Sample file INTRODUCTION THE THREATS FACING CANDLEKEEP This guide is meant to help a DM prepare Candlekeep Mysteries describes the for a campaign using the Candlekeep library-fortress as having a number of Mysteries adventure anthology. Hopefully, it powerful magical wards that protect it. will help you and your players create a While this may have been accurate in the cohesive, interesting, and most of all FUN past, it's not quite correct as of 5th Edition. game out of these otherwise disconnected modules. By providing a narrative In 1489 DR (roughly six years before the throughline and main antagonist, as well as modern day in the Forgotten Realms), these tips and suggestions for running the wards were absorbed by a legendary lich adventures as parts of an ongoing known as Larloch the Shadow King. A campaign, this guide aims to elevate your former sorcerer-king of ancient Netheril, Candlekeep Mysteries game to the next Larloch was attempting to become the new level! deity of magic, considering all previous gods to hold that title to have been incompetent. Some elements that crop up in several of His schemes were stopped by Elminster these adventures include curses, prophecy, before he could cement his apotheosis. the fey, collectors of all sorts, the power of stories, the past coming back to influence Larloch has since retreated to lick his the present, and how far one is willing to go wounds, holed up within his stronghold of in the pursuit of knowledge. You and your Warlock's Crypt, located in the Troll Hills players may want to keep these ideas in north of Baldur's Gate. Once, Warlock's mind as you begin putting this campaign Crypt was a Netherese flying enclave, together. inhabited by pacifist researchers interested only in study--not too unlike modern-day You'll want to familiarize yourself with the Candlekeep. But now the ruined towers of "Candlekeep" chapter at the start of this necropolis jealously reach towards the Candlekeep Mysteries, as this guide will sky they were plucked from so long ago like regularly reference the locations and black talons, and the only inhabitants of characters mentioned there. Be sure to their halls are the undead. have the book on hand while going through this guide, as most things will be referenced ELMINSTER THE GOD by their area number in the corresponding adventure. For the purposes of this guide, Elminster became the new deity of magic after This guide will also freely refer to creatures stopping Larloch. This not only takes a that are given statistics in Volo's Guide to major hero off the table so that a new Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of generation can shine (No more players Foes. If you don't have either book on hand, asking "Why doesn't Elminster just deal these stats can easily be looked up using an with this?"), but also gives the Old Sage a online resource. more substantial role in 5th Edition. If you Sampledislike this change, fe el freefile to ignore it. 1 Liches and vampires loyal to Larloch conduct foul experiments night and day behind guards & wards spells, packs of dominated trolls, as well as legions of wights, zombies, and summoned planar beings, preparing for the day that their master plays his hand once again. Throughout this campaign, the party will clash with Larloch and his minions. Larloch attempts to manipulate cults, steal evil artifacts and forbidden knowledge, and gain god-like power over the Weave of magic by trying to get his hands on one of The point is that the party is important at the long-lost Nether Scrolls. this moment in Candlekeep's history--the Avowed NEED their help. Never forget that Larloch aside, Candlekeep still faces a more the PCs are the main characters in this story mundane problem: preservation! With the and should feel like their actions can change wards that made that task simple having the world! vanished, the Avowed must turn to other methods to try and save their collected lore. CAMPAIGN OUTLINE Like the Realms at large, they are in need of heroes. While building their characters, the players choose "character ties" (presented later in So why does all this matter for your game? this guide) that personally connect them to It means that the player characters have the unfolding events of the campaign before many more chances for adventure! working together with the DM to flesh out a town that they all have some connection to. The wards protecting against things as This town will serve as a plot point in two simple as mold, bugs, fire, and theft are no adventures, "The Joy of Extradimensional longer present in Candlekeep. While there Spaces" and "Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor". are spellcasters among the Avowed who can make up for these shortcomings on a As the campaign proper begins, this town is smaller scale, these protections pale in suffering under a curse, caused by the comparison to what Candlekeep once experiments of Larloch the Shadow King, an enjoyed. That's where the player characters ancient Netherese lich who recently step in. absorbed the protective wards of Candlekeep in a failed bid to attain The party’s druid is the only one who can godhood. This curse is what leads the PCs to negotiate with a clan of vegepygmies that Candlekeep, seeking the wisdom of an has appeared in the deep vaults. The party’s expert on curses: Great Reader Teles fighter rescues dozens of rare tomes from a Ahvoste. This kicks off the first adventure, fire, while the party's rogue proves key in Sample"The Joy of Extradime nsionafilel Spaces". testing out new anti-thieving measures. 2 Unfortunately, Teles Ahvoste has been (though there are only hints that this trapped inside an extradimensional space, spellcaster is the legendary Larloch). and the PCs soon find themselves joining the Great Reader. The PCs team up with They finally clash with Larloch's minions Teles in order to investigate the magical during the events of "Book of the Raven". mansion and find a way out, all while One night, a raven carrying the spirit of one avoiding a mysterious assailant. Upon their of the lich's victims delivers a book to the escape, Teles helps remove the curse upon PCs, which they discover has a treasure map their town, but is only able to determine inside it. This map leads them to the that it was caused by damage to the Weave hideout of a secret society dedicated to of magic, stating that further research will combating evil artifacts. Larloch sends a be required to track down the source. strike team, led by a wight named Drovarth Harrn, to collect this society's most recent As thanks for their heroism, Teles hires the acquisition: a figurine of the demon prince party to help Candlekeep, which has been of the undead, Orcus. The PCs might foil having problems protecting and maintaining Drovarth's mission, or the wight successfully its vast collection of lore ever since their steals the figurine. magical wards were stolen by Larloch. The PCs are given a room in the Firefly Cellar Another curse woven by Larloch strikes and are exempt from needing to present a close to home as the Firefly Cellar that the book each time they wish to enter party has been living in falls victim to an Candlekeep. infectious song in "Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme". The PCs learn that the source of After getting to know their new home and this madness is an allip, an undead creature some of the colorful characters inhabiting it, created by a curse woven to protect "Mazfroth's Mighty Digressions" begins as forbidden knowledge. Teles Ahvoste is able their research into the Weave turns up a to identify this curse as having been created book that tries to devour them! They track by the same spellcaster responsible for the this monstrous imitation back to a curse that befell the party's town in "The bookshop in the nearby city of Baldur's Joy of Extradimensional Spaces," though Gate, run by a pack of jackalweres who are they must have done so nearly a thousand trying to raise money to resurrect their slain years ago! Indeed, though the PCs don't leader. Depending on the choices the PCs know it yet, the allip was born when some make, they might earn themselves a new unlucky fool learned the means by which to friend or fervent foe, and further prove destroy Larloch's hidden phylactery. themselves to the Avowed of Candlekeep. The PCs investigate mysterious After finally getting to read up on the disappearances in "A Deep and Creeping Weave, it becomes clear to the PCs that the Darkness" and "The Price of Beauty," curse that befell their town was only the exploring an abandoned mining town beginning of something far bigger, caused cursed long ago by the archfey known as the by a powerful spellcaster's attempts to Queen of Air and Darkness, and a Samplemanipulate the Weave to their own ends bathhouse built aroun d a mafilegical hot spring near the city of Silverymoon. While not 3 immediately tied to Larloch and his plans, the party help them reach orbit, or do they the friends they make and the knowledge try to scuttle their launch? Either way, the they learn in these adventures will come PCs learn of a book that contains a trapped back later. djinni, which leads directly into "Zikran's Zephyrean Tome". This djinni offers the PCs In "Book of Cylinders," the party learns a wish if they can free him from the book, a ancient history dating back to the Days of task that requires them to track down the Thunder.