Tales of the Outer Planes
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Advanced Dun3eon OFFICIAL GAME ACCESSORY TALES OF THE OUTER PLANES CREDITS TABLE OF CONTENTS Authors: Deborah A. Christian, Vince How to Use Tales of the Outer Planes 2 Garcia, Thomas M. Kane, David and Martha Ladyman, Christopher Plane: Adventure Mortika, John Nephew, Bruce Nesmith, Bill Slaviscek, Rick Swan, John Terra, Prime: A Simple Deed, Well Rewarded 4 Ray Winninger Castle at the Edge of Time 12 Coordinators: Bruce Heard, Karen S. Ethereal: Boomgarden Air: The Brewing Storm 18 Editor: Gary L. Thomas Typography: Betty Elmore, Kim Janke Water: The Voyage of the Nereid 24 Cartography: Dave S. LaForce Cover Art: Jeff Easley Fire: Through the Fire 30 Interior Art: Chris Miller, Jeff Easley Earth: The Missing Kristal 36 Astral: Into the Astral Plane 42 Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Sample file Random House Inc., and in Canada by Random Seven Heavens: An Element of Chaos 48 House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. Distributed in the United Olympus: A Friendly Wager 56 Kingdom by TSR UK Ltd. The Abyss: The Sea of Screams 64 These adventures are protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. Any reproduction Nine Hells: To Hell and Back 72 or unauthorized use of the material or artwork printed herein is prohibited withou the express written permission of TSR Inc. Lairs Archons 80 Babau 80 Berbalang/Basilisk 81 ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, TSR, Dao 82 FORGOTTEN REALMS, BATTLESYSTEM, FIEND Efreet 83 FOLIO, PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION, and Farastu (Tarry) Demodand 84 the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, kic. Githyanfci 86 TSR, Inc. TSR UK Ltd. Githzerai 87 POB756 The Mill, Rathmore Road Grey Slaad 88 lake Genera Cambridge CB1 4AD lldriss 89 WI53147 United Kingdom Kuei 90 Marid 91 Modrons 92 P'oh and General Ox 93 Planetar 94 Spined Devils 95 Ultrodaemon 96 TSR, Inc. PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION • ® 1988 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. ISBN 0-88038-544-8 •8.95 US How to Use This Book This book provides the referee with a mines the THACO of the creature (see series of pregenerated planar adven- below) and saves of a creature. Ability Checks tures to insert into any AD&D® game it AT: Number of attacks shows the In an effort to simplify life for both play- campaign. Each mini-module is a number of physical attacks the crea- ers and DMs, and to give a character's stand-alone scenario, suitable for ture is able to make during a given abilities the importance they deserve, incorporation into an on-going cam- melee round. The 3/2 listing means a recent TSR® products have made use paign or for one-time play as a unique creature can attack once on the odd of a mechanism for resolving actions adventure. Besides 11 adventures melee rounds and twice on the even called the Ability check. into other realms, there are 17 lair melee rounds. When asked to make an Ability adventures, each focusing on a crea- Dmg: Damage per attack indicates check (e.g., a Wisdom check, a Dex- ture from another plane. the hit point range a creature can terity check, etc.), roll 1d20 against Most of the adventures start from inflict after a successful strike. the character's appropriate ability the World Serpent Inn, an interdimen- THACO: This is an acronym for "To score. A roll equal to or less than the sionally transtable (bigger on the Hit Armor Class 0 (zero)." This gives appropriate score means the action inside than on the outside) tavern with the number that needs to be rolled on succeeded, while a roll greater than a number of "convenient" exits to oth- 1d20 for that being to hit armor class the ability score indicates failure and er planes. With its godlike barkeep 0. To determine whether the attack the character suffers whatever dire Mitchifer, the inn is the center from hits another armor class, subtract that consequences await. Sometimes an which PCs can go out and journey to armor class number from the THACO Ability check enables a character to the other planes. Most adventures to see what number needs to be rolled avoid all or some of the damage from have other optional beginnings, for for a hit. If a creature with a THACO of an attack. Some actions are especial- referees who choose not to use the 15 attacks a PC with an armor class of ly easy or difficult and have bonuses World Serpent Inn. 4, the creature needs to roll an 18 (15 - or penalties to the ability score to [-3] = 15 + 3). reflect the level of difficulty. This number eliminates the need to The Ability check is a wonderful Terms Used in Tales of consult tables or keep charts for each mechanism for resolving the results of the Outer Planes character. One simple calculation tells almost any action. The DM needs to you whether the attack hits. You will decide which ability applies to the situ- There is a set of fairly standard terms find that this calculation quickly ation, whether there should be any used throughout the text of this work becomes automatic. modifiers due to circumstances, and that are defined here. Every DM SA: Special attacks detail such then roll away. should be familiar with these terms. things aSamples dragon breath, file magic use, AC: Armor class is a measure of and the like special abilities of crea- how difficult it is to hit a creature. It tures. AD&D® Rulebooks reflects the type of protection worn or SD: Special defenses detail things There is no way that Tales of the Outer inherent protection a creature has due like defensive magic, camouflage Planes can include all of the informa- to its physical or magical nature or its abilities, and so on, that must be fac- tion you'll need for every adventure speed. tored into a fight with that type of crea- without being 10 times its size. In par- Move (MV): Movement represents ture. ticular, you'll need The Manual of the the usual speed a monster is able to MR: Magic resistance is the per- Planes (also referred to as MoP) to maintain for lengths of time. Short centage chance that a creature is able give you the detailed background on bursts of greater speed are possible. If to ignore the effects of a spell cast at each plane and realm visited by the more than one speed is listed, the it. player characters. Survival, move- monster can travel via two or more dif- AL: Alignment indicates the behav- ment, and magic effects vary consid- ferent methods: ior of the monster, whether it is of good erably from plane to plane. Before any or evil intent. adventure, you'll want to study up on X" = ground speed gp: gold pieces this information. IX" = flying speed cp: copper pieces For the most part, you should be IIX" = swimming speed sp: silver pieces able to play any adventure in this book (X") = burrowing speed ep: electrum pieces without consulting any of the monster *X" = climbing in a web pp: platinum pieces manuals or other reference books @X" = climbing in trees (except for spell effects and magical HD: Hit dice are used to calculate item effects, which could not be the number of hit points (hp) a mon- included due to space restrictions). ster has. This number also deter- You may want these books handy, How to Use This Book though, for some of the more arcane point totals for a weaker party is one made an effort to defeat the creatures monsters, so your players can at least answer. Halving the damage done by in the adventure, but was forced to see what they look like. traps is another solution. In the case retreat. This last entry enables the DM where the encounter must be made to recognize that the party learned tougher, a simple increase in the num- from the encounter, but just could not Lair Format ber of creatures can bring the quite finish it off. The 17 lairs in the back of this book encounter level up to where it should Every encounter has from one to are organized in alphabetical order. be. In both of these changes a modifi- three Set Up features. These are bits Various difficulty levels are included, cation to the Monster X.P. number of information on situations to help the from those designed for lower-level should be made. referee get the party into the adven- parties to those for higher-level The (avg.) listing for the Total Party ture. They can also be used to get the groups. Levels is a calculation that should be party back on track if the group has Each creature encounter is itself a made at the beginning of the adven- taken an unplanned tangent and not series of encounters that can be used ture by the DM. This is an indication of gone the way the Dungeon Master all at once or in part during a game. the power and type of creatures a par- thought they would. The referee can easily use these ty should be facing. If the party aver- This section may also contain infor- encounters without much preparation age falls below or above the listing for mation pertinent to all of the ways the during the middle of a game or can the encounter by more than one, PCs could get into the adventure (i.e., use them to start off an adventure.