The Thief's Gambit

A Four-Hour Icewind Dale Adventure for Tier 1 Characters. SampleOptimized for APL 3. file D&D Adventure Format ©2018 Wizards 1 DC-POA-VAN-MT-01 The Thief’s Gambit A request to restore the honor of the Four Heavenly Schools of Dragonchess takes you to the Grand Tournament in Easthaven, where you discover horror waiting beneath the frozen earth. A Four-Hour Icewind Dale Adventure for Tier 1 Characters. Optimized for APL 3. Sample file Credits Designer: Mitch Tee Dungeoncraft Seed Used: Do You Know the Way to Lonely Wood Beta Reader: Ken Wong D&D Adventurers League Guildmaster: Chris Lindsay Art Director & Graphic Design: Mitch Tee Twemoji graphics licensed under CC-BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 (https://twemoji.twitter.com). Alien, Flesh, and Organic Map Assets created by Cannyjacks and licensed under CAL-NA: https://cartographyassets.com/license (https://cartographyassets.com/creator/cannyjacks) D&D Adventurers League Wizards Team: Brandy Camel, Lea Helotis, Chris Lindsay, Chris Tulach D&D Adventurers League Administrators: Alan Patrick, Amy Lynn Dzura, Travis Woodall, Ma’at Crook, Claire Hoffman, Greg Marks Playtesters: Morthos, Alton Tealeaf, Brock Lee, Bash, Belren, Magnus, Nightowl Initial Dragonchess mechanics: Paul Gabat (https://twitter.com/DMPaulG) Dedication: This adventure is dedicated to Lorraine Chow, who puts up with the inordinate amount of time I spend playing D&D every week; and to Sebastian Hesse, without whom I would never have started this hobby. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast, Forgotten Realms, the dragon ampersand, Player’s Handbook, Monster Manual, Dungeon Master’s Guide, D&D Adventurers League, all other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and other countries. All characters and their distinctive likenesses are property of Wizards of the Coast. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast. Sample file ©2021 Wizards of the Coast LLC, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057-0707, USA. Manufactured by Hasbro SA, Rue Emile-Boéchat 31, 2800 Delémont, CH. Represented by Hasbro Europe, 4 The Square, Stockley Park, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB11 1ET, UK. Adventure Primer This adventure is designed for three to seven 1- • Call to Action: The Dojo Breaker The 4-level characters and is optimized for five characters come across the aftermath of a characters with an average party level (APL) Dragonchess exhibition, in which four of 3. Characters outside this level range cannot Dragonchess schools suffered a dishonorable participate in this adventure. defeat at the hands of BESS THARMON. The This adventure occurs in the towns of GOOD schools entreat the characters to take revenge. MEAD and EASTHAVEN in Icewind Dale, and • Part 1: Opening Preparation. The schools are their surrounding areas. It uses the Do You unwilling to let their representatives make a Know the Way to Lonely Wood adventure Dragonchess challenge without adequate seed. preparation. The characters train with each school’s master, learning their techniques. Background • Part 2: En Passant. After tracking Bess over the Eastway, the party finds her unconscious The Grand Tournament in Easthaven is the in the snow and must defend her from largest Dragonchess gathering of its kind. nightmares borne of her own inner demons. Players from across the realms compete to be • Part 3: The Thief’s Gambit. Depressed over crowned Icewind Dale Dragonchess Champion. her loss in the Grand Tournament, Bess Unbeknownst to them, their brains, honed by challenges the players to a game of years of Dragonchess practice, are an irresistible Dragonchess. They help her regain her self- delicacy to a colony of nearby MIND FLAYERS. confidence, just as a letter of challenge arrives, A tenday ago, an ulitharid named Uquirrhoon offering Bess a championship rematch. Qrahoonil split with its elder brain, intending to • Part 4: Zwischenzug. The group arrives at the form a new colony just in time to feast on the Easthaven Dragonchess Hall, but find it empty. Grand Tournament brains. In the ice caverns Bess’s invitation leads underground. below Easthaven, Uquirrhoon founded a new lair • Part 5: Armageddon. Bess faces off in the and busied itself preparing an EXTRACTOR game of her life against an embryonic ELDER STAFF ritual, in which it would become the elder BRAIN while the characters valiantly fend off brain of the new colony. the fledging colony’s defenders. Before this could come to pass, a RRAKKMA raided Uquirrhoon’s new lair, and though it cost Adventure Hooks all of them their lives, the gith destroyed most of the illithid present, and delivered a mortal The Grand Tournament. As a Dragonchess wound to Uquirrhoon. player and enthusiast yourself, you are passing Unfortunately, this was but a pyrrhic victory, through Good Mead on the way to the biggest as the surviving mind flayers were able to Dragonchess event of its kind, the Grand extract Uquirrhoon’s brain from its corpse, and Tournament in Easthaven. begin the ritual anyway. The nutritious brains of The Four Schools. You have heard of the the gathered Dragonchess masters may yet intense training regimens practiced by the Four nurse Uquirrhoon back to health. Heavenly Schools of Dragonchess in Good Mead. They offer their wisdom even to non- Dragonchess players, and many of their students Overview have gone on to become famous adventurers. The adventure’s story is spread over five parts The Corona Gambit. Rumor has it that an and takes approximately 4 hours to play. The Elven caravan carrying mead all the way from adventure begins with a Call to Action scene. Waterdeep is passing through Good Mead on the way to Easthaven. Up here in the cold, you’d be Samplecrazy to pass up the chance file to get your hands on a bottle of that Waterdahvian nectar. Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only. DC-POA-VAN-MT-01 The Thief’s Gambit (Version 1) 4 Adventure Flowchart This section provides a basic understanding of not only the flow of the adventure, but also the outline of the different paths that your players may take in reaching their stated objective. Call to Action: The Dojo Breaker 1.1 Black 1.2 Green 1.3 Red 1.4 White 1.5 Titled Tortoise Dragon Phoenix Tiger Tenthday School School School School 1.6 The Fifth School 1.7 Prelude 2. En Passant 3.1 Thief’s 3.2 Thief’s Gambit: Gabat Gambit Variation Declined 3.3 Tiebreak 4. Zwischenzug Sample5. Armageddon file Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only. DC-POA-VAN-MT-01 The Thief’s Gambit (Version 1) 5 Call to Action: The Dojo Breaker Estimated Duration: 5 minutes The characters arrive to find Good Mead’s Four school, stand before the boards, attempting to Heavenly Schools of Dragonchess in disarray. calm their agitated disciples. They happen upon the aftermath of a Dragonchess simul, an exhibition in which one You have finally arrived in Good Mead, only to find player plays against several others at once. the town in disarray. As you push your way to the In this case, the other players are the front of the crowd gathered in the small square, representatives of the Four Heavenly Schools, you find four elderly humans dressed respectively who have suffered a devastating defeat at the in black, green, red, and white winter furs, each hands of half-elf Dragonchess prodigy Bess staring forlornly at separate Dragonchess boards. Tharmon, who recently rose to fame at an On each board, a golden king lies on its side, tipped amateur tournament in Waterdeep. While this over in resignation. would normally be fine, the winner invoked her The crowd remains in a shocked, silent stupor for ancient right to claim the schools’ signboards: a what seems like forever, until finally, a young man demand that, while indescribably disrespectful, bursts from the crowd, crying: “Master! We cannot could not be refused according to the deep- rooted traditions governing Dragonchess in the accept this dishonor! Let us go after the half-elf, north. defeat her, and demand she return our signboards!” Dragonchess Following the pointing mitten, you see the speck Dragonchess is an ancient game of war and strategy, of a mead caravan in the distance, pulled swiftly by usually enjoyed by the nobility and merchant classes. On a team of sled dogs. It soon slips over the horizon a battlefield of three stacked, rectangular boards— and into the distant snowbanks of the Eastway. representing sky, land, and subterranean theaters of operations—gold and scarlet forces vie for supremacy, Area Information each side attempting to checkmate the other’s king. This area has the following features: Although each side controls 42 pieces, the bulk of Lighting. Despite it being daytime, the square each army is made of pawns in the form sylphs, warriors, and dwarves. Minor pieces comprise of units is dimly lit as if by twilight. There is no sunlight such as thieves, unicorns, griffons, oliphants, and in Icewind Dale due to the Everlasting Rime, and basilisks, while the most powerful pieces are the dragon, the people of Good Mead have sacrificed the the paladin, the mage, and the cleric. warmth of fire to Auril, so no lanterns are lit. The game in its modern form was introduced to Good Sounds. There is a shocked silence over the Mead when the town’s first settlers arrived from Chult town square, occasionally broken by angry 400 years ago.

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