and then posting into the comments in Skype. We won't be using Roll20 or any of the other virtual tabletops: too much effort for too little reward.

I'm actually going to be going over old ground with this post because I covered Phandalin in a previous post - the twelfth post in this series (click here) - which is also where I introduced the idea of adapting B2 The Keep on the Borderlands to a campaign centred around Phandalin. Also, the mechanical work has already been done in the one or more of the earlier playtest packets where Caves of Chaos was converted. I'll use the new Monster Manual for the last version of the stat blocks but I'll use the treasure included with the conversion documents.

(That's also my way of saying: this post contains no crunch. It's all about adding some FR/Phandalin flavour.)

A Quick Outline

Keep basically consists of three parts:

1. the titular keep;

2. the wilderness; and

3. the Caves of Chaos.

Phandalin will fill the role that the keep played in the original. It's primarily a safe haven but it has some secrets as described in Lost Mine of Phandelver. The wilderness I plan to ad lib with the aid of simple random encounter table (see below). As for the Caves of Chaos, as I have already noted I am going to use a combination of the earlier playtest conversion document plus the stat blocks from the  5E Monster Manual.

Of course, anyone who is no longer a teenager knows the first thing you need to do if you're going to run Keep on the Borderlands is provide a reason as to why all these disparate humanoid tribes have gathered together in a single location without embarking on a war of mutually-assured destruction. (Of course, Eberron DMs don't have that problem. If ever there was a campaign setting where Keep on the Borderlands made sense exactly as written it is Eberron...!)

As the picture to the left suggests, my choice of mastermind is a blue dragon. More on Idrizraele Morueme later in this post. Oh, and he's the reasons I am calling this little adventure Tyrant of the Twilit Land....

Background

The basic background for the players is this:

• Phandalin was largely destroyed by rampaging orcs several centuries ago.
• It is now being rebuilt largely to cater to those mining in the Sword Mountains. (Think of the movie Tombstone. It has a similar sort of feel to the town in the movie.)
• Halia Thornton is a female human who owns the Phandalin Miner's Exchange. She (apparently) owns the title to the old Forgebar dwarven mines - and she has a map of them as per the player's map above - but the mercenaries she sent to secure it were cut down by a mixture of humanoids. One escaped to bring her this news.
• The mixture of kobolds, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins, and gnolls acting in concert is most unusual which suggests an outside agency has united them.
• That mystery of an outside agency aside, Halia has offered  a 5,000 gp reward to whoever can secure the mines on her behalf. She will also provide 100 gp per head in supplies in advance, plus two potions of healing (2d4+2) each.

The PCs have (presumably) agreed to try their luck.... 

The basic background for the DM is all of the above plus:

• Halia Thornton is an agent for the Zhentarim who wish to secure the wealth of a rebuilt Phandalin, and a reactivated Phandelver mine, for their own organisation.
• The Zhentarim is worried about what the arrival of a blue dragon in the hills outside of Phandalin could mean especially as the dragon is reportedly a wizard and thus likely a member of the Morueme family of blue dragons.
• The Zhentarim is also concerned about the Cult of the Dragon coming to the area lured by rumours of a blue dragon. The enmity between the two groups goes back a very long time....
• The blue dragon's name is Idrizraele Morueme and she is named for a famous forebear. She is, indeed, of the blood of Morueme but Morueme tradition means that a female is banished from their lair in the Nether Mountains in the Silver Marches once she reaches breeding age.
• Idrizraele is a challenge rating 9 blue dragon taken from the Monster Manual with a few small changes. Her Intelligence and Charisma scores are swapped around. She is a level 4 divination-specialist wizard. Her spells are essentially non-combat (although true strike may prove to be interesting) but she does have the portent class ability. Idrizraele also speaks several extra languages, including those of all the creatures in the cave.
• Normally, a Morueme dragon has a personal bodyguard of 40-60 Red Flayer hobgoblins. As an exile, Idrizraele does not have such a guard and so, once she decided to make the Lost Forgebar Mines (more about the mines in a moment) her first order of business was to begin gathering loyal soldiers. The hobgoblins came first but then she branched out and starting gathering other races as well. 
• And thus we have the basic background for why there are so many different races in the Caves of Chaos.
• The Forgebar clan of dwarves were noted as being greedy and evil, unusually so for dwarves. These mines were dedicated to Abbathor, the neutral evil dwarven deity of greed, and a temple was built to honour him. (The Shrine of Evil Chaos, or whatever it was called, from the original Caves of Chaos is now the the Great Halls of Greed.)

And that's the situation the PCs will find themselves in. It's not too complicated but at least there is an underlying logic to the place plus a fairly formidable BBEG.

1. Phandalin (The Keep)

This can basically be played as written although I expect I will make a few adjustments once I know a bit more about my players' characters. So far I have a wood elf monk (some sort of merchant-related background), a human fey-pack warlock (noble background), a drow ranger (unknown background), and a human fighter (a former soldier haunted by the horrors of war). Each of them will have at least one adventure hook tied to Phandalin.

Also, the other big change IMC is that the Zhentarim are going to be a lot more evil, even if that evil is fairly subtle. The PCs have been offered an enormous sum of money for the mission but that's because, once the mission is completed, Zhentarim assassins will be waiting for them.

2. The Phandalin Hills (The Wilderness)

Here's a rough wondering monster table that exists more for inspiration than anything else:

Roll a d20 each hour. On a 16-20, roll a d20 and consult this table:
01 A blue dragon flies overhead.
02 Bugbears
03 Cult of the Dragon
04 Dwarves (Forgebar descendants looking for their lost clan mine; neutral evil)
05 Gnolls
06-08 Goblins
09-10 Hobgoblins
11 Kobolds 
12 Ogres (1-2 only)
13-18 Orcs
19 Perytons
20 Roll twice and assume the two groups are fighting.

3. The Lost Mines of the Forgebar Clan (The Caves of Chaos)

I am not proposing to change much of the Lost Mines/Caves of Chaos except with respect to the shrine/temple area where I want to make it plain that it was clearly a functioning temple of Abbathor. These bullet points are based on notes I made while reading the section on Abbathor in 2E's Demihuman Deities:

• Temples are typically underground or are in secret, windowless rooms.
• Sacrificial altars are massive, plain blocks of stone, blackened by the many fires laid and burnt upon them.
• Temples are often mistaken for treasure vaults as they are typically painted with gold leaf (this one definitely is: that's old school!) and filled with a cache of purloined treasures.
• Enemies of the dwarves are sacrificed once a year, with orcs, trolls, and giants being preferred. (I was thinking this could mean undead skeletons that are medium, large, and huge in size.)
• Clerics wear red vestments. When stealth is required, red undergarments are worn.

Abbathor's symbol is a jewelled dagger typically placed within a diamond. These should appear fairly frequently on the walls and floor of the temple areas and one or more of these engraved symbols could be the focal point of a magical and/or mechanical trap. I was also thinking that they might be accompanied by dwarven runes that spell out something like, "Great Abbathor, Great Master of Greed, let us find all that shines or sparkles here, and revel in its possession." This is based on his dogma.

And on the subject of traps, these are a couple of ideas inspired by reading Demihuman Deities:

• If Abbathor is offended - defiling his temple could be the trigger - he will cause non-magical treasure-carrying items such as backpacks and sacks to burst open.
• In certain parts of the temple where there is treasure, the treasure is protected by a magical "zone of greed". Taking treasure from a "zone of greed" triggers a need to make a Wisdom saving throw. If failed, the person is consumed with greed and tries to fight anyone within, say, 15 feet of the treasure for the 1 minute with a new saving throw permitted each round. It may also be possible to use Persuasion to remove the effects.

I definitely want to include a mummified dwarven cleric that animates at some point, but taking care to ensure that the encounter with Idrizraele is not overshadowed in importance. And while a grand melee with the blue dragon is probably the most satisfying conclusion to the adventure, it may be that the PCs strike some other sort of deal with her. She really wants a safe lair and some interesting magic. If the former, in particular, was available she could be persuaded to move, especially with some interesting books on matters arcane....

Conclusion

One of the other reasons I decided to use a dragon as the BBEG - beyond simply the old school charm of such an idea - was that I thought the new DM I mentioned at the beginning of the post might be interested in transitioning the characters from Tyrant of the Twilit Land to Tyranny of Dragons. While they will be higher in level than recommended for Hoard of the Dragon Queen, that may actually work out better because the opening encounter of Hoard includes a blue dragon which is horribly overpowered for most level 1 groups. (And, yes, I know smart groups sometimes run away but not everyone plays that way.)

Anyway, if that is his plan I will try and include some more overt links between this adventure and Hoard so that the transition is made that much smoother. I may even include a 5E version of Azurl's Hoardseekers and, if he agrees, set them up as a recurring set of villains for his campaign.

Those developments aside, it's going to be interesting running such an old school adventure using what I find to be a fairly old school ruleset. I know it's not going to convert me to 5E but I am still looking forward to the experience.