Stuck Between a Rook and a Hard Place
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KEOI3-02 Stuck Between a Rook and a Hard Place ® A One-Round D&D LIVING GREYHAWK Introductory Keoland Regional Adventure Version 1.1 by Christian J. Alipounarian When the favorite chess set of the Earl of Linth is stolen, some fledgling heroes are charged with its recovery. But what does this have to do with… flumphs? This adventure is an introductory module for 1st-level characters. Based on the original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® rules created by E. Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and the new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Richard Baker, and Peter Adkison. This game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without permission of the author. To learn more about the Open Gaming License and the d20 system license, please visit www.wizards.com/d20 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, GREYHAWK and RPGA are registered trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. LIVING GREYHAWK is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This scenario is intended for tournament use only and may not be reproduced without approval of the RPGA Network. The players are free to use the game rules to learn about Introduction equipment and weapons their characters are carrying. That said, you as the DM can bar the use of even core This is an RPGA® Network scenario for the Dungeons rulebooks during certain times of play. For example, the & Dragons® game. A four-hour time block has been players are not free to consult the Dungeon Master’s allocated for each round of this scenario, but the actual Guide when confronted with a trap or hazard, or the playing time will be closer to three and a half hours. The Monster Manual when confronted with a monster. rest of the time is spent in preparation before game play, and scoring after the game. The following guidelines are Some of the text in this scenario is written so that you here to help you with both the preparation and voting may present it as written to the players, while other text is segment of the game. Read this page carefully so that you for your eyes only. Text for the players will be in gray know and can communicate to your players the special boxes. It’s strongly recommended that you paraphrase aspects of playing an RPGA scenario. the player text instead of reading it aloud. Some of this text is general and must be adapted to the specific Preparation situation or to actions of the player characters. First you should print this scenario. This scenario was This is a LIVING GREYHAWK Adventure. As a created to support double-sided printing, but printing it LIVING adventure it is expected that players bring single sided will work as well. There is enough room their own characters with them. If players do not have along the inside margin to bind the adventure, if you a LIVING GREYHAWK character generated, get a desire. copy of the current LIVING GREYHAWK character generation guidelines, and a character sheet from your Read this entire adventure at least once before you run convention coordinator or the RPGA Web site, and your game. Be sure to familiarize yourself with any then have any players without a character create one. special rules, spells, or equipment presented in the Once all players have a LIVING GREYHAWK adventure. It may help to highlight particularly important character, play can begin. passages. Along with the other materials that you are assumed to When you run an RPGA D&D adventure we assume that have in order to run a D&D game, it is also you have access to the following books: the Player’s recommended that you have a copy of the LIVING Handbook, the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and the GREYHAWK Gazetteer. Monster Manual. We also assume that you have a set of dice (at least one d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20), some Living Greyhawk Levels of Play scrap paper, a pencil, an RPGA scoring packet, and your sense of fun. It is also a good idea to have a way to track As an introductory adventure, no characters above 1st movement during combat. This can be as simple as a pad level are permitted to play. Players who have characters of graph paper and a pencil, as handy as a vinyl grid map above this level limit should choose another PC or and chits, or as elaborate as resin dungeon walls and create a new one with which to play this adventure. miniatures. Instruct the players either to prepare their characters now, Time Units and Upkeep or wait until you read the introduction, depending on the This is an introductory one-round Regional adventure, requirements of the scenario as described in the set in Keoland. Characters native to Keoland pay one introduction. Time Unit per round, all others pay two Time Units per Keep in mind that you must have at least three players round. Adventurer’s Standard Upkeep costs 12gp per (not counting the DM), for the game session to be a Time Unit. Rich Upkeep costs 50gp per Time Unit. sanctioned RPGA event. As well, you cannot have more Luxury Upkeep costs 100gp per Time Unit. than six players participating in the game. Once you are ready to play, it is handy to instruct each player to place a nametag in front of him or her. The tag should have the player’s name at the bottom, and the character’s name, race, and gender at the top. This makes it easier for the players (and the DM) to keep track of who is playing which character. Stuck Between a Rook and a Hard Place Round 1 Page 2 The thieves have already made contact with Amaretta Adventure Background and turned over the silver wizard to her. The sorceress A week ago, a brazen brother-sister pair of thieves told the thieves to keep the rest of the set for their named Waldo and Selinda Cur broke into the ancestral troubles. The PCs would be ill-advised to return the manor of the House of Linth, the royal family that has chess set with a piece missing – at the very least, the ruled the Earldom of the same name for generations. Earl might accuse the heroes of stealing a piece for The thief took only one item – a chess set. This was no themselves. ordinary chess set, as each piece was cast in solid silver Amaretta can be tracked down to the local inn where and solid gold. The Earl has offered a reward for both she was staying. The PCs will have to deal with thugs the chess set and the head of the thieves that stole it. paid in advance by her to harry the PCs. The PCs will The Curs are the unwitting pawns of Amaretta, a gather some clues about her possible destination and a sorceress and a member of the Silent Ones. The mission likely direction of travel. of her reclusive order is to confiscate powerful items of After a hard ride, the PCs will confront Amaretta. They magic – for reasons not clear to outsiders. The tower of might not have to battle her to recover the wizard – the Silent Ones is in the Earl’s very lands. The order she’s not interested in the piece itself, and she has does their best to operate without being noticed, and the already recovered the ring from within it. She will ruckus that would be caused by their implication in the explain the reason she needed the chess piece (although theft of the Earl’s property is to be avoided. This is the she won’t reveal herself as a member of the Silent reason that Amaretta has resorted to middlemen to Ones), and will threaten to demonstrate the power of acquire the chess set. the ring if the PCs force the issue. If the PCs attack her, As a further precaution, Amaretta arranged to meet the she’ll use a Wish to teleport herself back to the Silent thieves and pick up the chess pieces at a place that was Tower – taking the rook with her just to spite them. far from the Silent Tower and that the thieves could quickly reach. This was Sporo’s Point, a gnome Sporo’s Point and settlement a few day’s ride from the Earl’s home. The arrival of a few humans would not be noticed, as the the Running of the Flumphs town was hosting many visitors for the local festival, the Running of the Flumphs. (From the Player’s Primer of the Earldom of Linth at http://keoland.living-greyhawk.com) Amaretta’s interest lies not in the chess set, but one of its pieces. The chess set once belonged to a very The seat of Highland Barony, Sporo’s Point (pop. 480) powerful and evil wizard who was a servant of Vecna. is home to a large number of gnomes. They have long Recently, the Silent Ones came into the possession of labored the hills of their home, producing all manner of the wizard’s journal, wherein he described the creation items and wares. They have found that they are unable of a powerful Ring of Three Wishes. As Vecna’s rule to compete with the furnaces of Dreduin, and the began to crumble around him, the wizard described settlement suffered a great deal of economic hardship. hiding the ring inside a hollowed-out chess piece – a Recently, under the leadership of Lord Mayor Phineas wizard - of pure silver.