St o r m w rack, t he latest book in the enviro n m e nt series, p rovides rules for adve nturing on and under the high s e a s. It offers new feats, spells, prestige classes, and monsters for seagoing and underwater adve nturing, as well as tips for campaigning in such enviro n m e nt s. The Kopru Ruins is a short D&D adventure for four 12th-level player characters (PCs). The ruined kopru The Kopru Ruins city where this scenario takes place lies underwater at the base of an uninhabited island. Thus, any chain of A Short Adventure for Four small tropical islands is an ideal location for the adven- 12th-Level Player Characters ture. In the FO R G O T T E N RE A L M S Campaign Setting, y o u may want to place the ruins within the Selune’s Tears Featuring Material from area of the Sea of Fallen Stars. In the EBERRON Campaign Stormwrack Setting, any of the islands that lie between Khorvaire and Xen’drik would make an appropriate setting. As always, feel free to adapt the material presented CREDITS here as you see fit to make it work with your campaign. Design: Darrin Drader Editing: Penny Williams PREPARATION Typesetting: Nancy Walker You (the DM) need the D&D core ru l e b o o k s —t he Cartography: Mike Schley Pl a ye r ’s Ha n d b o o k , t he Dunge on Ma s t e r ’s Guide, and the Design Manager: Christopher Perkins Mo nster Ma n u a l—as well as St o r m w ra c k — to run this Web Production Bart Carroll a d ve nt u re T he information pre s e nted he re utilizes the Web Development: Mark A. Jindra D&D v.3.5 rules. Graphic Design: Sean Glenn, Cynthia Fliege To get started, print out the adve nt u re, including & Jen Page t he maps. Read through the scenario at least once to f a m i l i a r i ze yourself with the situation, thre a t s, and Based on the original DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game by E. major NPCs (particularly their motivations). Text that Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and on the new edition of the appears in shaded boxes is player information that yo u DUNGEONS & DRAGONS game designed by Jonathan Tweet, can read aloud or paraphrase for the players at the Monte Cook, Skip Williams, Rich Baker, and Peter Adkison. p roper times. For monster and NPC statistics, refer to D&D, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, and DUNGEON MASTER are registered trademarks owned e i t her the Appendix or the appropriate pages in the by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. The d20 logo is a trademark owned by Wizards of the publications noted. Coast, Inc. All Wizards characters, character names, and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. This material is protected under the copyright laws of the United ADVENTURE States of America. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited BACKGROUND without the express written permission of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Thousands of years ago, a cruel, aquatic race called the ©2006 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. k o p ru emb a rked on a mission of conquest and estab- All rights reserved. lished a mighty undersea empire. The legendary might Made in the U.S.A. of these cre a t u res was rivaled only by their cruelty to This product is a work of fiction. both enemies and subjects. T he vicious kopru con- Any similarity to actual people, organizations, places, or events is purely coincidental. quered and enslaved all the other sentient aquatic races with which they came into contact, including aqu a t i c This Wizards of the Coast game product contains no Open Game Content. No portion of this work may be reproduced in any form without elves and sahuagin. written permission. To learn more about the Open Gaming License The aquatic elves who had not yet been enslaved by and the d20 System License, please visit www.wizards.com/d20. t he kopru built their settlements far away from the e m p i re’s bord e r s, but still they lived in fear of its For more DUNGEONS & DRAGONS articles, adventures, and information, visit www.wizards.com/dnd expanding army. Constantly fortifying their defenses, t he elves watched and waited for the day when the i r enemies might attempt to annex their territory and enslave them. 1 T he sahuagin had not yet re a c hed the pinnacle of Several generations ago, the kopru matrons realized t heir power as a race, but their numbers we re incre a s- that the race’s numbers had recovered to the point where ing, and those not already absorbed into the empire they could once again begin to expand their holdings. harried its borders on a regular basis, seeking to fre e Because of their appearance and their history, few crea- t heir enslaved kin. An individual kopru could easily tures they encountered were willing to teach them magic, defeat a single sahuagin, but the sahuagin often ove r- but innate magical ability does occasionally manifest in powered kopru defenders by sheer numbers. However, the race, just as it does in any other. To gain a needed mag- even the clerics of the shark god Sekolah could not pro- ical edge for their next expansion, the matrons initiated vide the sahuagin with the leadership they needed to breeding programs to create a line of sorcerers. overthrow their kopru oppressors. One product of such a program, the sorcerer matron At last, as the elves had feared, the kopru began Ecalla, led her clan into a ruined kopru city in the expanding once again, pushing the borders of the i r hopes of retaking the domed complex and using it as a holdings outward. The aquatic elves saw this expansion base. Although the magical wards designed to keep the as a real and imminent threat to their continued sur- kopru out of the city were still in place, Ecalla figured vival, so they sought allies for a final stand. The elf lead- out a way to overcome them. She then took up resi- ers met in secret with the leaders of the various sahua- dence in the command dome and ordered her minions gin factions and eve ntually formed what would be an to begin rebuilding the rest of the ruins. effective but short-lived alliance. The reoccupation of the ruined city was more of a Bolstered by elven magic and complex strategic symbolic victory than a practical one, but it has rallied planning, the sahuagin army moved against the kopru the rest of the kopru, many of whom have since expansion forces. In a single week, the unlikely allies pledged their support to Ecalla. With every passing attacked and sundered one kopru outpost after another. day, her power and influence grow, while the races she The cost in sahuagin life was enormous, but still they seeks to subjugate remain blissfully unaware of the persevered. growing threat presented by the kopru. After the kopru incursion into elven and sahuagin territory had been repelled, the sahuagin wanted to ADVENTURE SYNOPSIS continue the fight, and the elves were more than will- T he PCs must penetrate the ruined kopru city and ing to lead them into battle. The campaigns went on for make their way to the command dome. Once the re , years, gradually forcing the kopru farther and farther they must find and eliminate Ecalla, then clear the rest back within their borders. In time, their empire was of the kopru out of the city and help the aquatic elve s simply overrun. Their cities were reduced to rubble, reset the wards to ensure that the threat of the kopru their slaves were freed and added to the invading army, expansion is contained. and their citizens were slaughtered wholesale by the bloodthirsty sahuagin. The few surviving kopru fled their ruined cities and went into hiding. ADVENTURE HOOKS Once they had soundly defeated the kopru, the As DM, you know best how to invo l ve your characters aquatic elves and sahuagin fell to bickering over whose in an adve nt u re. Howe ve r, if yo u’re stuck for an idea, contribution to the war had been more valuable. Their you can use any of the following suggestions to prompt alliance fell apart, and in less than a year, the two races a raid on the ruined kopru city. were once again sworn enemies. Though a number of sahuagin fought to retain unity within their own race • Lost Treasure: Tales have been circulating among so that it might take the kopru’s place as the dominant sailors and pirates about a fantastic treasure in an force of the deep, old rivalries quickly resurfaced and ancient ruin near an uninhabited island. Reportedly, splintered the tribes, diluting their power. some adventurers discovered the cache while explor- For thousands of years, the kopru have remained in ing the ruins but were driven away by some unusual hiding, maintaining small communities and avoiding creatures before they could recover it. Several ship the races their ancestors had once enslaved. Most of captains have searched for the ruins that house this their settlements are built in undersea caves, often near fabled treasure, but to date, no one has found any place their ancestral homelands.