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Stone Dead Is a Short D&D Adventure for Four 14Th-Level Player Characters (Pcs)

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Stone Dead Is a Short D&D Adventure for Four 14Th-Level Player Characters (Pcs) Stone Dead is a short D&D adventure for four 14th-level player characters (PCs). Consult the Scaling the Adven- ture sidebar for ways to modify the scenario for higher or lower levels of play. This scenario can be incorporated into any style of campaign. It is set in Respite, an isolated town along the banks of a river fed by a nearby hot spring, so it can STONE DEAD easily be placed in a remote, forested area of any cam- paign world. A Short Adventure for Four 14th- Level Player Characters PREPARATION You (the DM) need the D&D core rulebooks, including the Player’s Handbook, the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide, and CREDITS the Monster Manual. This adventure also uses the grave- crawler, a creature from Monster Manual II, but all infor- Design: Stan! mation from that book needed to run the adventure Editing: Penny Williams has been provided here. Typesetting: Nancy Walker You can place this adventure in any section of your Cartography: Todd Gamble campaign world that features a forested area in which Web Production: Julia Martin an isolated town might exist. If you have a remote town Web Development: Mark A. Jindra that is already known as a place to seek healing, so Graphic Design: Sean Glenn, Cynthia Fliege much the better. Adapt the material given here as you Playtesting: Christopher Perkins, Jeff Quick, see fit to make it work with your campaign. John Rateliff, Charles Ryan, To get started, print out this module (including the Tammie Ryan maps). The maps used here were originally presented in March 2001 as part of the Map-A-Week feature on the Based on the original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game by E. D&D website. They are available for you to download at Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and on the new edition of the <www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/mw/mw200 DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, 10301x>. For the purpose of this adventure, the “sanitar- Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, and Peter Adkison. ium” noted on the original maps has been changed to a D&D, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and DUNGEON MASTER are registered trademarks owned “sanatorium.” So instead of a hospital for the mentally ill, by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The d20 logo is a trademark owned by the facility is a resort for convalescing from an illness or Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All Wizards characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by for maintaining or improving one’s health. Wizards of the Coast, Inc. 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 ADVENTURE is prohibited without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. BACKGROUND ©2003 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. All rights reserved. Respite is a town renowned for its tranquility and isola- Made in the U.S.A. tion. This remote village gained notoriety many years This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, ago because the waters of its hot mineral spring were places, or events is purely coincidental. said to have restorative powers. This rumor turned out This Wizards of the Coast game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without written permission. to be untrue—any healing people received in Respite To learn more about the Open Gaming License and the d20 System License, please visit www.wizards.com/d20. came from its dedicated clerics. But the combination of the divine healing and hot mineral baths nonetheless The Temple of Redcliff is a short D&D adventure for four 10th-level characters. Consult the Scaling the Adventure sidebar for ways to modify the scenario provided comfort and healing for the ill and injured, for higher or lower levels of play. and the out-of-the-way site soon became famous far and This scenario can be incorporated into any style of campaign. Since the adventure wide as a place to convalesce, or simply to improve takes placeSample in an abandoned temple and includes undead creatures, any party that one’s health. file chooses to undertake the mission should include a cleric. Life in the town centers around a sanatorium run by clerics dedicated to Obad-Hai—the steadfastly neutral 1 god of nature. For a modest donation, the clerics take in The plague, it seemed, was spreading. Some of the travelers, let them soak in the warm spring waters, and townsfolk, and even a few of the clerics, packed up and use divine spells to heal their wounds. fled for their lives. Others stayed, convinced that they Within the past few weeks, however, a terrible were too healthy, tough, or just plain lucky to be struck tragedy has befallen the town of Respite. The trouble down. They were wrong. Eventually, the entire remain- began when a rare undead creature called a grave- ing populace was turned to stone. crawler (see Monster Manual II) found its way to the Krekulphyr moved into the catacombs beneath the town and took up residence under the graveyard. The sanatorium and built a shrine to Nerull. Then he called gravecrawler really meant no harm to the residents, but in the two wings of gargoyle fighters under his com- the unusually high and warm groundwater forced it to mand, told them where to perch, and ordered them to remain close enough to the surface that its calcifying keep an eye out for visitors. They were to kill any inter- aura could affect those who visited the cemetery. lopers who attacked them or attempted to enter the The clerics were mystified by the mysterious illness sanatorium; otherwise they were not to interfere with that seemed to be slowly calcifying some of the towns- visitors in any way, since more deaths from the calcify- folk. Suspecting some sort of plague, they sent word to ing aura would serve to glorify Nerull still further. others of their order, in hopes of finding a cause (and Krekulphyr then went back inside the sanatorium, perhaps a cure) for the malady. fasted and prayed to Nerull for assistance, and com- One of their messages was intercepted by Krekul- manded the gravecrawler to appear. With his dark phyr, a gargoyle cleric of Nerull, the dark god of death god’s aid, he performed a long, complex ritual to bind and decay. Thanks to his affinity for death and the the creature inside a stone golem, thereby creating a undead, Krekulphyr correctly deduced the cause of the symbiotic construct known as a deathstone. With the problem and saw an opportunity to advance his deity’s stone golem’s melee prowess and the gravecrawler’s agenda. After petitioning Nerull for a boon through calcification ability, the deathstone is exactly the lengthy rituals and expensive sacrifices, the gargoyle instrument of destruction that Krekulphyr has been cleric was granted the ability to command a grave- looking for, and he intends to send it forth to bring crawler, even though his cleric level would not ordinar- death to all the civilized lands. ily have permitted him to do so. Upon gaining this abil- ity, he flew to Respite, perched on top of the KREKULPHYR sanatorium, and commanded the gravecrawler to move Krekulphyr has spent his entire life in the active serv- under the inhabited sections of town. ice of Nerull, and the death god is well pleased with his pqqqqrs SCALING THE ADVENTURE • Parties that do not have at least one +2 weapon Stone Dead is designed for a party of four 14th-level may not be able to do any harm the deathstone. adventurers, but it can easily be modified to present But the gargoyles have several +2 and +3 weap- an appropriate challenge for parties of different ons, which the characters can acquire by defeat- sizes or levels. Consider adapting the adventure as ing them. follows. Four 12th-Level PCs: Run the adventure as writ- Four 16th-Level PCs: Run the adventure as written, ten, but with the following changes. but with the following changes. • Reduce the number of gargoyles standing guard • To increase the difficulty of the gate keep and in town by half, leaving two on the gate keep and sanatorium encounters, give each gargoyle sentry four on the sanatorium. Maintain the same ratio an additional two levels of its chosen class and of fighters to rogues for the gargoyles in the sana- the Improved Critical feat with its chosen torium encounter. weapon. • Reduce Krekulphyr’s cleric level to 8 and adjust his • Increase Krekulphyr’s cleric level to 16. Also, Sampleequipment accordingly. Make sure that his Fortitude outfit the deathstone file with magic armor of your save remains high enough that he does not have to choice and give him Combat Reflexes as a worry about the deathstone’s calcifying aura. bonus feat. 2 pqqqqrs cleric’s efforts. Thus, when Krekulphyr sought special • The PCs meet a refugee from Respite—one of the boons during his mission to Respite, the god was dis- townsfolk fleeing the devastation there. He tells posed to grant his requests. them that some evil magic has been turning people Krekulphyr hates the “softskins”—his term for to stone, so he packed up and left before it could most humanoids—with a passion. He believes that happen to him. the stony complexions of gargoyles make them not • Rumors reach the PCs about a “stone plague” that has only handsomer than softskins, but also clearly supe- struck the town of Respite.
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