THE DOMAIN Of SITHICUS Sample file Legend: UALACHAN Border TV Chasm City/Town Forest THE MISTS w Keep Mists Mountain // River Road Sample file Introduction 3 Azrael's Plan 28 Appendix: Preparing for the Adventure . 3 Kender Kindred 29 Nonplayer Characters 58 Running the Adventure 4 The Throne Room 29 Lord Soth 58 Fear and Horror Checks . 4 Memory Mirrors 35 Azrael 59 Story Background 4 Beyond the Looking Glass . 36 Magda the Wanderer 61 The Black Sapphire Entering the Mirrors 36 Tickelmop Toothfang 62 Medallion 5 Failing to Spoil a Starting the Adventure 5 Fantasy 38 Pull-out Section 31-34 Forgotten Fragments 7 Exiting the Mirrors 38 The Throne Room The Domain of Sithicus .... 7 The Idealized Lord Soth ... 39 (illustration) 31 The Black Moon 8 Mirror 1: Ogre Attack 40 Map 3: A Land Torn Asunder 9 Mirror 2: Murder Trial 42 Forest Clearing 32 A Cry in the Wilderness ... 10 Mirror 3: The Cataclysm. 44 Map 4: The Ghost Patrol 11 Mirror 4: Conquest of Solamnic Courthouse ... 32 A City in Chaos 12 Palanthas 45 Map 5: Main Entrance, A Dark Knight's Tale 14 Mirror 5: Kitiara's Contest. 48 Great Temple of Istar. ... 33 Into the Keep 17 Mirror 6: Soul Search 49 Map 6: Keening Spirits 17 Return of the Lord 51 Streets of Palanthas 33 Skeletal Guardians 19 On to Kendralind 53 Map 7: Contest Field 34 Encounters in the Keep ... 20 The Elf's Clue 53 Map 8: Specific Encounters .... 21 When Black Roses Bloom . 54 Temple of Takhisis 34 Credits Design: Lisa Smedman; Editing: Allen Varney Cover ArtSample: Scott Burdick file; Interior Art: Mark Nelson Cartography: David C. Sutherland III Project Coordination: Harold Johnson; Graphics Coordination: Sarah Feggestad Art Coordination: Peggy Cooper; Electronic Prepress Coordination: Tim Coumbe Typesetting: Angelika Lokotz; Production: Paul Hanchette TSR, Inc. TSR Ltd. 201 Sheridan Springs Road 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton Lake Geneva Cambridge CB1 3LB WI 53147 U.S.A United Kingdom 9476 This book 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 TSR, Inc. Random House and its affiliate companies have worldwide distribution rights in the book trade for English language products of TSR, Inc. Distributed in the book and hobby trade in the United Kingdom by TSR, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distributors. ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, DUNGEON MASTER, RAVENLOFT, MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM, and DRAGONLANCE are registered trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. MONSTROUS MANUAL, PLANESCAPE, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. Printed in the U.S.A. © 1995 TSR, Inc. All Rights Reserved. INTRODUCTION ow strangely are characters (PCs) enter the RAVENLOFT® domain our loue and of Sithicus. It quickly becomes apparent that hate misplaced! something is terribly wrong with the domain, Freedom we seek, and that the heroes are trapped there and will and yet from share the fate of its inhabitants. The only way to freedom flee; save themselves (and the domain) is to find out Courting those what is wrong with its ruler, the evil Lord Soth. tyrant sins that By entering his dark keep of Nedragaard and chain us fast, confronting the death knight, they may even And shunning find a route out of Sithicus. But will their escape Death, that also allow this evil lord to return to Krynn? only sets us free. Preparing for the Aduenture —William his adventure is set in Sithicus, one of the . ..»<'• Walsh domains at the core of the RAVENLOFT® (1663-1708), Tcampaign world. The adventure works best "Death" with a party of four to six characters of levels 4 to 6 (about 24 total levels). Honor. Devotion to duty. Chivalry. Love. Military Background information on the domain of law. Discipline. Sithicus and its evil ruler, Lord Soth, appears on As a Knight of Solamnia on the world of pages 30-31 and 84 of the Realm of Terror Krynn, the Lord Soth held these concepts dear. sourcebook from the RAVENLOFT boxed set. This He followed the Measure of his order, paying adventure's information augments that material. tribute to the gods, holding to the letter of his Additional background on Lord Soth appears Oath, and fighting for good on behalf of in the RAVENLOFT novel Knight of the Black Rose Paladine, the father of all good and the patron by James Lowder. It is not necessary, however, god of all valiant warriors. In time, he was Sampleto have reafiled the novel to play this adventure, awarded the order's highest honor and became a because much of the information presented in Knight of the Rose. the novel is summarized in this module. Even if "EstSularus oth Mithas. My honor is my life." the players have read this novel, there are sur- Soth's dishonor became his death. prises in this adventure to keep them guessing. Cruelty. Jealousy and greed. Falsehood. Other useful sources include the MONSTROUS Unbridled lust. Infidelity. Murder. MANUAL and the RAVENLOFT and DRAGONLANCE® Through these acts, Soth became what he is MONSTROUS COMPENDIUM9 appendices, which v> today—a death knight, a fire-blackened, undead provide important information about the travesty of all he once stood for. Once, all of monsters encountered in this module. Krynn might have called him hero. But when he Although this adventure has ties to the changed, only the mists of Ravenloft welcomed DRAGONLANCE saga, you need not have played in him into their deadly embrace. They forged for that campaign world to understand the events of him a new land, one he was cursed never to When Black Roses Bloom. Players already leave. Yet Soth still holds a bitter hope that he familiar with Soth's background and character can one day escape the Demiplane of Dread and may have a slight advantage in their dealings return to Krynn—return to the woman whose with this evil lord, but even those who have crooked smile and unflagging spirit claimed his never heard of the death knight will find enough heart: the dragon highlord Kitiara (Jth Matar. clues in this adventure to understand his When Black Roses Bloom begins as the player motivations and use them to their advantage. encourage better role-playing and generate an Running the Aduenture appropriate response to a horrific or terrifying unning an adventure set in the Demiplane situation. of Dread requires the DUNGEON MASTER® If the players are doing a good job of acting R (DM") to create and maintain an and are already role-playing appropriate atmosphere of suspense and dread. The Realm responses for their characters, omit these of Terror sourcebook in the RAVENLOFT boxed set checks. Reward especially dramatic responses offers useful tips for creating this mood in the with additional experience points. Fear and "Techniques of Terror" chapter. Feel free to add horror checks are intended only to guide the chilling details and unfortunate circumstances players and give the game an authentic feel of when describing locations and encounters, and Gothic horror. customize the ill effects that heroes suffer to make these assaults all the more keenly felt. During the course of this adventure, Story Background remember that, even though Lord Soth may ord Soth's early history is summarized in seem to be losing control of his domain, he is this module in the section "A Dark nevertheless much more powerful than the L Knight's Tale." As this adventure begins, heroes and can easily dominate and intimidate Soth has been trapped in Sithicus for more them. Take every opportunity to make the than twenty years. He is starting to lose hope heroes feel that they are at the mercy of the that he will ever find his way back to Krynn, nonplayer characters (NPCs) who inhabit and has become bored with a domain that Sithicus. The players should be uncomfortably offers no military challenges and no worthy aware that they are "outsiders" who are opponents. He is little more than a conqueror unwelcome in this domain. Both the domain's in a cage. native elves and the Vistani look on the heroes Some time ago, Soth captured a powerful with doubt and mistrust, and extend a helping illusionist who wandered into his domain. To hand only reluctantly. Constantly remind the earn his freedom, the illusionist, Tindafalus, players of the culture shock that resultSamples from file constructed for Soth a series of six magical travelling among a people with different and memory mirrors. By entering these mirrors, seemingly inexplicable customs. Soth can relive his greatest victories and Finally, emphasize the feelings of entrapment. reshape his worst defeats, subtly changing At the beginning of this adventure, the heroes events until they occur exactly as he would find themselves trapped in Sithicus. As the have desired. events unfold, the physical boundaries of this In recent months, Soth has spent so much trap narrow, slowly yet inexorably hemming time inside the memory mirrors that he is them in—preferably as the result of the heroes' becoming unable to distinguish between his own actions. Strive for a claustrophobic memory of the events as they originally atmosphere, offering a faint glimmer of hope of happened and the "memories" created by the escape only when the players have all but given mirrors. Because his history is the key to the up—and dashing that hope, at just the right creation of Sithicus, and because the domain is moment, to plunge them into despair once dependent on the death knight for its continued more. existence, the changes in Soth's memory are unhinging the domain.