Drow War Book Three: the Darkest Hour ©2006 Mongoose Publishing

Written By Adrian Bott Editor RPG Manager Richard Ford Ian Belcher Production Manager Layout Alexander Fennell Matt Sharp Proofreading Cover Artwork Ron Bedison Anne Stokes Sample file Playtesters Interior Artwork Tanya Bergen, Mark Gedak, Andrew Caputo, Vitor Ishimura, Ryan Kelln, Patrick Kossmann, Celso Mathias, Chad Sergesketter Kent Little and Murray Perry and Carlos Silva Open Game Content & Copyright Information The Drow War Book Three: The Darkest Hour ©2006 Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. Reproduction of non-Open Game Content of this work by any means without the written permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden. The Drow War Book Three: The Darkest Hour is presented under the Open Game and d20 Licences. See page 256 for the text of the Open Game Licence. All text paragraphs and tables containing game mechanics and statistics derivative of Open Game Content and the System Reference Document are considered to be Open Game Content. All other significant characters, names, places, items, art and text herein are copyrighted by Mongoose Publishing. All rights reserved. If you have questions about the Open Game Content status of any material herein, please contact Mongoose Publishing for clarification. ‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and are used according to the terms of the d20 System Licence version 5.0. A copy of this Licence can be found at www.wizards. com/d20. The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or copyright concerned. Dungeons & Dragons® and Wizards of the Coast® are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. in the United States and other countries and are used with permission. Printed in China. Mongoose Publishing Mongoose Publishing, PO Box 1018, Swindon, SN3 1DG, United Kingdom [email protected] 1 Contents Chapter 1: Introduction 3 Chapter 2: The Beasts of Jasmal 4 Chapter 3: Planequake 23 Chapter 4: The Crumbling Skull of Space 42 Chapter 5: Vanguard 77 Chapter 6: Seeds of Destruction, Part I: The Ring 103 Chapter 7: Seeds of Destruction, Part II: The Staff 145 Chapter 8: Seeds of Destruction, Part III: The Eye 158 Chapter 9: Steel Never Sleeps 171 Sample file Chapter 10: What Dread Hand 193 Chapter 11: Until the Sun Cries Morning 210 Appendix 1: The Eschatonic Scripts 215 Appendix 2: Constellations 218 Appendix 3: New Monsters 220 Appendix 4: The World of Ashfar 238 Designer’s Notes 252 License 256 2 Introduction elcome to the final part of the Drow War a place where everyone has an agenda, nobody wants campaign, The Drow War, Book Three: The to trust anyone if they can help it. Can this motley WDarkest Hour. band possibly act together and prevent the coming catastrophe or will the Player Characters have to go it This adventure is epic in both senses of the word alone? Will the wiles of schemers entrap them, turning familiar to d20 enthusiasts. It takes the action out into one against another until good seems bad and bad seems the manifold planes of existence, pitting the Player good, or will they see through the manipulations and Characters against no less a threat than the extinction deceptions? of all life and the final triumph of darkness – stakes far beyond anything faced before. The adventuring takes With the debris of shattered worlds serving as place on a cosmic scale, with allies and adversaries to incontestable proof that whole planes have already been match. destroyed, the race is on to find the powers behind it. The dust is blown off old books and legends are The Player Characters move beyond the standard 20 ransacked for information. There are at least three items levels of regular d20 and enter the realms of the epic that can work this kind of magic, but which – if any rules. They come into possession of astounding new – is the artefact responsible? There is only one way to magical items, learn feats and spells that outshine the find out. heroes of legend and face down foes that cause entire civilisations to tremble. Naturally there is all manner of trouble on the way. One cannot unearth an artefact without digging up a The action begins on the world of Ashfar, where the few guilty secrets too and even if the Player Characters peace forged in the aftermath of the Player Characters’ act for the good of the whole universe, there are always apparent victory at the end of the last book has now those with their own selfish goals to pursue. been broken. Something is causing the barriers between worlds to collapse, smashing plane into plane, openingSample With persistence, file luck and daring, the truth will finally rifts through which atrocious fiends can step into the begin to take shape. The quest leads through worlds of ordinary world and cause chaos. No hero can let this ocean and forest into fortresses where forbidden things happen without acting against it, and on this world and creep in the dark and a half-insane princess breeds an others, armour is donned and swords are drawn. army of the damned, through storms of chaos and under skies of impossible colours, and ultimately into Even former enemies recognise the threat. The the bowels of a machine the size of a nation, where the Player Characters must deal with shocking revelations final secrets are revealed. concerning an old foe who may well prove to be new friend. Is it written in the heavens that the Starborn and The Player Characters have saved one world; now they the drow must always be opposed or can the dark ones must save a million others. The fate of the cosmos rests truly change? Can the olive branch be accepted or is in the hands of the Starborn and those they choose this just another trick? There is no easy way to decide. to ally with. Now more than ever, there is no certain outcome and defeat is always a possibility. In the haven of a dead god’s skull, the most secure and yet the most isolated place in the many planes, the Assembly Only one thing is certain… meets to investigate the fate of the worlds. Faced with a gathering of strange and sinister individuals from across Whichever path the future takes, whichever side is the planes, the Player Characters must choose their allies victorious, this is the final battle of the Drow War. well. First impressions may well be misleading and in 3 The Beasts of Jasmal How the Adventure Sections Work more importance than just one encounter, it is described here; For the Games Master’s convenience, the various different otherwise it is given an ‘Event’ entry. sections of the adventure are divided into types. These are Summary, Location, Plot Event, Event, Non-Player Character, Information: This entry type gives information that the Information and Aftermath. Games Master needs to know and the Player Characters can find out. It is most commonly used for rumours and legends, Summary: This is a brief summary of the adventure chapter. such as can be found out by the use of the Gather Information skill or Bardic Knowledge checks. Location: Entries of this type describe locations that the Player Characters may visit, whether or not there is anything Aftermath: This kind of entry details the various different happening there at the time. These can be resources such as ways the plot can unfold after a key decision has been made taverns, or features of tactical importance, such as marshes or a critical encounter passed. Aftermath entries include or defensive walls. Note that a group’s headquarters and its information on experience point bonuses, character rewards, personnel are listed separately, as the group is not bound victory points and the fates of the Non-Player Characters to one place. For example, a Rogues’ Guild meetinghouse involved. is a Location, while the guild itself is a Non-Player Character Group. Plot Event: These entries describe occurrences that drive the main story forward. They happen irrespective of the Player Characters’ actions. They are rare, because the Player Characters themselves advance the story for the most part. A plot event usually happens when the Player Characters reach an area for the first time or when they achieve some decisive objective. The Player Characters cannot avoid plot events, though they can always choose to delay reacting to them or to ignore them altogether. Sample file Event: These events can be included at the Games Master’s discretion as and when appropriate. They are not destined to happen but may do as a result of the Player Characters’ actions. For example, an event may involve the imprisonment of the Player Characters after they decide to break into a building and are caught. Events frequently involve combat and are recommended for livening up a session when the Player Characters want something to fight or when they are running behind on experience. Non-Player Character: Both individuals and groups are covered by this type of entry. Non-Player Characters have lives of their own, which they get on with whether the Player Characters are there to see it or not. If a character or monster is of 4 A Note on Awarding Experience decisions or be forced into blind compliance with the alien The chapters in this book are structured so that each should authority of the Dark. The primary representatives of the give the Player Characters approximately one level of Dark, and the most likely creatures to become members of experience by the time they finish it. However, epic levels the Host, are the drow – or were until recently.

Load more