Bad Moon Waning.Qxd
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Bad Moon Waning is a short D&D adventure for four 10th-level player characters (PCs), though it can be modified for higher- or lower-level play if desired (see the Scaling the Adventure sidebar). The adventure is set in and around the village of Deepwood, an isolated town located as its name suggests in the heart of a great forest. It can easily be BAD MOON placed in a remote, wooded area of any campaign world. WANING PREPARATION A Short Adventure for Four You (the DM) need the D&D core rulebooks, includ- ing the Player’s Handbook, the DUNGEON MASTER’s Guide, 10th-Level Player Characters and the Monster Manual. This adventure utilizes the v.3.5 rules, but it can easily be used with the 3.0 rules CREDITS as well. You can place this adventure in any section of your Design: Stan! campaign world that features a remote, forested area in Editing: Penny Williams which an isolated town might exist. If there is a small Typesetting: Nancy Walker town that the PCs visited in a past adventure but Cartography: Rob Lazzaretti haven t returned to in quite a while, so much the better. Web Production: Julia Martin As always, feel free to adapt the material presented here as you see fit to make it work with your campaign. Web Development: Mark A. Jindra To get started, print out this adventure (including Graphic Design: Sean Glenn, Cynthia Fliege the maps). Read through the scenario at least once to familiarize yourself with the situation, threats, and ¤ Based on the original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game by E. major NPCs (particularly their motivations). Make Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and on the new edition of the adjustments as necessary to fit the storyline into your DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, and Peter Adkison. campaign. Sample file D&D, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and DUNGEON MASTER are registered trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The d20 logo is a trademark owned by Wizards of the ADVENTURE Coast, Inc. All Wizards characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. BACKGROUND This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United Deepwood is a small community consisting of hunters, States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited loggers, artisans, and a few hardy families who just without the express written permission of prefer to live far away from cities. There are a couple of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. farms in the surrounding area, but the people here ©2003 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. subsist for the most part on fish, game, and naturally- All rights reserved. Made in the U.S.A. growing crops such as mushrooms, wild vegetables, and seasonal fruit. This product is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, The people of Deepwood have always led quiet lives. or events is purely coincidental. Traders come through a few times a year to exchange This Wizards of the Coast game product contains no Open Game Content. goods and materials made in the cities for local furs, No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without pelts, artwork, and lumber, but otherwise there are few written permission. To learn more about the Open Gaming License and the d20 System License, visitors. The nearest town of any significant size lies please visit www.wizards.com/d20. several days ride to the east. News from the outside For more DUNGEONS & DRAGONS articles, adventures, and information, world takes a long while to reach this isolated commu- visit www.wizards.com/dnd nity, and word of events taking place in Deepwood can take days or even weeks to spread to the rest of the world. Until recently, however, very few people noticed or cared about such delays, since so little of interest ever happened here. 1 In the past few days, however, word has begun to Naturally, the pack objected, and its leader (a hunts- spread in the outlying areas that all is not well in man named Trammil Nimman) challenged the new Deepwood. The only point on which the rumors agree wolf, even though the latter outweighed him by a is that the local priestess has been slain savagely considerable amount. The pack knew that his effort was mauled by some sort of animal and that terrible crea- doomed to failure, but rather than killing Trammil, the ture now stalks the tiny village, seeking more prey. new wolf merely beat him into unconsciousness. Beyond this information, the details are sketchy and I do not wish to kill any of you, he said. That sometimes conflicting. Some tales say that the beast has would only weaken my new pack. But I will brook no already been killed; others claim that the townsfolk dissent. The next one who fails to follow my orders to have seen several half-man-half-beast creatures roam- the letter will feel the full extent of my wrath. ing the woods at night. A few say that the woods around The new leader seemed so bloodthirsty that the the village echo with the howls of an unusual number werewolves feared he might order them to attack their of wolves and wild dogs. human neighbors. To their relief, however, no such order was forthcoming. The new werewolf simply led THE TRUTH ABOUT DEEPWOOD the pack into the hills to a cave entrance that was Although most of the townsfolk do not know it, were- masked almost completely by thick foliage. wolves make up a significant percentage of Deepwood s Once there, he assumed a hybrid form and pulled populace. All of these shapechangers are natural lycan- the curtain of leaves aside. The moonlight streamed thropes humans who were born with the ability to into the cave, revealing walls speckled with gold. Using transform into wolves or wolf-human hybrids. They have his tremendous strength, he struck one of the walls and chosen to make their homes in this remote village, where released a shower of rocks several of which turned they can indulge their wild natures in the nearby forest out to be gold nuggets the size of a man s fist. without frightening or causing harm to their neighbors. This cavern is as large as a house, he said. Each Despite the wild blood that runs through their veins, night, four of you will come here and mine the gold as the werewolves who live in Deepwood are all good I ve just shown you. If you do not, I will reveal the your people. Not one of them has ever taken a human life, true natures to the humans in your town. nor do any of them plan to do so. Deepwood is their The werewolves saw no other choice, so they obeyed home, and they consider everyone living there to be their new leader. Each night, four of them came to the part of their pack, werewolf or no. cave and dug out pound after pound of gold from the Several nights per month (particularlySample nights of thefilecave walls. When they were finished, they took the gold full moon), the Deepwood werewolves run through the first to Trammil, who recorded the amount in a ledger, forest as a pack, hunting deer or other game and cele- and then to a secret glade for hiding. brating their wild heritage. This hunting ritual has been Night after night they extracted gold from the cave. going on for years, and no normal member of the While working, they discussed several possible solu- community has ever suspected the truth. Thus, the tions to their plight. Some members suggested that the members of the Deepwood pack have been able to live pack join together to attack this new wolf, but most in freedom and harmony with both their surroundings believed in the traditional practice of following the and their human neighbors for many decades. strongest individual. Attacking as a group is for bring- ing down food, not a brother wolf. To challenge the THE LEADER OF THE PACK new leader in any way other than one-on-one combat Two months ago, the peace and harmony of was deemed dishonorable and cowardly. Deepwood was shattered. The pack was hunting a A few members of the pack offered to travel to the particularly large and powerful buck in the forest by city and hire champions to defeat the new wolf. After the light of the full moon. But just as the Deepwood all, they pointed out, other communities often did such werewolves were about to bring down their prey, a things when a monster moved into the area, and their tremendous wolf bigger than any three members of new leader could certainly be defined as a monster. But the pack combined burst from the surrounding most of the Deepwood werewolves felt that such a solu- foliage and snapped the deer s neck with one bite of tion would be just as dishonorable as ganging up on his massive jaws. their tormentor. By right of strength, he growled, I claim leader- If they knew his human identity, they mused, ship of this pack. You will all do as I say or face the perhaps they could at least gain equal footing with him consequences. by threatening to reveal his secret unless he left the pack 2 in peace. But neither his hybrid appearance nor his showed signs of disobedience, growling under his scent reminded them of anyone they knew.