Silver Marches: The Winter Horde 0 - Introduction

So far, I have made 22 or so posts to this blog outlining some ideas about a sandbox campaign set in the Silver Marches but, as I think I have already noted elsewhere, I don't do sandboxes.

I try but they don't "take" with me and I end up working on plot/metaplot ideas particularly once I start working out what NPCs to include. And the simply process of looking at the goals and motivations of an NPC then suggests further plot points... et voila, it's no longer a sandbox.

And that's what has happened with my plans for a Silver Marches sandbox campaign: it now has a plot and metaplot but it still has (hopefully) plenty of room for player agency.

My Gaming Bucket List

D&D has been a big part of my life for 33 years, a creative outlet that I have turned to when the left side of my brain has threatened to completely overwhelm the right side of my brain and turn me into a high-functioning automaton. And I need that creative outlet even if I certainly haven't mastered any of the elements that make a good DM (but I'm good enough :) ).

However, the realities of real life make me realise that, at the age of 45, there are only a finite number of times I will play D&D or any other RPG for the rest of my life. As I look at this issue of "gaming mortality" I cannot help but think of applying the concept of the bucket list to this particular hobby, and my plot/metaplot ideas for what I am now calling the Silver Marches: The Winter Horde campaign draws from ideas taken from items on my gaming bucket list.

The cover of Dragon 429 included this marvellous piece of art by one of my favourite D&D artists, Jesper Ejsing, depicting King Obould of Dark Arrow Keep in combat with a frost titan. I love this even if I cannot explain why (beyond simply loving Jesper's work). Looking at it made me think of the classic G1-3 Against the Giants series - G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King - which I have never run properly as part of a campaign. (I did run the first two as standalone adventures in 2E but they really showed how crappy AD&D was when you were no longer filled with child-like glee.)

So, reading the accompanying article, History Check: Dark Arrow Keep, and reminding myself how perfect the Silver Marches is as a setting for the classic G1-3 Against the Giants series, I decided to make them a key part of this campaign. However, there are a couple of changes I should note:

1. I have lots of hill giant and frost giant miniatures, but only a single fire titan miniature. I'll ditch the third adventure purely for that reason... plus I think three fairly similar adventures in a row is just a bit too much.
2. Giants in 4E are Paragon Tier monsters. I will run them instead as having the same number of levels as their 1E hit dice. This will reduce the hill giants to level 8 brutes and the frost giants to level 10 brutes. If I include stone giants, they will be level 9 artillery and fire giants will be level 11 soldiers. 

So that's a fairly major item crossed off my gaming bucket list. And when I get around to writing an introduction for the second part of this campaign, Silver Marches: The Demon Weave, I'll be crossing off another major item.

A Rough Campaign Synopsis

Before I get to the synopsis, I should mention that this campaign is going to be run for my wife and family who have no experience with tabletop RPGs or even boardgames. They have played the Warcraft III clone DotA and they have played cards: that's it.

As a result, I feel the inclusion of a plot is fairly necessary and it's pretty simple. It's also more about the illusion of choice rather than a true sandbox: anyone who has played D&D before will spot the railroad before they sit down! And it also involves fairly simple monsters: orcs, ogres, and giants, with a dragon or two simply to invoke the name of the game.

With those comments out of the way, here's my rough synopsis for the campaign:

The Death Knight's Tomb

Levels 1-3

This adventure is not only going to be the first adventure of this campaign, it's going to be the first tabletop RPG adventure - and the first genuine tabletop game- that these players will have ever played.

To make this work, I've decided that I need to really heavily on visual and kinesthetic elements to bring the story side to life. Beyond the heavy use of miniatures, I'll also be using a Paizo flip-mat - the one depicting the dungeon in their introductory adventure Crypt of the Everflame - as part of the effort to try and bring the game to life for these players who only known fantasy games from MMORPGs.

Actually, that's also why I decided to go with 4E. I know a lot of the criticism of 4E is that it is too much like a MMORPG: I don't know if the criticism is true, but I am hoping there are enough parallels that these new players enjoy playing D&D! :)

I've also decided to make this first adventure stand largely separately from the campaign's plot... but to tie into the plot for the Paragon Tier conclusion I have planned if the players end up liking the game. In the first instance I am doing this to provide some variety but, if we do continue the campaign, I am rather hopeful that the players enjoy the "big reveal" when they realise their first adventure directly relates to what happens 10 or so character levels later.

The basic plot of this adventure is that this is a tomb of a Banite paladin slain in the Banedeath by Cyricists after the Time of Troubles. A group of Banite hobgoblins have been led by visions from the Black Lord to find this tomb and raise this paladin to unlife... only to find that he is already a death knight. Now, while that part doesn't tie into the second part of the campaign, there will be slavers present that are allied with the drow - a drow will also be present - and they will be particularly interested in spellcasters for reasons that will not be revealed unless and until the campaign is continued in Silver Marches: The Demon Weave....

Menace of the Icy Spire

Levels 3-5

And now we get to Silver Marches: The Winter Horde proper....

The previous adventure - and, indeed, the campaign itself - begins at the very beginning of spring. However, after some initial signs that spring had arrived, winter has returned with a vengeance.

Something the PCs have done in the previous adventure - one of the things I still have to work on but it could be as simple as rescuing someone important from the slavers - has brought them to the attention of Silverymoon's leadership. They are asked to investigate the ruins of Rauvinwatch Keep which have been subsumed by a mysterious spire of ice.

The reason for hiring the PCs is that the unnatural winter has caused Silverymoon to withdraw its standing army, the Knights in Silver aka the Argent Legion, closer to Silverymoon itself because of rumours of orcs, ogres, giants, and also trolls from the Evermoors.

Anyway, this is a fairly simply adventure involving a mad female eladrin cleric or invoker of Auril who is angry with Silverymoon and has decided to bring winter to the city's doorstep. However, when the PCs end the threat posed by the eladrin they soon realise that this is but part of a larger problem leading them to...

Quaervarr Under Ice

Levels 5-7

... the village of Quaervarr where the entire village is trapped under ice and, at the centre of the village, sits a creature of ancient elemental evil, an aspect of Cyronax. A cult of orcs serves his every whim.

In the process of (hopefully) freeing the village from its icy immurement, the PCs will discover that the aspect of Cryonax should rightly be imprisoned by the primal magic of the ancestor mounds of the Uthgardt barbarians.

Whether following that lead or a further quest or mission from Silverymoon, the PCs head deeper into the Glimmerwood to solve the mystery of the...

(Edit: When I was first looking at Quaervarr as a location for the sandbox version of this campaign, it was with a view to setting a revised/adapted version of Crucible of Freya there. I think I would still like to do this and make the Crucible of Freya into a relic of Chauntea or Mielikki that would have protected the village from the unnatural winter but was stolen by drow who plan to use it to fuel the Demon Weave. That basic idea could still work as laid out in that earlier post.)

The Corruption of Beorunna's Well

Levels 7-9

 ... which has been corrupted because of the return of the nalfeshnee Zukothoth who was revealed in FR5 The Savage Frontier to have met his end in this same location centuries ago in battle with an Uthgardt shaman.

The followers of Auril have used lore provided by the drow to summon Zukothoth and Zukothoth has used his connection with this location to perform abyssal rituals to corrupt the ancestor mounds and free the aspect of Cyronax and unleash an unnatural winter across the Silver Marches.

However, in the course of ending the threat posed by Zukothoth, the PCs discover that anothe created has been freed: Gurt...

Lord of the Pale Giants

Levels 9-11

.. who was one of the mightiest foes defeated by Uthgar but also the one that ended Uthgar's mortal life (I think: I better check that).

While the followers of Auril believe that Gurt is the Frostmaiden's champion - and, in many ways, he is - this is all part of Lolth's real plan. She wants to foment war between Auril and Gruumsh-who-was-Talos because it will weaken Auril greatly leaving her vulnerable to the plan of the Queen of Spiders to seize Auril's crown as the Queen of Air and Darkness of the Feywild.

Metaplot aside, Gurt has rallied the hill giants and frost giants of the North and has also appealed to the orcs of Dark Arrows Keep who had grown tired of how the unbroken line of Oboulds had forced civilisation on the orcs. But now the Winter Horde begins to form ready to march south and sweep all before it...

... unless, of course, the PCs can return Obould to his throne. The short version is this: Obould's flaming sword has been taken by the hill giants back to the steading of their most powerful chieftain (and that's my excuse for running my own version of G1 Steading of the Hill Giant Chief). While Obould and his forces take the fight to the traitor orcs and their giant masters, the PCs travel to my updated version of G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and there beard Gurt in his new lair and discover that there was something far sinister behind this entire plot than simply Auril seeking to gain power at the expense of Gruumsh...

And Then...

Levels 11+

... and that something is the drow.

But more about that when I post about Menzoberranzan: The Demon Weave.

Suffice to say, it's heavily inspired by the Rise of the Underdark storyline... but I want to draw on D1 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, D2 Shrine of the Kuo-Toa, and D3 Vault of the Drow (albeit set in Menzoberranzan) and another large chunk will be removed from my gaming bucket list.

Anyway, this is just a rough draft of the campaign to give me something to work with. Let's see if I can make it work....

Silver Marches Sandbox 22 - So, You All Meet in the Golden Oak Inn...

... seems to be a variation on a widely-despised D&D trope but it's one that actually makes sense considering the role that inns, taverns, pubs, and even hotels have played historically in real life to this day.

More importantly, today is considered D&D's 40th birthday or anniversary and it's therefore a day to celebrate such familiar tropes and clichés without which we might not be gaming today.

And, in the context of Silver Marches: In Search of the Unknown, I'm preparing a campaign for a group of people who have never played a tabletop RPG before and, until they saw my books and miniatures, had absolutely no idea that such a thing existed. I just cannot imagine introducing people to D&D without also introducing them to this, one of my most favourite and, indeed, practical D&D tropes.

There is one more trope I am going to tackle here; that of the patron. In the context of a campaign for new players, I think the extra information and direction that a patron can provide will prove to be invaluable for ensuring that the campaign has a sense of momentum. And in this case, the patron and the inn are rather closely intertwined....

Golden Oak Inn

Source Material

 
Volo's Guide to the North describes this inn as follows:

This excellent, expensive inn is also a temple to Shiallia, a local deity tied to Silvanus and Mielikki. (Be careful not to wantonly destroy seedlings or harm any animal babes while in Silverymoon or the High Forest lest you direly offend her.) I was not allowed near the place.

I was told it’s very beautiful and has a live oak tree growing up through the taproom, with little lanterns hanging down from its boughs over every table. The rain comes in, so in stormy weather the taproom empties quickly to cellars downstairs and meeting rooms that open out from the taproom on all sides, a few steps up.

3E's Silver Marches states:

Located in Northbank on Dancer's Mask Lane, northeast off Rallowglass Ride, the Golden Oak features cozy, rustic rooms, dim flagstone passages, fragrant herbs, and windowbox herbs, reminding guests of sleeping outdoors in a safe, pleasant corner of the woods. Meeting rooms are available for rent upstairs, while a friendly cellar taproom boasts entertaining gossip downstairs.

All the rooms in this inn open off a central atrium dominated by a huge oak that rises up into the open sky. latterns depending from its branches to hang above tables. Dedicated to the deity, Shiallia, the Golden Oak is favoured by druids, rangers, elves, and those who like privacy or peace and quiet. The prices are stiff, but guests can expect superb chamber service.

4E's Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide provides an abbreviated version of the description in Silver Marches:

This historic inn features cozy, rustic rooms, dim flagstoned passages, fragrant herbs, and pots and window boxes full of well-tended plants. All the rooms open off a central atrium dominated by a gargantuan oak that rises into the open sky. The tree’s branches are alight with glimmering lanterns, giving soft light to the tables beneath.

I think the description in Silver Marches is the most useful for my purposes.

Lady of the Lance aka Lady of the Golden Oak

One of the "open secrets" of the Golden Oak inn is that the Golden Oak is the dwelling place of the Belaerrauna, a hamadryad also known as the Lady of the Lance or the Lady of the Golden Oak (female hamadryad preserving invoker of Mielikki). 

Bel, as her intimates call her, is the latest in a long line of hamadryads worshipping Mielikki, Shiallia, and/or Silvanus who take up residence in the Golden Oak for a number of seasons and use it to learn of what is happening in Silverymoon so that they might be better equipped to deal with the threats to the forests and other natural areas of the Silver Marches.

The principal advantage of dwelling within the Golden Oak is that the Lady is able to take the measure of those who stay in the inn and determine whether her interests and the interests of a particular individual or group may align. In these cases, Bel becomes a patron dispensing quests across the Silver Marches to thwart the depredations of the Netherese, the whelming of an orc horde, the slaving of the Red Wizards, or the general strife of the Zhents. In all of these cases, she is acting to preserve what she sees is the Balance.

The Lady of the Lance has made herself known to the PCs having taking their measure and deciding she likes what she sees. She has effectively become their patron at the beginning of the campaign.

The Innkeeper

Landivar Telstone (male human ranger) is the master of the Golden Oak Inn. Formerly one of the Mielikki's rangers, Landivar chose a more sedate life as an innkeeper after the touch of a plaguechanged wraith withered his left leg and left him permanently lame (and secretly spellscarred). A friendly dwarf crafted a steel frame (name?) for his withered left leg and that allows him to still get around, albeit a lot slower than in his trailblazing days.

Now in his 50s and retired from the adventuring life for more than two decades, Landivar still remains something of an expert on the geography of the Silver Marches and lands to its north, as well as being very knowledgeable about flora and fauna including orcs, giants, etc....

Landivar is also a worshipper of Shiallia and shows his devotion by rearing a menagerie of orphaned animals in the loft above the inn's stables. Anyone foolish enough to harm his young charges will soon discover he has lost none of his talent with a pair of handaxes....

Mysterious Loner

The PCs begin the campaign as regulars in the Golden Oak Inn. One of the irregular patrons that they recognise is a mysterious loner, a shifter ranger named Nesker (male shifter ranger) who always sits near the oak at the centre of the inn and is frequently observed apparently talking to himself. Landivar is very protective of this particularly customer and dissuades any questions or prying into the shifter's identity or history.

Nesker is a solitary ranger who is tasked by the Lady of the Lance with monitoring the movements of the various orc tribes near Silverymoon. While his bestial features might attract scornful looks from the civilised (but ignorant) folk of Silverymoon, among the orcs those same features remind them that Nesker is not to be trifled with.

He is also held in very high regard by the Knights in Silver who often seek his advice on dealing with orc threats. One of the shamans of Dark Arrow Keep has placed an enormous bounty on Nesker's head in response to the death of the shaman's son as Nesker's hands. The fact that Nesker was protecting simple farmers from an orc raid, of course, means nothing to an orc.

Nesker thoroughly dislikes anything enclosed or underground. Even cities feel wrong to him but he loves the atmosphere at the Golden Oak Inn and this is about the only place he can be found in Silverymoon. When Nesker is seen to be talking to himself he is normally speaking with Belaerrauna. Sometimes, though, he communes with a primal spirit that will occasionally reveal itself through the oak.

 

The shifter never takes a room when he stays in the Golden Oak Inn. Instead, he is unique in that he is permitted to sleep in the oak's branches which he does after first taking care that none see him doing so.

Other People

The Captain: Knights in Silver.

The Merchant


The Sage


The Spy


The Thief


The Wizard


Food, Drink & Accommodation

Excellent quality; elven and eladrin tastes are catered for.

Hooks & Rumours

There's treasure to be found at the Abe abbey.

A cougar has escaped from a travelling circus.
The hiding place of The Cavernrot Boys can be found in the the plains.
Celegalad Stonebeam and Firin Firebeard will be fighting a duel tomorrow.
The body of a male dwarf was found in the outhouse of The Cheap Queen. The City Watch says it has all the markings of a crime of opportunity. Examining the wounds on the body, they appear to be caused by fist and open hand. The body appears to be stripped of everything of value. .
There's a reward of 1 gold for badger skins.
The hiding place of The Damnghost Troop can be found in the the hills.
The towns of Oxford and Barnley are having a territorial dispute.
Erestwen Mirrellas the bard was attacked by a manticore in the nearby fields.
Plague has struck the town of Seaham.
Bifur Silvermace, a local wizard needs the heart of a unicorn for "research purposes".
Elemmë Redsmith the mage was attacked by a dragon in the nearby desert.
Dwari, a local wizard needs the heart of a manticore for "research purposes".
The Shadowed Bass House has a sect in town
The body of a male gnome was found in the outhouse of The Tiny Minotaur Resthouse. The City Watch thinks it is a mugging gone wrong. Examining the body, magic was the likely cause of death. No items of worth were found on the body
Daniel Turner has discovered the location of The Scioptic Panopticon of Evil.
Lugrat the shipwright has mysteriously disappeared.

Silver Marches Sandbox 21 - Player Characters

I've been trying to write a first adventure for this campaign - currently entitled Adytum of the Skull and based off the map for Paizo's Crypt of the Everflame - but it's more difficult to write something not having any idea of who or what the characters will be, doubly so when this is being written for a group of people whose sole exposure to RPGs comes in the form of the MMORPG Defence of the Ancients aka DotA.

Off the back of that lack of experience, I've also decided that it would be best to create the characters myself with each one based on a miniature that I have in my collection. My plan is to lay out the miniatures before the players, give some rough background information, answer any questions they might have, and then let them choose one character each.

The group will be made up of at least three players with four or five being a possibility. I've spent a couple of hours preparing character sheets tonight - 4E might be complicated but the Character Builder is just so useful! - and thought I would post some of the details of the characters here.

With the exception of the changeling rogue, the characters are fairly heroic in nature and the changeling could easily be redeemed. I expect that this will be very much a Good vs Evil campaign with the players firmly on the side of Good.

One last thing. Yes, the campaign is going to start in a tavern. It wouldn't be their first D&D game if it didn't start in a tavern and the Golden Oak Inn does sound rather pleasant....

Aloevan Amarillis

Female eladrin tactical warlord

Aloevan Amarillis is the scion of a moon elf (aka eladrin) house known for its members' penchant for leaving Evermeet to explore Faerûn. That's what Aloevan has done, and she seeks not only adventure but the remains of the ancient elven heritage in the Silver Marches from the kingdoms of Iliyanbruen, Eaerlann, and Aryvandaar.

Aloevan has also studied eladrin battle tactics at Silverymoon's College of War and, as a result, is a gifted battle strategist and tactician. Her primary concern as a result of her studies is the risk to the Silver Marches of another orc horde and she believes that the eladrin have a particular responsibility to remind the folk of Luruar of this threat and also to help them prepare for, or possibly even prevent, the next horde.

Elassa

Female human thunderborn barbarian

It is a tradition among the youth of the eastern land of Rashemen to embark on a year-long quest to explore other parts of Faerûn when they come of age. This quest is known as the Dajemma.

Elassa was not born Rashemen. Rather she was born a slave in the land of Thay, the nation of the Red Wizards, but she was rescued from slavery by a band of brave Rashemmi berserkers who, at the direction of the masked Wychlaran of Rashemen who lead them, often raid into Thay seeking to disrupt the evil sorcery of the Red Wizards and free any slaves that they may find. 

For the next five years after finding her freedom, Elassa trained as one of the legendary Rashemmi berserkers and heard the thunderous call of the primal spirits. These spirits directed her to the young Wychlaran named Yeveldra and, at their behest, she pledged herself to the young witch as her sworn protector. Thus it was only natural that when Yeveldra went on her Dajemma that Elassa followed.

(If Yeveldra has not been chosen as a character then she is missing and Elassa is looking for her.)

While you are far from the east, and far from the lands of Thay, you have heard rumours of Red Wizards even here in the Silver Marches. If you find them, you will kill them: it's as simple as that for you.

Lalaskra Hawklin

Female human weaponmaster fighter

The Hawklin family are a noble family of Cormyr, far to the west, known for the wanderlust of their young scions. While there is no Rashemmi blood in Lalaskra's veins, she shares something of the same desire to embark on a Dajemma and see the world.

Lalaskra has just successfully finished three years as a soldier in the Purple Dragons, the standing army of Cormyr, and has decided to travel to Silverymoon to explore the legendary North exactly as her father, and her father's father, did at the same age.

During her time in the Purple Dragons, Lalaskra frequently had to deal with the menace of the Zhentarim, an evil organisation of mercenaries, assassins, and mad clerics of the evil deity Cyric. They have troubled Cormyr for generations and, no doubt, will continue to do so for many more generations to come. Sometimes Lalaskra dreams of ending their menace once and for all....

Shallar

Female changeling scoundrel rogue

Changeling.  Beggar. Guttersnipe. Scoundrel. Thief. Survivor.

All of these words describe Shallar. She has spent her life simply trying to survive on the streets of the cities and other settlements of the Silver Marches, an orphan who never knew her parents or even had a proper adult role model.

Instead she relied on her wits and nimble fingers and, when those failed, her ability to change her form thus giving her an almost impenetrable disguise. But now she has companions and friends: the other PCs whom she has come to know as they have all spent time at the Golden Oak Inn.

Shallar equates money or wealth with survival and she comes across as quite greedy as a result. For now, all that interests here is treasure.

Yeveldra

Female human witch wizard

Like all of the Wychlaran of Rashemen, Yeveldra prefers to wear a mask. However, there is no taboo on its removal, rather she simply considers it a normal article of clothing.

Yeveldra's presence in Silverymoon is largely explained by the background provided for Elassa above. There is one fundamental difference: Yeveldra is a seer and she received a vision that caused her to come to Silverymoon in search of a potent magical mask once owned by another Wychlaran some generations ago.

Yeveldra is a devout follower of Selûne the Moonmaiden and thus is fundamentally opposed to Shar, the Lady of Loss and Mistress of the Night. She knows that this mask is somehow connected to the eternal war between the Moonmaiden and her sister Shar and Yeveldra believes that recovering this mask will aid Selûne's cause in this everlasting battle between light and darkness.

She knows that the mask dates back to the time of ancient Netheril and is afraid that it may have fallen once more into Netherese hands - and the Netherese are known to be devout worshippers of Shar - so she plans to follow any hints or rumours of Netherese magic believing that this is the only way the mask will be found.

Further Development

I will leave personality and mannerisms etc... to the players - obviously - but I may edit in some additional notes about each character's history as I continue refining the first adventure. Obviously, part of that is going to include how they met and decided to join together: as new players, they're going to need assistance with this also.

Yeveldra was the first of the characters that I began thinking about, in part because I liked the art that inspired her miniature (shown here) but also because I love the basic idea behind the Dajemma. Interestingly, all but Shallar are also wanderers. That wasn't deliberate in the case of Aloevan and Lalaskra but was a result of reading the background of the families that they belong to both of which have their own Dajemma-like traditions.

And living in the Philippines where nearly 30% of the working age population have to go overseas to work I imagine that the players will grasp this concept fairly easily!

So far, all my potential players are girls so I am sticking to female characters. Of course, there are five characters and right now I think we're probably going to start with three players. If this happens, I suppose the group will consist of Aloevan (simply because you have to have a leader), Elassa, and Yeveldra. Lalaskra will probably be the fourth choice and Shallar will be the fifth. If we do end up with only three players, I will include two more NPCs which I will stat up as level 1 soldiers rather than creating them as PCs (and I would rather use Adventure Tools to create a monster-like NPC than learn how to create companion characters).

Anyway, now that I have a pool of characters to draw from, I can get back to trying to make the first adventure not suck as much as it currently does....

Edit: 26Jan14

I thought it might help to have another leader class to choose from so here's a cleric.

Thaerea

Female human warpriest of Selûne

Thaerea was raised in the Grey Wolf tribe of the Uthgardt barbarians and she saw the Shar-worshipping Netherese come and corrupt the savage nobility of her tribe into decadent bestial violence. Now the Grey Wolf tribe is but a band of tame werewolves in Netheril's employ.

However, the light of Selûne shone brightly on Thaerea and she was rescued by some adventurers in her early teens and delivered to the temple of Selûne where the silverstars, as Selûne's clerics are properly called, raised her... and also taught her to tame her violent impulses because, like the others of the Grey Wolf tribe, Thaerea is a werewolf.

Nevertheless, Thaerea is also a faithful silverstar and her bestial impulses are under control. That said, she has great difficulty keeping the beast within leashed when she witnesses the depravity and destruction wrought by the Shar-worshipping Netherese. And she believes that, together with the other female adventurers she has met at Silverymoon's Golden Oak Inn, her destiny involves striking a mighty blow against the Mistress of the Night and her Netherese servitors....

Silver Marches Sandbox 20 - Crypt of the Everflame adapted as The Adytum of the Skull - Introduction

I accidentally posted a very incomplete draft of this adventure a couple of days ago. The adventure is now broken into five parts - this introduction is the first of those five parts - and I will post the other parts as they are done. Hopefully this rewritten version which work out much better than the first draft!

While Pathfinder is not my game, there is no doubt that Paizo has been - and continues to be - very successful with their house-ruled version of 3.5E. (NB: I do not use house-ruled in a disparaging sense but simply to describe what it is.) I know that I still get most of their products for a combination of the ideas and the art.

In my quest to find the perfect introductory adventure for this campaign - more importantly, the perfect introductory adventure for a group of people with no idea that an RPG exists outside of MMORPGs - I thought I should go through the various level 1 Pathfinder adventures I have purchased to see what adventure I might be able to simply convert or otherwise adapt to 4E. I also remembered that I had in my collection of battlemaps the GameMastery Flip-Mat: Dungeon from Paizo which coincidentally and/or conveniently depicts the map of the dungeon in the level 1 adventure Crypt of the Everflame.

Perfect!

I think the visuals of the pre-printed map will work really well for introducing the players to a mini- and grid-heavy game like 4E plus, even though this is not a conversion but essentially a new adventure matched to the map, the adventure includes a lot of things - puzzles, dangers of pits, grappling-based battle etc... - that it can be helpful to introduce to new players. I will definitely keep a lot of those things and some of the descriptions, even as a I change everything else.

Now, with that lengthy introduction out of the way, onward to the Adytum of the Skull....

The Adytum of the Skull

Introduction

A Zhentarim cleric of Cyric seeks to awaken an ancient evil which may pose a threat to the entire Silver Marches. And in a strange twist of fate, it falls to a band of young adventures to end this threat....

A dungeon. A dragon. A death knight.

These are three of the key ingredients for this adventure which is designed as a first adventure for level 1 characters in the Silver Marches: In Search of the Unknown campaign. It is an homage to both B1 In Search of the Unknown and B2 Keep on the Borderlands while using the dungeons maps from Paizo's Crypt of the Everflame.

Background

Recent Events

The defenders of civilisation in the North watch the orcs of the Silver Marches carefully, always looking for signs that an orc horde is being whelmed as such an event is historically overdue.

And while it seems that the orcs of the North have taken their first steps toward civilisation with the Kingdom of Many-Arrows, those who truly understand what makes an orc an orc know that it will take but a spark to ignite the orcs in a conflagration of destruction that threatens the entire Silver Marches.

The hamadryad Belaerrauna is one of those who watches for such threats in the North. While most of her "watching" is by magical means, she also has her eyes and ears ranging across the Silver Marches watching the orcs and the other major threats such as the Shadovar of Netheril and the newly resurgent Zhentarim of Newfort.

One of her most important agents is the shifter ranger Nesker whose focus is the orcs of the Nether Mountains. In the past tenday he followed a band of orcs into a grassy vale some 25 miles east southeast of Silverymoon in the foothills of the Nether Mountains.

The vale bore signs of having once been inhabited - the ruined foundations of ancient buildings still remained even if the rubble now looked more like natural boulders - and was dominated by a skull-shaped rocky outcrop on a hill 100 or so feet above the surface of the vale.

Mountain goats were plentiful and they were the target of the orc raiders. Unfortunately for the orcs, the goats were well-protected by the goats' very protective goatherd: a rather large and extremely alert ettin. After the two-headed brute reduced the orcs to vulture-food, Nesker returned to Silverymoon to report the existence of the ruins and, more particularly, the skull-shaped outcropping to Belaerrauna. (Nesker will only go underground in an absolute emergency, and generally not when he is alone.)

Based on what Nesker told her, Belaerrauna performed a divination ritual and thus it was revealed that the dungeon beneath the skull-shaped outcropping - more properly, the skull-shaped entrance - held within it the "iron gauntlet of the Black Lord whose release would herald the Black Age of Bane across the Silver Marches".

Profoundly disturbed by what the divination revealed, the hamadryad now needs adventurers to travel to the dungeon and end this threat before it is unleashed across the Silver Marches.

And that's where the PCs come in….

History of the Adytum

The ruins that Nesker found are all that remains of the village of Orlsgate, an outlying settlement of the (original) empire of Netheril best known for its Jergali monastery and the more mysterious Adytum of the Skull in the hills above the village.

Here the Jergali clerics, also known as scriveners of doom performed their sacred tasks of recording the disposition of the dead and similar rites and rituals, and interred many of their most faithful in the catacombs of the Adytum of the Skull, while dwelling in a separate monastery in the village below.

(The word adytum means that part of a shrine where the public were forbidden to enter.)

This all came to an end after the apotheosis of Bane the Black Lord.

The more fanatical of Bane's followers knew that the Black Lord's power - and the power of Bhaal and Myrkul, the two other members of the Dark Three - came from Jergal who strangely surrendered his divine portfolios to Bane, Bhaal, and Myrkul with little resistance.

For the more fanatical Banites, this episode that took place in the mysterious realms of the Astral Sea needed to be played out here in Toril also. As a result, Haldroun Duskmantle, a former paladin of Jergal  who converted to Bane, led a vicious pogrom across the border areas of the empire of Netheril destroying Jergali monasteries, temples and shrines including here at Orlsgate.

However, when Duskmantle entered what is now his tomb in the Adytum of the Skull, the cold wrath of Jergal was unleashed and Duskmantle's life was taken from him. The Pitiless One cursed his former paladin to forever guard the Adytum of the Skull from other defilers and he remains entombed in the Adytum until this day.

While Bane could not directly stop this from happening, he was able to corrupt the curse so that Duskmantle's doom was not tied to the Adytum of the Skull, per se, but to a skull-headed mace wielded by one of the scriveners of doom the Banites had slain. However, when a Banite cleric tried to recover this mace from the body of the dead Jergali at the Black Lord's behest, the mace could not be found.

The mace still exists hidden within the Adytum. If it is found, it can be used to awaken and command Duskmantle who possesses the powers of a death knight. A Cyricist cleric, Halazondar, from within the ranks of the Zhentarim recently discovered a very incomplete version of this tale in the Vault of the Sages in Silverymoon.

Halazondar believes that the skull-headed mace will allow him to awaken and control the death knight, Haldroun Duskmantle, who, in turn, will be able to command the barrow wights and other undead of the Tombs of Deckon Thar thus providing the Zhentarim with a major advantage in their quest to dominate Silverymoon Pass (more of this story will be revealed in the next adventure).

What Halazondar does not realise is that the returned death knight is an avowed Banite who will eventually shake off the control that the mace will initially afford.

With the coming of spring, Halazondar is making plans to set out from Silverymoon (where he has secretly wintered) to find the Adytum of the Skull. With Zhentarim soldiers in tow, the Cyricist will arrive in the vale just before the PCs finally exit the Adytum….

Synopsis

Hired by (see adventure hooks), the PCs prepare to travel roughly half-a-day to the east of Silverymoon, into the foothills of the Nether Mountains. While it is spring, it is only the very beginning so the weather is quite cold plus there are spring rains and lots of groundwater from melting snow.

There is no road to follow, only directions and landmarks, but the PCs soon find themselves in the hills and under attack by orcs. They may have been ambushed, or clever play (with appropriate skill checks) may have resulting in the PCs doing the ambushing, but eventually the orcs are defeated and the PCs continue on.

Eventually the PCs come to a fairly flat vale overlooked by a skull-shaped structure in the hill above. Mountain goats are common and eventually they encounter the acid-scarred goatherd, an ettin named Gorbash Ghamorz. They may defeat the ettin in battle or they may negotiate with him/them to defeat the black dragon that dwells in the entrance to the Adytum of the Skull: in the latter case, the real reward is being forewarned of the dragon's existence.

The PCs may rest at this point or may push on into the Adytum. Ultimately, though, they enter the Adytum through its broken doors and encounter the very young black dragon known as Skullface. The defeat of the black dragon allows them to press on. The dungeon is explored, various undead and other creatures (possibly including the mercenaries known as the Whiteskulls) are deal with, culminating in what is likely to be the final encounter: a grand melee with the cursed undead warlord, Haldroun Duskmantle:

Haldroun Duskmantle: former champion of Bane, now a death knight cursed by Jergal

The PCs may then choose to explore some more in order to complete their major quest(s) and then they will (most likely) return to Silverymoon for their rewards. One small problem though: the return journey will see an attack by a large group of orcs which will eventually be complicated by the arrival of a young bulette drawn to the commotion. After that, their return home is safe and peaceful.

A Quick Note on the Maps

I'm not really sure of Paizo's policy on posting maps directly from the adventure so the maps I've posted - with the large SAMPLE watermark through them - are publicly available on Paizo's site here and here. Suffice to say, if you like the ideas behind this adventure, you're going to need to buy either the GameMastery Flip-Mat: Dungeon and/or Crypt of the Everflame from Paizo.

Monster Roster

I will post all the stat blocks in separate posts but I will just note the monster levels and types here. Please note that I use AD&D hit dice to work out the level of a monster simply because it gives me a much larger variety of creatures to use in Heroic Tier - and early Paragon Tier, if necessary - where I prefer to run my games.

And, frankly, I just find it makes more sense but I am also conditioned by many years of the pre-4E versions of D&D.

• Ankheg - level 3 lurker;
• Ant, giant - level 2 soldier;
• Crypt thing - level 1 solo controller;
• Ettin - level 6 elite brute or level 1 solo brute;
• Frog, giant - level 1 controller;
• Ghast - level 4 soldier;
• Ghoul - level 2 soldier;
• Manticore - level 6 artillery or level 2 elite artillery;
• Mummy - level 6 brute or level 2 elite brute;
• Naga, dark - level 9 controller or level 5 elite controller;
• Ogre - level 4 brute;
• Salamander - level 7 soldier or level 3 elite soldier (skirmisher?);
• Skeleton - level 1 skirmisher;
• Wyvern (maybe eating their horses outside) - level 7 skirmisher or level 3 elite skirmisher;
• Leucrotta - level 2 elite brute or skirmisher;
• Orc - level 1 brute;
• Orc, youth - level 1 minion brute;
• Haldroun Duskmantle, death knight - level 2 solo soldier.

Links 

Here are the links to the other parts of the adventure:

• Part One: In Search of the Unknown
• Part Two: Adytum Level One
• Part Three: Adytum Level Two
• Part Four: Conclusion