A Dungeon and A Dragon By Chris Bergman A DUNGEON AND A DRAGON A Dungeons and Dragons (Fifth Edition) Adventure Sample file The Green Dragon Valturnax has attacked the nearby village of Hartsvale, threatening to destroy them completely if they do not submit to his rule by nightfall. To save the town, adventurers must ascend the mountain by climbing through the caves housing the dragon’s minions and face him in his lair– and they need to do so before the sun sets. A Four to Six Hour Adventure for 11th-16th Level Characters Page 1 of 26 A Dungeon and A Dragon By Chris Bergman Overview Adventure Background This adventure is a straightforward dungeon crawl culminating in a fight against an adult Three months ago, Valturnax, an adult green green dragon in his lair. The players will explore dragon, was forced to leave his prior lair caves filled with classic Dungeons & Dragons hundreds of miles from Hartsvale when another minions – but these minions are prepared for green dragon, his half-sister Verslexia, attacked the adventurers. This adventure was him and drove him out. Wounded and plotting designed to be challenging and his revenge, he settled in a ruined temple to potentially lethal. Be sure you are Bahamut about 10 miles into the forest outside comfortable running a more lethal adventure of Hartsvale, along with the cave complex below and consider warning your players that their the temple. He has convinced and coerced the characters may die if your campaign is not local goblinoids and kobolds into working for normally very lethal. him. Prior to his arrival, the hobgoblin warlord Stregurd was the most powerful and influential Using This Adventure creature in the Hartsvale forest. This adventure is designed for use with Hartsvale has been a small farming and fishing Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition rules. town for hundreds of years. It was originally Creature names are printed in bold font, and founded on the most fertile land near the local their stats appear in the back of this adventure, Temple of Bahamut, providing lodging and in the appendix. supplies for pilgrims and priests. When the temple was abandoned, the town remained, though many have forgotten its history. Some of This adventure is designed for 4 characters the older villagers blame any misfortune, with an Average Party Level (APL) ofSample especiallyfile misfortune related to dragons, on the level 14. Your party may be more or less town’s failure to protect the temple of Bahamut. powerful. Please adjust the adventure using the following guidelines, though you should also Yesterday, Valturnax attacked Hartsvale, killing consider magic items, player experience and several guards and the town wizard, before team composition when doing so: announcing that he would be back for their tribute this evening. Valturnax knows that 3 characters, APL of 11-13: Very Weak Hartsvale is likely to ask for help rather than 3 characters, APL of 14: Weak bow before him, and he believes that when he 3 characters, APL of 15-16: No change comes back with the bones of the mercenaries, 4 characters, APL of 11-13: Weak guards, or adventurers sent to kill him, the town 4 characters, APL of 14: No change will be forced to become his vassals. Ultimately, 4 characters, APL of 15-16: Strong he hopes to combine a human militia with his 5 characters, APL of 11-13: No change monstrous minions to serve as a strike force 5 characters, APL of 14: Strong when he travels back to kill his half-sister. 5 characters, APL of 15-16: Very Strong Page 2 of 26 A Dungeon and A Dragon By Chris Bergman Adventure Overview A Dungeon and A Dragon is divided into five parts: Part 1. A Town in Need. The adventurers learn from Fulsan Hayward, a messenger from Hartsvale, that the town has been attacked and is in dire need of help. Part 2. Kobold Tunnels. Arriving at Valturnax’s lair, the adventurers are warned and maybe attacked by a kobold zealot wearing explosives. They must then confront or bypass the kobold warrens. Part 3. Goblins on the Stairs. After goblins cut the rope bridge across the gorge, the adventurers need to find another way across and then kill the goblins and their booyahg sorcerer. Part 4. Hobgoblin Ambush. The adventurers find themselves in a trap designed to counter and capture magic users. Part 5. Valturnax’s Deception. After reaching Valturnax’s temple, the adventurers find the dragon waiting for them, seeking parlay before he attacks. In the fighting, the temple is destroyed and much of his hoard is lost. Sample file Adventure Hook The adventure begins when Fulsan Hayward reaches the adventurers. This is probably best after the adventurers have had downtime and are back at their primary city or town – Fulsan has heard of their exploits and has come to find them in particular. Alternately, the adventurers could be passing through a different village or town; they could even be in the middle of another quest that is not time-sensitive. However, it is clear that they are the only ones who are close enough and powerful enough to deal with the dragon in time. Page 3 of 26 A Dungeon and A Dragon By Chris Bergman challenge Valturnax. During the course of Part 1. A Town in discussion, he provides the following information: Need At nightfall – 8pm – the day before, a large green dragon attacked the town, This adventure begins when Fulsan Hayward using his poison breath on several bursts in to where the adventurers are having guards before killing and eating the local breakfast. The time is 10am. wizard The dragon announced his name, The Messenger Arrives Valturnax, and told the surviving guards and gawking villagers that Hartsvale was You are halfway through breakfast when a now his, and that he would be expecting battered and bruised human messenger “tribute” dressed in traveling leathers bursts Tribute involves half the town’s fighting through the door. He looks wildly around age men serving as his militia before his eyes settle on you and your Hartsvale’s men have little combat companions. experience – most are simple farmers or fishers, and Valturnax already killed half “Professional heroes? Just who I was the town guards looking for! Please, I – we – need your If Hartsvale refuses to send him help. If you don’t stop the dragon, he’ll soldiers, they will be destroyed tonight come back tonight, and I don’t think at nightfall anyone in Hartsvale will survive.” Hartsvale doesn’t have much gold, but they can offer the rights to claim whatever treasure is available in the Roleplaying Fulsan Hayward Sample file dragon’s hoard Fulsan Hayward has watched several of his Valturnax has made his lair in a ruined friends die, hasn’t slept in a day and a half, just temple to Bahamut, an hour into the rode for several hours, and is concerned his forest of Hartsvale family and friends will be killed tonight. He is It takes 4 hours to get to Hartsvale, and exhausted and desperate, turning to the another hour to get to Valturnax’s lair adventurers as the only hope to kill the dragon Fulsan has 3 healing potions and a map before nightfall. to Valturnax’s lair that he’s willing to offer the party Several villagers and some surviving Fulsan is a member of Hartsvale’s city watch guards reported seeing the dragon use who has been pressed into service as a magic during the fight – one said the messenger, seeking help. He was not on duty dragon dispelled the wizard’s when Valturnax attacked and did not witness enchantments, and another claimed he the beginning of the attack, but he arrived in saw the dragon turn invisible. A third time to assist with the aftermath. After several said that he saw the dragon create an hours of tending to the wounded and the dead, illusionary monster. he has spent the last 8 hours riding from town to town, looking for someone strong enough to Page 4 of 26 A Dungeon and A Dragon By Chris Bergman If questioned further, Fulsan also knows that Light – Rays of sunshine trickle through the Valturnax has only recently come to the area trees. The deeper they travel into the forest, the around Hartsvale in the past few months, but less and less light filters through. already most of the local goblinoids seem to have stopped their random raids and have Fulsan’s map leads you deeper into the become organized. The forest itself has also Hartsvale forest, and as you head deeper changed. Fulsan suspects that the dragon has in, the few signs of civilization fade away. taken control of the forest and its denizens. Soon, small animals begin to act strangely. Hartsvale Birds watch your progress, flying from branch to branch to keep you in view. It takes 4 hours to get to Hartsvale, and another Small rabbits and mice keep pace with you hour to get to Valturnax’s lair. Encourage the about 30 feet away, staring unblinking at players to mind the in-game time, and let them you as you walk, though they don’t let you know there might be consequences if they approach close enough to touch them. haven’t reached Valturnax himself by 8pm. If they choose to stop in Hartsvale, the town is a quaint farming village full of older stone buildings that have been patched and rebuilt to protect against the ravages of time. The largest house – the mayor’s house – has been partially destroyed, one wall and half the roof collapsed.