Sample file Official Game Adventure OAK LORDS

Table of Contents

Introduction 3 The Adventure Begins 7 Approaching Qualinost 9 The Ruins of Qualinost 13 The Stone Sla-Mori 17 The Hall of the Sky 25 Sample file

Credits:

Design: Blake Mobley Interior Art: Terry Dykstra Design Resource: Harold Johnson Typography: Tracey Zamagne Editing: David Wise Cartography: Dennis Kauth Cover Art: Brom Thanks: Jim LaFountain, Anne Brown, and Renay Mobley

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9327 ISBN 1-56076-133-4 ffl. Sample file INTRODUCTION

THE PLIGHT OF THE ELVES the dark and twisted forest with a handful of personal guards and a group of brave ad- venturers. They will trek through perilous Read the following (and all) boxed text to the lands for over a week to learn the fate of players. Qualinost!

Once, Qualinesti was a place of natural beauty, unequalled throughout western USING THIS MODULE Ansalon! It housed Qualinost, one of the most striking cities ever to have graced the surface of Krynn, and its forests were filled Oak Lords is packed with history, legends, and with the gay laughter of the Qualinesti events of major impact upon Qualinesti and i elves. its people. It's a wonderfully flexible module, The War of the Lance ended that golden designed to be used in either of two ways: if era. The Qualinesti elves were driven from run by itself, it provides for a rapid magical ad- Qualinost and banished from their land by venture by which the PCs will uncover many the iron-fisted Lord Verminaard and his ancient secrets and legends surrounding devastating dragon armies. Their leader, Qualinost, Qualinesti, and beyond. These in- entitled the "Speaker of Suns," Solostaran, clude the tales of Kith-Kanan, the Graystone, died in exile; it was so great a blow to the the hammer of Kharas, and more. Or Oak Qualinesti elves that they might have scat- Lords may be used as a framework upon tered across the lands, had it not been for which to weave a fantastic series of mini- Porthios, Solostaran's elder son. Porthios adventures; for those DMs who wish to run a proved to be as great a leader as was his campaign of their own in the world of Krynn. father and an even greater warrior. Either way, Oak Lords can provide for role- Now, some ten years later, the Qualinesti playing long after the module is complete, as elves return to reclaim that which was once many of its adventures may be extended. theirs! This module is divided into six easily ex- The adventure that follows begins with Samplepandable file sections: the trek across the the return of the elves to their homeland on Qualinesti forest; the wooden Sla-Mori near the Abanasinian peninsula. They are a Qualinost; Qualinost itself, including the Tow- changed people, now grim and harsh. On- er of the Sun; the Chaow-Gunosh; the stone ly precious memories of the fair Qualinesti Sla-Mori between the Hall of Guardians and forest have provided them with the inspira- the spiral stairway to the underworld; and the tion to carry on. But upon reaching home, astral Hall of the Sky. they discover that large sections of the an- cient forest have been burned or razed! PREPARATION Many trees are dying and a beetle infesta- tion is causing horrid burls to grow upon those that remain. The sight of their forest is Be sure to read the entire module. Empha- such a heavy blow that many of the elves size important aspects such as traps, saving refuse to enter, believing that Qualinost is throws, and so forth by highlighting. It is to in similar ruin. They plan, instead, to ap- your advantage to seek out previous DRAGONLANCE® materials in order to add I peal to their Silvanesti relatives, to be ac- cepted back into the folds of that ancient the unique flavor of elves on Krynn to your elven culture. fantasy campaign. The players should each select one of the Porthios sees his people withering with a prepared characters found on the module loss of social identity. In a final attempt to cover. Inform the player who chooses prevent his people from abandoning their Asheena Flamebrow to keep the character a culture, he embarks on a quest, entering secret until the second event (#F2). These characters were specifically chosen because preceded by the word "Event." The letter in of their backgrounds, so be sure to have all the designator groups together encounters players familiarize themselves with their char- which occur in the same general area. acters before beginning play. An important el- • All monster statistics can be found on ement of the DRAGON LANCE® saga setting the module's cover, in the Combined Monster involves detailed characters with intriguing Statistics Chart. In the module text, monsters and complex relationships. Assist your play- will be printed in bold to signify their inclu- ers to fully develop their characters' personal- sion in the chart. It is also useful to pull these w ities and backgrounds along the campaign creatures from your Monstrous Compendium trail. and study their special nuances. There is also the option of allowing your players to use their own characters in this module. If this is done, be sure to meet with WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE each player and discuss personal histories which will tie in with the existing adventure. It would be useful if at least one of the PCs was a To properly run this module, several tales of Qualinesti elf. ancient origin must be read herein. The ad- Porthios, an 11 th-level Qualinesti elven ventures in Oak Lords are key elements which fighter, is the first-born of Solostaran and cur- tie together many legends and uncover se- rent Speaker of Suns. Like his brother, Gil- crets that span the ages. Several pertinent thanas, he is always solemn. Throughout the tales are told in short below. adventure, Porthios's mood will be heavy with the plight of his people. He will not show THE ARTIFACTS OF NEUTRALITY it, but he is glad to have Tas along for comic relief. He carries a deep and secret grudge Long ago, before the Cataclysm, Gilean, the against his younger brother and will always be patriarch of the seven neutral gods, decided overly critical, but will still refrain from emo- that several powerful artifacts of pure neutrali- tionalism. ty should be created, to help balance the His vital statistics and equipment are as fol- forces of law and chaos and good and evil lows: Str 18/45, Int 14, Wis 10, Dex 15, Con upon Krynn. Each god was to suggest one arti- 16, Chr 17; THACO 10; AL LG; hp 90; AC - 5 fact to be created. (plate +4, shield +2, +1 Dex bonus). He car- The Tree of Life was made first, under the ries a long sword +3 (1 d8/1Sample d12), two daggers file direction of Chislev, the god of nature incar- + 7 (Id4/1d3—causes double-damage when nate, and Zivilyn, the god of wisdom. The tree thrown), and 1000 stl (steel pieces) worth of would house and radiate the life of all that miscellaneous equipment. He speaks grows throughout Krynn and hold ultimate Qualinesti and Silvanesti elven. wisdom that would be revealed at the end of Porthios and the PCs will be accompanied time. Shinare, the goddess of wealth, formed by 14 elven guards—ten male and four fe- the most pure crystal and Chislev molded the male. They are armed with long swords and crystal into the likeness of an oak and gave it long bows and are listed in the Combined life. Zivilyn then filled it with pure wisdom Monster Statistics Chart. and named it as the elves had named him: "Tree of Life!' The artifact was then placed DESIGN CONSTRUCTS deep under the master forest of Mithranhana, upon a magical monument of stone con- structed by Reorx (#S10), and the Tree of Life In an attempt to make this module as user- was infused with the magic of Lunitari. It was friendly as possible and to create an intriguing then brought to life by the flame of Sirrion. adventure, several constructs have been used: Also, Gilean and Zivilyn joined knowledge and wisdom to create the Astini, or lore keep- • All encounters are given an encounter ers of the races. And Reorx forged a legendary designator and name, such as #F1—Forest hammer. Of the other artifacts, little is known. Foes. If the encounter does not correspond to When all the artifacts were complete, the a particular map area, its designator will be gods of neutrality decided to create one last item which would be a kingpin to the others: Mithranhana was given to Kith-Kanan under the Craystone. First, Shinare formed a clear the new name of "Qualinesti." gray gem of vast size and many facets. Then Then Kith-Kanan discovered a well protect- Reorx tempered the stone in the flame of Sir- ed mesa, bordered on three sides by deep ra- rion. Finally, Chislev brought it to life and vines and on the forth by high cliffs. He had placed it within Lunitari, the red moon, filling been drawn there in the same manner that he it with the red magic of neutrality. was drawn to the forest. He met a race of wa- But unbeknownst to the neutral gods, Hid- ter and air elemental which lived in the ra- dukel, an evil god, slipped the seed of chaos vines and he befriended them. There arose into the Craystonel the capital of Qualinesti, Qualinost. Eventually Reorx released the finished Kith-Kanan used his mighty hammer and Craystone upon Krynn by allowing the skills to build many things of wonder, includ- gnomes to capture and take it home, but it im- ing a sister-tower to the Tower of the Stars. It mediately escaped them and fled across the was named the "Tower of the Sun," created to land, changing creatures and spreading chaos honor light and beauty. as it released magic into the world. Many Not long after its completion, a band of races of Krynn, among them dwarves and dwarf friends came to Qualinost and showed kender (both descended of gnomes), were Kith-Kanan the ancient "secret ways;" pas- formed as a result. sages which riddled the rock below Qualines- The Craystone then disappeared from leg- ti. They all went adventuring into the tunnels end, for it was lured and captured by the Tree and the elf came to call them by their dwarf of Life. The tree magically entrapped the name, "Sla-Mori." stone in a cavern (#S7) below what would During one of these adventures, the band someday be called the "Hall of the Sky," cre- released an ancient evil. All fled and many ating a green crystal wall (#S9) to watch over were slain. Alone and wounded, Kith-Kanan it. Over the ages, the Craystone filled its stumbled upon the Craystone in its chamber. prison lair with quartz crystals and infused Slyly, the stone befriended the elf and eventu- them with the rose magic of Lunitari. Many ally persuaded him to build a crystal tower, years passed during which the Craystone oc- the "Hall of the Sky," and to create ten power- casionally escaped its prison to wreak chaos ful guardians for it. During the construction, upon Krynn, yet it was always brought back the Craystone aided Kith-Kanan, but also in- by the tree. fused the tower with special properties un- known to the elf. KITH-KANAN AND THE SampleWhen completed file , the Craystone used the magic it had stored in its quartz crystals to rip QUALINESTI the Tree of Life from its monument and trap it in the tower. As this was accomplished, huge Long ago, the terrible Kinslayer Wars were rose quartz crystals thrust up from the ground fought, in which the men of ancient Ergoth of Qualinost and destroyed most of the city. and their elven kin feuded with the elves of The stone then sent the guardians into the Silvanesti. During the wars, the dwarves of tower to pummel the tree into shards. Imme- Thorbardin sided with the human/elf alliance diately, the tree shifted to another plane of ex- and passed a great hammer, symbolizing their istence, but found the tower and guardians friendship, to the elven general, Kith-Kanan. there as well. Desperately, it transferred to the Even after the wars, the elves remained sun- astral plane of true neutrality and sought the dered by differing philosophies. While his help of the immortal astral dragons. Together, twin brother, Sithas, remained leader of they defeated the tower guardians. Silvanesti, Kith-Kanan sought a new home for i The astral dragons beseeched the tree to the new, western elves. stay with them, for they would guard it eter- Kith-Kanan was a very special elf with sens- nally, and the tree agreed, but only if it might es beyond those of most others. In his search be left in silent peace as was its nature. Thus it for the new home of his people, he was was sealed away, high in a tower which it drawn across southern Ansalon to the forest could never leave (#H6). The tree then used of Mithranhana. Later, when the Swordsheath its powers to erase its existence from the Scroll was signed by elf, man, and dwarf, memory of any who knew of it. i