Gaumahavi, Greater Purple Dragon CLIMATE/TERRAIN: Subarctic desert, high mountains FREQUENCY: Very Rare (unique) ORGANIZATION: Solitary ACTIVITY CYCLE: Any, but most active at twilight DIET: Special (Carnivore) INTELLIGENCE: Exceptional (15-16) TREASURE: nil ALIGNMENT: neutral NO. APPEARING: 1 ARMOR CLASS: -2 MOVEMENT: 15, Fl 40 HIT DICE: 16 (128 hit points) THACO: 5 NO. OF ATTACKS: 3 or dust storm and/or spell DAMAGE / ATTACK: 1-8/1-8/5-30 SPECIAL ATTACKS: Special SPECIAL DEFENSES: Only hit by +3 or better magical weapons in astral (dust) form. MAGIC RESISTANCE: 35% SIZE: Q (125'long) MORALE: Fanatic (19) XP VALUE: 18,000 Qaumahavi is a unique type of dragon. Though her She can polymorph into any predatory animal or as- long, snaky form is similar in appearance to that of an sume astral form at will. When in astral form, a shadow of oriental dragon, she has little in common with them. her body, in the form of purple dust, remains on the Thousands of years ago, Qaumahavi was the pet leop- Prime Material Plane. This form can only be struck by +3 ard of Surtava, the famous Ulgarian prince who gave up or better magical weapons. By dissolving one dust body his power and wealth to seek enlightenment as a beggar, and forming another in a different part of the world, she and who founded the Padhran religion now followeSampled by is ablfilee to move over great distances instantaneously. the citizens of Ra-Khati. As a result of her close contact to Qaumahavi can cast the following spells once per the Padhra, Qaumahavi developed a soul. This newfound day: Wizard: 1) color spray, gaze reflection; 2) darkness, soul set Qaumahavi on a series of incarnations; her 15' radius, whispering wind; 3) blink, wind wall; 4) di- present incarnation is that of a great purple dragon. mension door, rainbow pattern; 5) telekinesis, teleport; 6) control weather, project image; 7) reverse gravity, vanish. Combat: In battle, Qaumahavi is a cunning predator Priest: 1) animal friendship, locate animals or plants; who approaches combat in much the same way she ap- 2) snake charm, speak with animals; 3) hold animal, sum- proached hunting in her previous lives as predators. She mon insects; 4) giant Insect, repel insects; 5) animal uses her spells and breath weapons to disable her oppo- growth. nents, then keeps her exposure to a minimum while mov- ing in for the kill. Habitat/Society: Qaumahavi prefers to inhabit arid Qaumahavi is the Great Dragon of the Desert Winds. As lands at high altitudes. She is by nature a solitary crea- such, she has complete control over air currents within a ture who avoids contact with men, though she is occa- 500-yard radius, and twice per day can create five rounds sionally coerced into cooperating with certain powerful of dust storm causing 2d4 points of damage per round individuals. A nomadic huntress, Qaumahavi does not and knocking the victim off his feet (save vs. breath collect treasure. weapon for half damage and to retain footing). Qauma- havi's breath weapon, which she can use up to nine times Ecology: In astral form, Qaumahavi draws her suste- a day, consists of a great cloud of powdery purple dust nance from the mystic energies of Toril. However, in nor- 100 feet long. This cloud is 5 feet in diameter at the base mal corporeal form, she is a voracious carnivore. and 50 feet at the end. It does 8dlO points of choking damage to any breathing creature (save vs. breath weap- ons for half damage). Official Game Adventure Black Courser by Troy Denning Table of Contents Introduction 2 Part I: Solon 8 Part II: Through the Mountain Kingdom 14 Part III: Khazari 39 Part IV: Kuo Meilan 45 Part V: Beneath Kuo Meilan 57 Cover new Monsters: inside covers NPC Statistics: Sample file inside gatefold New Magic Item: inside gatefold Credits: Design: Troy Denning Graphic Design: Roy E. Parker, Dee Barnett, Paul Hanchette Cover Art: Brom Cartography: Diesel Interior Art: Paul Abrams Typography: Angelika Lokotz Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Random House, Inc., and in Canada by Random House of Canada, Ltd. Distributed to the toy and hobby trade by regional distribu- tors. Distributed in the United Kingdom by TSR Ltd. ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, AD&D, fORGOTTEN REALMS, PRODUCTS OF YOUR IMAGINATION, and the TSR logo are trademarks owned by TSR, Inc. ®1990 TSR Inc. All Rights Reserved. Printed in U.S.A. 9290 ISBN 0-88038-858-7 -—. TSR, Inc. \J ' p TSR Ltd. POB 756 X— rJ 120 Church End, Cherry Hinton Lake Geneva, ^UKS Cambridge CB1 3LB Wl 53147 USA PRODUCTS JFS«'U'.PIS'»O.NATIOH™ United Kingdom Introduction A wise sage once early parts of the adventure, so you will need said that human their descriptions handy. beings cannot long The color mapsheet shows the city of Kuo live on the bitter Meilan and its subterranean facilities, to be used bread of malice. Be in Parts IV and V. Again, this map is intended for that as it may. Tori! has no shortage of creatures your eyes only. Do not show it to your players. who thrive on the fear of others or the pain of the The 64-page booklet is the heart of The Black innocent. To these evil ones, hatred is the stuff of Courser. Before beginning play, read this book to life and the manna of immortality. familiarize yourself with the plot of the adven- Once, possibly, they were men, and have since ture. Don't try to memorize it, however. Simply been turned into something else by their dark familiarizing yourself with the story and organi- appetites. On the other hand, maybe they were zation of the book will insure an enjoyable adven- never human at all, but simply masqueraded as ture. If you don't have enough time to read the men until their foul practices gave them away. Or entire book, read at least the introductory mate- could it be that they are still men—that the wise rial and, before each session, the events you plan sage was wrong, that some men can live forever to use. on the diabolic food of malevolence? Portions of the adventure are made up of a se- As any adventurer who has ever felt the chilling ries of events. Each event is divided into sections: touch of one of these abominations will confirm, boxed text, DM's notes, and statistics (when such questions are better left to the sages. When needed). As an event begins, read the boxed text a mortal finds himself struggling against an evil aloud. This sets the scene. being's cold grasp, there is no time for reflection. The DM's notes detail the action of the event, If a man is to survive an encounter with such a describing such things as combat tactics, nPCs, fiend, he must concern himself with only one and treasure. Often, to identify key information, thing: discovering his tormenter's weakness and the DM's notes are divided into subsections by using that weakness to destroy it. bold subtitles. Soon, this will be the very problem facing a Statistics are located at the end of the encoun- small group of wanderers—your player ter, where you can find them easily, note that characters—who have stumbled into the grasp of statistics do not include information on the mon- Ambuchar Devayam. sters' morale. Unless indicated otherwise, all Samplemonster file s in The Black Courser attack until How to Use This Book destroyed—or until the party is destroyed! Because The Black Courser occurs close to and The Black Courser is the second installment in inside Kara-Tur, many of its characters and mon- the Empires Adventure Trilogy, which also in- sters are of an oriental nature. In many cases, cludes the first adventure, Storm Riders, and the you will find it useful, but not necessary, to refer final episode, Blood Charge. The Empires Adven- to the Oriental Adventures reference book. Some ture Trilogy is a series of AD&D® Game Adven- spells listed for the nPCs in The Black Courser are tures set in the new FORGOTTEN REALMS™ from Oriental Adventures. If necessary, substitute campaign world territories described in The appropriate spells from the Player's handbook. Horde campaign set. They concern events derived from the Empires novel Trilogy, Horselords, A few terms might be confusing if you have not Dragonwall, and Crusade, also published by TSR. read Oriental Adventures or The horde boxed set: The Black Courser contains a 64-page adven- -kalat a knee-length tunic, usually silk. ture book (you're reading it now), a color -khahan the chief of Tuigan chiefs, em- mapsheet, and a cover gatefold. The front side of peror of the Tuigan nation. the gatefold is a map to be used in Part II of The -khan leader of a Tuigan army. Black Courser. Do not show this map to your play- -kumiss a beverage made from fer- ers, as it contains information they are not in- mented mare's milk. tended to see. On the back of the gatefold are -lamellar armor armor of successive layers of statistics for various important NPCs and a new protective material, such as artifact, the Stone Sceptre ofShih. If you wish, use hardened leather and small a pair of scissors to cut the gatefold off the cover. metal plates. The front and back inside covers contain repro- -minghan 1,000 soldiers. ductions of the descriptions of Sandiraksiva and -noyan commander of a group of 1,000 Gaumahavi from Storm Riders.